the pastoral muse: Looking for Like Minds (and grass)

I’ve been searching for a word to describe the switch from winter to spring on a ranch. In the best sense “thrilling” fits the bill. That’s how it felt about two weeks ago, anyway. I was full of energy, bird-watching and following each tree species in the leafing-out competition. I was enjoying helping Mark burn ditches and pitch the debris as they fill with water for the first time. I was cutting rogue olives and burning limb deadfall with abandon. It was all such fun. Now, not so much, “overwhelming” is a better description. A sore neck and an hour-long nap two days in a row told me I had over extended my thrill. And I haven't even started on my vegetable garden.

It feels good knowing the irrigation water is flowing. I took my binoculars one afternoon to visit a pond that the ibis had found. A big group were feeding, picking their way along with their long legs, sticking their curved bills into the water over and over. Others were sleeping, standing on one leg, their heads turned backwards resting along their backs. I have never noticed the iridescent colors of their wings before. Ibis are otherworldy, a friend told me. With a dearth of natural wetlands, ibis take advantage of flood irrigation and we're tickled to oblige.

We’re starting with the cows out of the valley tomorrow and heading for grass in the mountains. Even though we have good help lined up, the 45-mile walk feels daunting. I’ll feel better when we get a day or two under our belts. It has always been thus, the anticipation is worse than the event itself.

In other news, Seth announced his job had been downsized due to the pandemic and he would be taking a break from the professional world to be a full time rancher for a month or more. His comment was, "their timing couldn't be better." We’ve all heard about silver linings to the virus and this is one for us.

We beef growers are learning a lot about our supply chain through "these trying times.” The hourglass shape of our industry - cow-calf producers on the front side, consumers on the end side, and the meatpacking plants in the middle - makes for vulnerabilities we haven’t tested before. Turns out those valiant souls that harvest our animals are especially vulnerable to the virus. They are the essential workers in our world.

An interesting coincidence to the beef supply shake-up is that this spring our kids launched their Pratt Family Beef direct sales business. Mark has always had a few grass-fed cattle that stay home in the summer for customers interested in an alternative to our mainstream outlet through Country Natural Beef. Pratt Family Beef is a stepped-up version of that, and is reaching folks outside our usual circle. It amazes me that people send deposits to hold a product which is months away from their freezer. That's where social media comes in, including this 10-yr old blog, to introduce our family to potential customers.

Resiliency, partnerships, stability and sustainability – these are the attributes we’ve been students of for a long time now. It’s what we need to focus on world-wide instead of bickering and blaming. Well, actually it’s only some people that bicker and blame. Most of us are in the grand middle, the unflappable middle that buy their toilet paper one large package at a time. Unfortunately it’s the bickerers and blamers that get all the attention.

See you on the other side of grass.

photo by Anita