Last year’s sermon of animals was a flow coming from multiple places of animals in the life of family and field, forest and farm, and it was very broad spectrum — all the species, all the roles, all the interaction between creatures and family and land. But there is always more about animals.  So this year, it’s not the macro, but the micro — three short portraits.  I want to tell you of a sheep.  And two puppies.  And an eagle. Portrait #1: I have a sheep, May Snow, that lov

I was invited to share today in part because my life and my work has become embedded in so very many animals.  Our river farm is and has been home to homing pigeons, white doves, Icelandic sheep, pigs, dogs, chickens, turkeys, ducks, geese, honeybees, rabbits.  It is also home to great horned owls who called as I wrote this, nesting kestrels and red-tailed hawks, eagles, magpies and snipe, woodpeckers and Eastern kingbirds, snakes and mice, porcupine, foxes, coyotes, raccoons

What happens when everything freezes shut? Good morning! Sunrise… #homingpigeons #winter #lofts #ice #weather #doves

More photos coming! #doverelease #homingpigeons #fallcolor #ceremony #whitedoves #photography #fall #yoga #retreats #yogini #thetenthousandthings #pigeonpose #photos #aspens #doves

We are all together on this ship and some of us will die sooner. Some young. I will grieve again, and comfort. It may be me. Those of us who are lucky will know ahead of time and not be incapacitated by pain and exhaustion and messes we have not cleaned up. If we are luckier this heightened awareness that is the gift of death may be seized by us periodically and good and great things and moments will be brought into the world as a result. What do I want to have been in my lif

#homingpigeons #winter #Smetana #whitedoves #breeding #loft #doves

Afterward we took all the birds out to the front lawn on Main Street. Half of the birds I gave into the hands of children, and they hand released them as I released the rest of the flock from the baskets. Funfunfunfun! #BozemanPublicLibrary #doverelease #homingpigeons #publicrelease #whitedoves #racingpigeons #education #release #doves #presentation

The birds are loving these late October sunny days, but we’ve gotten out the warmers to keep the waterers from freezing at night. The pigeons are just fine down to -60 degrees! Come visit the Bozeman Public Library this Sunday at 1:30. I’ll be bringing a flock of white ceremonial homing pigeons and some of our racing champions as well. We’ll have a presentation on the 5000-year history of humans and homing pigeons and if the weather’s not crazy we’ll release them afterward

Weaning, white dove, breeding and racing lofts Yesterday I cleaned all four sections of the white bird loft — scraped, wiped, vacuumed feathers and dust and gave the birds a bath to play in at the same time. We had a big truckload of feed coming in and fun tractor time unloading it. It’s time to separate the mated pairs and close up their nesting boxes. This will help them change focus from nesting to molting. The timing of molting isn’t as important for the white flock a