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We have a new Wilderness Survival Skills Class planned for next May – and it is a doozy! Vincent Pinto from Ravens Way nature school will be here teaching wilderness survival, edible and medicinal plants, navigating by stars, etc. He is the most fascinating person to walk with. Vincent points out animal tracks and tells you what that critter was doing, gathers plants for shelters and other uses, and locates sites for tool making and more. He is a walking wealth of info. This class is a camp-out in the backcountry, no frills deal. You would need to be in reasonably good shape and love the outdoors. I doubt that I will be able to tramp along – but I would love to – I know I could learn a lot – and have fun.
Register for the Wilderness Survival Skills Class before February 1, 2010 to get a $30 discount!
Wilma
Sure are a lot of challenges when you set out to be a sustainable, alternative energy facility. We bought two used oil burning stoves – one for each house. There has never been a place to dump old oil on Eagle Creek – probably it got poured on the ground in the past. So we decided to provide ourselves and our neighbors with a way to use the old oil that was both useful (saves cutting firewood and keeps the houses warm) and environmentally friendly (stoves exceed EPA standards). We put the cabin furnace in and immediately found out that the fan on the stove used too much power for our solar energy system. Doug is researching a small hydro plant to give us extra power. Hopefully, we could even charge a small electric vehicle to run to the barns etc. That would be a blessing since we are a 3-hour round trip to the closest gas station!
The bigger house has even more problems. First the stove wouldn’t fit on the back porch. So we have to tear off the old porch – needed replacing anyway – and build a bigger porch for the used oil furnace and solar batteries. Then we will have the same fan issue – not enough power to run the blower and have lights at the same time. We can’t do hydro there – so it is either add more solar panels and a tracker or put in a wind generator. Sooner or later we will get it all done. Any volunteers to come build porches, dig tracker holes, etc.?
Wilma
 Dude Ranch Texas Longhorn There has been some discussion – translates family feud – about what exactly we are here at Double Circle Longhorn, LLC. Are we a dude ranch? Well, yes and no. We do have a few guests at a time for custom ranch vacations. They ride horses, swim in the creek, go on wildlife tours, eat in the dining hall and sleep in our walltents. So yes- we are a dude ranch.
But no –we aren’t a dude ranch. We don’t have large groups. We only have 8 people at a time unless it is a team building week or family reunion. And then we only have the one party of up to 16.
We don’t have ironclad times and plans. It isn’t ride 8:00-9:00, eat at noon, evening ride 4:00-5:00. We plan your vacation depending on what you want to do. You have your own horse for the entire stay. If you want to ride all day, we’ll take you all day. If you want to sightsee and look for elk, deer, birds, etc, we can take you. And we are a working cattle ranch with Texas Longhorn steers. If you want to work/herd cattle, we will teach you how and take you on herding duty. If you want to do ranch chores, we always have a bunch – from riding fence, to packing salt, to checking waters and more. On 37,000 acres there are always chores! So we aren’t a dude ranch in the traditional sense.
Plus we have educational programs on a regular basis—programs on conservation, birding, geology, alternative energy, cattle drives, history, photography, painting, wilderness survival, astronomy. There is pretty much something for every interest here at the ranch.
SO – we are a non-dude ranch, environmental, educational, working cattle, custom ranch vacation dude ranch. That should settle the discussion!
Wilma
Skunked again! This is a bumper crop year for skunks. They are everywhere. We have a used oil stove on the cabin porch and it creates a dead end, narrow passage to the front door. Twice in 2 weeks a skunk, for reasons known only to it, has wandered onto the porch. Our 4 dogs immediately give chase. The poor skunk is trapped in the alley – you can figure what happens. Dogs run off stinking to high heavens, skunk ambles off at his own pace (the victor), and our entire cabin is perfumed. Yuck!
Bad thing about it is the door to our guest room always gets the worst of the spray. We have an artist coming next week to do some landscapes and locate good areas for a painting class next spring. Hope it airs out before he gets here.
Doug has had enough of the skunk problem- he set a live trap, baited it with dog food and is waiting to catch our house skunk. I don’t believe he has thought about how to carry off and release a live skunk yet. I am pretty sure I will need to ride that day!
Wilma
 Steel Rim Water Storage Tank Well, it is getting cold already. Wednesday Doug will have to drain our steel pipeline to the 50,000 gallon steel tank in Big Dry East pasture. When the water is used up, the steers need to be moved lower to a different water system. This line is the only one we have that uses steel – everything else is black HDPE (high density polyethylene) pipe. The black pipe is great. It doesn’t have to be buried and freezes and thaws without breaking. When you consider that we have over 20 miles of pipelines, the less labor intensive the better. Other than the steel line drinkers, we leave our water troughs full year round – whether cattle are in the pasture or not. This provides water for wildlife in keeping with our environmental goals. We are busy building escape ramps and putting them on every drinker so that critters don’t get trapped in troughs and drown. It sounds easy, but with so many troughs in such faraway places, it is very time consuming. Most of this ranch is not vehicle accessible.
Speaking of weather – when we first came here I asked a neighbor what to expect in the way of temperatures. We were going to be here getting set up for a few weeks and then go back East for business. I wanted to know what to pack. He informed me that it didn’t ever get real hot – not over 100 very often – and never real cold – not under 0 very often. He was right- didn’t help me pack though!
 Steel Water Pipeline to Steel Rim Water Tank
Our partner Clarice Holder wrote this note. It shows very clearly what we are accomplishing with our Texas Longhorn herd. Prescribed grazing is one of the most important tools in our ongoing conservation and sustainability work here at the ranch.
