Carolyn Dufurrena

Today the weather is mild and gray; we're turning out the pairs to the low country, putting out salt, working on windmills, but a year ago was a little different.

Emigrant Pass March 23

One room schoolhouse too far from town,
Too long a winter:
Time to see some country.

Spring wind blowing in the dark,
Horses buck and play in sunshine
Fools us into thinking
Winter’s back is broken.

We take the children, three Suburbans full
Over to Elko, to see a play;
A touring company from Washington:
once in a lifetime trip for most of them.

Plow into a blizzard over Emigrant Pass,
Eighteen wheels throwing slush over steamed up windshields:
Heavy traffic.

Can't weaken:
All my little Mexicans
Need to know Tom Sawyer.

Mark Twain's language echoes in their hearts:
America, when she was young.
These children, too, become Americans
day by day.

At last, spring storm passing,
we turn our heads toward home.
The mountains gift
Our winding path
With a sparkling quilt of graybluewhite
The sky bright and dark with clouds.
.

Posted by Carolyn Dufurrena at 4:24 PM | Permalink

Even though it still feels like winter, with snow in the high country and a chill north wind blowing, spring is upon us, and spring means irrigating alfalfa fields and the hay meadows, and all the farming that will come soon after. It's getting more and more difficult with the immigration situation to find people to help us with these tasks. So here's my reflection on all that for today.

Homeland Security: the View from Here

Icy wind cuts to the bone.
I hurry through the freezing afternoon
To the woodshed.

Three rows deep, firewood packed
Thoughtfully, not too heavy,
Nor too high for me,
Stacked in October
When the afternoons were crisp and golden.

I hear
Miguel’s axe ringing in that autumn twilight
That slides slowly into evening.
Hours after his day is finished,
He splits the head-high pile of rounds
Against this day,

An aging man’s last gift to me before he leaves
For winter,
For Christmas,
To warm up
And come back legal.

Miguel’s gift warms me now
In March’s snows
As he waits in Hermosillo,
trapped
in a web of bureaucracy
and political chest-thumping,

As he waits in Hermosillo, hungry;
His wife, in Colima, hungry
For the visa,
That will not come till fall.

Homeland security.
He is part of ours.

Posted by Carolyn Dufurrena at 1:10 PM | Permalink

Ranch hand rodeo, and oh my Lord it must be spring because the weather was warm and sunny and everybody was there, whether in the competition itself, buying or selling horses, or just bringing the new babies out into the open after the long, cold winter. Ropes and knives and wildrags and silver for sale, whiskey at the bar, and lots of tales to tell. One all-women's team, the Wild Women, who were the crowd's all-time favorites, included one of the DeLong sisters who recently won the Jordan Valley Big Loop roping (her roping partner would have been there, but she's extremely pregnant). Thirty-three teams entered from as far away as Montana; there were several that were made up of family members only, Dufurrena Brothers Cattle Company included. There are flashier events out there, but none that show better how the ranching community works and plays.

Tim and Dan Team Roping for the Dufurrena Brothers team.. CKD Photo

Posted by Carolyn Dufurrena at 9:44 AM | Permalink