Thanksgiving Outing

Beef: It's what for dinner.

That's more than a marketing slogan here on The County Line. Because we raise beef and that's what's in our freezer, it's most often on the table. 

But Thanksgiving was going to be turkey for two, with all the trimmings. 

And then we had beef for dinner anyway - sort of. A phone call from a neighbor revealed that we had cattle out. 

Grrrr! We were having beef for dinner in a different way.

Randy hopped on the 4-wheeler. I had a warmer job. I used the pickup to block from the road. Randy says he almost got stuck several times in the snow-saturated fields, but he managed to work his way out of the predicament. 

 

Eventually, they were back in the corral. Mission accomplished.

And Randy worked on fixing fence.

The turkey kept roasting while we chased cattle. And after I got back to the house and slid the dressing into the oven and turned the burner on for the potatoes, we only ate an hour late.

It's probably just as well that Covid-19 kept us at home this year. (I keep trying to find the silver linings, OK?)

The Little Things in the Big Picture

The vastness of the prairie landscape is undeniable. On a recent morning, isolated lightning flashed in the distance and the rumble of thunder punctuated the undertone of insect song. The trill of a bird in a nearby shelterbelt joined in the morning serenade. 

It looks big and vast. And, yet, if one looks closely, there are treasures. Some - like the Kansas sunflower - are big and bold, splashing bright yellow against an azure blue, cotton-cloud sky.

But even those bigger blooms reveal a smaller secret upon close examination. The dewy morning had left behind tiny droplets of moisture, enhancing it like a necklace decorating a model's delicate neck.

Likewise, the snow on the mountain wildflowers so prevalent this year rise above the shorter green grasses, swaying in the Kansas breeze.

Earlier, we had driven 4-wheelers across CRP grass and pasture vegetation attempting to get some wayward cows and their calves back in our pasture - AGAIN! And while the cattle lumbering along the fence line were my primary focus, I caught flashes of blue and purple and yellow, hidden in the underbrush below the 4-wheeler tires.

Unfortunately, these escapees have been the motivation for many a morning - and evening - ride on the 4-wheelers. And while I can't say that I've been happy about the disruption to my schedule OR the phone calls about our wayward cattle OR their unwelcome brunching on the neighbor's soybeans, the repeated excursions have revealed a bounty of treasures nestled in the prairie grasses.

Even though I've zoomed in tight to reveal each variety's intricate beauty, many are really quite small - some smaller than Randy's thumb nail.

I guess good things really do come in small packages.

It's kind of like that message on your car's rearview mirror: "Objects seen in the mirror may be closer than they appear."

I'll revise that to say, "Objects in these photos may be smaller than they appear."

 “Looking at morning dew serenading on the petals of flowers is an ecstatic moment. This makes us realize that it is the simple pleasures of life that give us the most happiness."

― Avijeet Da

Even those blooms surrounded by stickers or those fading after full bloom are beautiful in their own way.

 It just requires a closer look.

A visit to the Flint Hills during the National Master Farm Homemaker Guild convention at Manhattan in August revealed the same thing.

It's hard to capture the undulating roll of the tallgrass prairie via a camera lens.

The vastness can make us feel small in comparison.

But, yet again, the underlying beauty is there for the taking.

 

A Time to Think
Devotional from Guideposts

The simple act of stopping and looking at the beauty around us
 can be prayer.
 –Patricia Barrett, author

A Time to Act

Today notice the little things that make your day special.

 

A Time to Pray

Thank you Lord, that however small or seemingly insignificant our gifts,
You can weave them into Your glorious symphony.

I am beginning to learn
that it is the sweet, simple things of life
which are the real ones after all.
--Laura Ingalls Wilder

A "Steak" Out at the Ninnescah

With beauty like this, you'd think that creatures might want never to leave.

But we have five cow-calf pairs who keep exploring life outside the pasture fences. We've rounded them up and put them back. This story has been on repeat - morning and evening - for days. I told Randy we needed to do a "stake out" like on TV cop shows. Maybe this kind of surveillance is more appropriately a "steak" out.

Randy has spent a whole lot of time repairing fence, but once cattle have had their culinary equivalent of "prime rib" - in the form of tender soybean plants - they're willing to "leap tall buildings in a single bound" - or at least, hop some fences. Randy watched them do it while he was working on said fence.

This morning, our neighbor will bring his portable corrals and another helper. Hopefully, the four of us will complete the round-up successfully, and we'll take the five pair of offenders back home. Serves them right that they will be leaving the expansive pasture for a smaller lot at home, don't you think?

One night, we'd planned to go fishing at the Ninnescah. And even though it was delayed for a little while while we went back home for 4-wheelers and fencing supplies, we eventually dropped lines in the water.

Correction: Randy dropped lines in the water. I did more wandering and clicking shot after shot on my camera.

 I'd say we were both successful. Randy caught a 6-pound catfish. 

 

 He also caught a soft-shell turtle.

He released both the turtle and the fish back to the Ninnescah. 

And I captured a whole lot of beauty is a very unassuming place. 

These snow on the mountain wildflowers were abundant. They were beautiful whether close-up or with the lowering sun streaking across the prairie.

Because of our unexpected delay, we were there during the so-called photography "golden hour."

It's supposed to be an ideal time for photographs.

There's probably a good reason for the "golden hour" reputation.

There was time for a few more camera clicks as the sun sank lower ...

and lower ...

and lower.

It was a beautiful way to end a day.

I took the photos below the next morning to show that there are rule followers in every crowd. These cattle seem perfectly content to stay within the confines of the pasture fence. And, there is plenty to eat right there.

Let's hope they've avoid "talking" to the hooligans who are always out for an adventure.

Wish us luck getting those "repeat offenders" this morning!