The year is 1944, World War Two is still raging and I was living with my parents and sister in Garden City, New York. My father was building Klystron tubes that made RADAR possible. Gas rationing cards were required to buy only so much gas that your card would allow. For our week-long summer vacation, my folks had chosen Lake George in the northern part of the state.

Well, I’m here to tell you all that the Mediterranean annual grass conditions of today’s grazing land can be changed. How can that be? By the introduction of Perla grass. It’s a perennial that was imported into California in 1954 by the state agriculture department as a possible replacement for the native perennial that was lost when the land was being broken up into small sections.

We’ve been busy in the kitchen developing recipes for our upcoming V6 cookbook. We’re still in the early stages of recipe testing, but Cowboy Shakshuka was too good to wait to share! This dish is hearty, smoky, and packed with flavor, and it’s perfect for breakfast, brunch, or anytime you need a little comfort food. The blend of crispy bacon, poached eggs, and rich tomato sauce with a touch of spice will have you coming back for more!

Check out the full recipe below, watch the process unfold on our Instagram, and tell us what other V6 dishes you’d love to see in the cookbook!

V6 Ranch was honored to be featured in the FOX Sports Super Bowl Pregame Show! The segment, “Huddle Up,” narrated by Brad Pitt, highlighted the grit, resilience, and determination that define the American spirit. We’re proud to have had the opportunity to showcase real ranch life on such a massive stage, bringing a piece of the Cowboy Side of California to millions of viewers.

We’re proud to be featured on the FOX Sports Pregame Show, the cowboy representative of American Grit! Here, on the Cowboy Side of California, hard work, tradition, and the spirit of the American West are what we live by. We can’t wait to showcase real cowboy culture for millions of viewers!

Be sure to watch on Super Bowl Sunday—don’t miss the V6 Ranch crew in action!

Thank you Louie for showing me my wonderful lifestyle and how to live a life that requires a wide variety of skills. Each day is never the same, which has given me a most rewarding and satisfying way to follow my lifelong trail. There have been some bumps, potholes, and a couple of real Chuck holes along the way, and still with never a thought of regrets. 

  Food, water, and cover are what Mother Nature provides for all living things. There are three tangible necessities that any living creature must have to pass the secrets of its life to the next generation. Each has a chance they might become a meal for some other critter with the same needs of water to drink, food to eat, and a safe place to sleep at night.

Boy are we thankful for 2024. Here are some highlights from a busy year…

Big Boy showed himself right away to be an honest and reliable steer that wasn’t going to ruff up one of my kids after he had been roped. He would mostly just walk when Katy the oldest would throw her rope at Big Boy. With time and practice and with some parental urging he would break into a trot and if Katy or Lilly happened to catch him he would stop and then they could sidle up to his head while he would wait to have the rope removed.

I have a subscription to Story Worth that sends me suggestions of topics that I might want to write about. Their latest suggestion is what would you want to be famous for? Hmm, well it goes without saying that my family will always be at the top of the chart. So what could be second? I just received in my email that Holistic Management would like to honor The V6 Ranch as Outstanding demonstration site of Holistic Management. This award I will always cherish as it was this organization that in 1991 saved my tattered and torn spirit from a bankrupt way of managing a ranch.

Recently we were deeply honored to be recognized by Holistic Management International as one of their 40 leaders in regenerative agriculture. To mark this honor, we wanted to share a letter Jack wrote about the V6 in 1999 when we had just started the process of securing our Conservation Easement.

"I always have trouble when discussing the Diablo Mountains and more particularly the Parkfield portion of them, in a strictly factual manner as my zeal for their preservation always surfaces leaving the facts to be plucked from my sensibilities about this very special place."

So I ask you? What could be more exhilarating than spending two days watching two buildings being torn down and knowing that all this hoard would find new life at Parkfield and the V6 Ranch? 

Well wouldn’t you know it, as the story goes my father saw this very attractive young lady who glanced over at a very handsome man all dressed in his formal clothes and captain's hat. They were married a year later in Vera Cruz and thus was the start of a very loving lifetime relationship.

For two years Sig and Russel tried many different ways to solve their problem. To make this invention possible, my family needed to move to Palo Alto. Russel was able to make a deal with Stanford University that the brothers could use the University Physics Laboratory and receive $100 to buy materials. In return, the brothers would give half the patent rights to Standford for the Klystron tube that made Radar possible.

This is a metaphor for me. When I lose flexibility in my thinking and I don’t clean the windshield in my mind of “We’ve always done it that way,” or don’t confuse me with the facts or all the other dogmatic stuff that can hide enlightenment.

It’s 6:00 am and my grandson and cattle partner Brinan Varian is already gathering our cattle. Brinan is on the go and I am just rolling out of bed. After trying to wear out my toothbrush, I take five different pills that I think help me, but I know help the Pharmaceutical industry. Now a look in the mirror and I see a bald head that is in vogue at my age and is worth a smile.

I woke up this morning thinking, with a thought that the V6 Ranch will always be a work in progress, so as long as I have a breath of life left and a thread of common sense I’ve got a job. Now I don’t have but a minuscule amount of physical work attached to my job but I can champion Agritourism as some of our work in progress.

I’m sitting at our kitchen counter where I eat my breakfast and for some reason do my best blogging. It’s Monday, the last day of this Memorial Day weekend and our two granddaughters, Kayla and Sage, who produce a rodeo extravaganza each Memorial Day are finishing up with a Jackpot team roping.

What a year to be in the cattle business! The rain this season was spectacular and it was a very good cattle market to boot. These back to back wet years and a good price for my stocker cattle is a rarity that is much appreciated. What I really want to convey to all you out there in “blog land” is the sheer beauty of every green growing thing on the ranch.

The most satisfying thing about being an observer is I get to open many doors to the unknown and see what’s inside that can appease my inquisitive nature. Following the disciple of Mother Nature's ways, I wanted a method to infuse her teachings so that they are practical to use on a daily basis.