NEWS ROUNDUP

Battle line drawn Many who live off the land here cast the debate in the starkest terms. In the first 10 years after their reintroduction in the Rockies, gray wolves killed 505 head of cattle and 1,306 sheep, and the numbers are rising. It's us or them, ranchers say. Incredibly adaptable, the animals hunt together, with older wolves teaching younger ones. Packs have spread quickly into Idaho's central valleys and north into the panhandle, and along the fingerlike mountain ranges that stretch from Yellowstone south and east deep into Wyoming. A popular bumper sticker here reads: "Wyoming wolves, smoke a pack a day." On most ranches, the wolf is seen as not a noble beast but a brutal killer, one of the few things on the range that can compete with man for dominance. The Danas have seen cattle so frightened by wolves, they've ripped through three fence lines before they could be brought under control. A sheep rancher in the area says she has seen a pack kill 42 sheep in 12 hours. "If you don't like wolves, watching them kill something will fit right in with your worldview," Jimenez said. "They have powerful jaws that bite into (the) throat and hindquarters of their prey, often sending them into shock. "They basically rip their prey apart. There's a lot of blood on the snow after a wolf kill."....
Water experts wary of N.M. proposal If sharing Colorado River water isn't a contentious enough issue now, Southwest Colorado water interests say a recent New Mexico proposal could lead to them being left high and dry because of the need to protect endangered fish. According to calculations by New Mexico and the federal Bureau of Reclamation, there's an extra 220,000 acre-feet of water available annually to Upper Colorado River basin states because less water is evaporating from its reservoirs than previously thought. (That's enough water to fill nearly two reservoirs the size of Lake Nighthorse - the Animas-La Plata Project reservoir under construction just west of Bodo Industrial Park.) "It's going to be controversial," Steve Harris, the engineer for the Southwestern Water Conservation District, said of the New Mexico proposal. "We learned about it only in March." All future users of water in Southwest Colorado, even a rancher who wants to create a stock pond, could be affected, Harris said. The situation is critical, Harris said, because thirsty New Mexico is using all the water available to it in the Laws of the Colorado River, which allocates Western water among seven states. New Mexico currently receives about 675,000 acre-feet of water from several sources - a tunnel that transfers Colorado water from the upper San Juan River through the Continental Divide to the Rio Grande River, Navajo Reservoir and the San Juan, Animas and La Plata rivers. Under the water-sharing formula, New Mexico stands to gain 25,000 acre-feet of the 220,000 acre-foot windfall. Officials there want to use the additional water to help meet future needs of the yet-unauthorized Navajo-Gallup Project and allow full development of the Navajo Indian Irrigation Project, a slowly developing project to irrigate up to 110,000 acres south of Farmington....
Trout Unlimited plan snags criticism A bill designed to help Utah's trout ran into a few rapids Wednesday when a legislator wondered if environmental groups could use it to hijack water, such as the Provo River. The bill would allow private entities to lease water rights and allow the water to remain in streams for the specific purpose of improving trout habitat. Current law permits water rights for in-stream flows to be held only by the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources and the Utah Division of State Parks and Recreation. Otherwise, private water rights can only be granted for actual use, such as diverting water to irrigate cropland. The bill, supported by the fishing and conservation group Trout Unlimited, carries a bundle of restrictions. Water rights can be granted only for a term of less than 10 years, and must be reapplied for following that; the purpose must be to protect trout; no other existing water right may be impaired. But Rep. David Ure, R-Kamas, co-chairman of the task force, worried that the law could be the means to speculate in water, or if leases might not run up the cost of water for municipalities or agriculture....
Demonstration project to test grasslands grazing plan The Forest Service plans to test new rules for livestock grazing on North Dakota's national grasslands, a project that will take at least 10 years. The project is part of the final management plan for the grasslands, which include more than 1 million acres in the Little Missouri National Grasslands in the west and Sheyenne National Grasslands in the southeastern part of the state. Some grazing rules, such as those affecting prairie dog habitat, are being changed to guidelines, which at least one environmental group worries might be less strictly enforced. The grasslands project "moves the argument away from the hypothetical and esoteric, to practical field application," regional U.S. Forester Gail Kimbell said in documents released Friday. The Forest Service had estimated overall grazing cuts of 9 percent as a result of its plan. Ranchers said the estimates were low by as much as 60 percent. The grazing portion was put on hold in 2002 while a team of independent scientists spent the next two years studying it. The scientists last year concluded that the Forest Service's projected grazing cuts were more accurate than the ranchers' estimates. However, the team also said the Forest Service projections were based on too many assumptions....
