July 2023 - 46

WILD COUNTRY DISPATCH
Invocation
M
Story by Tom Reed | Illustration by L. Eslick
ake it a simple life.
One that lives in the
rhythm of the land,
not listener nor observer to this
beat, but a maker, an accompanier,
a participant in the song.
In, not on. Provide understanding
of what living in this cadence
entails, what living aware on a
chunk of ground means. The way
the creek rises twice in the spring,
first with the flood of the front
country and second with the torrent
of the high mountain. The
way the odor of this place goes
from wind-lashed snow with a
clean, sharpness, to sap rising in
cottonwood stem, to sweet-drying
bluestem waving beneath a
July sun, to pungent alfalfa laid
down by the blade.
Grow food - greens and the few fruits that
can survive at this altitude and latitude such as
rhubarb, raspberries, strawberries, hardy apples
and pie cherries. Hunt meat, white-tailed deer
in the bottoms, elk in the pines, an occasional
pheasant from cattail and sharptail from the
coulee. Carry the rifle and the shotgun well.
This simple life will include chores that are
a part of this tempo. Chore, with a negative
cloak implying work and drudge, but is there a
more human need than repetition? This surely
is something that kept the wolves away from
the door of the ancients, the vigil, the necessary
jobs of the people and each to his or her own
task. Lookouts posted and looking, gatherers
gathering, hunters hunting, points fashioned,
46 | July 2023
game spitted over smoky fires. And again.
Ritual then, the morning rising to another
day, the blessed sun warm on summer
shoulders, the bucket on the arm, the talk
of sparrows and red-winged blackbirds, the
mama-mama-mama call of young robins with
breast more tabby than orange.
A garden, where the mother works the soil,
pulls weed from black richness, nurtures a crop
to plate. A corral where the daughter rides her
horse bareback, trot to walk and walk to trot
and trot to canter around and around and
around. A field for the son with his BB gun
shooting grasshoppers and hunting gophers on
a summer day. A fence for the father to build,
wooden jackleg that snakes across the rocky
ground, the tools of his effort carried handy
and the son tagging along in his boy-world
of trigger itch.
An old pocket knife for the son, a generational
knife that is stenciled with the name
of its first owner, his namesake great-grandfather,
the knife a promotional souvenir from
a long-gone dairy that once made cream and
buttermilk in Lander. Make it the boy's most
prized possession alongside his BB gun. This
is the simple life.
Provide other good tools. A .22 Winchester
pump rifle perhaps, a rifle purchased by the
father's father when he was a young lad nearly a
century ago beneath a Western sky with money
saved a dime at a time. The rifle standing new

July 2023

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of July 2023

July 2023 - 1
July 2023 - 2
July 2023 - 3
July 2023 - 4
July 2023 - 5
July 2023 - 6
July 2023 - 7
July 2023 - 8
July 2023 - 9
July 2023 - 10
July 2023 - 11
July 2023 - 12
July 2023 - 13
July 2023 - 14
July 2023 - 15
July 2023 - 16
July 2023 - 17
July 2023 - 18
July 2023 - 19
July 2023 - 20
July 2023 - 21
July 2023 - 22
July 2023 - 23
July 2023 - 24
July 2023 - 25
July 2023 - 26
July 2023 - 27
July 2023 - 28
July 2023 - 29
July 2023 - 30
July 2023 - 31
July 2023 - 32
July 2023 - 33
July 2023 - 34
July 2023 - 35
July 2023 - 36
July 2023 - 37
July 2023 - 38
July 2023 - 39
July 2023 - 40
July 2023 - 41
July 2023 - 42
July 2023 - 43
July 2023 - 44
July 2023 - 45
July 2023 - 46
July 2023 - 47
July 2023 - 48
https://www.nxtbook.com/wyominggame/WyomingWildlife/october-2024
https://www.nxtbook.com/wyominggame/WyomingWildlife/september-2024
https://www.nxtbook.com/wyominggame/WyomingWildlife/august-2024
https://www.nxtbook.com/wyominggame/WyomingWildlife/july-2024
https://www.nxtbook.com/wyominggame/WyomingWildlife/june-2024
https://www.nxtbook.com/wyominggame/WyomingWildlife/wyoming-wildlife-may-2024
https://www.nxtbook.com/wyominggame/WyomingWildlife/april-2024-e-edition
https://www.nxtbook.com/wyominggame/WyomingWildlife/march-2024
https://www.nxtbook.com/wyominggame/WyomingWildlife/february-2024
https://www.nxtbook.com/wyominggame/WyomingWildlife/january-2024
https://www.nxtbook.com/wyominggame/WyomingWildlife/december-2023
https://www.nxtbook.com/wyominggame/WyomingWildlife/october-2023
https://www.nxtbook.com/wyominggame/WyomingWildlife/september-2023
https://www.nxtbook.com/wyominggame/WyomingWildlife/august-2023
https://www.nxtbook.com/wyominggame/WyomingWildlife/july-2023
https://www.nxtbook.com/wyominggame/WyomingWildlife/june-2023
https://www.nxtbook.com/wyominggame/WyomingWildlife/may-2023
https://www.nxtbook.com/wyominggame/WyomingWildlife/april-2023
https://www.nxtbook.com/wyominggame/WyomingWildlife/march-2023
https://www.nxtbook.com/wyominggame/WyomingWildlife/february-2023
https://www.nxtbook.com/wyominggame/WyomingWildlife/january-2023
https://www.nxtbook.com/wyominggame/WyomingWildlife/december-2022
https://www.nxtbook.com/wyominggame/WyomingWildlife/october-2022
https://www.nxtbook.com/wyominggame/WyomingWildlife/september-2022
https://www.nxtbook.com/wyominggame/WyomingWildlife/august-2022
https://www.nxtbook.com/wyominggame/WyomingWildlife/july-2022
https://www.nxtbook.com/wyominggame/WyomingWildlife/june-2022
https://www.nxtbook.com/wyominggame/WyomingWildlife/may-iak-special-issue
https://www.nxtbook.com/wyominggame/WyomingWildlife/april-2022
https://www.nxtbook.com/wyominggame/WyomingWildlife/march-2022
https://www.nxtbook.com/wyominggame/WyomingWildlife/february-2022
https://www.nxtbook.com/wyominggame/WyomingWildlife/january-2022
https://www.nxtbook.com/wyominggame/WyomingWildlife/dec-2021
https://www.nxtbook.com/wyominggame/WyomingWildlife/october-2021
https://www.nxtbook.com/wyominggame/WyomingWildlife/september-2021
https://www.nxtbook.com/wyominggame/WyomingWildlife/august-2021
https://www.nxtbook.com/wyominggame/WyomingWildlife/july-2021
https://www.nxtbook.com/wyominggame/WyomingWildlife/june-2021
https://www.nxtbook.com/wyominggame/WyomingWildlife/may-2021
https://www.nxtbook.com/wyominggame/WyomingWildlife/april-2021
https://www.nxtbook.com/wyominggame/WyomingWildlife/march-2021
https://www.nxtbook.com/wyominggame/WyomingWildlife/february-2021
https://www.nxtbook.com/wyominggame/WyomingWildlife/January2021
https://www.nxtbook.com/wyominggame/WyomingWildlife/December2020
https://www.nxtbook.com/wyominggame/WyomingWildlife/September2020
https://www.nxtbookmedia.com