Check Please!

Check please!
I'll gladly take a "check" when it involves riding 4-wheelers on a beautiful summer morning ...

... especially when it's with this guy!

The "check" involved trips to two pastures to see if the cattle were doing OK in their summer vacation spots. The fences were in place, and the calves and their mamas seemed to be thriving.

We did find an extra inhabitant. (The bull on the left in the photo below was an uninvited guest. I never would have known. He looked right at home to me.)

A neighbor's bull seemed to think we were having a better party on our side of the fence, so he joined in.

While we were waiting on reinforcements to arrive, we took the 4-wheelers down to a bridge for another photo op.

But after our best efforts to encourage him to part with his new friends - our cow-calf pairs and our own bulls - he wanted to make himself at home. Even with two more 4-wheelers added to the round-up crew, we eventually gave up, and our neighbor called a cowboy to round him up and take him home.

But really: Who'd want to leave this place?

The dam at the Ninnescah is always a picturesque place.

But so are the venues with no rushing waters.

Randy sometimes teases me about the "flowers" I like. But at least he didn't call these pretty pinkish-purple flowers weeds. (I couldn't find them on my online Kansas wildflower guide, so if you know what they are, please let me know.)

As the day got a little warmer, the cattle decided to take a swim. Who could blame them?

But we still had one more location to check. Our pasture on the Rattlesnake is lush after our spring rains.

Pretty views of the creek were a lot easier to find than the cattle.

They were trying to escape the heat and the flies by hiding out in the plum thickets

I think I would have preferred a dip in the water.