Army taking comments on Pinon Canyon study U.S. Army officials on Friday released a draft environmental impact study for the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site, which is an assessment of what impacts will occur if the Army sends thousands of additional troops to train at the current 230,000-acre site. For Fort Carson officials, the report was just part of the process of having an additional 8,500 troops assigned to the post over the next few years - as planned by the Pentagon's Base Realignment and Closure process. For ranchers opposed to the Army's plan to expand its maneuver site by 418,000 acres in the future - the draft report is just another shot in what they expect to be a long war to stop any expansion. "Anyone looking for an assessment of the planned expansion of PCMS, won't find it here," said Robin Renn, the PCMS environmental coordinator. "This is simply an impact study of what we would expect by training more soldiers at the current maneuver site."....
Wolverine roams Yakama reservation Believed to be living only in the remote northern Cascades and in the dense forests of Idaho and Montana, a wolverine has been spotted near Mount Adams on the Yakama reservation. While state Department of Fish and Wildlife biologists say it's not clear whether wolverines once lived in the southern Cascades, Yakama wildlife officials have little doubt about the animal. "They've always been here on the Yakama reservation, especially in the primitive areas," said Yakama wildlife manager Arlen Washines in an e-mail. "We've had many sightings by tribal members, even within the last few years." Tribal biologists placed a camera northeast of Mount Adams that photographed a wolverine in August, but the camera wasn't retrieved until a month later. It was the first documented sighting of a wolverine in the southern Cascades, according to the tribe. Often called a skunk bear because of its ability to emit a noxious smell and its skunklike appearance thanks to the white stripes running down its sides, the wolverine is the largest member of the weasel family....
Snowmobilers want trails in caribou recovery zone reopened U.S. Forest Service officials and groups that want caribou habitat in northern Idaho protected from snowmobiles plan to meet to decide which trails could be reopened for snowmobile enthusiasts. The trails were closed last month when U.S. District Judge Robert H. Whaley banned snowmobiles throughout nearly 470 square miles of national forest land in northern Idaho in an effort to save the last mountain caribou herd in the contiguous 48 states. The caribou recovery zone in the Idaho Panhandle National Forests remains closed to snowmobiles until the Forest Service develops a winter recreation strategy taking into account the impact of snowmobiles on the herd. Forest Service officials and caribou advocates plan to work on the issue in the next several weeks. On Friday, snowmobilers organized a rally that drew riders from around the region to protest the snowmobiling ban....
Places to play, space for refuge On many weekends, Pojoaque resident Jorge Bencomo and his children, 13 and 11, ride their dirt bikes and all-terrain vehicles on U.S. Bureau of Land Management property near Alcalde. "It's a sport I've always liked," said Bencomo, 40. "I've ridden since I was a child. I raced in Mexico. Now I'm teaching my children how to ride." Bencomo and his children enjoy an increasingly popular pastime -- exploring public land on off-highway vehicles. The U.S. Forest Service says the number of visits to national forests across the country involving off-highway vehicles grew from about 5 million in 1975 to 51 million in 2005. And the number of off-highway vehicles in the U.S. rose from less than 400,000 in the early 1990s to more than 8 million by 2003, according to a 2005 national survey on off-road recreation. New Mexico public land managers say the state mirrors the nationwide trend....
Forest plan backs use of now-illegal roads A management plan for roads in the Medicine Bow/Routt National Forest, scheduled for release next month, will call for almost 100 miles of unauthorized roads to be approved for motorcycle and all-terrain vehicle use. Clint Kyhl, Laramie District Ranger, said the plan would not affect some 785 miles of authorized roads in the forest. However, it would put about 100 miles out of the 265 miles of unauthorized roads to use. "We have a variety of unauthorized roads we needed to decide to use or close," Kyhl said. "(And) we have zero miles of motorized trail in the district right now. We want to provide that opportunity as well, and use some of these roads to do it."....
