Seeding and Scenery

Here's some photos I took over the past week or two, which I have interspersed with some writing and updates on what we are up to! Enjoy! 

The deer have been in our yard quite a bit lately.  There are tracks and droppings EVERYWHERE! I caught a small door in the driveway at dusk about a week ago.  I'm still surprised she held still long enough to pose for a photo. 

The light in the fall is always so lovely, especially at sunrise and sunset. 

In the end, Jeff and Tom were able to seed a little winter wheat in between rain events. We won't have as much winter wheat as we did last year, proportionally.  As a reminder to my readers who are not from a wheat farming area, winter wheat is planted in the fall. It sprouts (hopefully) and grows a little bit, then the cold winter freezes it off. The freezing process is essential for the wheat to then sprout again in the spring. 

On the first day of seeding, Harvey and I rode with Jeff in the drill out to the field, then we walked back to the house. Here, Harvey is showing his elation at being outside and running free.  Harvey's coloring always seems to me to be complementary to the golden colors of fall, of sunshine and sky on wheat stubble. 

Jeff is driving the tractor which is pulling the air drill which is seeding the winter wheat into the ground simultaneously with fertilizer.  We plant into fields that have been fallow the previous growing season.  The air drill facilitates easier seeding directly into the stubble.  

Harvey is always hunting, whenever we are outside.  He can't help himself from sniffing out game birds, even with minimal training.  Here, on our walk back from the field, Harvey is perfectly "on point." On command, he flushed out a group of Hungarian Partridge, or "Huns," as we call them.  I do think it's fitting that my Hungarian Vizsla is so lucky to hunt Hungarian Partridge in our northern Montana prairies. 

The other dog that occasionally accompanies us about our day is Noppi.  Noppi is our landlord's dog, so whenever Stan is out, so is Noppi.  Noppi can be a bit slow to warm up to new people, but once he gets to know you, he's pretty swell to have around.  In this picture, he is again displaying his feistiness by NOT posing for a photo.  I think he was mad at me because we weren't going on a walk after all.   

The first snow of the season coats the Hills.  We finished seeding winter wheat right before it snowed.  In fact, the rain began while Jeff was just finishing up on our fields. It never snowed at our lower altitude, which I think makes the snow on the Hills even more striking.