What if your land ethic?
May 2026, 2nd year apprentice
I hesitate to claim I have a “land ethic”, although the land is undoubtedly the focal point of my life. It seems to be unwise to define and commit to hard-fast rules and principles, as beliefs are often fluid and changing throughout one’s life. Instead, I can only hint at the edges of a guidepost which shapes my relationship with land and the work I am doing. At this point in my life my land ethic is Unconditional Love.
Approaching the land, this earth, from a place of unconditional love is approaching it at this moment. That means forgiving the past and the environmental impacts you may not be very pleased with.These things have already happened, they are gone. That also means not fearing the future and one’s notions of impending disaster and incessant worry, because those have not happened yet and may never happen. Unconditional love means seeing, experiencing, and considering the land, its flora, fauna, weather, and current circumstance. One chooses not to focus on what used to be or what could be, and appreciate what is true now and meet the land where it is presently. Unconditional love is about treating the land with kindness and understanding, and working with it as a partner, rather than expecting or extracting something from it. By approaching land without preconceived notion, one can work flexibly and use creative thinking while living in close contact with the land. The land is inextricable from our life here on earth.
Sometimes the land can be diluted to the resources we harvest from it: materials, food, a foundation for cities and highways, etc. Rather, land is really a prime example of oneness, for everything is related and connected, including all of us with it and one another. Since going down the path of working with the land as a ranching apprentice, I find myself in awe every single day of how much my surroundings teach me, amuse me, help me, and heal me. The land is beautiful and ever-changing and to really get along with it, one must start by loving the land unconditionally.
What contributes to a meaningful life and how do you hope this apprenticeship will help you explore that?
May 2025
A meaningful life and an interest in agriculture go hand in hand. When I was a little girl, I wanted to be a farmer and a veterinarian. As the years went on, I forgot about those dreams and set my sights elsewhere. Over the past few years I experienced some major life changes, and I have been driven down a path by the desire to live a good life: one guided by love. I kept drifting towards ranching and have decided to see it through
A meaningful life is something different for everybody.I am drawn to a life rooted in simplicity and happiness. Working outside day after day with the land and animals is a chance to observe this beautiful planet and how its intuitive systems work and an opportunity to be a part of a timeless cycle. Through ranching, I have the privilege to experience the way life runs its course, witnessing birth and death, maybe all in one day. Through agriculture, one gets to live close to the land, noting the day when the first little blades of green grass appear or spotting the moon rising over the horizon while checking the mother herd in the dark of night.
In my first few weeks as an apprentice at San Juan Ranch, I have found myself tremendously fulfilled and at peace. The opportunity to live each day centered around observation is truly a gift. One of the things that we joke about here is the idea of time. In a meaningful life, time does not matter. Light and dark are more major landmarks in a day than 9-5. Tasks take as long as they take, and while there is always something to do, completion is not dictated by a watch. Presence is key in agriculture, for the day is unpredictable no matter how well you plan. And so it is presence that is key in a meaningful life. Everyday of this apprenticeship has been filled with lessons and experiences, each adding to the handbook of a meaningful life in its own way.
Final Reflections
November 2025
As I wrap up my eight month season down here at San Juan Ranch, I can barely believe that I haven’t been working in ranching my whole life. That’s not because I think I know everything or am particularly skilled, but because it feels so right to be doing day in and day out. There wasn’t one single day where I thought this isn’t the right path for me, which I had never really experienced before. I found a profound sense of peace in this work, though I don’t really like to call it work. Spending your days immersed in agriculture brings you close to life’s true purpose. Life is about water, sun, and soil; the full cycle from birth to death. Ranching repeatedly illustrates the interconnectedness of all things, all facets of life converging into a oneness.
Spring, summer, and fall all brought their own world to the ranch. My time here began in the cold, windy spring of the San Luis Valley, where I learned to monitor a mother herd during their calving. This was the beginning of my education in learning to read cows. I learned to pay attention to how close to labor a cow may be, as well as how to read the moods of the mothers when I needed to handle and doctor the calves. I developed a sense for if I had to be sneaky and wait for the cow to walk away before I could put an ear tag in her calf, or if she was unbothered by my handling of her new baby. It was a period of increasing my ability to observe, and since then observation and the ability to notice is my favorite ranching skill.
After spring came the summer, which was a flurry of plumbing and herding. Keeping cows watered became the center of every day. It was also during this time when I really got to know the land. It’s a really wonderful thing becoming so acquainted with a large spread of foothills and then look at a map back in the ranch office and know what that draw actually looks like and what rock outcropping lurks in that canyon. To become acquainted with those antelope fawns and watch them grow, while seeing how the grasses and wildflowers transform throughout the growing season was often stunning. The consistency of roaming a certain parcel of land daily is something I had never experienced before at this scale and was not something I expected to be so awed by.
Once fall rolled around, it was time for me to get the hang of the real practical and mechanical skills that make up so much of ranching. This is when the plumbing started to click, when I finally got a little more savvy with machinery, and the basics of electricity. While I was doing maintenance and repairs throughout my apprenticeship, I was following instructions without deeply understanding what I was doing. The slower pace of fall allowed me to take the time to really get thinking, practice, and inquire.
While my path forward and my future in ranching remain unclear, this apprenticeship showed me a way of living and working that I will carry with me wherever I go. To me, ranching is about using your mind and paying close attention. One has to be a jack of all trades and a creative thinker. Never knowing what each day will bring can be a lot of fun. Through this apprenticeship I learned about cattle and land stewardship, but I also learned how to be patient, how to take my time and figure things out, and how to see the whole picture. I learned a lot about trust and approaching a situation without judgement, just to see something for what it is and go from there. I am grateful my mentors George and Julie took a chance on me eight months ago because to learn on San Juan Ranch has truly been a gift.