I swear any time I change my schedule, something goes really wrong. I drove my son Cass to Laramie yesterday to move him into a dorm for his freshman year at the University of Wyoming. It was a fun but stressful day as I tried not to think about the fact that my son just …
Author: Cat Urbigkit
Naturally
I have been simply flabbergasted by the controversy I’ve been reading about dog husbandry and the nit-picking crap described by Steve and our blogger friends in several recent posts. After reading the animosity represented, I suspect that some folks would have me put behind bars since our lifestyle doesn’t conform to their rigid standard for …
Bold supervision
Hay harvest on our ranch started this week. Part of that process involves getting all the equipment greased, gassed, tuned up and ready to work – including machinery that hasn’t been touched since hay harvest ended last year. Our two tractors are kept in a fenced stackyard next to the south meadow, and the other …
Bueno perro
I just received my first copies of the about-to-be-released bilingual version of my Brave Dogs, Gentle Dogs: How They Guard Sheep book. This was my first children’s book, and is still my favorite, because it’s some of my favorite subject matter. The Spanish translation was done by Aida E. Marcuse, and the new edition is …
The mark of the cross
There are plenty of legends and stories about what wonderful and loyal companions burros make – miners and shepherds of long ago talked to their beasts of burden and treated them like old friends, which they often became. I’m going to venture into new territory here and share a story about the cross mark on …
Evening in the pastures
Final check of the day today was beautiful, with stormy skies and a breeze. The sheep and their burros were down by the river, munching on greasewood and bluegrass. Never got a photo of the guard dogs, since they were getting fed at camp nearby. On our way out of the pasture, flushed two red-tailed …
Bat quest
We have a maternal colony of little brown bats in the barn next to the New Fork River. There is an old stack of doors and plywood leaning against a partition, and the bats move into the spaces between the wood every summer to have their babies. I call the photo above “The Four Amigos.” …
Turkey vultures
I know very little about turkey vultures, but am fascinated by them. Thirty years ago when I reported I had just seen two vultures in Sublette County, I was met with disbelief. Although still not common here, we do have a few turkey vultures in the summer these days. Our western migrants spend winters in …
Caption contest?
Okay, clever minds, submit your captions for this photo.
Beaverslide
My post of draft horses yesterday included a photo of what we call a beaverslide, which is this wooden contraption used to stack loose hay. Beaverslides dotted ranches throughout the West until the last few decades and its modernization/mechanization of hay harvest. Nowadays, most outfits use gas or diesel-powered balers, but there are still ranches …