Finally was able take the drive with Luc I have been waiting all summer to go on.   It is only five miles with several steep hills which had worried me a bit especially because Luc is so young for this kind of a workout. Also because of harvest and fall field work, I did not want to us to get run over by a fertilizer truck.   Anyway, our good weather was about to take a turn for the worse so decided today after work was the day.   It was in the high 60's and sunny.
Luc took everything in stride even though this was his first time out on this stretch of road that drops in and out of canyons.   We only had to pull over for one rest stop on a steep stretch which was good.   Traffic was light, we were passed by one pickup pulling a horse trailer and one fertilizer truck coming towards us that fishtailed in the gravel as he tried to slow down.   He managed to get to far off the road bed and almost lost control of his heavy load....from those two we received a couple of pretty good dirt dustings.

Luc loves to do a road gate trot and at one point coming down a very gentle slope he was going so fast he broke into a gallop.   I brought him back into the extended trot and then slowed to a walk.   He is so light and works great on just voice commands.

The hay fields are greening up again from recent rains and the bright green carpet of the fall rape crop blanketed the rolling hills.  The wheat stubble fields have faded from bright golden to a pale yellow.   The creeks were laughing and talking to us as we rested on the bridges.   We drove past rich black freshly turned prairie soil, some of which will rest until spring and some that has been fertilized and planted.   We could see tiny green sprouts poking their heads out of the soil as we looked down the rows.   The air had the light smell of wood smoke to it with an almost black smoky haze resting on the dark blue mountains far off on the distant horizon.   The buzz of bees and flies darting around filled the air at every stop.   The hawks made lazy circles overhead screeching at us until they got bored and flew off.  We could see cows lying on the rocky hillsides chewing their cuds and soaking up the last warm rays of sunlight.   It was fun watching Luc standing on the hilltops surveying his kingdom and taking in all it's splendor.   At one point we could hear the faint braying of his best buddy who was left on guard duty at home.

The tugs slapped the shaves of the cart making a delightful sound as we headed down the hills and everything came back into line and quieted down as we climbed upwards. I did stop and loosen the britchin; it looked and felt too tight as we were headed towards our first downhill stretch. Wow, What an afternoon. What even made it better; Jim pulled in behind us as we were coming up the driveway and pitched right in to help unhitch...what a sweetie.

Luc got lots of hugs and atta boys...sure hope Indian summer continues on
for many more weeks. Just wanted to share our feelin' good afternoon..