Feds: Mine will benefit bears Grizzly bears stand to benefit if a copper and silver mine is developed beneath Montana's Cabinet Mountains Wilderness, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Friday in a rewritten opinion. The proposed underground mine involves a "conservative approach" and mitigation measures, such as buying land to be protected as bear habitat, that would leave grizzlies in better condition than if the mine was not developed, the service said. "We really think this is a good thing for bears," Mark Wilson, a Fish and Wildlife Service administrator in Helena, said Friday. The Fish and Wildlife Service's findings are in a biological opinion rewritten after a federal judge last year sided with environmental groups that charged the agency conducted inadequate studies before finding the mine would not jeopardize bears and trout. The agency Friday also endorsed mine measures for protection of sensitive bull trout. Both the trout and grizzlies are federally protected as threatened species....
Copper mine plan aims at santa ritas It's no secret there's copper deep under the foothills of the Santa Rita Mountains southeast of Tucson. Rosemont Ranch, off Arizona 83 going to Sonoita, has been the occasional focus of mining companies large and small for decades. Asarco was the last company to talk of putting the mining claims at Rosemont into production, but sold off the property in 2004. Now, an upstart Canadian firm is again touting Rosemont as a good candidate for large-scale mining. The Rosemont deposit has been explored before, but Augusta is doing detailed drilling to better define the ore body and design a mine. It could produce more than 4 billion pounds of copper, 100 million pounds of molybdenum and 100 million ounces of silver over 20 years, Augusta says. At today's high metal prices, that's more than $13 billion for just the copper — enough to stimulate some interest in the project. When might Rosemont transition from ranch to mine? As soon as 2010, says one Augusta official, if the company's plan is well-received by the U.S. Forest Service and other regulators. Rosemont is surrounded by the Coronado National Forest and the use of public land is essential to the mine's development....
Troubled waters Logging trucks once rumbled up this narrow creek valley 30 miles northeast of Coeur d'Alene. Today, there's not even a trace of road left. The biggest creatures now roaming the banks of Yellow Dog Creek are the pair of moose that have recently taken up residence in the quiet valley. Only a well-trained eye would notice the signs of the recent $400,000 restoration project just completed here: the flecks of surveyor's tape, the hidden cables anchoring massive logs to bedrock along the stream, the faint tracks from the heavy machinery that removed the dirt logging road. District Ranger Randy Swick hiked up the valley on a crisp September morning, showing off the stream as if it were a once-troubled kid who just earned a spot on the honor roll. It's a small but important part of the U.S. Forest Service's long-term plan to fix hundreds of square miles of damaged watersheds in the region, he said....
Column - An endless journey For more than a century, our national forests have served the nation's needs for timber, minerals, forage and other resources. At the same time, they have provided millions of people with an unparalleled recreational and aesthetic resource, and with the satisfaction that comes with knowing that our society has preserved vast natural landscapes more or less intact. The 386,000 miles of existing roads in our national forests are more than adequate to ensure that the forests will continue to be used to help supply our nation's need for resources. Far less secure and far more valuable to future generations are those remaining tracts of undeveloped land that have managed to survive in our forests. If we lose these lands now, we will never get them back. We should bear that in mind as we engage in the ongoing debate over the protection of forest roadless areas. That debate, thanks to a recent court decision, seems destined to drag on for several more years, prolonging the uncertainty about the future of our forests. Use of the forests has been debated for more than a century, but the current round kicked off on Jan. 5, 2001, in the waning days of the Clinton administration....
Researchers hope tree vole discoveries will prompt buffer zones It was the fir needles that gave the red tree vole away. Researcher Nathaniel Mitchell thought he might be onto the trail of the small nocturnal rodents when he spotted the rice-sized scat. But the fir needles were the real giveaway for scientists working to protect the species' old-growth habitat, since voles both feed on the needles, and use their resin ducts to make nests. Mitchell is a member of the Northwest Ecosystem Survey Team, who are trained to survey for voles by researchers at Oregon State University. Since 2000, Mitchell has spent summers searching for the little rodents, who spend most of their life high above the ground. This summer, he and fellow researcher Laura Beaton found 122 new red tree vole sites on federal forest in southwestern Oregon. Researchers hope uncovering new red tree vole sites will convince federal agencies to set aside buffers on timber sales where the nests have been located....
