Babysitting Calves at Naptime
☆ April 23, 2019
Can you even stand the cuteness? Babysitting is really common with bovines – one mother or Grandmother will hang out with up to a dozen calves while their mothers go off to graze or get manicures. This is Leila babysitting five calves at naptime – they found a very comfy spot on a pile of fresh straw. I really wanted to join them.
The following is a bit of a technical note, but maybe not completely boring? Starting tomorrow, on the anniversary of the day Charlie came into my life, my @dailycoyote Instagram account will become an extension of The Daily Coyote blog: photos of Charlie, posted daily, beginning at the beginning with his baby pics from April 2007.
I’ve been pondering this change for several weeks and reached conviction after the incredible flood of emails and messages I received around Charlie’s birthday earlier this month. Your notes affected me deeply – thank you so much for sharing your thoughts and love. Charlie has impacted so many people in such magnificent ways, and I think bringing Charlie’s photo archive to Instagram is the best way to keep sharing the wonder he inspires.
I’ll still be updating Charlie’s blog as I always have, and sending out new pictures to subscribers via email as I have always done and absolutely love doing – none of that is changing. But things have changed drastically, here on The Internet, since I started blogging in 2007. I’ve noticed so much more engagement on Instagram than on my blogs in recent years, and *I* engage more with others on Instagram, too, rather than going to dozens of blogs the way I used to in the ’00s. This shift makes sense – on Instagram, everyone is in one place and it’s so convenient. It’s the Walmart of the internet. And since things have changed in this way, the @dailycoyote Instagram account will be a way for newbies, who might never find Charlie’s blog otherwise, to learn about his magic. Today’s 20-year-olds were 8 when Charlie was born!
Pictures of the rest of the Farmily will now be @farmily.love so if you’re on Instagram, go follow that account for pictures of Daisy, Chloe, Sage, the horses, and the rest of the Farmily. With the book deadline and so much else going on, posting little snapshots over there may occur more regularly than big blog posts here. Even if you’re not on Instagram, you can bookmark this page and this page to see everything I post.
Charlie is Twelve!
☆ April 9, 2019
The happiest coyote I know is having his happy birthday this week!
And so am I. We’ll be sharing a New York steak.
To be honest, my best birthday present ever is Charlie.
Snippets: Spring In My Step Edition
☆ April 2, 2019
My morning wake up call these days is the gorgeous, otherworldly warble of the Sandhill cranes who like to wade in our pond at dawn. Their songs echo off the hillside and I wake up smiling because the way they talk is one of my favorite sounds.
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I’m really proud of how I’ve dealt with this broken foot situation. I’ve only had two minor pity party meltdowns, and I’ve adapted very creatively through each stage of weather and healing.
When there was snow on the ground, I stuck my boot cast in a garbage bag and strapped my snowshoe to the boot. When the snow melted and my world became mud, I rented crutches so I could travel freely while keeping my boot cast safe and dry in the air (crutching through mud and hay piles and cow pies is serious cardio!). And now the mud has dried, and grass is just beginning to grow, and yesterday I went hiking for the first time in five weeks – a very slow, very Frankensteiney mile on a mild trail – and it felt divine.
My boot cast is filthy at this point, and I’m very proud of that fact, too.
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If you’re on the Star Brand Beef mailing list: the second newsletter of the season is going out later today ~ if you didn’t see the first one, check your folders! It’s there, it’s time!
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A HUGE shop update went live this morning. I know it’s been sparse – I have hopefully made up for the wait with gorgeous new jewelry from my silversmith neighbor, Fred, plus a fresh batch of elk antler chew toys in every size. See it all HERE.
With the book demanding so much of me, I plan to do shop updates the first Tuesday of each month for the rest of this year. If I stay on top of things, I’ll have previews up the weekend preceding those Tuesdays. And if you have special, specific wishes, feel free to email me – I have a stash of unphotographed treasures and may have just what you’re waiting for…..
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Speaking of the book, some pen porn: I have determined that the very best red ink is Colorado Pen’s Ruby. It is dark enough to read easily by the light of a monitor, yet bright enough to be obvious and distinguishable from black type, so I don’t miss any edits when transcribing them into the computer.
I use it in a Lamy Vista, which is, in my opinion, more pleasurable to write with than most pricey fountain pens I’ve tried. No one should be intimidated by a refillable fountain pen; using one saves so much plastic from the trash cycle (disposable pens), and LOOK AT ALL THESE COLORS!!!!!!! So fun.
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I’m off to kiss a calf……….
Daisy Got A Book Deal!
☆ March 19, 2019
OK, I got a book deal. And Daisy stars in it!
The book came to me while I was driving last August, I started the book proposal in September, freaked out and ignored it in October, finished it in November, and sent it to my agent the week after Thanksgiving. She loved it and wanted to wait until after the holidays to send it to editors, so that happened the first week of January, an imprint of Penguin RandomHouse won the rights in a sealed-bid auction the first week of February, and we signed the contract last week, which means I finally get to share the news…. insert one-footed cartwheel here!
The working title (which means it could change) is MEDITATIONS WITH COWS and it will be out Fall 2020. Here’s the blurb:
MEDITATIONS WITH COWS traverses Stockton’s deeply intimate relationships with cattle via raw and visceral stories of the work and wonder of ranch life in modern America. MEDITATIONS WITH COWS is an immersive journey into understanding and honoring these strong, intuitive, and generous animals. Throughout the book, Stockton critiques the inhumane and environmentally destructive factory farm and feedlot system, and shares sustainable alternatives for ethical omnivores that prioritize the humane treatment of animals and responsible stewardship of the Earth. Stockton is the author of the bestselling The Daily Coyote: A Story of Love, Survival, and Trust in the Wilds of Wyoming along with two popular blogs.
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This book is the culmination of the last ten years of my life and all I’ve learned from Daisy, et al.; all the beloved bovines with whom I’ve shared my life. I pray (on an hourly, tear-stained, stress-hunched basis while clutching Bird by Bird like a bible) that I will do them justice with this book.
And I’m sending another all-encompassing, from-the-bottom-of-my-heart thank you to everyone who supported The Daily Coyote: Ten Years in Photographs in 2017. Creating that book was a transformative experience for me; I exorcised some demons and remembered how deeply in love I am with books. It made me want to create another one. And here we go…….
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If you want to be sure to get updates on the new book, you can sign up for THIS mailing list. You’ll get very few emails from me over the course of this year, but I have some special secret stuff planned as we get closer to publication. Might as well sign up now so you don’t have to remember to do it later! Just click HERE.
Farcical Metatarsal
☆ February 25, 2019
I broke my foot last week. I broke my foot in the most absurd possible way: I was barefoot, having recently gotten out of the bath, sitting at my computer, working. Upstairs, Mike was cooking a pork chop that smelled so good I wanted to smell it up close. My right foot was kind of asleep but I thought when I stood up it would re-activate. I took one step out of my chair and my foot didn’t realize it existed and just smooshed under me into the cement floor and down I went. I fell on top of my foot and the torque of my fall fractured the fifth metatarsal bone. (I asked the ER doc if this is a sign of osteoporosis and he said, nope, purely physics and quite common.)
So now I’m hobbling around in a boot splint. I should be mostly fine by the time calving season starts. In the meantime, I’m working on a huge new project that does not require the use of my feet, which I am so excited to share with you SOON!
MY NEW BOOK!
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