Two mornings ago, as Phoebe and I were on our “constitutional”, what to our wondering eyes did we see but two beautiful white tailed deer prancing about 40 yards in front of us, then to cross the road and bounded into the trees on the other side.  As I watched their beautiful tails hopping through the trees, I felt close to nature.  Phoebe was oblivious, but perhaps that was good, I can just imagine her on the chase, with me on the chase behind her.

Later that same day, I headed out to the high school, which is 29 miles, by the way, for the first time on my own.  Darting out in front of me was a pheasant, he (or she) looked like the Road Runner – tail up as it “ran” on it’s two feet across the road.  I almost had my dinner – missed him...  Oh well, I know I’d not be into defeathering a bird. 

I’m told there are some buffalo on a ranch on the way to the schools, but so far they have eluded me, sending out their brethren cows in their stead.  I’m sure I will see them eventually.

Speaking of buffalo, on Monday I trekked into town, the 2500 people town, where I stopped at the dry-cleaner-pick-up-drop-off-café-pharmacy store.  I decided to eat at the café since it was dinner time – it was very clean and rather quaint.  No wine…whine, whine.  I wanted to try the buffalo burger, which I did.  I can’t say I would need to have one again, it’s very lean, hence no fat, hence better for you, thus not my favorite.  It was good though, but I would generally prefer the higher caloric cow version, which I’m sure buffalo may be quite appreciative of.

New culture shocks came in the form of tics attaching themselves onto Phoebe’s fur – so far I’ve been able to capture them before they buried in.  Yuck.  Now I know we had tics in Wisconsin, but given that we were in the center of city, with sidewalks and very manicured lawns everywhere, we just never ran into them.  I’ve also been told fleas are a problem.  Great.

I tried to take some pictures of some of the river homes, but being the “talented” photographer that I am, my finger was on the lens so I will have to try again.  Here’s one, the Missouri river in Chamberlain.

This next one cracked me up.  I’d never seen a flower pot tree before, so I had to take a picture of it.

I learned recently that not all reservation schools have dorms, apparently many of the kids here come from afar, some even from other states.  The parents apply, I guess, and send their kids when openings occur.

I also learned that here attempting suicide is against the (tribal) law.  I try to keep my preconceived notions back as much as I can, since I’m really ignorant of the ways of reservation life.  I know there are no psychiatric hospitals, and I guess if it’s jail or a completed suicide, then jail seems a much better option.

Tomorrow we’re having a good-bye lunch potluck for X who, as I mentioned, is going to another reservation to be the CEO.  I wasn’t told until today, being so new I wasn’t in the loop.  Great!  There just aren’t a lot of food options out here unless I drive the 40 minutes round trip to town.  Well, so much looking up some great recipe in Bon Appetit, even if I drove to town I wouldn’t find the ingredients for fancy-schmancy recipes like Bon Appetit.  Casting my usual perfectionism aside, I’ll have to see what I can do.  It will be food anyway.

It’s turned warm again today, very pleasant without a sweater or coat this afternoon.  And that’s it for this time from Little House on the Reservation…