Kansas

Long, dusty country roads

In some ways, Kansas isn't too far removed from South Dakota - well, except it's usually about 10-15' warmer - they both have seemingly endless miles of gravel-bounded farmland and fields and lots of friendly people.  In places it seems as if you can see forever on a clear day - or at least the 10+ miles to the next small-town-with-elevator.  Whoever dubbed them the skyscrapers of the prairie certainly had it right!

Drifts of milo

 You do see more wheat and milo (grain sorghum)  than in SD, but there's also a lot of corn.

Wheat stubble

The view driving into town never gets old - and T keeps telling me spring and summer are even better color-wise.  The sunsets - and sunrises - are certainly spectacular.

Right out our bedroom window

Sunrise over tank batteries

Oil well

Of course KS has a few more oil wells and accompanying tank batteries storing oil and separated-off salt water - they don't smell so pretty.  But like hogs, it's the smell of money....  Luckily, there aren't any real close to us.

What is close to us, and which I can't wait to explore with the ponies is an absolutely gorgeous "dead mile" - well, not really a dead mile, since there's actually no track.  It's more a huge, unfenced swath of rolling prairie that stretches for a mile north and a couple miles(?) east. 

Just screams, "Come ride here!" doesn't it?

This gate is just over a mile up the road to the north.  T knows the owner and I'm crossing my fingers and planning a neighborly delivery of fresh baked goods that he won't mind if we leave a few hoofprints across it.

Mule deer

I'm guessing we'll scare up at least a few of deer, too.  For sure, there's no shortage.

Next trip down we work on corrective fencing and pony-proofing the barn area.  The existing fence is barb-wire, so the plan is to run electric around the inside perimeter to keep them off of it.  There are some trees that need to be trimmed up, and a few deadfalls that need to be cleared.

Barn, northeast side

The barn loft opens to the south - we'll need to clean out a bunch of old hay, but I'm told that needs to wait until it gets cold so that any snakes - yep, we'll be waiting until it's FREEZING! - are dormant.

The metal building is an old granary/equipment storage space.  It's sound and appears to need only minimal cleaning out, but I haven't done too much poking around inside yet.

Barn, northwest side

Doors to the barn are on the west - it opens out onto a series of sorting corrals, which right at the moment are wall-to-wall weeds.  A clean-out priority.  The old stocktank in the picture is part of a large and highly varied collection of metal junk that needs to be loaded up and hauled away, but that's a ways down my to-be-accomplished list at present.