Welcome to "Ranch Dressing"

On August 25, 2009 we moved to this five-acre paradise and named it "Chestnut Pinto Ranch." We needed to bring our horses (chestnuts and pintos) onto the property before the first snow but there were no stalls, no shelters, no paddocks and no fences. What follows are stories, poems, photos, videos, and ramblings on dressing up the ranch, not only for horses, but for our comfort and good old fashioned country living.

Autumn

Summer

Spring

Winter

                                                                                                                                                                                        
A huge "Thank You" to writer, Sherri Hoffman, who used
my scattered bits and pieces to assemble this beautiful blog.


                                                  Please enjoy the various words, images, and voices.

Poetry/Prose/Recipes

To the right are videos of: "The Crabs of Vũng Tàu," the first section of my Non-Fiction piece published in Crab Orchard Review, a piece from The Crossing by Cormac McCarthy, a recipe, four poems, and a speech from Shakespeare.  From top to bottom:

• "The Crabs of Vũng Tàu"
• A page from The Crossing by Cormac McCarthy
• Brian's recipe for porridge (one he's used, in one variation or another, for 40 years).
• To read the complete recipe click on "Ranch Recipes" above.
• This recipe was entered into the 2012 Bob's Red Mill "Spar for the Spurtle" contest. 
• Was not one of the three finalists.
• Bummer!
• Hamlet's speech to the players from Hamlet by William Shakespeare
• "When the Frost is on the Punkin" by James Whitcomb Riley
• "The Black Horse" by Archie Fisher
• "When the Poet Goes to Indiana" by Mary Oliver 
• "A Barred Owl" by Richard Wilbur

Please feel free to comment or make requests.

Winter/Spring work for 2012 - 2013



Summer 2012

Winter 2012/13

Spring 2013

 







The grass around the huckleberries and blueberries was too hard to maintain.  So I dug it up, put paper down, then coved it with woodchips from our forest. 


The ditch around the garden is supposed to keep the rabbits out.  We'll see this summer. 

 

 

2. Chicken wire added to deer fence with enough to set on top of the paper

1.  Ditch dug, plastic edge put in, paper added

 

 

 

3.  River rock added to ditch.  No rabbits

 

 

 

 

 




I built a fire pit up in the forest.  Evening chats with smoors and ghost stories?

 

Two-tone tulip

Tucked into a tight corner this two-tone tulip brightens our garden.

 

 

This is actually a virus like the one that sent The Netherlands stock market soring in the late 17th Century.  The price of one tulip bulb sold for as much as the price of a house.  It all came crashing down when the virus started killing off the infected tulips. 

I read in Sandy, Oregon

 

On Sunday, March 24, 2013 I read from my Vietnam story published in Crab Orchard Review at the "Artist Edge" Salon in Sandy, Oregon.

My piece is called "Lessons from Vietnam - The Crabs of Vung Tau"

To watch a video of the reading , it's the top one on the right.  Click the arrow.

The crawlspace is plugged

Critters were running amuck in our crawl space so I had to Crawl (with a capital C) back under our living room and plug up a hole in the foundation.  Not fun but so far successful.

 

 

How to winterize your garden

The raised bed in foreground is winterized with paper, leaves and new 4-way soil.  The other raised beds have late fall crops of parsnips, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, and culiflower.  Because it has been a mild fall there are still carrots, lettuce, parsley, and beets to harvest.  To see the process of winterinzing the raised beds, click on "Garden" above.