The heat is cranking up a little on the ranch as we enter high Pahsimeroi summer. It was a perfect week for drying hay, though. It was a little humid (for us) and the hay dried over a several days instead of quick drying in two or three high heat days which can cause a little brittle and bleach. Our …
Wolves and Range Riding
It was a little after 5 am yesterday when I was startled awake by a blast of thunder reverberating up and down the canyon. Then the rain started in on my tent fly. It was time to get moving and check on the cattle. First, I checked on the horses in the makeshift corral we had built for them here at …
Wild Range, Wild Beef
It was a rotten time and place for a wreck. Daughter Emily had already gotten bucked off her mare quite roughly (shredded her new jeans!), and now this! It was our annual Mother's Day picnic on horseback up on the high ranges a few miles above the ranch. We'd eaten our hot dogs (yes, they were …
Why Grass Matters
Newsletter from May 5, 2015 There's new snow on the rocky crest of the Lemhi Range today. It's a fine landscape to watch the sun rise over as we are below normal on both mountain snowpack and rainfall. Our grass does look great, as do our ranges, but many folks in the west are in dire straits, …
Under our Feet
Newsletter from April 17, 2015 Our rocky soils are thawed, though still cold from winter. We did some water line excavation yesterday with our ancient excavator (the first of its kind from 1966!) to get at a leak that developed over the winter, and found that there was soil life far deeper than …
Sustainable Ag Musings
Caryl and I drove to Montana last week and noted that big tractors and other farm implements have commenced to turn over some farmed ground up there. We passed truckloads of chemical fertilizer headed up to some of the remotest ranches in Montana along the way. These chemical haulers are …