Kolyo Stayko shows the head of his shepherd’s crook as his sheep and goat herd grazes one morning on the mountainside near Chepelare, Bulgaria. Many herders in Bulgaria carve ornate heads on these ancient tools that are used to ensnare the leg of individual animals for capture and handling. The serpent symbolizes the earth, and …
Tag: Ranching
Girlie guns
My comment to an earlier post that “As for me, I herd with a firearm”generated the question of what exactly I carry. The two pistols and two shotguns in these photos are my regular companions, so please ignore how dirty and scratched they may look – these aren’t collector’s items, but are tools like shovels …
Reducing carnivore conflicts
Many Q readers are familiar with my family’s varied efforts to keep large carnivores from preying on our domestic sheep, and of my firm belief that we wouldn’t be in the sheep business without the use of livestock protection dogs. This time I’m going to share a story of the efforts of family friends, the …
High tech herder camp
One of these days I’ll post some photos of the inside of a sheep camp, but meanwhile, enjoy this high-tech camp. The herder uses a solar panel to power his radio. This camp is parked in the Upper Green River region of western Wyoming, thick with grizzlies and wolves.
Waiting for the storm
The storm is coming. We can feel it. I can smell moisture in the air. The wide open sky is a beautiful overcast shadow above us, providing just a casting of blue and gray hues across the landscape. We moved our sheep herd, burros, and livestock protection dogs back down into the river pasture where …
Peaceful kingdom (a work in progress)
Such a nice polite pup under the Christmas tree, right? Appearances can be deceiving – this is Hud, our new herding dog pup, arriving a week ago. We’ve had some heartbreak in our lives this last month, so the addition of two kittens and a pup have been very pleasant distractions. We named the kittens …
Around the ‘hood
Seems like I have encounters with various wildlife every day while we are on our winter range near the house. One of the pastures we use is in a riverbottom full of Cottonwoods, so I recently witnessed my Central Asian Ovcharka tree a raccoon right in the middle of the bedded sheep herd. He and …
Visitor
John Davila, one of my oldest and closest friends in New Mexico, is a former rodeo cowboy and a rancher with land- grant roots who lives where he was born, many long dirt- road miles south of the pavement in Catron County. These days he raises half- Japanese grass- fed cattle, another story, and manages …
Eevil Eagles
When I announced Darren’s new book (Tetrapod Zoology 1) I mentioned a Darren drawing that contained, among other things, an Australopithecine and a Socorro County calf in mortal danger. Here is the proof, in the form of his 2004 Christmas card (click on it to enlarge):The hominid is the (documented– look up recent material on …
Day of rescue
Yesterday was a day of rescue. The day before, the vet’s office in Pinedale called me about a sheep dog that had been brought in that was in very bad condition. I was in town for a meeting, so I dropped by to look at her and confirm it wasn’t a dog I knew. I …