It NEVER Slows Down

 We just haven't STOPPED!

So.... let's see.

I left you in Arkansas.

And then we drove and drove and drove and

FINALLY made it to Hays, Kansas.

The hotel we were planning on staying in was

SOLD OUT!

But there is a little clutch of hotels just off

the highway, so we picked a Sleep Inn.

It was nice, pretty new, clean, and a BED!

Ate some of our freeze dried food for dinner

and dropped off to sleep.

And woke to KANSAS!!

Showered, ate a hotel breakfast and headed out.

First we came to the little town of WaKeeney.

There is a cute little white house Kyle has

been looking at on Zillow. So we peeked in

all the windows. The house is adorable!

The yard is long and SKINNY.

With a privacy fence it wouldn't be bad.

And then on to the ranch.

It was a really bad year everywhere in the country.

Hot, dry, hot....

so it was SUPER brown.

The man who was leasing it looks like he pulled

his cattle off about a month ago.

(judging by the state of the cow pies...)

He has a section fenced off with temp hot wire

and I expect he will come back and hay it.

It's different from what we are used to!

That's for SURE!

But it has its own form of beauty.

Rolling hills, deep(ish) valleys.

Sporadic trees here and there for shade.

A good well with a solar pump and a large stock tank.

The water is actually really clean and clear.

There is some algae on the bottom and a little floating

on the top, but it's about 90% clear.

I pushed the little float down until the pump started.

The water runs cold and clear.

Kyle tasted it - no sulphur. Tastes good.

Not mountain water, but not Florida water either. (UGH!)

I lifted the float back up so it stopped.

Didn't need it to refill the whole tank.

There was even a random piece of "yard art".

An old Emerson plow!

And the old foundation of some sort of small building.

Fun to imagine what used to be there.

And the most wicked trees I have ever seen in my life!

Those are HUGE spikes!

I should have taken a picture with my hand,

but I didn't want to get that close!

It's big, and open, and OURS.

And now I have to get my zoom started.