Going, going, gone

Day 2 of the tree thinning and meadow restoration of the 7MSN ranch was equally as exciting as Day 1. 

Were it not for the deadlines imposed by my paying job, I could easily have spent the entire day 

raptly watching as the Hydro-Ax made mincemeat out of my trees.

Witnessing a machine chew up and swallow a tree in less than five minutes never gets old.

And seeing the vistas open up, and imagining the shredded trees decomposing and enriching the soil, 

and the grass growing ... what can I say? It's every rancher woman's dream.

As if this weren't enough excitement for one week, Mr. Herbicide Sprayer 

will arrive today to commence the eradication of this year's crop of locoweed.

So last night, in the blessed drizzling rain, I marked the areas he would need to spray. 

I started out with 100 cute little yellow flags and used up every stinkin' one

outlining the patches of locoweed.

I took a crayon and a printout of Google Earth's satellite view of the ranch with me

so I could also plot the locoweed patches on a map.

Call me obsessive-compulsive. You wouldn't be the first to do so.

Heaven forbid Mr. Locoweed Sprayer should miss a spot.

Anyway, between the lumberjacks and the locoweed and two sick cats this week, 

I've been a little pre-occupied and distracted.

Which is my excuse for driving through the electric fence gate last night at the conclusion of my locoweed-marking expedition. 

Whoops. Thank goodness that a) the fence was turned off, b) the rollbars got slapped in the face instead of me,
c) I had my camera with me to document my stupidity, and d) enough rain fell that there was mud on the tires.