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Tag Archives: Battle Mountain

Fall Work

Chandler counting cows through the gate

 

October is one of our busiest months. The cows and calves, and the ewes and lambs, along with yearlings of both species, have spent the summer on the Medicine Bow and Routt National Forests. Our off-date is October 1st, so we stage the bands of sheep and gather all the cows we can find and bring them down to pastures near the Home Ranch headquarters. It has been a warmish fall and some of the cows are hiding out. Eamon and the cowboy crew have been backriding every day, but the best incentive is cold weather, which reminds the cows that it’s time to get the heck out of the Forest. We migrate along with the deer and elk as instinct draws the critters downward. This time of year, all the sheep and all the cattle are close to home. We work them through the corrals. The lambs are separated from the ewes. Often we sell the lambs this time of year, but this year we still have feed so we will keep them a little longer. The lambs are weaned and switched to a different bunch. The calves will be with their mamas a couple of more weeks, and then it will be time for them to be sold, as feeders or as replacements. It’s noisy as night, as the newly weaned lambs and calves call in the night, and the guard dogs who are now close to home bark all night to warn us of various impending dangers. To be fair, usually the coyotes are howling which makes the guard dogs even more on alert than usual. Tomorrow, we’ll start the sheep on the trail to our fall pastures, some 20 miles to the west.

Meghan, bringing down the cows

lambs in the corral at sunrise

 

Hampshire ewes hanging out with the bucks for March lambing

Theo working sheep

at the Home Ranch corrals

cattle in the Big Meadow

yearling ewes in Loco Canyon, with guard dog

fall colors with the Petite Tetons (the Mountain Formerly Known As Squaw)

 
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Posted by on October 19, 2022 in Animals, Cattle, Sheep

 

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Christmas blessings

old cow barn

 

 

Blessed light returns,
the sunset’s glow sliding north
painting Christmas Eve.

Squaw Mountain on Christmas Eve

Sheep Mountain

Sheep Mountain with sheepwagon

candle with hymnal

St. Paul’s on Christmas Eve

 

 

 

 

 
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Posted by on December 25, 2021 in Events, Nature and Wildlife, Poetry

 

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Earth Day

 
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Posted by on April 22, 2021 in Events, Farming

 

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Winter

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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Sangre de Cristo–Summer of Fire

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

 

 

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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Fall cow work (Almost Winter)

 

from the Forest to the corrals–getting ready for winter

 
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Posted by on October 22, 2019 in Animals, Cattle, Horses

 

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some sheep, some cows and a coupla llamas

Some sheep, some cows and two llamas walked into a bar. . .not really, because they couldn’t get a ride to the Cowboy Inn

 
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Posted by on January 27, 2019 in Animals, Cattle, Llamas, Nature and Wildlife, Sheep

 

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Ryan Fire

Ryan fire at night

It has been a summer of fire, with smoke hanging heavy in our Valley much of the time. Only one of these fires, on Baker’s Peak, was close to home. Some of our neighbors lost pastures in fires to the west of us. Fire crews have been hard at work all summer. Professional firefighters go from one fire onto the next, as they achieve control. Many local and volunteer firefighters have also stepped forward to protect their friends and neighbors, and their property. We are once again veiled in smoke, mostly  from the Ryan Fire, which is actively burning on the Wyoming/Colorado border about 30 miles to the west of us.

Current Situation

Total Personnel 223
Size 15,477 Acres
Estimated Containment Date Monday October 15th, 2018 approx. 12:00 AM
Fuels Involved Timber Fuel Model. Beetle-killed lodgepole pine and spruce/fir. Pine contains 40-50% dead standing and abundant down timber available to support surface to crown fires. ERCs are near the 97 percentile.
Terrain and fuel driven crown runs.

smoke over Battle Mountain

smoke rising over Battle Pass

 
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Posted by on September 23, 2018 in Events, Nature and Wildlife

 

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Last light on lilacs

Last light after rain,
a gift, a glow, glistening
drops on lilac blooms.

 
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Posted by on May 29, 2018 in Nature and Wildlife, Poetry

 

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