BLM mulls study on effects of winter natural gas drilling Bureau of Land Management officials are considering a study that would examine the effects of natural gas drilling in the winter, a practice restricted to protect wildlife such as deer and elk foraging for food in snowy weather. If approved, the multiyear study would be conducted on up to three of Williams Production's federal leases in the Rulison and Grand Valley gas fields outside of Parachute, said David Boyd, spokesman for the BLM's Glenwood Springs field office. "This is something we've talked about very extensively with the (state Division of Wildlife) and BLM," Williams spokeswoman Susan Alvillar said. "Right now, I think were all on the same page." Winter drilling restrictions traditionally last from Dec. 1 to March 1, but certain rigs might be allowed to remain in operation throughout the winter during the study. DOW West Region Manager Ron Velarde said the study will help wildlife biologists and others see the impacts in a specific drainage area....
EPA tightens emission regs Energy companies around Wyoming may have more work ahead reducing certain air pollutants, as a federal agency has tightened allowable emissions to protect human health. The Environmental Protection Agency last month reduced the amount of so-called "PM 2.5s" that can be in the air before standards are violated. Those tiny particles can cause aggravated asthma, lung and heart diseases, and are a major cause of smog. The definition of "PM 2.5" refers to unhealthful fine particles that are 2.5 micrometers in diameter or smaller, according to the EPA. They are derived from combustible and industrial activities. The new rules will affect how companies operate nationwide. In Wyoming, the attention is on the Jonah natural gas field southeast of Pinedale, where the Bureau of Land Management released a study earlier this year of predicted air quality impacts. Some of the predicted emissions of PM 2.5s will violate the new federal standards. Steven Hall, spokesman for the BLM, said the agency will not revise the Jonah Infill Record of Decision document in light of the new standards, but the agency will comply with all federal regulations....
'We're going to feel it' The news is not that oil and gas development is ramping up throughout the state. Instead, the news is that the Wyoming Game and Fish Department is increasingly taking notice. The department itself has mapped projections for oil and gas development across the state, and overlapped those projections with wildlife habitat, showing a grim picture for wildlife's future. "This has really gotten our attention," said Vern Stelter, statewide habitat protection coordinator for Game and Fish. "Obviously, we're very focused on this as a department, trying to moderate impacts as much as we can." The agency has highlighted areas including the Powder River Basin, Jonah and Pinedale Anticline fields, Moxa Arch, Continental Divide and Atlantic Rim areas, which are projected to see increases of up to 10 times more oil and gas wells. Sage grouse and big game are identified as primary users of habitat eyed by energy. The department is working with energy companies and the Bureau of Land Management -- the primary public lands agency permitting the energy development -- to minimize impacts to wildlife, Stelter said....
Energy Bill Is a Boon to Oil Companies Tucked into a massive energy bill that would open the outer continental shelf to oil drilling are provisions that would slash future royalties owed to the federal government by companies prospecting in Rocky Mountain oil shale deposits. Sponsored by Rep. Richard W. Pombo (R-Tracy) and passed by the House earlier this year, the bill would amend an existing requirement that the federal government receive a "fair return" from oil companies that hold oil shale leases on public lands. Instead, Pombo's bill, modeled after a Canadian law, would reduce royalties from the customary 12.5% of annual revenue to 1%. Further, the bill could cut the reduced rate by as much as 80% if the price of oil fell. Over many years of oil production, the royalty discounts could amount to tens of billions in lost federal receipts, said James T. Bartis, an analyst at the Rand Corp. who wrote a widely used study of the economic prospects of the developing oil shale industry. Pombo and others argue that oil companies need incentives to invest in the unproven billion-dollar technology, which squeezes oil from deep rock formations. Colorado, Utah and Wyoming have the world's largest known oil shale deposits, with estimates of up to 2 trillion barrels, although only about 800 million barrels are believed to be recoverable....
