landscapes of Western Nebraska

A Spot for Dennis

The owner-editor of Nebraska Life Magazine called me the other night. It’s been years since we’ve chatted, and I can’t remember how long ago he moved his family from Nebraska. His publishing company produces slick travel magazines featuring local people, places, and things to do, accompanied by superb photography. So, the magazines are not tossed […]

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snow covered gravel road in Nebraska against the golden pasture grass

On the Cusp

Between the Seasons We are on the cusp between seasons, from Autumn to Winter. In Nebraska, we have entered the snow and cold, with an occasional rain season. Here, the wind blows constantly, sometimes gently and other times with gusts from the sudden heaves of breath that the sky exhales as it sighs. I wonder,

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Custom Cutters already taking the wheat from the fields

Our Daily Bread

It’s Wheat Harvest Season. This may be my favorite time of the year –or one of many. Checking the wheat for harvest. It has been a difficult wait for the grain to mature. This summer brought lots of rain, and the grain slowly matured. Finally, in mid-August, the time is ripe with excitement in the

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June came and now…. GONE!

Wet, Wild, and Wonderful. June came through here fast and furious with all the furor Nature could bring. Inches of rain poured down upon the land. Wheat, alfalfa, and pasture grasses drank up the moisture as fast as she could send it. We have been suffering from drought for several years. June proved to be

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Cottonwood trees loosing their cotton

Dentist, Cicada and Me

I looked like a mess. My shirt was thoroughly wrinkled, and my hair stuck out in every direction, but I went out the door looking like this anyway. My 4×4 TrailBlazer, well, that, too, needed to be washed. Several inches of mud coated the inside of its wheel wells, the side panels, and the inner

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Ponderosa Pine and Nebraska Prairie

Life on The Edge

I live on The Edge.  My home is on the edge —where the prairie meets the forest. Here, the Sandhills border farmlands. Wildlife and domestic cross along the same game trails. I climb to the top of the sandstone buttes behind my home. There, I can see far to the north, more than 50 miles,

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John Deer pulling the hay spreader for cattle

The Cowboy and the Farmgirl

Since spring is happening on the prairie, it is also in young men and women’s hearts and thoughts. It is hard to find a partner when there are more cows than people. Most of the time is spent riding fence lines or planting for the future of the land, be it corn or pasture hay.

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Mariah

Nearly every day, I listen to Mariah. Her voice — constant, from a light breeze to a fierce energy-pummeling force. She carries dust, dirt, snow, and rain; occasionally, she lightly drifts in with the softest of whispers, gently stroking the prairie grasses along her path. But today, she descends upon the landscape. Spring is here,

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West Ash Creek Fire racing across Nebraska Pine Ridge National Forest

Fire!

The fires came over our ridge like an ocean wave with intense undertow, sucking back and drawing a breath from the smokey sky creating an enormous swell along the entire length of Little Wolf Ridge, As the fire crested more than 100 feet above Chimney Butte, “I could feel the heat of the fire burn on

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