April Fools!



Sage Creek. May 15, 1984. Ray on what's left of the bridge on our driveway.

I'm thinking I need to go out and ride my mares and practice my rusty roping. Branding starts next week, and we're going to hit it hard. But the wind's really whipping, and I hate the wind. I end up roping my horse's head. I hope it blows away before branding.

It's really nothing out of the ordinary though. We talk about the weather all the time like it's something new. There's a reason for "April Fools Day". I'm not sure what it is, but maybe it has something to do with the fact that April's good at playing pranks!

I came across the following journal entry  when I was searching for that story poem I still haven't found. I was never a consistent journal keeper, but this was wild enough I wrote it down. We lived at the Sage Creek division of the ranch at the time. One baby had just turned two, and the other was 9 months. My brother Dallas and his friend Mike Cox had just come for a visit, bringing all their camping gear. They ended up camping in the old bunkhouse.

April 25, 1984

"Blizzard dumped two feet of snow. Wind blowing snow into huge drifts in front of all the buildings and outfits... It's hard to breathe, the wind steals the breath right out of your mouth... The temperature is 20 F... We are marooned from our neighbors and Dell.

Snow is so light that a 4-wd pickup can go through it, but the snow flies up into the engine suffocating the air filter and plugging the radiator...

Poor animals. 772 cows, 650 of them with little baby calves. At least two were born last night. The only reason Ray found them was because the tips of their noses were sticking out of the snow to breathe...

The guys are trying to get hay to them. Slow going because the snow keeps plugging up the truck engine compartment.. It's a nasty job because the wind is blowing so hard that not just snow is whipping their faces, but also hay and chaff as well.

Hard to believe that just the other day I was out walking with the babies enjoying the beautiful spring day. We had our coats off, most of the mud had dried up, and there was green grass and dandelions...

Flooding after the long, hard winter is already a problem. Lima Dam's at capacity, and we've lost some culverts and a section of road. Near Dell an overflowing irrigation ditch washed the bed out from under a section of railroad track, causing a serious freight train derailment...

I shudder to think what will happen when it warms back up and this new snow melts off."

Well, it was bad. We lost a couple of bridges and road sections which cut-off our access to neighbors, the closest of which were 5 miles away--and Dell, pop, 23, which was 9 miles over that dirt road. We could still take the long way out across the hills and Antelope Flats, and come out at Lima which was an extra 20 miles or so.

Lima Dam overflowed and was damaged. Downstream, Clark Canyon Dam also overflowed for the first time in its history.

As always happens though, the water eventually receded. We got everything repaired, and the years between 1984 and 1990 were the best grass years I can remember.

That's just life on a farm or ranch. You learn to roll with the punches, because you know they are going to come. You take the bad with the good. As much as we might try, we are not in control of the weather or seasons, or life in general. You just learn to work with them.

I'm thankful man is not in control. We do a good enough job of messing it up as it is. Sometimes we need a good reminder of the power and wisdom of God Almighty. It's also a comfort to be able to rest upon the promises of the God who wrote the final chapter. You can tune out that "other gospel"--the daily news, because according to Him:

 "While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease." Gen 8:22

 Guess I need to quit procrastinating. I can hear my dad right now: A little fresh air never hurt anyone!

Too Much of a Good Thing

I was in high school when "Earth Day" was established as an official recognized day. For me and my classmates, that meant an afternoon spent outdoors walking ditches and bagging trash. That is a good thing.

Last year we even started what we intend to follow-up on occasion on the ranch. We had all the ranch kids meet at the cookhouse after school for ice cream treats, and a white board exercise whereby they named every critter and fish they had ever observed on the ranch. The list is quite impressive. That is a good thing.

Then they went outside, and planted four wildlife friendly plum trees in an area where the cottonwoods are dying of old age. That is a good thing.

For those of us on farms and ranches, "Earth Day" is nothing new. We've been quietly practicing it every day of our lives for generations. Not only do we care about the land and animals under our stewardship, it also stands to reason that the better care we give our natural resources, the more successful our own business will be. That is a good thing.

But even as a young farm kid, there was something about the establishment of "Earth Day" that raised up a certain aversion in me. I suppose it had something to do with the whole hippie, anti-establishment, tree-hugging mentality that characterized that generation. I never bought in to that, and looked with suspicion at anything stemming from those roots. Including Earth Day. As far as I'm concerned, inner radar is a good thing too.

It's a dangerous thing to "worship and serve the creature more than the Creator". There's nothing wrong with being thankful for the miraculous life sustaining abundance provided by the earth. We should be. But we'd better be giving credit where credit is due. We are to "use this world as not abusing it", and to be good stewards of those things placed under man's "dominion". That is a good thing.

Taken to an extreme, environmentalism is simply a modern term for a religion called Pantheism. Worshipping "Mother Earth" or "Mother Nature". It's big business, and has lined the pockets quite handsomely of those who have learned the art of crisis fabrication, and people manipulation. Panthe-atic prophets who are constantly sending out alarms of doom and gloom, until we have a huge segment of society that is convinced that it's necessary to sacrifice our freedoms and our pocketbooks on the altar of environmentalism.

The price is astronomical. Not only in lost tax-paying, family-supporting, government-supporting jobs and industry, but also in lost opportunities, and lost or damaged resources due to overprotection, over-regulation, and mismanagement.

The ultimate cost? Freedom and prosperity. He who controls the food basket controls the country. I do not wish to depend on China, Russia, or any other country for my daily sustenance.

This country has been spoiled by the security blanket of an abundant supply of cheap, safe, wholesome food. When we get hungry, it will be too late.

And that, is not a good thing.

Ref: Rm 1:25; 1 Cor 7:31; Gen 1:26; 2 Tim 3:2

New Tricks

"Here, you do it". I get a chuckle out of 2-year old Braxton. He picked that one up really quick.

