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Category Archives: Nature and Wildlife

Greater Sage Grouse dance

19 Apr

Early morning Sage Grouse dance east of Muddy Mountain

Third grade teacher Cindy Cobb is famous for her field trips. The most famous field trip is to see the mating dance of the Greater Sage Grouse, which is amazing. The kids have to show up to the school at 5 a.m. or so to board the bus for the dancing grounds on our lambing grounds. Last year when my grandsons McCoy and Tiarnan were in third grade, they missed the cool field trips because the coronavirus had closed the school, This year, the fourth graders joined the third graders on the trek to see the lek where the male grouse dance and hoot in their attempt to attract the hens. Wyoming Game and Fish Department Biologist Phil Damm accompanied the students on the bus and explained what they were seeing. These kids know the ways of the birds and the bees!

McCoy looking our the bus window

 
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Posted by on April 19, 2021 in Events, Nature and Wildlife

 

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Winter

10 Jan

Tres amigas

guard dog puppies in waiting

peewee lambs with guard dog

elk wintering near Battle Mountain

Pat and Eamon in the Routt Forest

Hampshire ewes at Powder Flat

 
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Posted by on January 10, 2021 in Cattle, Dogs, Family, Nature and Wildlife, Sheep

 

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Happy New Year!

31 Dec

The New Year comes through fortune’s gate.
It gives us hope, and prayers of grace,
with power of time, we await

the future, blank–this unknown fate,
unknown journey to unknown place—
the New Year comes, through one-way gate.

Our dreads, our sins, night fears abate—
the past, the future, run apace
with power of time, next year awaits.

We cast our lot, the dice gyrate,
spin and clatter, hit chance’s space—
write next year’s tome on fortune’s slate.

Earth’s axis tips, while stars rotate.
The waxing moon unveils her face,
marks pass of time, while we await

Through time, through space, sped arrow-straight,
light races on its ceaseless chase.
Now New Year comes, through future’s gate—
through power of time, we await.

 
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Posted by on December 31, 2020 in Nature and Wildlife, Poetry

 

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Solstice

21 Dec

Solstice sunrise

Solstice Sonnet

Season’s end draws, dims, slides down to the rest
of the year, where we await winter sleep,
Day’s end presents sundown, darkened nest
where quiet lures, lulls, to somnolent deep

and tempting dreams, where twilight dusk holds sway.
Dawn comes late, with sparking, shimmering freeze.
Solstice rays shoot beams, arrows into day–
Ancients rose, chanted, begged gods to be pleased

and halt sun’s chariot southering drift,
to change its course, to close its dogged lap.
Prayers intoned, begged for light’s return—strong, swift,
No more creeping darkness, to suck and sap

its sunlit balm. Now incline to summer–
swing past the solstice, past darkness’ slumber.

 
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Posted by on December 21, 2020 in Events, Nature and Wildlife, Poetry

 

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Sunrise blessing

06 Nov

 

Sunrise bleeds into
morning, day, season’s turning,
this blessing, a gift.

 
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Posted by on November 6, 2020 in Nature and Wildlife, Poetry

 

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Red at Night

14 Oct

Fires in the forest
paint strokes of scarlet slashing
across the Mesa

photo credit. Meghan O’Toole Lally

 
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Posted by on October 14, 2020 in Farming, Nature and Wildlife, Poetry

 

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Battle Creek Reflections

12 Sep

Fall’s first reflection
of Julie in Battle Creek,
Seasons in motion.

 

 
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Posted by on September 12, 2020 in Animals, Horses, Nature and Wildlife

 

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Sangre de Cristo–Summer of Fire

22 Aug

Red sunrise over Sheep Mountain

Sangre de Cristo,
blood red against the sky,
smoky crimson sunrise
illuminates the dry

and murky landscape,
grey haze that turns to pink,
and throws a rosy glow
to make night’s shadows sink.

Mountains rise ephemeral,
magic light against their rock,
a brief illumination
shows their beauty with a shock.

of this pink and hazy glow
wrought by fires in the south,
fire in the sky,
and fires bred by drought.

Flames that rise and roar
and eat all before their path,
nature and man’s doings
give way before their wrath.

We watch from distant fastness
as smoky fingers curl,
long tendrils reach with greed
to menace with their swirl,

and spread a grim grey threat
to make us tear and choke.
We wear a gauzy veil
of ash and haze and smoke.

It filters through our valleys
where grass stands stiff and dry,
where leaves hang low and thirsty
beneath this pall of sky.

Tales now come to haunt us
of flames that leave a stark
and ancient calling card,
borne aloft by wind and spark.

We watch and wait and fret
that such could be our fate,
while distant matches flare,
in a tinderbox, we wait.

Such thoughts all disappear
with wonder and with awe,
as sunrise works its alchemy,
paints the country with a raw

and glowing pinkwash,
with a brief and fleeting dye.
Sangre de Cristo,
blood red against the sky.

Red sunset over Battle Mountain

 

 
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Posted by on August 22, 2020 in Nature and Wildlife, Poetry

 

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Irrigating the Mesa

22 Jul

 

 

Truly, our life’s blood
water, from stream to pivot,
brings life in winter.

 
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Posted by on July 22, 2020 in Farming, Nature and Wildlife

 

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Rainbow over windrows

17 Jul

The gold at the end
of the rainbow, gilded hay,
summer’s rich bounty.

 
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Posted by on July 17, 2020 in Farming, Nature and Wildlife

 

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