The holidays are here,

the year is almost gone.

Sunset’s coming sooner.

Long nights, they linger on.

 

Christmas on the Ladder Ranch

Brings us gifts galore.

Family gathers ‘round us

While Yuletide fires roar.

 

Deep within the meadows—

Summer’s rush to green has passed.

Round bales stacked like coins,

Winter’s wealth, its shadows cast.

 

Fair weather birds have fled,

but winter sounds abound,

brave trills of chirping chorus

echo bird-song all around.

 

Coyotes add their yips and howls

and wail their eerie cries

which echo through the hills

making hackles rise

 

on man and beast alike.

Battle Creek glows with icy sheen.

The stream murmurs, cracks, groans—

add to winter’s subtle keen.

 

But here beside the fire,

with its crackle and its roar,

we’re warm and well and happy,

with all we need and more.

 

There’s children’s cheery laughter–

they cry and yell and shout,

like to scare the coyotes

as they run and tear about.

 

There’s cows and sheep and horses.

There’s canines large and small

dreaming Border collie dreams

and guard dogs watching all.

 

The cows must fill their bellies

with grass hay long since cut,

and raked and baled and scattered

‘long the tractor’s snowy rut.

 

They’ve calves to grow within them—

Throughout the winter’s cold

and await the season’s turning.

Winter Solstice comes and goes.

 

And ewes upon the desert

munching daily corn,

awaiting warmth in springtime

when their babies will be born.

 

In Battle Mountain’s folds

deer and elk have bedded down

in hollows under oak brush

there’s shelter that they’ve found.

 

We thank the Lord for blessings

for His creatures great and small

for all of those we care for–

Please Lord, bless us all!

 

We are grateful for our friends

and kin, found both far and near,

from Ladder Ranch to you and yours–

Merry Christmas! Yuletide Cheer!