Mountain Bluebird on Battle Creek
Mountain bluebird
Home Ranch
photo by Pat O'Toole
On the fly
Home Ranch
photo by Pat O'Toole
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Mountain bluebird
Home Ranch
photo by Pat O'Toole
On the fly
Home Ranch
photo by Pat O'Toole
The skyline of the Home Ranch is bounded by three mountains. Battle Mountain, nearly 10,000 feet in altitude, lies to the northwest. It dominates the entire Little Snake River Valley, and was known as "Bastion Mountain" by the trappers before their 1841 encounter with the Indians.
Sheep Mountain lies to the east. Sheep Mountain and Battle Mountain were born of fire and are extinct volcanoes.
Squaw Mountain, with its unique double peak, has been photograped thousands of times. Heck, it has probably been photographed thousands of times just by us! It is a mountain of many moods.
Battle Mountain with alfalfa bales
Home Ranch
photo by Sharon O'Toole
Sheep Mountain at sunrise
photo by Sharon O'Toole
Squaw Mountain with first snow
photo by Sharon O'Toole
Kevin
photo by Pat O'Toole
From H. Kevin Lidstone
Subject: Hey All
Date: Fri, 21 Sep 2007 20:47:44 -0600
Well, I thought I'd drop everyone a line and let you know that things are continuing to go well here, or at least better than the life of poor Britney Spears. We do get constant updates about the lives of our troubled starlets thanks to the arrival of publications such as OK, US WEEKLY and PEOPLE, and let me tell you the problems those girls go through make the everyday Iraqis' life look blessed. It's been a busy month and most of our time has been spent either sleeping, on guard or on patrol. The month of August was miserable, but the air temperature has begun to dip below 100 during the day and nights are a chilly 85-90. Our generator finally got replaced so we now have A/C after we spent the past month sans cool air in our rooms. It made for a miserable August, but thankfully it's past us and our new generator works beautifully (we sit around our rooms now in long underwear tops and fleece jackets). Unfortunately, however, my unit will not be included amongst those coming home early under Gen. Petraeus' new plan. We're here for the full 15 mos. regardless. No worries though, we've been resigned to the fact that we won't be home until next spring for a while now and any change would be a great shock, one that I am sure I would not be able to endure. I am deeply depressed by Notre Dame's inability to score a touchdown on offense this season (yes, I have been lucky enough to watch their games...there is no sarcasm intended in that because it is comforting and nice to be able to see college football, the NFL and MLB games live). Well, I hope this fall finds everyone well and I can't wait to see y'all soon. To the guys meeting in Chicago this weekend, have a great bachelor party, Nick I wish I was there, but take care and we'll talk to y'all soon.
Peace,
Kevin
Three amigos, bucks
Home Ranch
photo by Sharon O'Toole
Three amigos, crew
photo by Sharon O'Toole
The buck testers came yesterday and left today. What, you might ask, is a buck tester? Good question, and for us, a good program. Years ago, Colorado State University’s Dr. Cleon Kimberling, veterinarian and teacher extraordinaire, decided that it was time to get rid of a venereal disease of sheep, epididymitis, that seriously affected lamb conception rates. He was aided in this quest by Pat, who was a Wyoming state representative at the time, as well as several other legislators in sheep raising states, who sponsored legislation to make such testing mandatory for sale bucks. (Bucks are fertile male sheep, also known as rams.)
The result of this effort is a traveling crew, who come to the ranches and the sheep, with a mobile laboratory and a crew of veterinarians and students, to collect semen and blood from rams, test it for epididymitis, and advise sheep growers which rams to keep and which to ship.
Dr. Kimberling was a much loved sheep extension vet, famous for his epic bicycle trips. At (more or less) the age of 70, he rode his bike across the United States. He used to bike over the Continental Divide from Fort Collins, Colorado, a distance of about 200 miles, to meet his crew of twenty-something vet students at our ranch. Dr. Kimberling has retired, but the program has been carried on by Dr. Knight and a group of equally enthusiastic students. We are told that these crews are getting harder to recruit as more students opt for small animal training.
This is a minute or so of trauma for the bucks, but all in all, they lead a charmed life. They spend most of the year coddled by us, then put in six weeks or so of “work” as they breed the ewes in December and January.
