Easter sunrise, with witnesses.

It was cold when the heeler sisters and I left this morning. All of 19 degrees. The puddles of water that had managed to melt from snow yesterday were covered with ice.

Made the second run of the standardized lek route in the desert, and got all five leks counted in plenty of time, with no harassing eagles in sight. Total count was 179 cocks, 13 hens. Hens were still sticking around fairly late in the morning, hoping to get lucky, but the peak of hens definitely passed with the passing moon.

Then it was off to check four other leks, and the location of a fifth, which has a new gas well pad prepared for drilling just 430 meters away (or, 0.267 miles, which is just 0.017 miles farther than the minimum). This will be the only gas well for miles around. It's not like they had to stick it that close.

The company just chose to.

Anyway, got home in time to kiss the wife before she and the boys headed off to Mass, and the heelers and I got to settle in to enjoy the Sunday paper and the smell of pig butt.

Mmmmm. Roasting pig butt.

That's "baked ham" to those of you without heelers.