On October 24, 2009 the Historical Society of Graham County came to the Double Circle Ranch on Eagle Creek in Arizona to talk about the history of the ranch.
This is an old grave yard (last burial occurred in the 30’s) on the Circles that the Cowbells fixed up and fenced in the 1960’s, I think. The graveyard has not been grazed since. Doug Dressler, the owner of the Double Circles, observed the difference between the grazed outside pasture and the non-grazed inside of the grave yard pasture. It is a very interesting contrast between managed use and around 50 years rest.
 Grazed Versus Non Grazed Ranch Land - photo by Clarice Holder  Grazed Versus Non Grazed Ranch Land - photo by Clarice Holder
The photos were taken by Clarice Holder.
 AWPF Erosion Control Workshop Needed –strong backs and willing attitudes. Double Circle Ranch has been funded by Arizona Water Protection Fund Commissioners to host an erosion control structure workshop on November 13,14,15. We are limited to 20 volunteers – have 5 spaces left right now.
Craig Sponholtz of Dryland Solutions,Inc will be teaching the class. Volunteers will learn how to build small rock dams, splash pools, and other structures designed to slow water speed so sediment can deposit. This helps protect Eagle Creek water quality and also builds grassland habitat.
This will be our 3rd erosion workshop. The 1st was funded by ADEQ and the 2nd by AWPF. Price is right- free. Camping is free, food is free, training is free. We even provide the tools. You can’t beat this deal. We had a great time at the last 2 workshops- made lots of good friends. Plus we built over 50 erosion control structures! It would have taken Doug and I all year to do that many ( even if we had known the best techniques). Thanks to all who donated their time and sweat to making this happen. Thanks also to the Arizona agencies that provided funding for this important conservation work!
Sign up for the Erosion Control Workshop if you are interested – we will fill up early. Love to see you at the Double Circle.
Wilma
P.S. We will have 1 more workshop on April 16,17,18, 2010 if those dates work better for you. We have already started booking it. I hope to get funding for more erosion workshops— but with the budget woes, who knows?
 Antelope Herd on the Ranch It must be fall! The antelope are bunching up like they do every fall. We have small groups that live close to our cabin. They range from a solitary buck to a herd with 5 does and a buck. The group of 5 does had 5 fawns this year, but I am only seeing 4 young ones now. Something probably ate one of the babies. But now we have 19 head in our driveway group. There were 2 bucks, and one was a trophy. A mountain lion killed the big buck last week. I thought it was odd that the lion took the big buck and not a “teenager.” Maybe the buck stayed behind to protect his harem – I have no idea. At any rate these antelope are part of our ‘watchable wildlife’ and I do enjoy seeing them. They are protected, like the wolves, from hunting and have been slowly gaining populations here. One of our conservation practices last year was a USFS 10,000-acre prescribed burn to improve deer and antelope habitat and to create wildlife corridors for the antelope. Seems the antelope – being fast flight animals – won’t breed and live in dense woods where their line of sight isn’t good. Getting rid of some of the encroaching juniper opens more country for them as well as for quail, elk, deer, etc.
The herd picture was taken a couple of years ago – there were 39 head in that group. So far there’s 19 in a group, but more will join up. I hope to see over 45 this year in this bunch. Of course, lions are thick in this country and they have to eat too, along with bear, wolves, and coyotes. Good thing the pronghorn are FAST. They sure are beautiful.
Wilma
 Old Double Circle Ranch Headquarters Welcome to the Double Circle Ranch, home of Double Circle Longhorns, LLC. Let me tell you a little about us and what we’re doing here at the ranch. My husband Doug and I bought the historic Double Circle Ranch 5+ years ago. I am from Tennessee- Doug from Florida. While I have had Texas Longhorns and horses for years, Doug was totally new to anything “western.” Fortunately for both of us, he adapts well. We partnered with our neighbors Jim and Clarice Holder, to form the LLC business.
Now we not only run Texas Longhorns on 37,000 acres of remote SE Arizona mountains and grasslands, we also run a small-scale tourist business. We have teaching classes and custom ranch vacations. We aren’t the biggest – by a long shot – or the fanciest, but our vacations are the Real Thing- the Great American West with no crowds and open space as far as the eye can see.
We take pride in being sustainable, environmentally sound ranchers and gear our work to wildlife diversity and habitat improvement. Check out our website and see what is happening. I’ll be posting blogs regularly –hope to hear from you.
Wilma
 Graham County Historical Society Annual Field Trip We had Graham County Historical Society here yesterday for their annual field trip. I am always learning more about this historic ranch. We toured the old headquarters and the cemetery there and had lunch under the big cottonwoods. Then we carpooled to our 1-room school house for more history talks. One of the highlights was an 87 year old cowboy who had spent most of his life on Eagle Creek. He went through 3rd grade at the school, which had 30 students in 1928. I guess 3rd grade was considered educated enough by a lot of people in those days. Now we have no students. The school serves as a community center now. Watershed meetings and voting is held there. If we had 6 kids in the area, the school would open up again. It would be like having a state-paid private tutor for a big family.
When this ranch ran 30,000 head of cattle, it employed about 25 cowboys year round. The cowboys, cooks, farmers, salt haulers, freighters, and their families made Eagle Creek a thriving community. Now we have only 12 people – people not families – in several 100,000’s of acres.
We are planning a 5-7 day history tour here. There is so much to see. Double Circle Ranch was famous in its glory days – one of the great ranches of the American Wild West. Times have changed – but we still have cattle, wildlife, some of the old buildings, and lots of history to explore.
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