We appreciate the testing crew and the long days they put in (even if the rams are less enthusiastic). It is truly a valuable service they perform for us.
Dr, Knight and fledgling vet Tyler
Checking semen samples under a teaching microscope
Traveling lab
photo by Sharon O'Toole
Pat and Mike moving the bucks
photo by Sharon O'Toole
Nerio and the one that almost got away
photo by Sharon O'Toole
Passed with flying colors
photo by Sharon O'Toole
Mike and Siobhan
photo by Sharon "O'Toole
Sheep on the reservoir above the forks of Battle Creek
Medicine Bow National Forest
photo by Pat O'Toole
Raking hay, evening shadows
Home Ranch
photo by Pat O'Toole
It is the time of year when summer is tipping over into fall. We are still doing summer things—putting up hay, tending sheep camps and checking cows and calves on the forest permits, riding fences. We do these things, but fall is sneaking in all around us.
Temperatures are definitely cooler, though we have not yet had a freeze. I didn’t manage to put a garden in this year, but neighbors are offering piles of squash. Relatives visiting from Grand Junction, Colorado brought us blessed peaches and fresh tomatoes. (Two things money can’t buy—true love and home-grown tomatoes.) Olathe corn is showing up at roadside markets and in the grocery store. All these are signs that harvest time is definitely all around.
While we look at the calendar and know that our forest off-dates are weeks away, the livestock are beginning to get restless. Some of the trouble-makers are trying to make their way down the roads and pathways to the home ranch. Soon, our neighbors will be calling. “I’ve got two of your cows. I’ll drop them off and pick up that bull of mine that you picked up.” We try to convince the stock that they’re leaving better feed behind than they have ahead of them. The forest this year has gotten rains, while the desert still bakes with drought.
One of the pleasures of the season is seeing the predictable turning of earth’s timetable, and with it the glorious appearance of golden and rusty leaves. This year we are watching the trees turn, but many of them are afflicted with insects and disease. The forest is changing before our eyes, and for the rest of our lives. The Routt and Medicine Bow National Forests, like most in the Rocky Mountain West, are losing their pines and spruce trees to beetles. The trees are drought stressed, and the warmer winters have allowed the insects to overwinter and explode in numbers. Whole hillsides of conifers are turning red as we watch, week by week.
The aspen, too, have “aspen blight,” whatever that is. Their leaves are dying and falling off, without their usual spectacular golden interval. Many aspen groves, including Wyoming’s famed “Aspen Alley”, show barren trucks with dried and dying leaves.
Fires will follow, this year, or the next, or the next. Some other trees will grow up and take the place of these, but it will never again be the forest we knew, which seemed so immutable.
Dying aspens on Sheep Mountain (with oak in foreground)
Carbon County, Wyoming
photo by Sharon O'Toole
Aspen Alley, aspen blight
Medicine Bow National Forest, Wyoming
photo by Pat O'Toole
Beetle-killed pine on Farwell Mountain
Routt National Forest, Colorado
photo by Pat O'Toole
Dead pines near Dillon, Colorado
photo by Sharon O'Toole
Little Snake River
Bull Pasture, Routt County, Colorado
photo by Pat O'Toole
Earthbound
This spring my heart, these rocks my bones,
This earth my flesh, this river blood.
My roots reach down, embrace the stones.
This whetstone land, how fine it hones
My roughened edge, smoothed as I stood.
Heart’s well-spring, these rocks my bones.
I heard the croons of ancient crones:
“This land your soul, from sky to mud.
Roots reach down, embrace the stones.”
You give your soul, it only loans
All you need, sustaining food,
Your well-spring heart, your rocky bones.
My sighs and laughter, wind entones,
This rain my tears, these streams my blood,
My roots reach down, embrace the stones.
My heart-strings strum its throbbing tones
With wind and water, rocks and wood,
With well-spring heart, with rocks my bones.
My roots reach down, embrace the stones.
Sharon Salisbury O'Toole
Vermillion Basin
Looking west from Lookout Rim
Moffat County, Colorado
photo by Pat O'Toole
Vermillion Basin is an area slated for massive energy development. It is located just west of our desert ranch near Powder Wash.
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