Without amenities you say?

Well, take it back! We might be isolated and remote but we still have all the benefits of High Civilization. Five (five, count 'em!) lovely rooms with right-in-front parking, plus a café just across the street. Bored, stranger? You can always mosey down to the fire-house and watch 'em wash the fire engine.

Wanderobo

In the spring I love to go wanderobo on the prairie. Actually, you can't do all that much on foot in these parts, and usually I fire up the Rhino and use it for transport.

But today I took a camera and walked for a bit outside the compound fence where the oldest cottonwoods, mostly deadfalls now, are. As I moved through the weeds I saw a bright red object ahead. Then it was gone. Then it was back. Then gone again.

It was a turkey, of course, crouching down in the weeds. I only had a relatively short lens with me, so when it got up to move away I only had one crack at it. Wish I'd had a longer lens as the result was not all that good.

I backtracked as quickly as I could so as to put it at ease. It never got really excited. I'm sure it was back in its bed before it had a chance to get cold.

Another Killdeer Pic

This is Mom taking a rest, as described below. One chick has already burrowed under her and the other two are going hell-for-leather to join him.

Another Spring Beauty

Our spring wildflower season is about to shift into high gear and this lovely thing appeared on the edge of my mown area yesterday. It's an unnamed tradition of very long standing for me that every spring I go into a phase of wandering around with camera and tripod looking for "the richness of the season." That used to mean a 4x5, but now more likely involves a digital camera— the pleasant ruination of a traditional photographer turned lazy slug by technology.

I think this is some sort of primrose. Unfortunately, I have never been very good at plant identification. That may be because knowing the genus and species has never seemed to improve my appreciation for the plant itself. A failing in me, I know, but I just don't seem to have any talent for plant taxonomy. Please feel free to correct my attribution if so moved.

Wait up, Mom!

So much rain here. The place was getting downright shaggy. But y'day we had an absotively perfect day and I mowed the whole shebang. Looks great when it's shorn and trimmed.

Today I noticed a killdeer mom with her brood of four enjoying the newly mown grass. They wouldn't cooperate and let me get them all in one frame, so I had to be satisfied with mom + 2.

She stopped after a while and squatted down and the babes ran up and burrowed under her for security and warmth, although it was a warm day anyway. Three of them got under her but when the fourth bold explorer arrived there was no room in the inn and he butted and poked but could find no place to rest. Finally settled with lying next to her. They only stayed for a while.

Emma wanted to go out and check their papers but I wouldn't let her bother them. She's still pouting. She'll just have to deal with it cuz I really like those killdeer.

Ouch!

These guys mean business. I carry a pair of Kelly forceps in the UTV to pull them out of Miss Emma who is always getting into them. The seed pods are the worst offenders, and all of them have barbed thorns that do not want to be removed.

They are not yet in full bloom, and when they are they are really quite beautiful. I'll post some blossom pics later maybe.

A Wet Prairie Spring

We're having the wettest spring in recent memory. Today, for example, is the third straight day of intermittent rain. If this keeps up I will have to borrow some of the neighbor's buffalo to mow my front area!

And yet no one dares to risk the jinx by asking: "Could the drought be over?"

Antelope Valley School

This country is full of abandoned school buildings. Some have only recently closed, and others have been closed for decades. They plot the slow, steady de-population of vast areas of the Great Plains.

The laughter of children may be only distant echoes, but some folks apparently think the schools make good canvasses. It's a strange, and very un-urban form of graffiti.

Memorial Day

Memorial Day is a good time to "renew the vows," so to speak. For years now I have carved out some precious private time on each Memorial Day to just sit and think about all those young men (and women, too) who have given everything so that I can sit in freedom and relative plenty and enjoy what my country has provided for me.

I think that's why I react so strongly to what is happening in our Republic today. They didn't die for this, I think. They didn't stand up in the face of that Nazi tank, or stay behind to cover their friends' retreat when they knew they only had one clip left, or... Hell, the list could go on and on. But not for THIS. Not for what we face today, and tomorrow. And I wonder sometimes if we are worthy of them.

Memorial Day is a good day to renew those Lines in the Sand. Here, and no further. To say, Here I stand, and you cannot have this ground without a fight.

And remembrance is not just for "our" boys either, but for all Americans. Those young Lakota and Cheyenne who splashed across the Greasy Grass on their ponies and charged up that grassy slope were protecting their homes, their families, and their way of life, too, and they deserve to be remembered and respected as well.

Memorial Day is a good day to hoist the flag, sit for a while, and think about what it all means.

Grass Farmers

That's really what ranchers are: grass farmers. They just happen to use cows as combines.

Ranching is just about the most primitive form of agriculture, but today it is way complicated and a successful rancher has to know a lot about everything that touches on his operation.

But it remains something of a miracle that a cow eats the grass and the end product can be milk, or a steak. Around these parts it's all steaks.

New Growth

Every day there is more and still more. I love the pale green of new tree-raiment. That color reminds me of fresh, clean, new starts and the infinite promise of tomorrow.

The Moron Class

Quite a large group unfortunately. Over on learnaboutguns.com (sidebar) there is an article, and a video, about one of them. A New York State Assemblywoman, speaking out for a ban on .50 caliber rifles said that the bullets from this rifle have incendiary tips, which she explains as meaning that they are heat-seeking and therefore hone in on their doomed targets. Oh, the horror! The horror!

Why is it that complete idiots like this woman feel free to speak such nonsense in public about something they clearly know nothing about? If it were any other subject but guns they would be totally discredited in the public eye for such ill-informed stupidity. Will the press call her on it, as they certainly would on almost any other subject? Probably not.

So I have a modest proposal. Just as gun owners who wish to carry a concealed handgun must "qualify" themselves, journalists and politicians who wish to spout off about firearms should be required to take a class or two and pass a test showing that they are likely, at the very least, to know what they are talking about. I don't think that's too much to ask. After all, a clown like this "servnt of the people" is speaking up to ban a whole class of objects she is obviously totally ignorant about. She should know something about what she's trying to deny to American citizens. Unfortunately, she is likely to stay smug and stupid. Sad, but true.