Awe, Nice!

Welcome to Awe Nice, where we highlight moments of wonder while working outdoors. We're on the radio and we're also on podcast platforms. And you can check us out at awenice.com.

This week I talked again with Clay Baker. Days are getting colder and in another few months, cows will start calving. Here, Clay shares a February Nevada moment with us.

I asked Clay more about their heifer routine. Over two to three weeks in the winter, they watch over about 25 calves a day being born to young cows. All told, they have a 94 percent survival rate, which is pretty darn good.

Awe, Nice! welcomes interviewees. If you have a moment you experienced while working outside and would like to share it, contact us.

Music is by my friend, Forrest Van Tuyl. You can find a link to Forrest as well as an Awe Nice donate button on our about page.

Keep your eyes, ears, and mind open. Until next time.

Welcome to Awe Nice, where we highlight moments of wonder while working outdoors. We're on the radio and we're also on podcast platforms. And you can check us out at awenice.com.

This week I interviewed Clay Baker. Clay is a working cowboy from Nevada and took part in the Buck the Trend mental health forum earlier this year.

In this segment, Clay describes a rare moment with wildlife as he and other riders were bringing home some renegade cows late in the season. The cows had gotten into the national park which borders their rangeland. I asked Clay about how they ended up over at the Great Basin National Park and he laughed. The cows had figured out that with enough perseverance, they could go way around a fence line to get to better grazing. It got him thinking about cow intelligence.

Stay tuned to another recollected moment with Clay next week.

Awe, Nice! also welcomes your support. You can find a donate button on our about page. We thank Kershaw knives and Redmond salt for their sponsorships.

Music is by my friend, Forrest Van Tuyl.

Keep your eyes, ears, and mind open. Until next time.

Welcome to Awe, Nice!, where we highlight moments of wonder while working outdoors. My name is Maddy Butcher, I'm the creator and producer of Awe, Nice!. Occasionally, I produce Mini-Awe-Polis segments. They are departures from our usual interviews, snippets of notes and observations, like hay in my jacket pockets.

Animals are on the move this time of year. The Canada Geese have my attention although I have not figured them out. I live near McPhee Reservoir and sometimes they seem to be gathering and heading out. Sometimes they are flying in from afar and staying, at least for a moment. As often as not, they seem to be flying north, not south. Always though, they are calling, honking.

Canada Geese seem to be particularly noisy when they're first getting going. Maybe this is part of settling into that familiar V formation and getting everyone on the same page. When I see them, not long after they have pushed off from McPhee, they don't see organized at all and can be quite honky. Smaller groups are quieter.

They say Canada Geese mate for life and I'm going to assume this is accurate, although we have thought so of other species and been wrong. I often count smaller groups to see if they are even-numbered, since this would support the mates-for-life notion. I get odd numbers as much as even. Of course, things happen to geese just like anything else. Last year, I saw a big V formation fly over head. More than 50 geese. Then one peeled away abruptly, honking all the way back to where they'd come, like it had just realized its partner was not among them. I wonder if they reconnected. I find it amazing that animals can find each other so well in this big world.

Other birds have brightened my days this summer:

I saw a blue-grey gnatcatcher valiantly feeding one of its fledglings near my place. The baby bird was about three times bigger than the adult. It was a young cowbird. As you might know, cowbirds are parasitic, laying their eggs in other birds' nests. Boy, that gnatcatcher was working hard. By the way, cowbirds? Not monogamous.

Not to focus entirely on birds you all might not love, but I've been intrigued by the local turkey vultures, too. With breeding season over, they are starting once again to flock up. Some seem like family groups. But I see them in the dozens together, riding the thermals together, roosting in cottonwoods or evergreens.

I suspect there are some new and unusual patterns of bird travel and behavior because of the drought and climate change. I'd never seen pinon jays in my neighborhood until this summer. Scrub jays and Steller's jays, yes. But this season, I see pinon jays regularly in big chatty groups of five to 15. Like they do, but something scrub jays and Steller's do not.

Enjoy the birds!

Awe, Nice! welcomes interviewees. If you have a moment you experienced while working outside and would like to share it, contact us.

Awe, Nice! also welcomes your support. You can find a donate button on our about page. We thank Kershaw knives and Redmond salt for their sponsorships.

Music is by my friend, Forrest Van Tuyl.

Keep your eyes, ears, and mind open. Until next time.

This week I interviewed Hannah Pace Baker. Hannah recently moved to Oregon with her horses and dogs and where she is working at a vineyard in the Willamette Valley. They're in the middle of a very busy season now, so I was lucky to catch her.

Vineyard work is a pivot from her several years in the high deserts of eastern Nevada where she worked for many years cowboying. That's where we hear her Awe, Nice! recollection. It is early in the morning and the weather is misty, foggy, and unusual for Nevada, This helps set the scene for an incredible outing as three of them head out to look for a stray cow.

Hannah told me that being able to watch a bull elk bugle adds to the magic of the sound – its broad chest, mouth open, head back such that its antlers nearly touch its back…Magnificent, she said.

