Daughter returns home to ancestral ranch
Her faithful collie Nurk by her side, Elizabeth checks on the cows. In 1997, her husband and 5 genius children joined her in a quest to restore the ranch which had been in her family since pioneer times (5 generations).
We remodeled the house, reclaimed fields that had been taken over by brush, built 16 miles of fence, cleared cedar trees, replanted range ground, grew range grass seed, put in trough and waterlines, built a hoop house garden, more troughs and waterlines, etc
Our Ranch
The Grazing
We run a herd of Black Angus cows year round on our private land and adjacent public land grazing allotments. On the right is the hill called "the boat" that resembles a capsized ship that is part of our grazing allotments.
The first of May we put our cattle on one of eight pastures and rotate them monthly until fall. Note the Indian Paintbrush, Juniper trees, and bluebunch wheatgrass and siberian wheatgrass.
Our Ranch
The Farming
Along Vernon Creek, we have over 100 acres of arable land where we raise alfalfa and grain hay to feed our cattle over winter. The soils are silt loam, and about two percent slope. We irrigate with sprinklers the water provided from Vernon Reservoir at the edge of our property.
Our Ranch
Permaculture
We have several projects including a hoop house garden, a outside garden, a fenced orchard, apple juice pressing, etc.