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Category Archives: Musings

The Last Lament (hopefully)

sheepherder on the horizon

I haven’t put up many posts this winter, mostly because it has been so overwhelming. 2022-2023 is one for the record books, not just for us, but all the way from Elko, Nevada to Rawlins, Wyoming. All of Wyoming, and parts of surrounding states were hit pretty hard. Interstate 80 was closed 55 times between October and early March. It seemed like every time they opened the interstate, someone died.

As this blog shows, we had to evacuate our sheep in January and early February from their usual wintering grounds on the Red Desert to safety on our hayfields north of Dixon. Normally, they spend December to mid-April grazing on the Cyclone Rim and Chain Lakes allotments before heading down the trail, first to the Badwater Pasture south of Creston Junction, then on to the lambing grounds near Dixon. Often we are worried about finding enough water and snow drifts along the trail. If the shearers show up on time, we usually shear at Badwater. If they are delayed, we set up the traveling shearing sheds on the lambing grounds. Sometimes a few lambs show up by the time we finish shearing.

This year our cows wintered on a friend’s ranch near Laramie. Who’d have guessed that Laramie would have a relatively mild winter with not much snow.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, we were buried. The Snowtels were measuring record snowfalls. The story that the Snowtels (measuring devices for snow and water content located high in the mountains) didn’t tell is the amount of snow falling in the lower country. The wildlife normally spend the summers in the mountains where there’s lots to graze. That’s where our cows and sheep spend the summers as well. In the fall, we all move down together.

In 2022-2023, the snowpack was “inverted.” It piled up in the lower landscapes where the deer, elk and antelope can usually dig down to dried grasses and be sustained through the winter month. Usually, especially on the high desert, winds blow the snow into drifts and leave bare ground for grazing. This winter, it started snowing in mid-December, then warmed up briefly allowing the surface to turn to liquid, then ice. This formed a solid layer which the animals couldn’t  penetrate with their hooves.

We usually turn our rams in with the ewes on about December 13th. We were worried because we had to wait a few days since the roads were closed. I said, “Well, if it’s a stormy spring, we’ll be glad to be lambing a few days later.” Little did we know how prescient those words would be.

As chronicled in earlier posts, the ewes spent the winter on full feed on our snow-buried fields. We have brought in truckload after truckload of alfalfa to keep them alive. Family, employees and friends have done an heroic job. Some of the neighbors fed elk alongside their cattle, and we even had Greater Sandhill Cranes picking alfalfa alongside the sheep.

Deer and antelope are not very adaptable in their diet. They cannot digest hay and alfalfa, and we have watched them die. Now that the snow is finally melting, we find their emaciated bodies alongside the roads and piled under Juniper trees. Some few deer have survived by staying in town and foraging there.

It has been a slow warm-up so far. This is generally good because it slows down the flooding, but much of the snowpack is still in the mountains. We pray for warm days so the grass will finally come, but not too warm so we’re not inundated. Water managers in the Lower Basin States of the Colorado River are happy as they anticipate the runoff. However, Mother Nature is taking her due, soaking runoff into drought-dried soils, and evaporating into the sky. Even so, we hope to see significant rises in reservoirs large and small.

Today, I was in the feed store in Craig. An older gentleman, there loading up bags of feed, said “It sure is a nice day.” I agreed. It made me look around and appreciate it.

I went inside to sign the ticket and chatted with a young lady, there to pick up calving supplies.

We commiserated and told war stories about the winter. She told me about the scores and scores of dead deer, antelope and elk that she had counted along the roadside.

She said that she and her husband had thrown valuable alfalfa to antelope sheltering in a draw near their home. “They’re all dead now,” she said.

Finally, finally, most of the ground is bare and we are seeing a green sheen on the pastures and hillsides. The surviving deer, antelope and elk are looking a little better as they are able to forage. Most of them will make it now.

As for the sheep, they too will look a lot better once the green grass comes.

I hope now to spend the next months posting about sunshine, grass, lambs and great weather.

barn in late March

Tiarnan trailing the horses home (Rhen, Siobhan and Trevor helped too!)

Sheep Mountain and Flattop in late April

brush hedged by deer and antelope

winter-killed antelope

more winter kill

three more dead antelope

Sandhill Cranes on the Dixon Ranch–better days ahead!

