August 17: three of us, standing over a six-inch diameter pipe sticking out of the ground, in the middle of the broad field, staring at the 1 inch of water in the bottom of it in a windstorm. Boiling, threatening clouds of green, brown and gray rise up in the west. We all cast furtive glances to the …
Hope in Fire Season
I bashed my head on the frame of the pickup in an unconscious attempt at sitting up, perhaps dream initiated. This was the second time. Awake, first forgetting where I was, but rudely brought back to reality by unyielding steel on forehead. I'm surrounded by the noise of truck traffic, …
Sutter’s Mill and Salmon River Sediments
The Salmon River is running chocolate milk, and I think it saved us. I had been clattering on the rough cobble of the rocky shore, threading my way through downfall and impenetrable willow brush with my mare, Sunny, tracking a couple of steers in the early morning light as more rainclouds scudded …
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Beaver As Teacher
Beaver camp, July 2019. We call it that because there were at least two colonies of beavers there, thriving in the waters of upper Little Hat Creek, just a few hundred meters from where we were living as well, in a five tented temporary settlement of cowhands and horses, high in the backcountry at …
We Are Not Alone
They stealthed upon us suddenly in the silent black of night when we least expected it, as they often do. Ironically, we were just 5 minutes earlier taking about them. And it had been a while. We were all exhausted from a long day astride saddle horses in rough country. For icing on a fatigue …
Ode to Iron
Dear Friends and Partners: We have horseshoes. Lots of them. There are buckets and random piles around the shop, barn, and equipment sheds. And I'm not even counting the countless ones left up in the alpine goat-rocks of the Hat Creek Ranges. Often, we'll find hand-forged ones up there, nearly a …