Empire Ranch 2

 As I finished this last night Skye got sick, big barf coming under the bedroom door.  Carlene was asleep for a while longer but the cleanup woke her up.  We have a throw rug hanging on a tree.  This morning she seems fine but we did a short easy walk just for her.

We checked out the prairie dog town 4 miles up the road.  They are pretty cute when it’s not on your farm.  A couple of them posed for photos but were not really close.  They are in a fenced area to protect them.  We have seen them a few times before and once Skye was off leash and went right in to meet them.  They said “wrong kind of dog” and holed up.  Today we all watched each other and they sang to us.

We have hiked this road before too.  It leads to a creek but it is hard to access the creek.  Off to the south is a pond that had ducks on it the first time we visited.  Skye loves to swim there, but today she got a load of duckweed in her coat.  That is going to take some time.  Either a lot of time to remove it or a long time to grow the hair back after she gets trimmed.  As of this writing it appears to be some of each.

On the way back a pair of horses and riders came up from behind us.  Skye had been looking around like there was something out there but we had not seen them yet.  I had seen them across a couple ridges as we sat resting by a wellhead.  I heard voices and saw movement but had not recognized that they were horses.  We had been taking about not having seen any horses yet in Empire.  We usually do.  

We haven’t seen any antelope yet either.  Nor deer.  Just cows, and not a lot of them.

Prairie Dog checking us out

Earless lizard, found dried out in the road

Thirsty, and lazy, dog

Pontia Protodice

Now this is permanent fencing.  Steel pipe fence welded to the post.

With a support post also welded to the primary post