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CapitalPress.com
Friday, July 2, 2021
Lee Juillerat/For the Capital Press
Tamara Mitchel says she can fi nd water using brass
brazing rods.
Tamara Mitchel:
Looking for water
By LEE JUILLERAT
For the Capital Press
DORRIS, Calif. —
Some years Tamara Mitch-
el’s phone doesn’t ring
much. But this year, living
in a region where an unprec-
edented drought has already
resulted in water cutoff s to
irrigators, the phone has
been jingling.
“I’ve been getting more
calls from people asking
me to fi nd water because of
the drought,” Mitchel said
between chores at her fam-
ily’s Rising Sun Ranch, a
fourth-generation family
cattle and sheep ranch out-
side the Siskiyou County
town of Dorris.
Callers are inquiring if
she might be able to help
them fi nd a valuable com-
modity, water, something
that’s in short supply.
For the last 44 years, the
56-year-old Mitchel has
been helping people fi nd
underground water. The
most commonly used term
for what she does is water
witching, but Mitchel pre-
fers water dowsing because,
she insists, no witchcraft is
involved.
“I can always fi nd
some,” Mitchel says of
locating water by using her
tiny diameter brass brazing
rods. When searching, she
holds the rods in the palms
of her hands, both aimed
straight ahead. When she
passes over fl owing under-
ground water the rods invol-
untarily, and sometimes
abruptly, cross. Based on
the intensity of the rod’s tug
she can determine whether
it’s enough water to supply
the needs of a farm, ranch or
home. “Is it going to be 50
feet wide or 2 feet wide?”
she asks.
Craig Reed/For the Capital Press
Dixie Williams is both an AI specialist and a nurse.
Dixie Williams:
AI specialist helps
out ranches, dairies
By CRAIG REED
For the Capital Press
LOOKINGGLASS, Ore.
— Dixie Williams is a reg-
istered nurse and an artifi cial
insemination specialist.
She’s been providing an
AI service since 1985 and
she’s been a nurse since 1989.
She continues to work in
both professions.
“I understand the anat-
omy of both (humans and
cows),” said Williams, now
63. “They’re pretty similar.”
Williams, who was certi-
fi ed by the American Breed-
ers Service, is the only AI
specialist who “hangs out my
shingle and hands out busi-
ness cards.” Others also AI
cows, but they are mainly
ranchers who deal with their
own herds.
Williams provides the
AI service for dairy cows
and beef breeds, but mainly
works with red and black
Angus and polled Herefords.
Most of her work through
the years has been in Doug-
las County, but she has made
longer trips, providing her
service for one cow or for
many.
Williams said provid-
ing the service is not a full-
time job because many large
ranches have bulls. But for
people raising their own beef,
who have only a few cows,
she provides the specialty
service.
She said her success rate
in breeding cows with AI is
73%.
“It’s knowing when cows
are in heat, and you have
to depend on the livestock
owners for that,” Williams
explained. “That can be
diffi cult, especially when
there’s only one cow.”
Maggie Howard, left, and Carol Pasheilich raise Romney
sheep and Murray Grey cattle in Siskiyou County, Calif.
Carol Pasheilich
and Maggie Howard:
Start ranch from ground up
By JULIA HOLLISTER
For the Capital Press
Twenty years ago two
women — who had been
friends for many years —
had what they thought was
a “crazy” idea: Let’s start a
ranch.
Both were wives and
mothers: Carol Pasheilich
was an offi ce manager for
a consulting company and
Maggie Howard was a high
school science teacher.
The pair started the Tawa-
nda Ranch in Siskiyou
County, Calif., knowing little
to nothing about agriculture
and livestock. They readily
admit that it was a scary step
for both of them.
They named the ranch
after dialogue from the movie,
“Fried Green Tomatoes.” The
main character yells “Tawa-
nda” every time she does
something scary.
“I think the most unusual
fact about the operation is that
we are two women in our 70s
and 80s who have done this
for over 20 years,” Pasheilich
said. “We are very successful
and we are still doing it!”
The ranch has 120 dry
and irrigated acres in the Lit-
tle Shasta Valley. They rotate
the grazing: cattle fi rst, then
sheep.
The sheep are Romney,
a dual purpose breed known
for its meat and wool produc-
tion, and the cows are Mur-
ray Grey, a breed that fi n-
ishes well on grass. A single
bull runs with the cows year
round.
They sell sheep breed-
ing stock and wool as well as
meat. They keep strict records
on birth rates and weights,
growth rate and fl eece quality,
color and yield.
Bridget Coon: An advocate for the beef Industry
By HEATHER SMITH THOMAS
For the Capital Press
Bridget Coon wants to help visi-
tors understand ranching.
BENGE, Wash. — Bridget
and Paul Coon are part of a fam-
ily ranch in the Channeled Scab-
lands in eastern Washington, near
the small town of Benge. Paul’s
family has ranched there since the
1950s raising hay and cattle.
The ranch is along Cow Creek,
which runs from Sprague Lake to
the Snake River and Palouse Falls.
“We’re on a dry, rocky patch
between the basin and the Palouse,
and our hay ground is irrigated
from deep wells,” Bridget said.
She and Paul have been mar-
ried almost 10 years. She grew up
in western Washington where her
family had a diversifi ed farm and
feedlot south of Seattle.
“I feel like I’ve gone from the
most populated area of Wash-
ington to the most rural,” Brid-
get said. Her two children attend a
two-room school in Benge with 16
other students.
Before she met Paul she went
to Washington State University
majoring in political science, plan-
ning to become an advocate for
agriculture. She went to Washing-
ton, D.C., where she worked in
public policy and politics.
After she moved back she
began working for the Washington
State Beef Commission.
The Beef Commission Board
was becoming more proactive in
confronting animal welfare and
environmental issues — explain-
ing the realities of raising beef and
busting the myths around how cat-
tle are raised.
“It’s great to teach people how
to cook a steak but I wanted to use
my experience growing up in the
consumer area, and bridge both
worlds,” she said.
On the ranch, she fi nds herself
squarely in the world of cattle.
“I help with everything here at
the ranch, as well. We’ve added
a guest cabin for people passing
through, and it’s a way to help
educate the public about ranch-
ing. People who come here really
enjoy it and have a lot of ques-
tions,” she said.
FARM
BOARDROOM
FROM THE
TO THE
Helena celebrates women in ag. Thank you to all the
women who are shaping the future of agriculture.
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