Time Flies

Forgive me; this is going to get a little sentimental. Today we attended my daughter’s 5th grade graduation celebration. She’s closing the chapter on her elementary years and moving onto middle school. With most of life’s milestones, I am able to roll over them without much friction, but this one is hitting a little harder than the “first tooth” and the “no training wheels bike ride”. She’s growing up and she is doing a fine job. She is a wonderfully delightful young lady. As a mother I am constantly second guessing my parenting but I have no choice but to trudge onward and continue doing the best I can. She’s taken huge steps towards the independent direction but there are … Read More

Mothers Day

I’m not sure it’s possible to have a better weekend. Aside from it being Mother’s Day weekend, and having a delightfully wonderful daughter and pretty much the best mom on the planet, I also was able to sneak in a hike and wrapped up the weekend with something so unexpectedly amazing I sincerely questioned whether or not I was awake or dreaming. _________________________________ F R I D A Y _________________________________ Anna (my daughter) and I kicked off the weekend with another evening drive out east of town. It was a pretty typical drive, but it did afford us a shower in a decent rain storm and a glimpse of some new-to-this-earth animals who were as fresh as they were cute. … Read More

Cheyenne River and Beyond

I’ve been in the herd of buffalo at the Wild Idea Buffalo Ranch countless times before and it is never anything less than a mind blowing experience. But this weekend I got to experience the herd one on one – just me and them (and a 4 wheeler). I quickly jotted down notes as Jill told me, over the phone, which gates to go through and what direction to go to get to the buffalo. I didn’t really need to, I was so hungry for the experience, it seemed that her words just seared themselves in my brain. I took the long way to the ranch from HWY 79 onto the Lower Spring Creek Road. I stopped to snap a shot or two along … Read More

Fly By

Its snowing again… Its April 21st… I’m over it. Yesterday though, was a gift. It was supposed to rain but it held off long enough for the sun to come out and melt off a majority of what we were given earlier in the week. Signs of spring are everywhere, but no where more than with in the mysterious dances of our feathered friends. I took a drive with my mom through the back roads to the north east of us and then a second trip into the woods with my cousin to find the blue birds. I’m not sure why its all about birds right now, but it seems to be regardless of intent. I’m enjoying my time with them though. … Read More

Chasing Meadowlarks

Once again, the question arose; “Do I want to go hills or plains?” this time though, the sky made the decision for me. Usually when I’m facing this decision I am trying to figure out which way to head out of town, but yesterday I was trying to decide which way to drive home from Spearfish. I looked towards the Black Hills and they were covered with grey flat clouds, to the east the sky was broken, brightly contrasted between the deep thick dark blue storm clouds and the bright white where the sun was trying to break through. You could just tell that was where the cool stuff was. I used the GPS on my phone to suggest a … Read More

Magic Ice

Last year, somewhere around the end of March, a group of us ventured out in search of some water to throw our kayaks in. For some reason, we thought Deerfield Lake (the coldest, highest lake in the Black Hills) was the best place to go. First we stopped off at Flag Mountain to stretch our legs and enjoy a good view. There we noticed we could see all the way to the lake and were heartbroken by its very obvious still-frozen-ness. We decided that there was no harm in venturing down there anyway and took the road through Reynolds Prairie and down to the Northwest side of the lake. To our delight, we were greeted with a roughly 6-10 foot ribbon of water … Read More

Ooops…

I dont know about you but I am ready for spring. Its not to say I’m not thoroughly enjoying my adventures out into the elements, but today we had a pretty close brush with vulnerability I could have done with out. When Amy got in the van I simply said, “Hills or Prairie?” To which she replied “prairie.” We decided the best route would be south on HWY 79 and then east on Lower Spring Creek Road. The occasional snow drift across the road didn’t get to bad until we were pretty much all the way out into Nowhere. You see, out there there is not much to block the wind or anything that might get caught up in it. Last week it was dust, this … Read More