morning rides

Thanks to the fact that the levee is being repaired, I can get close to the Missouri River once again.

Click to make this picture larger and you'll see a heron taking flight.

The dozer men have made big headway with their repair work.

Of course, I was much too early to find anybody operating the bulldozers.

I often wonder how farmers get their rows so straight.

It's pretty darned hot, even at 5 A.M., for a ride. But that's when I've been going because it doesn't get any cooler as the day wears on. Yesterday I rode later, and was sorry of it. The temperatures were already sweat-inducing.

On that ride yesterday, I met up with an older couple in their pickup near the levee, heading out of the bottoms.

Pulling over, Cordie rolled down her window and told me with a smile, "I'm trapping 'coons."

Turns out she's been trapping them in her garden and bringing them to the river bottoms to turn them loose.

"They're terrible this year. You have corn in your garden?" Raccoons are notorious for ruining sweet corn crops.

"No, but they're taking my ripe tomatoes right off the vine!"

"They need shooting," I told her.

"I know," she agreed, "but nobody will show me how to shoot the gun!"

So this morning I noticed, from a distance behind the levee, Cordie's pickup. I saw her get out and go to the back end of the bed, and I knew what she was doing. As she and her husband headed away, Blue and I saw a half-grown raccoon cross our path in the distance, heading rapidly toward the river.