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The history of Double Circle Ranch is full of characters and famous people. Tim Cox, world renowned western artist , lived and painted here. His earlier paintings are exact representations of the country and cowboys here on Eagle Creek. Tim had to leave when his kids were past 8th grade – the one room school house only goes through 8th grade. Tom Blasingame worked on the Double Circle for a while. He wanted to cowboy on a rough, big ranch. The huge Texas ranches weren’t wild enough for him. J.Frank Dobie, author of many books including my favorite The Longhorns, worked a season on the Circles to make sure his writings were authentic. Ben Lilly, famous lion and wolf hunter, camped and hunted on this ranch. He was quite a character – ending up believing he was a hound and kept a hound tied to him at all times.
Stella Hughes, contributor to Western Horseman and author of several books including Beans and Bacon and The Hashknife Cowboy about Mac her husband, lived on Eagle Creek where Mac was the stockman for the San Carlos
 Double Circle Ranch Cowboys Apache tribe. Edie Fitch, who delivers our mail on Wednesdays and cooks for guests here, is another neighbor who is a published author. She collaborated with Stella Hughes and wrote The Heart and Hub of Eagle Creek, a fascinating history of this ranch and the whole Eagle Creek area.
We had some famous Apaches and outlaws here too. Geronimo was born on Eagle Creek. In his last years as a prisoner of war, he asked to be allowed to return to Eagle Creek to die. The request was denied and he died in Fort Sill, Oklahoma. The Apache Kid roamed and plundered this area. Jeff Milton, an Arizona Ranger, tracked bank and train robbers to the Double Circle Ranch. Some are buried in the ranch cemetery. Apparently Milton wasn’t known for bringing in people alive. Ike Clanton of the OK Corral fight in Tombstone was shot here while living in a cabin on Eagle Creek. There are more. What an interesting history there is in this little corner of Arizona! We want to do a week long history tour here – there is plenty to see!
 Mulies in the Backyard Well it is mule deer rifle season. For a week, Eagle Creek is a humming place. We have more traffic in 1 week than we normally get in 3 months. There are hunter’s camps that have more people in one camp than we have residents in miles and miles of Eagle Creek. It is hard to adjust to actually having lots of trucks, campers, and 4 wheelers everywhere. With 900 buck tags in our unit alone, hunters come from near and far looking for that trophy buck- or meat for the freezer. I guess Arizona Game and Fish must believe we do a great job of creating and maintaining habitat for wildlife as part of our conservation practices – 900 tags!
Eagle Creek only has 12 people in thousands of acres. Houses are miles, not blocks, apart. No one can see another house from their porch. Heck, we have 2 houses on the Double Circle alone and they are 7 miles apart on this ranch. Greenlee County population density – or lack thereof – qualifies us as a FRONTIER. I always thought that was neat. Not many frontiers left in the US. You know you live in remote country when you have 12 residents in such a huge area and the sheriff comes and campaigns here before elections! Can you imagine Chicago or New York politicians campaigning where there are only a potential of 12 votes if they had a landslide?
 Hunting on the Ranch Increases the Population But this week we probably have easily 200 people on Eagle Creek. That may not seem like much if you live in a city – but for the Double Circle, it is a crowd.
Funny thing – I rode all day yesterday and didn’t see 1 deer, antelope, elk, bear, or turkey. They know whats up.
Eagle Creek or Los Angeles?
Usually we have wonderful clean air and clear sky. Not today. It is almost 11:00 and I haven’t saddled a horse to ride cattle – pretty near a record. I fed my horse early- came back and cooked breakfast- stalled some. Checked barn – came back and did paperwork. Stalled some more. In all I have made 5 trips up to the barn and still not caught a horse.
The reason is dense smoke. The USFS is doing a prescribed burn North of us and the smoke is funneling down the valley. My eyes are burning and it is hard to breathe. I don’t have the heart to make a horse carry me up and down canyons gathering steers. They can’t breathe either. Plus it would be hard to find any critters in this gloom.
