At our weekly planning meeting on the Paint Rock Canyon ranch yesterday, I looked around the table. Nine people total—four of us permanently living on the ranch and five new intern faces here till the end of November, or perhaps longer. One from Australia, one from the UK, one from Chile, one from Maryland and one from Kentucky. An unusually spread out crew, but all with beaming, tan faces, joining the conversation as equals, plugging in with thoughts about everyday life on the ranch. 

The Paint Rock crew, including Punch, the lowest to the ground of all the four-legged ranch residents.

It’s the same on all the ranches, just different people. The goal is not only to organize and plan, but to open our business to our team to become part of the core, inner workings of our ranches. By working together, they will learn and become future leaders that show the importance of ranching as a catalyst for protecting and making our land base healthy and robust. The initiation of the Ranchlands Collective this month make me think of all these young people at the Ranchlands weekly meetings, and how the Collective is an extension of what we have been doing for the last twenty years—opening Ranchlands to those we surround ourselves with.

Baby animals of all kinds.

Meanwhile, things on the ranches are moving fast. The transition from winter to summer is in full swing, with most everything changing in a major way and new life coming into being all around us. Babies of all kinds everywhere, both domesticated and wild, seedlings emerging from the ground, plants slowly greening, growing. Animals are shedding hair like crazy and some are changing color, something I always look forward to. My mare Shark, a roan, is almost a different horse now. The bird banding station, now in its 23rd year, has opened its nets, catching migrating birds to gather important data. School buses also in their 23rd year, full of school kids are on the Chico Basin ranch most days this month. 

Getting ready for irrigation and haying season.

We have a running start with good rains at last on the Chico and the Frying Pan, our two driest places. Beside great joy and green grass, the rain also disappates a lot of stress, a heavy weight we didn’t know we were carrying around, until it is suddenly not there. Man, it’s such a gift, rain. Now, we can look ahead in a constructive, positive manner instead of being consumed trying to solve the monumental problem of drought.

The most fun event of the year is branding the new crop of calves. It is happening at each ranch now. It’s fun not only because we are roping and handling large herds of cattle, but most everyone from all the ranches comes to each branding to help. We get to work together, catch up and re-energize. I think of brandings as celebrations of a life we love, a time when we get to see all the calves from our beautiful cows.

Anja using her rope a little differently than normal, to escort this calf to the right pasture.

But the biggest event this spring, and perhaps the most exciting event in our history, has been the launch of the Collective, a project we have been working on for several years. We think of it as the next phase of Ranchlands. It is with great hope and appreciation that we welcome all of you into the Ranchlands fold. In some ways it feels like the very beginning, when Ranchlands was three people on a big ranch with an unquantifiable opportunity before us, not knowing what the future held. Today, it is the same: an unimaginable opportunity, but different because of the deep base of support from all of you, the people who comprise Ranchlands today. 

With deep appreciation, everyone at Ranchlands joins me in thanking you for joining us. You are critically important and meaningful to us, because we know we cannot realize our dream without your help. I’m looking forward to spending time together at our future gatherings, in our Q&A podcast sessions, or at one of the ranches. Please share with your friends about The Collective. But most importantly, stay in touch and tell us what you are thinking about and what you'd like to see more of.