Running Iron Report

Hey pards! The Running Iron Trading Post is open — you can now ride for the brand at coffeeshop or shooting range. (Link at the top of the page). The cap looks sharp on the range — and anecdotal evidence suggests that it actually improves your shooting. The stickers class up a guitar case or a laptop. Slap one wherever … Read More

“I have in this War a burning private grudge — which would probably make me a better soldier at 49 than I was at 22: against that ruddy little ignoramus Adolf Hitler … Ruining, perverting, misapplying, and making for ever accursed, that noble northern spirit, a supreme contribution to Europe, which I have ever loved, and tried to present in … Read More

After a summer hiatus the boys are back in the bunkhouse on the historic Figure 8 Ranch for a new season of podcasts. Join Craig, Jim, and “Oil Can” Rathbun for this new edition of the Running Iron Podcast: Stories that Shaped Us … Read More

The brilliant Running Iron Report piece I spent a couple of days on turned out to be a piece of crap, so I junked it. A high volume Russian Kettlebell workout in 36-degree temperatures kicked my ass. Watching a couple of hours of impeachment hearing over a fantastic lunch with my friend Jack McGowan was good fellowship, but bad for … Read More

An ad campaign designed to get local folks thinking about east-west connectivity in Bend and encourage participation in a transportation survey has run afoul of cancel culture. The billboard that loomed over the intersection of 9th and Wilson depicted a covered wagon trekking across the high desert, with the tagline: “Traveling East to West still tough?” and a link to … Read More

There isn’t anything magical about regenerative ranching.  The theories put forth by the gurus of holistic management, guys like Allan Savory, Johann Zietsman, Gabe Brown, and others, just make sense.  It’s possible to build and repair our soils while raising food and actually improving environmental conditions over time.  We know how to do this.  But our models for worldwide economic … Read More

“This war is not the end but the beginning of violence. It is the forge in which the world will be hammered into new borders and new communities. New molds want to be filled with blood, and power will be wielded with a hard fist.” — Ernst Jünger (1918) The dramatic events of recent weeks — President Trump’s abandonment of … Read More

Our hometown of Sisters celebrated the reading life this month. The inaugural Sisters Festival of Books October 18–20 was a success on every level. Craig Rullman and I were honored to be asked to participate in the kickoff  event, which featured a dozen local authors. There are few things more worthy of celebration than books and the strange and wonderful … Read More

It’s interesting that so many politicians and bureaucrats, apparently lacking the strength of their convictions, are assuming noms de plume and making their little pithy appearances in the digital realm. Romney’s “Pierre Delecto” is a particularly daft touch, joining some other recent classics such as James Comey’s “Reinhold Niebuhr” and Anthony Weiner’s “Carlos Danger” as instant splashes of cowardice and evidence of … Read More

The quality we admire most at The Running Iron Report is resilience. Nobody escapes the injuries, the wrecks, the traumas big and small that life dishes out. The 21st century therapeutic culture, which often valorizes victimhood, has led us astray from old, heroic virtues, and indeed casts them in a negative light. But those are the virtues and qualities that … Read More