Pat & Sharon O'Toole: Lion in March

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Cows and calves in the Upper Meadow before the storm
Home Ranch
photo by Sharon O'Toole

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Cows, calves and Long Mountain on March 25th
Home Ranch
photo by Sharon O'Toole

March came in like a lion, and it gives every promise of going out like a lion as well. We have had a couple of weeks of exceptionally warm weather, snow melt, and even the hint of green grass. These signs of spring should all be arriving here in mid-April or so, and this early warmth has us plenty worried. Now as if to thumb her nose at all the coffee shop prognosticators, Mother Nature has delivered to us a good wet snowstorm. This storm has snarled plans and stopped traffic all over the state.
We have one band of yearling ewes on the trail from winter to spring pasture—a trek of some fifty miles. They were blown out in this storm and some of them mixed with our neighbor’s sheep. As soon as it dries up, we will be setting up corrals and sorting—that is, as soon as we find them all. They have walked before the storm, and we’ll find them safe in a sheltered draw, but we’ll sleep better at night once that is in the past instead of the future.
We are tied not only to the land, our livestock, and the other species who share this life with us. We are also intimately tied to the weather, so that drought feels like thirst on a dry tongue, a blizzard burns like frost-bitten toes, and a glorious spring day feels like heaven.

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Cows and calves in the Lower Meadow, March 29th
Home Ranch
photo by Sharon O'Toole

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Crow under Flat Top
Home Ranch
photo by Sharon O'Toole

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About Pat & Sharon O'Toole

Pat and Sharon O’Toole are ranchers in the Little Snake River Valley near Savery, Wyoming, right on the Colorado-Wyoming border. They raise cattle, sheep, horses, dogs and children. Pat “immigrated” from Florida in 1970. He attended Colorado State University, where he met Sharon when both worked for the campus newspaper. Sharon grew up on their ranch, where they live and work with her father, their daughter, son and granddaughter (soon to be grandchildren!). Pat is a “water buffalo” and has served in the Wyoming House of Representatives (1986-1992), on the President’s Western Water Policy Review Advisory Commission, and is the current President of the Family Farm Alliance, which advocates for farmers, ranchers and irrigators. Sharon is an author, poet and journalist. She writes extensively on Western issues and is a columnist for “The Shepherd” magazine. Pat and Sharon are the parents of three children: Meghan, 27; Bridget, 26; and Eamon, 20.

Pat & Sharon O'Toole

Lion in March

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