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April snows bring May...slow?

April is here. The birds are migrating to Battle Creek, and baby calves and lambs are hitting the ground. The days are getting blessedly longer. Mud is replacing snow in the corrals. The only thing that doesn't seem to be happening is bare meadows and greening grass. It still seems to snow just about every day, although the drifts in our yard, fields and along the road are gradually shrinking. Here are scenes from the last few days.

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April 10, 2008
Cow Pasture, Home Ranch
photo by Pat O'Toole

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Siobhan feeding Ana, a wild horse we adopted
Home Ranch
photo by Sharon O'Toole

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Siobhan with new lambs
photo by Sharon O'Toole

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We're still buying hay
photo by Sharon O'Toole

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"It was YOUR idea to migrate!"
Home Ranch, Red-winged blackbirds
photo by Pat O'Toole
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Battle Creek
April 8, 2008
photo by Pat O'Toole

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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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