His daddy doesn't think it's so cute, but I love to be able to do stuff when he asks me. It won't be long and he'll hit that independent stage when he'll want to do everything himself. That's important too.

Some things just never really change. Hopefully as we age we get enough wisdom and experience to know where the balance is. Perserverance and a desire to master challenges are essential to growth and success, but so is knowing when it's time to ask for advice or help. It can also help you get there quicker.

In some things I'm like Braxton. I have no problem letting Ray get the gates, and I'd much rather get Clayton to come help me work through a problem with a colt than try to work through it myself and make matters worse.

But other things...

I'm the world's worst. I've always had a fiercely independent streak. Ray calls me a rebel. He and the kids joke that they hope the rapture comes before they have to deal with me as an old person. I used to threaten my son that someday I would get even with him. I would move in with him when I get old. He'd tell me I needed to live with one of the girls. They'd take better care of me.

I'm still struggling with this website. It's a whole lot bigger project than I had any idea. I've learned some... Just enough to be dangerous. HTML, CSS, PHP, it's like learning another language. I was never any good at that either. I spent three days (and most of the nights) this week trying to figure out why my registration page wouldn't load after I made a couple little changes. I finally found it. One little bitty apostrophe was missing! (Easy enough once I discovered there's such a thing as error logs!)

Am I going to get some help? Probably not. I found out how much it costs. Besides--I will get it! Unfortunately I've treated my photography the same way. I've never felt like we could afford the really good equipment--let alone instruction. Yesterday I went to a Photo Workshop I'd arranged as a birthday gift for our own budding photographer, and learned I've been making a hard case out of some things that once understood, are actually quite simple. Not that I haven't tried. We just got the right instructor this time. Now I'm excited.

I went with Ray on his "wolf route" this morning. He keeps telling me about all the elk he's been seeing; about giving chase to four wolves who were eating a calf when him and Jake jumped  them; and watching sage grouse who are in the middle of their showy strutting and wop-wopping season. Armed with my new knowledge and my camera, I bounced out through the hills with him, then covered a couple miles on foot. We saw a  herd of about 50 bull elk, sage grouse, antelope, mule deer and white tails, but the only wildlife I got close enough for a half-way decent photo, was a Meadowlark on a sage brush.

Oh well. Just seeing it is fun. Wildlife photography is a whole different deal, but I still like to record it when I can. For now I've learned some new tricks I need to practice with my ranch photos.

Maybe you can't teach an old dog new tricks. But if Braxton's great-grandma can learn to use Facebook, I guess his grandma can still learn a thing or two herself!

About 50 head of elk -- all bulls

Cowboy Fire

Happy Birthday Clayton!

The little cowpuncher
can barely see
beneath the brim of his hat.
His boots are scuffed--
one toe is out,
his rope's broke in on the cat.
“My son,” you say,
“grow up to be
whatever you desire.”
But bless my soul
if he ain't got
some genuine “Cowboy Fire”!

© Susan Marxer, 1990

Fish Story

I caught a fish

I wish, I wish;

As big as it could be.

Oh how he fought

and struggled hard

trying to get free.

And then, Alas!

My line it broke,

the fish it swam away.

Down to the depths

of that murky pond,

Where he lives this very day.

Speaking for Itself

New life. It's everywhere. Baby children, including our very first grand daughter born 4 days ago. Baby calves, and very soon, baby colts. The tiniest hint of green is showing now, signaling the miracle of spring renewal. Ah! Longer, brighter days and shorter snow storms.  Maybe this year my peonies will bloom before July...
Yesterday as we drove home from church, I was reminded of how much we take for granted when living and working in a natural resource environment. It’s a privilege that I wish more people could experience. There were cows and baby calves all over the hay pivots at headquarters, with mule deer all over and in between. The huge herd of elk that have been hanging around this winter, is still hanging out in the fringes of the timber and on the upper bench.

The herd of antelope that lives year round in the rough country behind our house was right near the road. I love to watch them calve, usually around the first week of June. They have the tiniest babies that can run almost as fast as their mothers. I think they hit the ground running. Another month and we’ll be watching moose in the meadows when the willows start to bud.

There was a herd of about 20 mule deer just to the north of the house, and to the east, was a little bunch of whitetail deer. I have a nice 6-point picked out for someone this fall. He's the one that destroyed my healthiest little aspen on the corner of the yard by rubbing it to shreds with his horns. He also managed to damage my tough Canadian lilac--and took the protective little fence I had around it with him. We'll probably find it this summer when we're herding cattle.

As we crossed the creek, there was a flock of Canada geese, several Sandhill cranes, and blue birds. I love blue birds. They're the first birds to come back to this high country, usually about the 3rd week in February. They are a fresh bright spot after a long winter, and best of all, they don't make messes at the house. Unlike swallows.

 Two or three times a day during the month of June we patrol the perimeter of our 3-story house with a 30-foot extendable pole with a hard brush on the end, knocking down swallow nest starts. To get the roof peak on the south side, I have to take the screen out of an upstairs window, and run the brush while hanging out the window. I can't reach it from the ground.

 Mud. Dirty gritty mud. All over the deck, And all over everything else. In spite of my intense nest crusade, I have the utmost respect for swallows. They fascinate me with their engineering skills, team work, industriousness, and persistence. We have never let them complete a nest and lay eggs, because they will return and bring friends with them. Yet they start over as fast as we knock their hard work down, and don’t give up until around the first week in July when they finally go find a bridge or barn before it gets too late to hatch eggs.

How, I wonder in amazement, can anyone who spends any time observing nature profess to believe in evolution?

Creation speaks for itself.

Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse. Rm. 1:19,20