Awe, Nice! welcomes interviewees. If you have a moment you experienced while working outside and would like to share it, contact us at awenice.com.

Music is by my friend, Forrest Van Tuyl. You can find a link to Forrest as well as an Awe Nice donate button on our about page.

Keep your eyes, ears, and mind open. Until next time.

This week, I'm sharing another moment recounted by Lisa Schmidt. Lisa runs A Land of Grass Ranch and writes and records Prairie Ponderings, a regular feature in several newspapers in Montana. Busy woman!

I'm guessing many of you can relate to this account of how the mountains help us get out of our own way. It's a nice little message in a bottle for us, when it comes to finding calm amidst our chaos.

Awe, Nice! welcomes interviewees. If you have a moment you experienced while working outside and would like to share it, contact us.

Music is by my friend, Forrest Van Tuyl.

You can find a donate button on our about page.

Keep your eyes, ears, and mind open. Until next time.

This week, I'm sharing another moment - two moments on the same day, actually - recounted by Lisa Schmidt. Lisa runs A Land of Grass Ranch and writes and records Prairie Ponderings, a regular feature in several newspapers in Montana.

Awe, Nice! welcomes interviewees. If you have a moment you experienced while working outside and would like to share it, contact us.

Music is by my friend, Forrest Van Tuyl.

You can find a donate button on our about page.

Keep your eyes, ears, and mind open. Until next time.

This week, I'm sharing a moment recounted by Lisa Schmidt. Lisa runs A Land of Grass Ranch and writes and records Prairie Ponderings, a regular feature in several newspapers in Montana. Busy woman!

Awe, Nice! welcomes interviewees. If you have a moment you experienced while working outside and would like to share it, contact us.

Music is by my friend, Forrest Van Tuyl.

You can find a donate button on our about page.

Keep your eyes, ears, and mind open. Until next time.

This week, I return to my conversation with Joe Lanier. He told me another hunting story. This one unfolded on the very last day of the season on the last week of November. He was with his daughter, who had the hunting licence, and his wife. It was cold, in the evening and fading light.

Awe, Nice! welcomes interviewees. If you have a moment you experienced while working outside and would like to share it, contact us at here.

Our music is by my friend, Forrest Van Tuyl.

Keep your eyes, ears, and mind open. Until next time.

This week, I interviewed Joe Lanier. Joe is a nearby farmer and rancher who I interviewed for a Washington Post piece I wrote about the drought.

For Awe, Nice! Joe shared two great stories recounted from time spent hunting in the fall. Hard to believe hunting season starts up in just over a month. For bow hunters, the first week of September. That's during the elk rut. Joe's found that the best hunting at this time of year is during the early morning, when elk start moving back to where they would bed down during the day.

Joe told me that when he guides bow hunters, he wants them taking shots at 50 yards or closer. The New York City visitor got that and then some. Bull elk can weigh upwards of a thousand pounds and this one, Joe said, was basically screaming in his client's face. He could smell his breath.

Awe, Nice! welcomes interviewees. If you have a moment you experienced while working outside and would like to share it, contact us here.

Our music is by my friend, Forrest Van Tuyl.

Keep your eyes, ears, and mind open. Until next time.

My name is Maddy Butcher and this is another segment of mini-awe-polis. Reflections from thoughts gathered, like hay in my jacket pockets.

This week, the Washington Post published a piece I wrote on the drought. So you might deduce that I've been thinking a lot about drought lately. If you're listening to this on KSJD or other Rocky Mountain radio stations, as many of you do, I bet you have been thinking a lot about it, too.

Mostly, I've been thinking about what I can do to make things better for the plants and animals. Mostly, I've been thinking about how to reduce their stress. I don't have a well and I haul water, so that's challenging, but I'm watering as much as I can afford, that means water for dogs, horses, a few fruit trees, and some trees around the place that I hope will not perish because of no rain. I'm leaving water out for critters, birds and mammals, so they don't have to venture far to find it. I leave a way for them to climb out, if they fall in.

I've seen more rattlesnakes and prairie dogs this summer .

As I write in the Post: It's a good year for rattlesnakes, prairie dogs, and weeds.

I'm not sure which is more stressful, the drought or the nearby Ferris Fire, which as I record this is 63,000 acres and growing. It started about 10 miles from my place. The smoke has been pretty brutal. Again, I find myself thinking of the animals, killed and displaced. I know fire can bring incredible renewal. But at this stage, it's hard.

Awe, Nice! is dedicated to moments told by folks who work outside, but since summer tends to be the most popular outdoor season and since many of you are spending hours gardening or working on outdoor projects, I'd like to open up Awe Nice to those of you who, while you technically may not earn your livelihood outdoors, you're still soaking up the outdoors while you can.

Contact us here.

Oh, and AweNice also welcomes your support. You can find a donate button on our about page.

Music is by my friend, Forrest Van Tuyl,. Find more of his terrific music from a link at Awenice.com

Keep your eyes, ears, and mind open. Until next time.