Jim and I decided we were ready for a night out, so on Saturday evening we took a bottle of wine, our sleeping bags, and dogs, and headed for our sheep pasture. Jim built a small bonfire and we relaxed, eventually crawling into our sleeping bags to sleep under the stars alongside the New Fork …
Tag: Ranching
Doo, doo, doo, looking out my back door
It’s one of those mornings I’m finding it difficult to get anything done, since I’m spending most of time looking out the window, watching our Akbash livestock protection dog Rena, and how she handles two coyotes that have been in our neighborhood all morning. Rena alerted me to the two coyotes as they crossed the …
Sunrise in the Upper Green
I wanted to catch the early morning light in the Upper Green River region of western Wyoming, north of Pinedale this weekend. I was lucky enough to recruit my son Cass and our neighbor and friend Haley for the adventure. The mountain on the right in the photo above is Square Top (about 11,600 feet), …
Goats and grazing
Jim and I camped out on a beautiful private ranch at the based of Devil’s Tower last week. We were in the area learning about how a herd of goats is used to control a leafy spurge infestation on a cattle ranch. It’s for a children’s book about goats that I’m working on. My friend …
Another blogger meet-up
Steve and Libby are in Wyoming on a week-long trip to attend a Jackson Hole wedding, so I managed to kidnap Steve for a few days of visiting our western Wyoming range country. The photo above includes Steve and Libby, and Cat and Jim Urbigkit. Steve was given the proper introduction to this wild range …
Country fun
We’ve worked far too hard lately, and everyone felt the need to blow off a little steam last weekend. What better way than to load up onto the back of a flatbed ranch truck and take a tour of our booming prairie dog town (located just outside our yard). The weekend involved a variety of …
Lambing season
Despite snow and rain storms, our lambing season has gone really well this year. Our ewes give birth out in the sagebrush and are not penned or sheltered. It’s a natural way of doing things, and we hold off on lambing until mid-May so we’ve made it through the worst of the storms and the …
Dancing for the joy of spring
Had to haul our last load of hay from our friend’s ranch on Sunday. It was very overcast and the ranch is ancient and captivating. These sandhill cranes were in the fields, and I’m sure they were dancing for the sheer joy of spring, rather than simply practicing their mating dances they will soon be …
Beauty, and its opposite
Many of the most pleasant parts of my day involve encounters lasting only a few seconds, and sometimes as long as a few minutes, but they all involve beauty found in nature. The snowy grouse (Greater Sage Grouse) were out nibbling on sage along the Wind River Front near Boulder while we were hauling hay. …
Dear dog: Please break the rule
This cold and blustery day started with me letting Hud the herding dog puppy outside to find a dirty-headed bald eagle sitting on the power pole, watching the goings-on in the yard. Okay, so I put the big dog out with the little dog as a precaution. Morning proceeded, and I noticed Rena the guardian …