A prairie walk...

 

Hubby and I drove out to Chuck's to check on the yearling ewes and their babies.  They seem very content, and the lambs look quite healthy and strong.  There is just something about seeing ewes and new lambs on the green prairie that thrills my heart.

 

Do you remember that part of our pastures burned up in a prairie fire last summer?  If you don't, click here to see it.  The May rains have brought the grass up and blanketed the bare ground with green goodness.  The sage brush and prickly pear that were once there are gone, and all that's left is a green prairie meadow.  We probably won't turn out any livestock here until late in the fall so the grass can mature and set seed.

 

 

 

After looking around at Chuck's and Gramma's Pastures, Hubs decided to move the cows and calves that we just branded out to the North Pastures.  While he pushed them northward, I got out and walked for a good half hour or so and enjoyed the sights.  I didn't realize it until I got home, but the mosquitoes enjoyed my tender neck meat.  (itchy itchy itch)

 

I wish I could have recorded the sounds of the meadowlarks and buntings trilling and the frogs croaking along the creek.  And then there was the pungent, woodsy aroma of the sagebrush that you can't experience without being there.

I did capture this Western Meadowlark giving his all in full operatic voice.  I found a place where you can listen here.

 

The Gumbo Lily (below) is what this blog is named for.  It's a prairie dweller that prefers the clay gumbo soil and only makes an appearance once during the early spring.  Normally the blooms last a very short time so if we don't get to the gumbo pastures at just the right time, we often miss the gumbo lilies blooming.  There were a very few left in bloom.

  

A little further down there were cool, clear waters.  What a sight!  It was once a parched, dry land, and now it is a refreshing, life-giving green pasture.

"For waters will break forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert.  And the scorched land will become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water... the redeemed will walk there, and the ransomed of the Lord will return, and come with joyful shouting..."  ~Isiaiah 35:6,7,9,10

Thank you, Lord, for your gifts.