The prescribed burns are a good thing – although that is hard to believe today. It reduces the pinion/juniper encroachment on the forest. Many open areas all across the SW have become overrun with juniper. They reduce the water table, shade out habitat for wildlife, lessen plant diversity, and have been the cause of a few wrecks and lots of cussing as I try and ride through the brush. Juniper has eaten slickers, sweatshirts, wool shirts and vests right off the cantle of my saddle. When I have needed one of the above items and discovered that the juniper fairy stole it, I don’t even go back and look anymore. I have yet to recover anything dropped/pulled off in the brush. It vanishes – maybe some little critter makes a nest of it.
We have had controlled burns on over 10,000 acres of this ranch in the last 3 years. It has made a huge difference. Grass production and diversity has increased due to this conservation work. The amount of bare ground has been reduced. Mearns quail and other birds are in record numbers. Turkey particularly have had a great year. I understand prescribed burns are an essential part of maintaining rangeland health. But this smoke!!
How do people live in LA or Mexico City? Yuck!
Doug has been looking at new cameras for over 3 YEARS. Thank goodness he finally bit the bullet and ordered one. Now I should get better pictures to post. Doug is an amateur photographer, not like our friend professional photographer Tom Whetten. But he really enjoys taking pictures – I don’t. I always feel like I am missing too much running around doing pictures. So that is Doug’s responsibility – which is good since I am a lousy photographer. My gosh – we have some of the best scenery in the country all around us – plus the wildlife, ranch work, cattle, etc. Doug will take Tom’s wildlife photography workshop here in May. Should keep getting better and better pictures.
 Gambel's Quail I am excited! We have picked the dates for Bob Luce’s birding class here on the ranch. It will be April 29 to May 3rd. I am switching from cowboy boots to hiking boots that weekend – I want to learn more about the birds here. I am by no means an accomplished birder – just a person who really enjoys hearing and seeing the birds and other critters. And that is just perfect for Bob’s class. This trip is geared to folks like me – people who want to learn what the birds are and their habits, calls, etc. It is “An Intro To Birding” – perfect for a family trip or a chance for nature lovers to enjoy the country here and learn as they go. It will be great fun. Bob will take us on 2 guided hikes a day to uplands, riparian corridors, bluffs, a variety of habitat each with its own bird species. Plus Bob is a wildlife biologist with years of experience with reptiles and mammals too. So we will have an eye out for deer, elk, lizards – everything that crawls, flies, climbs, or runs on the ranch. I can’t wait! Now I just have to convince Doug or Jim to ride herd that week. Clarice Holder and I want to be 2 of Bob’s students.
 Bald Eagle on the Ranch Our resident bald eagle is back. His favorite perch is a big sycamore in our yard. We have the most incredible wildlife that goes through our yard! Lion, bear, and wolves travel the riparian corridor in our front yard. We have taken pictures from our porch of mule deer herds, antelope, elk, javelina, turkey, ravens, woodpeckers, and lots of different birds including over a hundred hummingbirds that come every year. I am no bird expert, but I sure enjoy seeing them. I keep a bird feeder in my yard year round. We are building a bird pond to go with the bird feeders at the wall tents. Guests will be able to see and hear a variety of birds right from their tent decks.
I want to learn my bird species better. I am going to take Bob Luce’s Intro to Birding class here next April. It will be fun and gives me a valid reason to not work for a few days! I am missing 14 horses – got to go find them this am.
Mulies in the Backyard
 Windmills Solar Panels and Propane Power When we came to this ranch 5.5 years ago, we had no electricity. Of course, being 30+ miles to the closest electric pole had something to do with that. But we had no solar power either. Now we didn’t have to carry water or use an outhouse. A windmill pumps water to a storage tank as long as the wind blows and water gravity flows to the barn, bunkhouse, and cabin. Plus we have a propane tank that gets filled about twice a year. So we had propane heated hot water, propane fridge, and cooked on a propane stove. We still cook on propane and use propane to heat our water- but with an on-demand, efficient water heater now. We still fire up the old pot belly wood stove when it gets cold.
