Pat & Sharon O'Toole

I am always urging friends, acquaintances and strangers to log onto the Western Folklife Center blogs. I even gave the address to the two women who were sitting on either side of me on an airplane yesterday. Talk about a captive audience! I have learned that many folks don’t understand the “Continue Reading” option. Click on this to continue the essay and often find more photos.

I enjoy perusing the other blogs. It makes me realize how many different faces Western agriculture, and culture, have. It is particularly interesting reading the ranch doings of the Dofflemeyers. In general, their cycle of birth, growth, shipping, and of course, death, is similar to ours.

Early Winter on Trail
Cherry Grove, Carbon County, Wyoming
photo by Pat O'Toole

The striking difference is our seasons. They are calving now, and posting wonderful photos and descriptions of that transition. We calve in March and April, mostly, brand our calves in May and June, and are now preparing our calves to ship—the steers to feedlots and eventually to your table, and the heifers to a new life as future mother cows. Some of the heifers we keep so that they can become our own future mother cows.

I love looking at Linda Duferrena’s wonderful photos. Their northern Nevada seasons parallel our own, much as their work does.

Foggy October morning
Home Ranch
photo by Sharon S. O'Toole

I have to admire all the bloggers, and their generosity in sharing their thoughts, lives, and adventures with us all.

Right now, we are sorting all the sheep, and sending the lambs to a feedlot in South Dakota, where they will eat corn and other feed until they are ready to slaughter, at about 140 pounds. They average around 95 pounds now. It is hard to see them go off, after seeing them safely into the world, fighting off predators all summer, and “husbanding” their health and well-being. They are going into good care, with a feeder whom we have worked with for many years. The ewes call for about a day. My father always says they have to bleat enough to remind the other ewes that they are good mothers.

Soon, the cows will be bawling for their calves, as the calves too file onto a truck and into other care. After a day or two, the cows settle down, and start their long winter of eating hay and gestating next year’s calf.

We have experienced an unusually wet fall, after a desperately dry summer. We are now getting intermittent snows, which are good for the thirsty country, but damp and chilly for us, as we work through the necessary fall work.

Posted by Sharon O'Toole at 4:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Working sheep in the mist
Home Ranch, Carbon County, Wyoming
photo by Sharon S. O'Toole

We are in a time of transition. We have left the high country, and are now working the livestock at the ranch. We are preparing to ship calves, lambs, cull cows and ewes, and we plan this year to sell some of our sheep. Yesterday we vaccinated calves and Friday we put the first load of lambs on the truck for the feedlot in South Dakota.

Summer finds us in the mountains, but soon we will be trailing for our winter country in the desert. What we call the desert is actually high rolling country mostly covered with sagebrush. Generally, this country is lower and usually doesn’t snow up in the winter. A lot of the snow that does fall blows off and exposes the dry standing feed that grew up over the previous summer.

Castle Rock near Powder Flat
Sweetwater County, Wyoming
photo by Pat O'Toole

Of course, we share this feed with all manner of wildlife. Today, Pat and I drove through some of our winter country, 65 miles west of the home ranch. Within a half mile area, we saw elk, deer, antelope, a coyote, a bunch of rabbits and some wild horses who had left the Herd Management Area to the north. After all my worrying about the drought, we have had an exceptionally wet fall. It mostly came after the growing season, but the reservoirs are full, and the ground has a good base of water saturation going into the winter.

We are told that about 10,000 gas and oil wells will be drilled in this country in the next few years. It is where we lived for eight winters before our children started school. We were herding our own sheep, and living in a cabin without electricity or running water. I might add it also lacked a cell phone, a fax machine and a computer, so the world was farther away.

The BLM recently informed us that on a rocky hill on our private land, we could find some Indian petroglyphs. This was news to us, so we were excited to look for them. This is in an area where much of the lichen rock has been stripped, mostly illegally, for materials to decorate urban buildings. This is a particular peeve of mine. We can only hope that these ancient etching will not fall victim to these rock thieves.

The seasons roll on.

Petroglyphs and Lichen
photo by Pat O'Toole

Hole in the Wall
Sweetwater County, Wyoming
photo by Sharon S. O'Toole

Sandrocks Scene
photo by Sharon S. O'Toole

Posted by Sharon O'Toole at 5:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Lichen Rock
Routt National Forest, Colorado
photo by Pat O'Toole

Lichen Rock

Stones glow green with ancient lichen sheen.
Slanting rays grant their moment in the sun.
Winter will bury them, but
Their shimmer will outlast mine.

My days in the sun will pass
Long before rock wears to dust.

Lichen Rock above Lower Powder Springs
Sweetwater County, Wyoming
photo by Sharon S. O'Toole

Posted by Sharon O'Toole at 5:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Charlotte barrel racing
Bronze by Donald Beeler

Charlotte Emma Salisbury Gros

Charlotte Emma Salisbury Gros, a native of the Little Snake River Valley and a resident of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, died Tuesday, October 10th, 2006 in Brazil.

Charlotte was born April 11, 1948 in Rawlins, Wyoming to George and Laura Salisbury of the Ladder Ranch near Savery, Wyoming.