Alternative energy proponents push piñon pellets U.S. Rep. John Salazar, D-Manassa, and other officials touted pellets made from piñon trees as a local, renewable source of heating for Southwest Colorado during a visit to the Avon Hotel on Friday. Rob Davis, president of Forest Energy Corp. of Show Low, Ariz., helps U.S. Rep. John Salazar, D-Manassa, open a bag of piñon pellets at the Avon Hotel in Silverton on Friday. Salazar was in town touting renewable energy. Forest Energy Corp. of Show Low, Ariz., recently began producing what are believed to be the first pellets made from piñon. The trees were harvested on Bureau of Land Management property on the Uncompahgre Plateau. Salazar poured a bag of the pellets into a 65,000-BTU wood stove used to heat the 2,500-square-foot first floor of the historic hotel. "That truly is a Colorado resource heating Colorado," said Rob Davis, president of Forest Energy. Davis said the pellets were whole-tree pellets that incorporate needles, cones, bark and whatever else comes along with the trees. "Anything that gets into the truck, we make a pellet out of it," Davis said. Officials involved in the piñon project said it required a great deal of cooperation, from the prison crew that cut the trees, to the BLM that allowed the project to go forward, to Forest Energy for producing the pellets and even ZE Supply in Silverton for selling them....
Trouble in the air: How Government flights pumped out 1,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide The inevitable head-on collision between Britain's climate change and aviation policies moves a step closer today with figures showing the total distance flown by the Government's own ministers and senior officials last year alone is equivalent to 14 return trips to the Moon. Tony Blair, his cabinet colleagues and their officials clocked up 6.5 million air miles, according to the Cabinet Office's list of flights during the 2005-2006 financial year - and in doing so pumped almost 1,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, analysis shows. Environmental groups went on the attack last night over the huge scale of the emissions. The figures starkly underline the fact that, although the Blair Government is talking ever more loudly about the problem of global warming, it cannot itself get to grips with its fastest-rising cause - emissions of greenhouse gases from aircraft engines....
A Power-Grid Report Suggests Some Dark Days Ahead Companies are not building power plants and power lines fast enough to meet growing demand, according to a group recently assigned by the federal government to assure proper operation of the power grid. The group, the North American Electric Reliability Council, in its annual report, to be released Monday, said the amount of power that could be generated or transmitted would drop below the target levels meant to ensure reliability on peak days in Texas, New England, the Mid-Atlantic area and the Midwest during the next two to three years. The council was established in 1965 after a blackout across the Northeast, and has since set voluntary standards for the industry. After the blackout of 2003, which covered a vast swath of the Midwest, Northeast and Ontario, Congress set up a process that would eventually give the council the authority to fine American companies that did not follow certain operating standards. It is seeking a similar designation in Canada, since — electrically speaking — the border is irrelevant. For years, the council has produced often-gloomy annual reports, but this is the first to be officially filed with federal agencies, and to recommend specific action....
Investigation finds farmers double-dipping in federal funds In spring 2000, Congress decided to do something about its costly and politically driven practice of giving farmers a disaster payment each time a storm damaged their crops. The lawmakers voted to use $8 billion in new taxpayer subsidies to help farmers buy crop insurance to protect against losses. The insurance would replace the disaster payments and reduce government costs. But shortly after passing the Agricultural Risk Protection Act, Congress lost its fiscal will. One week before the presidential election, it passed a new $1.8 billion disaster bill to assist farmers hurt by bad weather. Two others followed in subsequent years, totaling more than $6 billion. Today, after a searing drought in the plains, farm-state legislators are pushing for billions more in aid. The result is that farmers often get paid twice by the government for the same disaster, once in subsidized insurance and then again in disaster assistance, a legal but controversial form of double-dipping, a Washington Post investigation found. Together, the programs have cost taxpayers nearly $24 billion since 2000. The government pays billions to help farmers buy cheap federal insurance, billions more to private insurance companies to help run the program and billions more to cover the riskiest claims. On top of all that, it spends billions more on disaster payments....
Japanese rules prompt cattle ID tag use Japanese consumers aren't just asking, "Where's the beef?" They want to know: "Where's the beef from?" That question is proving to be a good opportunity for cattle businesses to test a new national system for tracking animals that federal officials hope to have operative on a voluntary basis by 2009. The Japanese government is making sure that any U.S. beef it imports can be traced to its origins and comes from cows not more than 20 months old. "It creates an opportunity for ranchers or producers that can verify the age of the calves they are selling," said Todd Clemons, president of Okeechobee Livestock Market in Okeechobee. Local ranchers get a premium of about $20 per animal. Since April, the Okeechobee Livestock Market has sold 25,000 cattle through online auctions; 80 percent of those were calves with tags that make it possible to verify their age and birthplace. The calves are shipped to feedlots in states such as Texas, and some are eventually sold to Japan and other export markets....
