Instead of doing a long trip way from the ranch this winter, as we have in years past, we’ve decided to make shorter forays. Our first journey has kept us surprisingly close to home, yet feeling we’re a true world away.

It’s been many years since I spent weeks getting to know my own country.  So it’s with particular pleasure that I find myself in Santa Fe, New Mexico for a three week stay.  I’ve been here several times before, but always for less than a handful of days.  Those brief ventures were enough to get me excited about the place and to visit some of the outlying sights, but never to settle down.Reporting now from Santa Fe itself, I have to say that it feels a bit strange to apply my travel skills to an American city, even one as foreign-feeling as Santa Fe.  (more…)

I swore I’d never do this, but I can’t help myself. This dessert is just too fabulous to keep a secret from my friends. So, even though I always said (when no one was listening) that I’d never use my website to proselytize about food, I’m breaking that vow. And you will be the better for it. Start it Friday and you will have a rustic, lipsmacking treat for New Year’s Eve, one that warms the belly and the soul at the same time. (more…)

I slowed Beau to a walk, not wanting to agitate the man’s horse and risk making his head hurt more. It took approaching quite near before I realized the man was Buck, our area brand inspector, who’d given me my early education in all things cow. I was very pleased to see him, as I never got to spend as much time with him as I would have liked. In my view, Buck was a cowboy down to the spurs on his boots, born in this country and knowing every inch of it like I never would. (more…)

I have no cell phone reception at home.  There’s a small mountain behind our house, which is  called Custer Mountain.  It’s more of a large hill really, covered at the base with sagebrush and then higher up with aspen groves and Ponderosa pines. As far as I know it bears no relation to the infamous General.  At its top is a windmill, which powers a pump to pull painfully cold, clear water straight up from the base of that hill, filling a stock tank which used to provide water for grazing cattle, but now primarily serves as refreshment for our local herd of elk. (more…)

It must be some ethereal trick of time that each year starts slow. But have you noticed how, about July, the year gathers speed? Come October or so it’s picked up a good deal of momentum. By end of November it’s hurtling toward December 31 like a runaway locomotive, with me strapped to the front. So hang on, we’re about to crash into 2012!