Charlotte was raised on the ranch, where she loved the outdoors and participated with her many friends in 4-H activities. She was an avid and competitive barrel racer, and skilled horsewoman.

When Charlotte was in kindergarten at the one room Battle Creek schoolhouse, she locked her teacher, Gretchen Hancock, in the outhouse, then climbed on her horse and rode home. Her older brother, George, got the blame, until Charlotte confessed.

Charlotte graduated from Rowland Hall in Salt Lake City, Utah in 1966 and attended Colorado State University. She was a barrel racer on CSU’s Rodeo Team, where she met Marcel Gros of Brazil. They were married in 1967 and their son Christian was born in 1979.

She moved to Brazil in 1972 and lived on remote ranches in the state of Sao Paulo. She returned home to Wyoming for frequent visits, remaining close to her family and friends.

Charlotte loved Brazil, and became completely fluent in Portuguese. In Rio de Janeiro, she had a food business, selling lamb and other food products. She was active in her book club and in the American Club, where she welcomed those who moved to Brazil. She was an avid bridge player. She was always known for her sense of fun and adventure.

Charlotte loved to travel, and visited Europe, other parts of South America, and much of the United States. She and her cousin took a boat trip up the Amazon River. She was an excellent writer and chronicled many of her travels in letters to family and friends.

Charlotte is survived by her son, Christian Andre Salisbury Gros, of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; her father, George R. Salisbury, Savery; and her sister, Sharon Salisbury O’Toole and husband Pat, Savery; She is also survived by nieces, Sherri Salisbury Marthaller, High River, Canada; Meghan O’Toole Lally, Savery; and Bridget O’Toole, New York City; and nephews Joseph Salisbury, Sacramento and Patrick Eamon O’Toole, Savery. Her “adopted” daughter, Renata Coehlo, Rio de Janeiro, and her many friends also mourn her loss.

She was preceded in death by her mother, Laura Kinne Salisbury,and her brother, George R. Salisbury III.

Posted by Sharon O'Toole at 4:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Battle Mountain, Home Ranch
Carbon County, Wyoming
photo by Sharon S. O'Toole

Autumn Eruption

Molten lava leaves spill searing lustrous fire
Down rough volcanic flanks charred by eruptions
From time before time, when earth overpoured her core,
Grew rock into mountains, these cliffs and canyons.
Did tectonic bursts glow more brightly than these leaves?
Aspens gleam golden, so shimmering with light as to
Scar the eye. To look too long is to stare at the sun.

Night falls and wind howls from northern ice fields.
Damp rotting leaves waft mold and mortality,
Mixed with the decay of eons and erosion,
Leaves, now mildewed, unfurled and drank and changed
Into gilded rivers flooding down mountain flanks.
Night and wind sweep all away with noise and force,
Baring rock slides, no glowing river of fire.

Morning finds a landscape brown and settling.
Magma glow dampered into sodden mat,
Fool’s gold carpeting the forest floor,
Spread on bones of ancient lava flows,
On bits and spines of last year's fallen leaves,
Soil, spun from autumn’s leavings, like straw
Into gold. Rumpelstiltskin’s sleight-of-hand.

Posted by Sharon O'Toole at 12:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I have returned from Brazil to a gorgeous fall. I find my family crazy busy trailing sheep and cattle from our forest permits, where the livestock spend their summer months, to our private land and leases. My husband met me at Denver International Airport, and we headed home. On the forest road, we met my daughter, granddaughter, grandson and my father, who were moving sheep camps, one after another, along the trail.

Siobhan in Autumn
Routt National Forest
photo by Pat O'Toole

I parted ways with my traveling companion, Lexie, in Atlanta, as she returned to her home in Arizona. I acquired a new companion however. I brought my sister’s dog, a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, which looks sort of like a smaller red and white Cocker Spaniel. Lexie and I had done a lot of research online and by telephone and went to the Rio airport with the required vet’s health certificate and the vaccine record. We were soon overwhelmed by a demand for the dog’s “passport” signed by a vet from the Brazilian Department of Health. We were sent on a wild goose chase looking for such a vet in the airport (on a Saturday night). We were told that Tiggy would be euthanized and BURNED (the official’s English was not inclusive of subtler words) if she were allowed to go to Atlanta without the proper papers. Finally, Lexie was raging and I was weeping (long day) and our fellow passengers were cheering Tiggy on.

I have learned in my travels through South America that often bureaucratic problems can be solved by paying more money or waiting more time, but I had finally given up and called my nephew to ask him to make the long trek to airport to pick up Tiggy. Just then, a top dog (so to speak) supervisor showed up and said “Perhaps we can solve this problem.” He checked the internet, confirmed the requirements, and said “Let the ladies take their dog. I think it will be OK.”

I wonder if this wasn’t generally the same experience we had had in persisting with the Brazilian consulate in order to get the expedited visas. They probably just wanted to get us out of there!

I was concerned that Tiggy, a Carioca (native of Rio de Janeiro) and an apartment dweller, would have a difficult adjustment to ranch life. Soon after arriving home, I went to look for her and found her hanging out on the deck with three Border collies and an Australian cattle dog. Looks like she’ll fit in.

You can guess that since I returned with my sister’s dog that she is not doing well. You’d be right.

Posted by Sharon O'Toole at 5:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)