This past week Swoope bore the brunt of the Snowquester, a.k.a. winter storm Saturn. It gave us almost two feet of snow – unwelcome weather for cattle farmers during calving season. A calf born in this weather can perish quickly. We were lucky. The storm left no casualties among our...
Blackpoll Warblers came to the trees in our yard this week. They’re on their way to the boreal forests of Canada. I don’t know a lot of people that have seen a Blackpoll Warbler and when I mention them I get funny stares – I’m a birder.
This past week we saw for the first time in over a year a very rare and imperiled bird in Virginia: the Loggerhead Shrike, Lanius ludovicianus. The genus name is Latin for butcher and Shrike is a derivative of shriek. The bird doesn’t really have a pretty song, it shrieks....
Aldo Leopold wrote eloquently about an ancient log he placed on the andirons of his fire in A Sand County Almanac published in 1949. The chapter was “Good Oak”. Below is my lament for a log I placed on the andirons of a fire we had in the summer kitchen...
I just came back from a walk along our part of the river. It’s called Middle River and it’s one of the most polluted rivers in Virginia. Just six miles up the river from here is its source – a spring that just bubbles up out of the ground in...
First Place Award for 2020 Outstanding Column & Blog from Virginia Outdoor Writers Association View All Awards
“Bobby calls Jeanne ‘the Princess of Swoope’ with good reason. Her life as a pearl-earring-wearing, calf-roping cattle farmer unfolds in these hilarious, tragic, and beautiful stories in this uniquely written book.
This is a fun read that will make you laugh and cry. It will compel you to be more observant of nature and to be a better steward of land, soil, water, and animals.”