Ten on a Scale of Ten (5/24/14)

Saturday morning had JR and I waking with the sun to the call of the sandhill cranes that have taken residence in our back pasture.  The weather has been perfect and we’ve been sleeping with the windows open.  After a slow rise of watching the golden sun light up the tall green prairie grass, I peeked out the window to check on the baby horse.  I saw his Mama by the fence, but no baby.  Odd, since he’s never far from her.  Then, I spotted a brown speck in the pasture grass, on the wrong side of the fence!  It was then I knew the baby was a boy!  Two days in and he’s making mischief!  Mama was not happy.

We called our neighbor and the three of us went over to corral the baby.  We walked to the back of the pasture, took apart some of the smooth fence to make an opening, and coaxed him back in.  He didn’t take the easy way, but he did get back in with no harm done.  It was a pretty great start to the day.

After breakfast, my wonderful husband took on the task of putting the kayak carrier together while I gathered our gear.  In an hour, the boat was loaded and we were off to East Rosebud Lake for the first voyage of the year.  Look at the setup!

Oh yeah!

For years and years I gasped every time I saw a car with a boat on top.  I always thought, “I bet they are going somewhere fun!”  Now, it’s us!

In less than an hour, we were at the lake and I was in the water.  JR was throwing a stick in the lake for Scarlett to retrieve.  She hasn’t been swimming for awhile since winter came so early last year.  She just thrashed and thrashed in the water.  If you were within five feet of her, you were getting wet.  Good grief.  We have a water dog that thrashes instead of swims.  She does this thing where, at first, she only uses her front legs.  Goodness, if anyone saw, they would have thought we were trying to drown our dog.  I left JR to the embarrassment of having a Labrador Retriever that is unable to swim.  Hello?  You are a WATER DOG.  Timber?  Can we get a hand here?

Hmmmm, how does this work again?

Here she is thrashing, figuring it out, then doing this thing she does every time she gets out of the water where she shoves her head in the ground and walks around.  Weird.

Shortly after I got on the water, it started to rain.

Thanks Uncle Terry!

What did I think an hour earlier?  It’s so sunny, I don’t need to bring my rain jacket.  Out on the water, I was thinking how light my rain jacket is, and how it wouldn’t have killed me to stow it in my hatch so I could be warm and dry.  Oh well.  I paddled twenty minutes or so back to shore and we loaded the boat but hung around to see if the sun would return.  The sun did return and with it, Scarlett’s senses also returned and she was swimming like a champ.

Fortunately, it turned into a nice afternoon.

JR got in on the action, too.

Better than nice, really.  A day that included a dream coming true is better than just “nice.”  Let me explain.  I think we have covered, in previous posts, that I was VERY excited to get Scarlett and also VERY excited to get my kayak.  Now, what could be better than having my Beloved Katie Scarlett swimming along side me in my kayak?  Not too much.  As I was paddling back in, I called out to her.  She stood up very tall, looking very excited, and JR told her to go get me.  And, out she swam!  I turned around and off we went, side-by-side.  I’m pretty sure we both enjoyed it.  I know I did.

Best Buds

From the looks of it, Scarlett didn’t want to leave either.

Don’t worry my girl, we will be back very soon.

Related posts:

Kayak! East Rosebud Lake (9/8/2013) Cooney State Park Reservoir (9/11/2013) Bull (9-14-14) Our So-Called Pond (9-16-14)