We have just complete our annual trek to the Red Desert with the sheep. This journey begins around October 1st, each year, as we trail the sheep down from their summer Forest permits. Since seven bunches of sheep spend the summer on the Forest, this takes some staging. Each bunch comes into pastures around the Home Ranch headquarters, then each and every ewe is looked at individually. Most of them are keepers. Some are sold as “good old ewes” who go on to another owner in a milder climate, usually the Midwest. Those with problems such as “bad bags”, lameness or other complaints of old age become “killers.” Once a stranger asked me, “Who’d they kill?” looking at them with new respect. The keepers, after having their lambs weaned, are made up into one of four winter bunches. They then trail to our fall country, known as Cottonwood, north of Dixon. In early November, most of them head out for the Badwater Pasture, a checkerboard lease (every other section is private or public). The sheep, sheepherders, dogs and horses hang out there until time to trail to the winter country on the Red Desert, north of I80. We move around December 1st each year. That is our on-date for the winter BLM leases, and is normally about the time we can expect snow on the desert. Snow is critical since virtually no live water is available, and the sheep depend on eating snow for sustenance during the winter months. One of the critical days of trailing is the day the sheep cross the overpass above the Union Pacific railroad line, then a couple of miles later, go under I80 at the Creston Junction underpass. We do this three days in a row, as each bunch passes in its turn. When they reach their destinations at Cyclone Rim and Chain Lakes, they have walked about 150 miles from their summer pastures.
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Pat & Sharon
The O’Tooles
Patrick and Sharon O'Toole are ranchers in the Little Snake River Valley on the Wyoming-Colorado border. They represent the fourth generation on the six-generation family ranch. The O'Tooles raise cattle, sheep, horses, dogs and children on their high country ranching operation. The transhumance operation stretches from north of Steamboat Springs, Colorado to Wyoming's Red Desert.
Pat has served in the Wyoming House of Representatives, the Western Water Policy Commission, and is currently President of the Family Farm Alliance, representing irrigators and water users in the western United States. He is active with several conservation and agricultural organizations.
Sharon is a writer and poet. She writes extensively on western issues, and the relationship between landscape, animals and people. She is widely published as an author, essayist and editorial commentator.
Pat and Sharon have three children. Their daughter, Meghan and her husband Brian Lally, live on the ranch with their children, Siobhán, Seamus, Maeve and Tiarnán. Meghan has also served on the Wyoming Board of Agriculture and the Environmental Quality Council, She and Brian are active in community service.
Daughter Bridget lives in Phoenix with her husband, Chris Abel, where she works in health care communications. Chris works in the food distribution business.
Son Eamon and his wife Megan live on the ranch with their sons, McCoy and Rhen. Eamon is a horseman and natural resource manager, and Megan is a flight nurse. Eamon is a member of the Wyoming Beef Council and is active in the National Cattlemen's Beef Association.
The blog traces the activities and life on the ranch, from the mundane to the fabulous.
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Along Little Bloggies
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Susan Harvey
December 6, 2011 at 8:49 AM
Brings back memories!
Pat H
December 14, 2011 at 8:34 AM
Ivan is an unusual name for a sheepherder. I think of most of them being Peruvian these days. Is he not?
Ladder Ranch
January 6, 2012 at 6:32 PM
Yes, Ivan is Peruvian.