This morning on 7/21/23 I knew it was going to be a hot day. The weatherman said you can expect a high of 106 degrees. These days the earliest time I get out of bed is about 7 o’clock in the morning. In times past that was a late start. But today after a bowl of cereal I’m looking forward to reliving an event that happened in 1969 again in 1995 and again this year of 2023. Well what happened Jack? It rained a lot. It was a real frog strangler this last winter and spring, enough to keep our Little Cholame Creek running well into August and just maybe all the way to our 2024 winter season. In 1969 I can’t remember if there was a growth of new Willows and Cottonwoods as I was too busy trying to buy all the cattle to stock our V6 ranch and several ranches that I had rented. My ego had no time to go looking for a baby Cottonwood or a new Willow sprout and slowing down rain that fell on the V6 was an unknown concept to me.

         I’m going to fast forward 26 years to 1995 to find myself still standing proud but with quite a few hard-worn knowledge bumps and bruises showing. I gained them while trying to find ways to pay my bills and care for the V6 that over time had evolved into this magical place that Mother Nature endowed my family to manage, using her kind of beauty powder and some tuff love. It’s now June of 1995 and I find myself standing at a crossroads of old ways versus a new holistic priority that says dry farming has to go and my stocker cattle operation would stay but needs now to be recognized as a tool to help improve the ranch and not degrade it. It would also be used for guests to participate in horse events on the ranch. It was easy for me to see there was no going back to old ways and the road sign ahead said “Mother Nature’s Way.”  1995 was a wet year; spring grass was waist-high in many places, and the willows and cottonwoods came up by the thousands along the edges of the Little Cholame Creek. But this time our number one crop would be “splendid in the making” and all we had to do was to give “splendid” some protection to grow and mature. We did a pretty good job of it, but growing trees is not like growing an annual hay crop. It’s a commitment for however many years it takes to get trees tall enough that livestock can no longer eat the top out of them and that we would be consciously aware at all times of their wellness. For me and my family, I think we did a pretty good job as there are many more trees in the creek than in our first year of 1995 care, in spite of a certain amount of backsliding over the years. 

        Back to 7/21/23, with words and actual pictures, I hope to show you all the possibilities of our third opportunity to return The Little Cholame Creek that is a thoroughfare that has a number of potholes for water to travel over on its way to the Pacific Ocean. This past rainy season has provided my family with another opportunity to fix the potholes and turn The Little Cholame Creek into a cozy place to live for a varied crowd of creatures. So while these wet year waters are on the V6 we hope to return the creek to its former self. A complexity of trees, birds, wildlife, and bugs. That means no livestock until most all the green-growing things go dormant for the winter. But it doesn’t mean we will create a vacuum where only those presently living there can. We envision that for the winter dormant part of the year cattle, horses, and people are going to tromp around on old grass and deadwood to do some disturbing, which is a good thing for this sleeping and sometimes flooding road to the Pacific Ocean.

         Now that the V6’s most important crop is beauty in every sense of the word, cattle will graze, blacktail deer will nibble, soil temperature will be recorded, and bare soil will be covered. Things like testing for organic matter and other things that are measurable will become part of a larger holistic plan. Then I, as patriarch, will know that the V6 will pass easily to the next generation. So are you ready now for our photo journey down The Little Cholame Creek? Look, look in every direction there are so many different trees, willows, cottonwoods, a few valley oaks, cat tails, and an entourage of little frogs, bugs, birds, and many more. I’m so excited that I might just wet my pants. In fact, why don’t I just take a leak and spread a little fertilizer around to get this rebirth started off. 

                              See Ya, 

                                Jack