Winter Work © Cynthia Baldauf

Ranch chores never stop, fingers are stiff with cold, and eyes are stinging from a bitter wind. In an hourâs time, a day can go from beautiful to bleak but no matter what nature dishes out, the hay must be hauled to the stock, the water holes and tanks cleared of ice, and the kitchen wood box filled.               

    On calm, clear winter dawns at 30 below, sound carries twice as far. Pregnant cows bawl. Horses nicker. All waiting for the teams and wagons bringing their dayâs grub. The smell of wood smoke tempts you back inside, but the work horses are covered with a thick layer of frost and currying must come before coffee or any other comfort for yourself.          

     And then you must load the wagons again for the following day.

Lunch break for one of the four-horse hitches at the Ruby Ranch in Wisdom, Montana.

Farrier trims the feet of the work horses in light snowfall at the Home 

Ranch in Clark, Colorado. 

A cloud passed over the 6,300-foot elevation Strowbridge Ranch and left this frost-covered work of art in Wisdom, Montana.	Waiting for hay at the Home Ranch,  Clark, Colorado.

 Winter 2005 Contents