It’s a lovely time of year on the ranch for lots of reasons. One the beauty . . . and the silence. Another is that it’s transition time. The work flow has a gap in it so that we can do something special – something that isn’t routine maintenance of a cow herd. Don’t misunderstand me, it’s still about cows! It’s always about cows.
Mark and Jesse hauled several loads of gravel for odds and ends work in the mountains. Fall is the only time you can drive through the seeps without getting stuck. They shored up some creek crossings to funnel the cattle to an easy crossing which helps protect the stream banks.
Mark and I had a couple of “date night” pasture walks. I campaign for these times because for the rest of the year we go to the fields to work – to feed cows in the winter, to irrigate or hunt weeds in the summer - anything but walk and talk and listen and learn. Mark needs a nudge to go because I don’t think he likes the probing questions I ask. I get it. Questions with answers that look like work aren’t helpful. But I still think we can make progress without causing more work if we think big enough. It could happen!
I tell Mark that finding the right questions to ponder is my forte. I’m not going to rebuild the irrigation dykes or reconfigure a headgate by myself. I’ll help him repair fence, but won’t build one on my own. The role of a ranch wife is her own creation. Some women do build that fence - and others are so removed they couldn’t even show you where the fence is.
We spent a day in the hills loosening fences for winter and I took photos of how the creeks and pastures look before winter. We discussed the existence of old roads, barely visible, that seem to lead to nowhere, and were surely put there by sheepherders pulling their camps and tending thousands of sheep in the early days of white settlement, long before fences divided the land by ownership. The ruts are grassed in; a rusted tin can lies in the grass, left to tell the story.
We often look at a piece of land and try to imagine its historical potential. How did this look before modern humans came on the scene?
It’s a good exercise for ranchers, and for everyone else that cares about our future.
 |
| pasture walking |
 |
| wild range that was farmed then planted back into grass |
 |
| How did this stream look in the days of the buffalo? |
 |
| rock wall built by my great grandfather to generate hydro power but abandoned in the early 1900's |
