Photos by Peggy Godfrey

Now available for purchase!!!
DVD $10

Ewe birthing photos by Peter Schlegel
(all others by Peggy Godfrey

The Ranching Way of Life DVD Released

Saguache County, Colorado – June 12, 2008 – ScSEED, a local non-profit organization, has just released the final version of “The Ranching Way of Life” a video documentary, which received funding from the Colorado Council on the Arts and El Pomar Foundation.  The film is a cultural heritage and occupational arts project that captures seasonal ranching activities, stories, poems, interviews, and music that celebrate ranching. Building on the success of the Annual Ranching Celebration (hosted by ScSEED for eight years), this documentary includes the 30-minute feature “The Ranching Way of Life” for general audiences and a shortened version for youth (26:22), plus supplemental themed segments (Branding 4:21; Ethics 7:21; Neighbors 7:14; Stories 27:07; Message for Youth 5:39). Copies of the DVD are available for $10 from ScSEED (www.scseed.org) and at local merchants throughout the SLV.

Those featured in the documentary are long-time residents of the San Luis Valley. Some represent families who have lived here for more than 100 years. Their arts include storytelling, music, poetry, lyrics and jokes that flow from this ranching way of life. Their arts also include the occupational activities of haying, branding, calving, cattle driving, shearing, and irrigating. Hunting, trapping, antler/bone carving, woodcarving, tanning hides, rawhide braiding and leather work are also artistic skills enjoyed by and useful to ranchers. Ranches are scattered across the vast 30 mile wide and 100-mile long valley and into the side canyons of the San Juan and Sangre de Cristo Mountains.

A total of 37 individuals have been filmed on-site and on-stage at the Ranching Celebration, many of whom are included in this documentary. The agricultural lifestyle, ranching traditions, family farms - all are intrinsic to the heritage of Colorado and all are threatened in today's economy. The threat of exportation of water to urban areas, the power of large agri-business to take control of markets, the drain of traditional knowledge as youth migrate to urban centers: these are a few of the reasons that ranching is becoming an art to be preserved and shared.

ScSEED is a grassroots community organization comprised of the citizens it serves. ScSEED’s mission is to work together as a community to develop a sustainable economy that builds on existing strengths, contributes to a strong integrated community, and protects the environment, rural lifestyle and character of Saguache County. The Ranching Way of Life video project addresses the community building, cooperative enterprise, and protection of community character and rural lifestyle that ScSEED aims to foster.