News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
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You might be wondering why things seem to be so very, very weird out there in the wide world, and one explanation could be right under our feet. Scientists, it turns out, have recently determined that the earth’s core is now rotating backwards. That may be a hard sell to most of us, having never seen the thing with our own eyes, but taking the occasional scientific claim on good faith isn’t always a bad choice — the late covid conundrum notwithstanding. The earth’s core is a s... Full story
A sign tacked to the rafters in Cary Schwarz’s saddle shop in Salmon, Idaho reads: “No Dancing,” but when four of the world’s finest saddlemakers squeezed into Cary’s small shop to build a saddle for the Traditional Cowboy Arts Association’s 25th Anniversary—accompanied by curious students, occasional visitors, and the shop dog — nimble footwork was at a premium. From tree to finished saddle the project was nothing if not an elaborate physical and philosophical f... Full story
The first time I heard a mountain lion scream I was standing in the horse barn at Soldier Meadows Ranch, Nevada. The barn was made of stone stacked by members of the U.S. Cavalry who had lost the deployment lottery and been assigned to this bewildering outpost in the wilderness known as Camp McGarry. It could only have been tough duty — they were out there to protect immigrants along the notoriously unpleasant Emigrant Trail, where many died of thirst, exhaustion, or l... Full story
A strong turnout was on hand at the Teixeira Ranch sale barn in Terrebonne, April 9, for the second meeting of the freshly reanimated Deschutes County Livestock Association (DCLA). Dave McMichael, president of the DCLA, who raises commercial beef cattle throughout Central Oregon, told The Nugget that he accepted the mantle as an "act of service," and that members are energized around three priorities: communication with the broader public, education of the next generation,... Full story
Shipworms, if you didn’t know, were the bane of mariners for many centuries. Shipworms are mollusks that make a living by burrowing into wood immersed in saltwater. These “termites of the sea” can chew a wooden ship into pieces in a relatively short amount of time. There is even some evidence to suggest, in the writings of Bernal Diaz del Castillo and other contemporaries, that Cortez didn’t burn his ships because he wanted to trap conquistadors in Mexico, but because they we... Full story
For the second time in the last few months I found myself, unwillingly, digging a grave in the woods behind our house. I picked a spot in a clearing between the trees and began to dig, which is never an easy task in the mostly volcanic rock and compressed ash that passes for soil in Central Oregon. A single raven landed on a limb nearby and squawked, which made an almost medieval echo in the wintery gray light of the forest. I looked up at him. Of course, I thought, of course... Full story
Each fall I throw together my saddle, bedroll, and bridles, and make a pilgrimage down to Lake County for the fall works - gathering, sorting, and shipping cattle - in the herculean effort to feed America. I do it to help my friends, but the rewards are mostly selfish. I get to cover the country horseback, in a way most folks don't anymore, and work with people whose shared sensibilities and sense of purpose are a balm against the industrial levels of friction found almost... Full story
The Godby Farm in Sisters hosted officials from the KWPN (Royal Warmblood Studbook of the Netherlands) for a keuring event on Thursday, September 7. A "keuring" is an official inspection by a jury, wherein Dutch Warmblood horses are evaluated for their adherence to breed standards and fitness for participation in events such as dressage, hunter-jumper, or harness. Horse owners from around Central Oregon brought their mares and foals to a tradition-filled evaluation on a perfec... Full story
I have been interested in the White House cocaine imbroglio, mostly because it marks the closing of an interesting historical loop. To be sure, this probably isn’t the first time a bag of yayo has ended up in the West Wing, and it’s doubtful it will be the last, but in the age of suspicious white powders it is certainly the most public. In 1971 Richard Nixon declared a War on Drugs. As a veteran of that war, with the scars to prove it, I can say with utter certainty that we... Full story
It’s getting weird out there. The Vice President of the United States was in California recently claiming that the average American is only $400 dollars from declaring bankruptcy, while on the other end of the continent a delusional, dizzy, and clearly scrambled President was claiming that “Bidenomics” has created the greatest economy since—well, ever. They can’t both be true, can they? Mixed messaging from the great Head Shed in Washington seems to be the order of the day,... Full story
It seems fitting that I would learn about the death of novelist Cormac McCarthy dozens of miles up the Chewaucan River, in an old cow camp, if only because the location was an antipode of the Susquehanna, where I first encountered his work some 30 years ago. I think now, and the evidence is strong, I was there because of him. Back then I was in Pennsylvania on a fellowship at Bucknell, and found “All the Pretty Horses” by pure accident, in a tiny bookshop next to the Ami... Full story
Given the extraordinary speed of modern information exchange, it can be difficult to properly triage the many hundreds of crisis declarations demanding our immediate and undivided attention. Hyperventilating for attention is no longer just the brief of a four-year-old who doesn’t want to eat his asparagus. It’s everywhere. Just this morning, for instance, while doom-scrolling over a cup of tea, I struggled to triage the Debt-Ceiling Crisis, the Ukraine Crisis, the Climate Cris... Full story
