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Don Ogg, Farmer

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Don Ogg
Lower Smiley
Home Ranch
photo by Pat O'Toole

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Don in the tractor
photo by Pat O'Toole

Livestock husbandry is our main business, but it is not our only business. All those animals have to eat (just like us), and we put a lot of time, dollars and literal energy into raising hay and alfalfa to sustain them through the winter months.

The ace number one farmer on our place is a gentleman who has worked here, off and on (mostly on) since before I was born. He and his wife, May Emma, lived on the ranch for many years. Don Ogg is 80 years old, and shows up virtually every day during the farming season. He shows up sometimes in the winter months too, to do machine maintenance, or just keep us lined out.

Don knows every rise and fall of the Home Ranch fields better than anyone alive, and probably better than anyone ever. He started farming it after his return from the Korean War. He describes the troop ship riding out a storm. “See Squaw Mountain over there? The waves rose above us like that!”

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Upper Meadow after harvest (with bird shadow)
Home Ranch
photo by Pat O'Toole

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Upper Meadow and Squaw Mountain
photo by Pat O'Toole

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Alfalfa, ready for winter
photo by Sharon O'Toole


Posted by Sharon O'Toole on October 17, 2007 4:08 AM |

Comments

Sharon, went into this at mom and daddy's this is a awesome column. I had a daughter moment and had to have it read to me. Always knew my Daddy was a star but this makes it REAL. Thank you have the best of holidays.

Love Ya'

Diane and Jerry

Posted by: diane gardner | November 24, 2007 8:13 PM

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The opinions expressed in the Western Folklife Center's Deep West online journals are those of the online journal participants and not the Western Folklife Center. The Western Folklife Center does not moderate these journals and as such does not guarantee the veracity, reliability or completeness of any information provided in the journals or in any hyperlink appearing within them.

About Pat & Sharon O'Toole

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.

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