Stray cows hit on road: Who gets ticket? If a cow wanders onto a four-lane highway, who, if anyone, gets the ticket if it then gets run over - six times? This is no hypothetical. In fact, the question was raised this week before the Cache County Council. On Sunday evening, several cows escaped from a Utah State University-owned pasture near the Utah Agricultural Experiment Station South Farm, 3580 S. U.S. 89-91, in Wellsville. The unluckiest member of the stray herd was hit by six vehicles, yet caused only minor injuries to drivers and passengers, according to Utah Highway Patrol Sgt. Tony Hutson. The officer verified that a 62-year-old USU farmer, who arrived at the accident scene a few moments later, was cited with a class C misdemeanor because the animals were loose. A subsequent phone call from a Farm Bureau representative to County Council member Darrel Gibbons prompted a discussion about who is prosecuted and why in these situations. "He wanted to know if it is the policy to issue citations whenever that happens," Gibbons said....
Squeezed in Star Valley It's 1 in the afternoon on a rainy Thursday, and Jody Bagley is doing something he'd rather you not know. Bagley, a regional vice president of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association, is herding lambs onto a truck. He's a cattleman, but his work as a rancher has him dabbling in all kinds of activities, including helping a friend load lambs on this day. Bagley raises some sheep and was filling the truck with some of his stock as well. Bagley is well known in Star Valley. He's on the Star Valley Land Trust and from the Bagley Ranch, which has been in the family for generations. But all that may change for the 48-year-old father of three. Soaring land prices and increased costs in fuel, feed and drought have Bagley and other longtime western Wyoming ranchers looking to leave for different, if not greener, pastures. "We're looking at trading one acre for 23 acres north of Lusk," he said. "One cow for three cows." Bagley and many other ranchers are feeling the pinch. Big-money land offers stemming from residential development in picturesque pockets of Wyoming are prompting many longtime ranchers to consider selling to developers. Maintaining livestock herds in fierce winters and fending off multimillion-dollar offers for land becomes more difficult each passing year, even when livestock prices are high....
Dispute over property deed lives on in Imperial County A stocky rancher with a reputation for stretching the truth breezed into this desert town about 40 years ago with big news. The way several people recall it, Robert Earl Harvey Sr. announced he owned about a quarter of eastern Imperial County and had the paperwork to prove it. County officials allowed him to record a deed on the land, largely sand dunes and wheat-colored badlands. Some of it was near Harvey's ranch in Blythe. But nearly all of the property – roughly 760,000 acres – was, and still is, owned by the federal government. Harvey deeded the land in 1992 to a Palm Desert businessman. County records show that eight years later, it was deeded to a Massachusetts business named HHH Investment Trust. And there are signs that HHH is trying to profit from it....
Pearce trying to save Mexican Canyon trestle Congressman Steve Pearce isn't just one of those politicians who try to fix every problem by throwing money at it. At least, that's not his only tool. In fact, the Roswell Republican is leading an initiative to save the Mexican Canyon trestle through statesmanship. Rebuffed in his efforts to get federal money to save the sagging railway bridge in Cloudcroft, Pearce decided to see what he could get done without cash. In that vein, he has met with local leaders in Cloudcroft, the Mescalero Apache Nation, the Forest Service and the engineering department at the University of New Mexico. All this talk has resulted in a loose-knit coalition to shore up the trestle. "It's a visual symbol of the past and if we don't save it we're going to lose that connection to the past," Pearce said. The Mexican Canyon trestle is one of the few remaining pieces of the long defunct Alamogordo-Sacramento railroad's 32-mile track. That track once ran between Alamogordo and Cloudcroft, spawning the then-lucrative logging business in the area....
On the Edge of Common Sense: Farming a partnership between man, wife Farming is a partnership: man and wife engaged in the century's old "business" of raising livestock and coaxing a crop from the ground. And yes, there really are moments that inspire the romantic images poets and artists portray: the couple sitting on the porch swing watching the sun set over a dark green field of soybeans; or mom in her apron holding a steaming platter of biscuits as hubby and the haying crew look up from the breakfast table smiling; or the wife chatting pleasantly as she explains to the implement dealer exactly what part her husband sent her to town for; or the joy on her face as she stands ankle deep in mud next to her stuck pickup holding her dead cell phone, waiting for hubby to arrive. Yes, these are the ties that bind....