Reading the Durham Report, one can be forgiven for wondering whether to reach for a bottle of Advil or a tinfoil hat. I recommend both. What the report details — I’ll spare you the 300 pages — is a politically motivated cabal of FBI Agents and 7th- floor executives who seem to have forgotten, if they ever actually knew, basic investigatory procedures, rules of evidence, and their sworn commitment to constitutional integrity in the service of justice. Agents actively, and k... Full story
What are we, mere monkeys chattering in front of the cobra’s basket, to think about the recent unveiling of a meatball made from the DNA of a woolly mammoth? If you didn’t know, an Australian “cultured meat startup” recently displayed the fruits of their demanding work at the NEMO museum in the Netherlands. The world was gifted this meatball, we were told, in order to “get people excited,” and because the designers wanted to “see if we could create something that was a sy... Full story
Here’s hoping you enjoyed the sudden appearance of the Steampunk Party Balloon over the United States as much as I did. There’s something delightfully throwback, something Jules Verney, or perhaps League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, about this mysterious apparatus that has so beguiled and bewitched the public imagination. Nothing triggers a Sean Hannity meltdown, or constricts the reptilian pupils of foreign policy experts in Arlington think-tanks, faster than a Chinese wed... Full story
Americans nurture a long-running obsession with criminals, from Jesse James to John Dillinger to Bernie Madoff, so it’s no surprise that FTX charlatan Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) was able to enjoy a guilt-free series of softball interviews—and even a fawning ovation sponsored by the New York Times—in the days leading up to his arrest. It remains to be seen how well his“These aren’t my pants” defense (the same line used by street-level dope dealers everywhere) will ho... Full story
And finally the madness ends. Election madness, I mean. Most of the candidates, early or late, zeroed in on homelessness as a problem. One candidate was even bold enough to suggest that he would “solve homelessness.” That’s a big and briny declaration, and, of course, it is equally absurd, but there it was on the long list of heroic crusades the candidate claimed he would embark on — given the necessary donations and, of course, that annoying requirement of actual votes... Full story
I read, with some amusement, that the chairman of Russia’s Lukoil, Ravil Maganov, had died after falling out of a hospital window in Moscow. It’s more likely that he died of a severe case of Putinitis, which sometimes looks like poison, and sometimes a car bomb, but is always fatal. But the clown car of Russian politics isn’t the only one on the road; our own government is stuffed so full of world-class liars its credibility is in similar doubt. Recently, when asked by a rep... Full story
“Praise ignorance, for what man has not encountered he has not destroyed.” — Wendell Berry Turns out we can add monarch butterflies to the list of species threatened during the sixth mass-extinction event, which we are all living through. Years ago, when I lived in Reno, Nevada, and before it became a grubby extension of California’s East Bay favelas, the monarchs would come through the Washoe Valley in spring — innumerable clouds of them, like a swarm of locus... Full story
Within hours of the mass murder of school children and teachers at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas, public scrutiny of the law enforcement response turned accusatory, with a pile of unanswered questions landing squarely at the feet of Uvalde CISD Police Chief Pete Arredondo. Rightly so. Post Columbine, the universal tactic adopted by law enforcement agencies in the United States has been to immediately locate, close with, and terminate an active killer. That does not appear... Full story
The best thing about documentary filmmaking, it turns out, is the friends you make along the trail. For nearly two years, Sisters native and cinematographer Sam Pyke and I have been traveling around the country meeting people who have managed to retain, and to pay forward, the resiliency, optimism, and self-sacrifice that once exemplified the American Character. We covered a lot of country in this effort — from Nevada and Idaho to Wyoming and Texas, and points beyond.... Full story
While filming the Len Babb Movie Project — we are eight months into this endeavor and making tremendous progress — cinematographer Sam Pyke and I have covered thousands of miles, visited six states, and interviewed some truly incredible Americans. Perhaps none more so than Victoria Jackson and her family. Victoria is a two-time Ranch Rodeo World Champion, an accomplished photographer, author of two books, and an enrolled member of the Ft. McDermitt Paiute-Shoshone... Full story
It was late June, but there was frost on my bedroll when I woke up in the dark at the Murphy Ranch cow camp on South Flat, about 25 miles up the Chewaucan River from Paisley, Oregon. I was there — along with cinematographer Samuel Pyke — to begin filming The Len Babb Movie Project, which was an idea that flashed into my head two months earlier while riding my colt. I had just finished watching a couple of documentary films about cowboys and the life —... Full story
A few summers ago, while lounging around the Munich Airport waiting for a flight to Reykjavik, I bought a book: “The Silk Roads: A New History of the World,” by Peter Frankopan. Frankopan is a senior fellow at Oxford University, and has written a convincing reassessment of world history. It is also a poignant and extraordinarily well-considered forecast of our possible future as a broader, Western culture. It’s a good enough read that, while spending the weekend moving horse... Full story
Hobbs Margarét, 32, of Sisters Cattle Company, might be a radical. Maybe that’s a result of his deep West Texas ranching roots, his degree from the University of Oregon, or because he lived too long in the low-intensity warfare of Los Angeles. Whatever the source, it’s no accident that the word “radical” reaches back to the Latin “radix,” meaning “root,” because Sisters Cattle Company is aiming for a radical change in the way we treat our soils, and beef cattle, in... Full story
