Author: Bill Radford
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The Country Life: This spud’s for you – a look at Colorado’s potato history
Baked. Fried. Mashed. How have you been enjoying your potatoes? Each month, the Colorado Department of Agriculture highlights a product in the state, and it chose February to be Potato Lover’s Month. Colorado produces more than 2 billion pounds of potatoes every year – making it the fifth largest producer in the nation – and…
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The Country Life: Peyton business east of Colorado Springs works to nurture a sense of community
Peyton Junction Mercantile, an indoor flea market and coffee shop, is about to celebrate its first year in business. But for owner and manager Shirley Archuletta, the enterprise is about more than business. It’s about history and community. Peyton Junction Mercantile is one of a handful of businesses at most in the tiny community of…
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The Country Life: Find yourself a goat and get ready for some Goat Yoga
Perhaps The Gazette’s Live Well columnist Jen Mulson, a yoga teacher, and I should team up for a little Goat Yoga. She could provide the yoga expertise and I could provide my goats, Chica and Nana. What, you ask, is Goat Yoga? It’s not goats doing the downward dog, but people doing yoga alongside goats.…
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The Country Life: Wildlife rehab center east of Colorado Springs works to secure a future
When I visited Ellicott Wildlife Rehabilitation Center a couple of years ago, the center was bringing in about 1,000 wild birds, mammals and reptiles annually – and had struggled through a couple of especially busy summers with wildlife rescued from the Waldo Canyon and Black Forest fires. There’s been no relief for the organization –…
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The Country Life: A colorful collection of critters in Falcon author’s ‘Barn Dance’
Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save Anna Blake has a way with horses – and with words. Blake is a horse trainer in Falcon; I first spoke with her, and visited her Infinity Farm, a couple of years ago for a…
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The Country Life: How a three-legged Colorado dog became the darling of a Montana college town
Among the joys of the holiday season for me and my wife was seeing our daughter, Hope, and our “granddog,” Blue. Blue lives with Hope in Missoula, Mont., where he’s apparently a bit of a canine celebrity. But before that he was our dog, a Colorado dog. The name Blue comes from his breed, blue…
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The Country Life: For Colorado livestock, brands serve as return address
Brand inspectors have been on the job longer than Colorado has been a state. The livestock industry formed the brand board in 1865, when Colorado was still a territory; the brand board became a state agency in the early 1900s and became a division of the Colorado Department of Agriculture in the 1970s. Some things…
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The Country Life: Another Christmas miracle on the Colorado prairie
Longtime readers of The Country Life might recall the story of Christmas the goat and how she got her name: how my wife and I got her from Black Forest Animal Sanctuary two days before the holiday as a companion to our other goat; how she escaped on that frigid December night; how we searched…
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The Country Life: Yaks, surviving the storm, faith on the farm and other highlights of 2016
With 2017 looming, I’m reflecting on the past year and catching up with some of the folks I profiled in this column. In March, I wrote about Sandra Hawman, whose family roots run deep in the Pikes Peak region, starting with the Vandenberghs, from Holland, and the Kellys, from Ireland. She contacted me after reading…
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The Country Life: Tiny delights at mini-donkey farm north of Colorado Springs
Mini-donkeys, according to the National Association of Miniature Donkeys, are “the most adorable, affectionate, soft and cuddly creatures in the animal kingdom.” That could be debated; baby panda, anyone? Still, there’s no disputing that a world of cuteness awaits at MJB Miniature Donkeys in Palmer Lake. Marilyn and Loren Burlage have been breeding miniature donkeys…