But we got solar panels after 18 months! We really thought that was the best thing since sliced bread – we still think so. Now we have a solar tracker with panels and an ELECTRIC refrigerator – even a small freezer. Doug and I were like kids in a candy store – flipping lights off/on and dancing a jig!
My mother used to always wake up if the power went off in the night. I never understood how she would wake up when no lights were on anyway. Now I know. Electricity is noisy. With no electric appliances, all we would hear at night was wind or maybe coyotes. The noise from that electric refrigerator was huge after 18 months of no electric. Funny how you never notice that when you are used to electric appliances.
 Cowboy Grant Mitchell Well, we have lost our cowboy. Grant Mitchell had a chance to run his own horse training business. It was too good a deal to pass up. We wish him well. Fortunately for us, he is relocating only a few hours’ drive away and would be available to help out here in a crunch.
But that puts us in the job interviewing mode again. It is definitely not my favorite occupation. So far we have had a LOT of interest in the position here. There are at least three applicants who sound very promising.
It takes a special person to live out here on this remote a ranch. Anyone with school-age kids has to homeschool. We have a one-room schoolhouse and have had for over 100 years, but it is closed. There are no children to attend. It used to have 30+ kids and went through 8th grade. It is a shame that there is not one child in the whole watershed. Makes you wonder about the future of ranching here.
Plus we are 30 miles from electric. Solar is wonderful, but it isn’t limitless. If you plug in a hair dryer, vacuum, radio, and lights, you are going to be towel drying your hair. Solar won’t run many appliances. In this age of microwaves, electric frying pans, blow dryers, and curling irons, solar is still a dinosaur. It always surprises me that many women can’t adapt to off-grid living.
People always think they want to live remote. Remote to them means driving a mile to go to McDonalds or Walmart to them. It means having a corner, larger size lot, or a tree between you and your neighbor. They don’t have a clue about living here. We have had people turn around halfway to the ranch and e-mail saying they couldn’t believe anyone would want to live this far out. They didn’t even get halfway here! My father-in–law stayed with us due to failing health. He always said the ranch is beautiful- BUT why would ANYONE want to live in this ——– country. That sentiment is clearly on many faces that come for interviews here. One – usually the wife, or both – will have that Oh MY GOD look on their face. Sometimes they apologize and never even get out of their car (Note there aren’t many Cars here). They spin their tires leaving.
Wilma
 Nate Taylor Plein Aire Painter We had Nate Taylor here at our cabin this week. Nate is a painter with training in Florence, Italy. He works in many media and does pleine aire painting. He wanted to come to the Double Circles to do some landscape painting, so we invited him to come while we were gone to Quivira Coalition convention. We figured he may as well feed the dogs, cats, and birds between paintings. No sense wasting potential free help on the ranch. It worked for all of us. Nate now has 3 beautiful landscapes in various stages of completion.
We hope to have Nate teach an art class here next season. He is very talented and a nice young man to boot – my dogs seem to have gained weight – they like him and all the extra grub too. You can see a gallery of Nate’s work on his website www.natetaylor.net .
We have been to Albuquerque for the Quivira Coalition conference. There are always so many intelligent, innovative people in attendance that we feel uplifted and invigorated when we leave. It is a great thing to have ranchers, environmentalists, scientists, acadamia and agency people all working together to conserve and improve soil, air, wildlife, water and cultures in the West. Plus it is just fun. Doug and I aren’t used to television, unlimited solar, concierge services, fabulous meals, etc. But by day 3 we are really missing the ranch! Glad to be home.
The variety of people is amazing – with no fist fights too. All age groups from kids to elders, cultures from Anglo, Hispanic, Navajo, Amish and backgrounds from ranchette owners to huge ranch owners, urban, suburban, rural and boonies folks, artists, authors, laborers, cowboys, Indians , all the “ologists,” professors and more. They all have tales to share about how they live on the land and how they contribute to a diverse and healthy environment. Truly inspirational.
But now it is back to what we really love – ranching – with new ideas on how to be the best we can be.
Wilma
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