My eyes notice them, but my mind does not. It's a subtle peppering of dots, blending into the natural mosaic of grassland and sage on a distant ridge. I'd see it, register it, but the conscious level of my brain would dismiss it as rocks or a sporadically placed stand of antelope bitterbrush. But …
Death on the Trail of Yellow?
"There's gold, and it's haunting and haunting;It's luring me on as of old;Yet it isn't the gold that I'm wantingSo much as just finding the gold." -Robert Service, from 'The Spell of the Yukon." "Hey Marc. Chris. Check this out." I gestured into the murk of a thick subalpine fir and …
Cows, Concrete, and Carbon
Soil Carbon Coalition founder, Peter Donovan, after giving a conference lecture on soil health, stepped out of the conference room. Before he could think about coffee or the restroom, a farmer stopped him in the hallway. "What is the fastest way to get carbon into my soils?" Peter thought for a …
Ode to the Belle
Dear Friends Sometimes saying goodbye to an old friend is just the right thing. It was one of those winter afternoons where I was walking through the cattle earlier this week, and it had spit snow all day. The wind was up a little, and the breeze was sharpening, as the sun finally crept out …
A Christmas Card from Zeke LaRue
It's coming to dusk, and the two parallel halos of headlight illuminate the beginnings of a snow flurry lilting to the pavement as we pass through the hamlet of Elk Bend, Idaho. It's Caryl and I, and we're taking it slow on the 200-plus curves of US Highway 93, as it wends its way upward and onward …
On that Night of Noel
There's a magic of that night before Christmas. You know what I mean; there's like this palpable feeling--a spirit of expectation, of joy in that evening. It's beautiful. Glenn wrote this several years ago on winter solstice. We can't remember if we sent it to you--it wasn't in the blog archives. …