The close of the day on Saturday brought a friend from across the valley for dinner.\u00c2\u00a0 Amy had called earlier while we were hiking, to ask if she might come over to charge her phone.\u00c2\u00a0 Apparently the fuel pump had gone out on her truck in the morning, and she was without transportation, and thought it would be helpful if she wasn’t also without phone charge.\u00c2\u00a0 Well, obviously that was no problem, and we had a wonderful time of fellowship around the campfire.\u00c2\u00a0 Interestingly, she told us the tale of how she had seen a coyote up on her side of the valley going after a mama and her calf, and how she had grabbed her .22 and shot into the air, which sent the cows running.\u00c2\u00a0 The coyote stuck around a little too long though, and she shot it and heard it yelping as it ran off down into the valley.<\/p>\n
It was getting darker, and colder, so we sent Amy on her way in our Suburban, so she wouldn’t be without wheels until her truck gets fixed.\u00c2\u00a0 As she was rolling down the driveway, I noticed out of the corner of my eye that Sissy was eagerly bounding down toward the middle of the valley, and I thought that a little odd since usually the dogs are most eager to escort our guests, with many a bark, all the way to the gate and beyond.\u00c2\u00a0 It was only a moment before I realized what she must be after… the wind came up, and she caught the scent of that dead coyote!\u00c2\u00a0 I hollered to Laurent to catch that dog before she rolled in it again<\/strong><\/em>, and soon everybody was headed down the hill to see what had set up such a stink.<\/p>\n I wisely stayed upwind to take a picture of it.\u00c2\u00a0 It was decidedly gross and artistically uninspiring, so I was much relieved to move on from there and begin to capture as much golden beauty as I could before the sun sank below the western horizon.\u00c2\u00a0 Paul and I walked down to the gate to close it up behind our guest, and took a few pics of Geneva as she cleared tumbleweeds that had collected between the fence and her fort.<\/p>\n The last pics of the day caught some painterly hues upon the clouds… and early on Sunday morning, as we drove out of the ranch to go home, the sunrise in the east provided one last joyous burst of color to send us on our way.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n