Sunrise over the Prairie

Well, we loaded up the dogs and left at 7 am on Tuesday, June 30, 2009. We loaded 3 horses and 25 dogs in the pouring rain at the kennel. Along the way we picked up Doc Neeley and Tech. The drive up across the plains of Texas and Oklahoma and Kansas was warm and uneventful. We stopped at Thedford, NE for a few hours to sleep, as I was getting very tired and we were seeing lots of deer along the road.

I was awakened by the gradual lightening of the morning sky, and we started north once again through the Sandhills of Nebraska. The Sandhills are breathtaking, especially at sunrise, the reds, pinks and light gray of the dawn illuminated the ponds and lakes along the road, and the rise of ducks and other birds was refreshing. There were pelicans, and ducks and geese with young on the water. The bluffs with cottonwoods had deer around them, grazing on the lush prairie grass.

These sights are something I look forward to all year, especially when the heat and humidity of central Texas make training dogs drudgery. But, as I stopped near Rosebud, SD/NE to fuel up I was greeted by temperatures in the low 50s, and the smell of newly cut hay was on the gentle morning breeze. As we continued north we saw numbers of pheasant and sharp tail sitting on the newly bailed hay. By, the time we crossed the Cheyenne River, we had seen countless pheasants and sharp tails along with a few broods along the way. We arrived in camp in late morning and the grass is lush and we had our momma deer and her fawns (2 of them every year) standing along the our mile long tree line heading to camp.

Upon arrival at camp we found everything in order and it did not take long to bed down the horses and dogs and they are in fine shape We have spending the last two days getting everything in order, and waiting out the rain storms of yesterday and today.

Keith - Posting from Under the Rusty Windmill