Women in Ranching
Birds Got no Beef with Burger
Opening the pickup door and stepping out onto native grass, the sun begins to rise amidst the sound of the dawn chorus. I listen to the melodic tinkling of a Baird’s sparrow (my favorite song, and also set as my morning phone alarm); the downward whirl of the Sprague’s pipit (my ring tone); the buzz of the Brewer’s sparrows, the joyful couplets of the McCown’s longspur. The chestnut-collared longspurs are chasing each other in play, or fight.
Read More...Tenacity + Solidarity + Creativity
One cold, dark, November night, I was lost somewhere outside the small town of Walden, CO, searching for a bison ranch. I had taken time off from my marketing job at Whole Foods Market to help during the outfit’s annual bison roundup. With no cell service, I was becoming increasingly concerned about finding the ranch. Self-doubt kicked in. When I finally had service I called my husband. “Is this normal?! For a 30-some year old woman to be spending her free time showing up at some ranch not knowing where she is going to sleep, what she is going to eat, to learn about a completely new profession?!” My husband replied, “No, but do it anyway.”
Read More...Motherherd
I’ve always doted on the calves, but this year I realize that I am in love with the Motherherd. I love the Mother words: Motherlove, Mothergod, Acequia Madre. Written as compound words, they become icons rather than alphabetic symbols to me, and like an icon, the paint, wood and gilt is believed to be infused with the sacred nature of what it depicts. The word and the herd smooth my skin when I’m rattled or angry.
Read More...Living with Livestock: A Summer Herding Cattle in the Sawtooth Mountains
As I drove north and east, away from the golden California foothills that are Steinbeck country and into a Martian landscape where places went by names like “Craters of the Moon,” “Atomic City” and the “Sawtooth Mountains,” I wondered what was wrong with me.
Read More...With Purpose to Save and Savor
Although we can’t actually do all that is put before us as stewards of community, family, animals and land, I do believe we can do all of it on a scale that is meaningful. We can both save and savor in the living that we do.
Read More...Holistic Financial Planning
As holistic managers and Holistic Management educators, Andrea and I understand the importance of financial planning. But why aren’t we doing it in our own lives? What is blocking us from engaging with this powerful practice and having meaningful conversation about it with our support network and friends? We set out on a journey to find out.
Read More...Journey to Soil
Lifting soil health, building resilience and ranch performance starts with the use of all our senses. This includes tapping into our sense of wonder. We are now moving into the next phase of agriculture, what researchers are calling agro-ecological or “post-modern” agriculture. The future of agriculture requires a transformation in how we see, think, and act in the food production spaces. One in which women are poised to play essential roles.
Read More...Women in Ranching: A Herald
By rancher Aimee Danch of Pacific Grasslands. If you can hear the part of you that knows a more beautiful world is possible, then some part of you already knows what takes place during a Women in Ranching (WinR) gathering.
Read More...Women in Ranching: Expanding the Circle
The road I traveled to attend my first gathering of Women in Ranching began with this innocuous Facebook message from a friend: “Hi! Do you have any availability to leave the ranch in March? There is a ‘women in ranching’ group convening here in CA that I think you might be into, they would fly you out.”
Read More...Commitment
I was recently interviewed about entrepreneurship and my equine facilitation practice by a writer at Eventbrite for their company blog. Among other questions, one he asked was, “When was the moment that you took the leap and went all in?”
I laughed and replied, “Every single morning, upon opening my eyes, I re-commit to being all in.”
Commitment. It’s a word or concept I’ve been thinking about a lot this month.
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