 

 

 

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Pollination

I stand with the bees!
Dandelions’ sweet bounty,
Spring’s ready nectar

 

 

 
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Posted by on May 29, 2022 in Animals, Dogs, Musings, Nature and Wildlife

 

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Flags

 
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Posted by on April 7, 2022 in Musings

 

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Not the storm of the century

First snow (?) on Squaw Mountain

 

As we suffered through was we consider brutally hot weather (95 degrees), we were told that a huge early snowstorm was on the way. Our new cook, from Alabama, said she was terrified of winter and abruptly left. Sure enough, all over the state, roads were closed, power was off, tree branches were broken. Here’s what the storm looked like for us. Things have cooled off nicely though.

 
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Posted by on September 9, 2020 in Musings

 

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Tempus Fugit

Today, we are “springing forward” in time. The transitions back and forth between Standard Time and Daylight Savings Time are always jolting. I think it’s harder than one hour jet lag because the environmental clues of sunshine and shadows don’t change. We are close to the Equinox, when daylight and nighttime hours are approximately equal. This change is subtle but real. It reflects the wheeling of the earth, sun and stars. The measurement of time is a human construct, to give us a path to capturing the vast reality of our journey through the universe. The ancients built pyramids and Stonehenge to chart this course.

We are finally, I hope, making the transition from Winter to False (or Almost) Spring. A few days ago, we woke up to zero degrees, again. For the last two or three days, daytime temperatures have been above freezing–even as high as a balmy 40 degrees! We are moving from snow everywhere to snow most everywhere, interspersed with mud. We have lots of little lambs on the ground at Powder Flat. Most of the ewes are still in the Big Horn Basin, but we are seeing the light at the end of the snow tunnel and hope to bring them home soon. Most of the cows are in Nebraska and Laramie, but we are waiting for the day when conditions improve so they can come home too. The young bulls are hanging out at Powder Flat with the early lambers. Roma poet Virgil: “fugit inreparabile tempus”, which means “it escapes, irretrievable time”.

Home ranch on March 6th

Driveway

 

new lamb at Powder Flat

Young bulls looking forward to green grass

What–we’re losing an hour of sleep!

 
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Posted by on March 7, 2020 in Animals, Cattle, Musings, Sheep

 

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Nevermore

 

A murder of crows

seek treats from scrappy garbage

thinking corvid thoughts

 
 

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Spring Revival!

Antelope on Brown’s Hill

Faithful blog followers may have noticed that posts on “Ranch News” have been fewer and more basic lately. This was largely due to technical difficulties. My faithful laptop went on to that great recycling center in the sky, and I had to learn, sort of, to post on my husband’s wonderful, but unfamiliar, Mac. When I added the new version of Photoshop Elements, I discovered that the newer and fancier upgrade was likewise unfamiliar. Hence the changes you have observed.

But all this is in the past! After much study, I purchased a new laptop. I finally gave up and called the Adobe help desk, where the nice gentleman explained to me how to revert to the familiar “Classic Editor” posting format, which makes it easy to do more editing.

My new tools allow me to resume my former style of posting lots of medium size photos, with, I hope, enlightening and witty text.

 
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Posted by on May 20, 2019 in Animals, Musings, Nature and Wildlife

 

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Doings at Chain Lakes

Scott, Pat and Matt at the #2 Well at Chains Lakes

 

We lease grazing from the Wyoming Game and Fish Department on their Chain Lakes Wildlife Habitat Management Area northeast of Wamsutter. It is a wonderful area, with healthy rangeland. Part of our lease is an agreement to maintain historic water developments to benefit both wildlife and livestock. Here we are with Scott from Pronghorn Pumps and Matt from the Game and Fish, making plans to repair this long-time watering site.

British Petroleum is drilling new oil and gas wells on the same landscape.

 
 

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Smoky

Second hand smoke over the Upper Meadow

Second hand smoke over the Upper Meadow

 
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Posted by on August 20, 2015 in Musings

 

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Habitat

Maeve  on Sarita

Maeve on Sarita

The other day, Maeve and I were driving along in the pickup, and I was explaining the concept of “habitat.” She said, “Oh…like our family’s habitat is the ranch!”.

Indeed.

 

 
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Posted by on June 27, 2015 in Animals, Family, Folks, Horses, Musings

 

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