June 16, 2015

Never Give Up

Dear Friends, If you listen to old timers, they’ll give you some advice about sheep. It usually goes something like this: “Sheep are always looking for a way, a place or an excuse to die!” Or “Yes, sheep are just one crisis after another!” They exaggerate of course, but I have to tell you about […]

May 7, 2015

Shearing

Dear Friends, I’m not sure I’ve ever written about shearing.  It just happens.  Well, not really, there’s lots of planning and “getting ready” that has to happen before the big event.  We think of cutting hay and threshing wheat as harvests, but sometimes we don’t think of shearing in the same way.  But it is […]

April 10, 2015

New Pastures

Dear Friends, I had a chance the other day, to do something I really love.  Take the horses out.  We needed them moved up the canyon to new pasture and it just worked out that I was the one to get it done.  Like any group of animals, they love new terrain and being turned […]

March 20, 2015

Bummer Names!

Dear Friends, The last ewe lambed!  It’s a time for celebrating for so many reasons.  This signals spring, tender shoots coming out of the soil, budding bushes and trees, babies everywhere, spring bird song, longer days and more light.  I feel a little guilty saying all this, because I know our friends around the country […]

February 7, 2015

Pregnant

Dear Friends, My year is off to a hectic start. If you’ve been paying attention, you know I missed the January newsletter. And now it’s February and if I don’t hurry up and write, that will be over too! We’ve brought in the sheep and lambing is underway. Usually the sheep begin lambing in a […]

December 12, 2014

Is That My Photo In the Wall Street Journal?

Dear Friends, I know I’ve said this before, but “I love this time of year!” Not the weather, but all the meaning! We just did something over Thanksgiving we haven’t done in years. We took the kids and grandkids and went on a family trip. Ten days of communal living, staying together, playing together, eating […]

November 7, 2014

Caring…or Roosting

Dear Friends, What a difference a month makes!   We’ve had rain!  And we are so thankful.  A year makes a difference too, and our life has changed a lot since a year ago.  It was October 29th when Ralph Lauren launched their “Made in America” film, and you’d think things would be quiet by now.  […]

October 28, 2014

Fruits of Autumn

Dear Friends, Nature.  It’s beautiful, bountiful, honest, and at the same time unforgiving, sometimes harsh, and always outside our control.  Dan and I are in the car, heading toward Idaho and the Trailing of the Sheep Festival in Sun Valley.  Having gone over our last minute chore lists, packed and loaded, we now have the […]

Wild Turkey on Fence
September 8, 2014

Wild Turkeys

Dear Friends, Harvest season.  Those two words hold such power.  Do you ever wonder how the earth continues to provide so much?  I do.  When you stop to think about it, it’s really a miracle.  It’s September, and all around me is the evidence of nature’s bounty.  Wheat harvest just ended on the Imperial Stock […]

November 4, 2013

“The Call” and the Journey

Dear Friends, It’s been an unbelievable week.  It began with Ralph Lauren’s announcement that the uniforms Team USA will wear in the XXII Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, were all Made in America.  The news launched on the NBC Today Show on Tuesday, October 29th, and the film they made about the process went live […]

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