The view outside my truck window.

Allll day loooong. But you'll notice the asphalt is wet. We had one heck of a storm come through around three o'clock in the morning, complete with rolling thunder (wife got up to check on heelers, found the little maskless one downstairs in the office, under the desk). Besides cooling everything off and settling the dust, the rain also did a wonderful job of cleaning off my highway pullout, which some travelers use as a latrine.

First antelope came through at 08:47.

He may not have been the biggest of the day, but certainly had the prettiest prongs.

Now, I've had a lot of dead wildlife brought through my stations over the years. Antelope, mule deer, whitetail deer, elk, moose, black bear, bighorn sheep, coyote, fox, squirrels, rabbits, rattlesnakes, grouse, quail, ducks, geese, grebes, turkey, pheasants, coots, even a caribou. But today was something new.

A woodrat. Bushy-tailed woodrat to be exact. Kind of the chinchilla of our desert, commonly known as a packrat. People weren't even hunting. Just a man and his grandson out mountain biking, and their dogs ran down and killed this gentle critter. Brought it in so I could tell them what it was.

This...

is what the heeler sisters thought of the day. Luckily for them, the wife was helping serve at the United Way breakfast (where she and I had dined earlier), so they were rescued from their boredom (and the wind) around noon.

The bucks between me and town were at it again.

Taunting each other back and forth across the highway. The smaller presumably hoping to get the larger buck hit by traffic so he could steal his harem of does.

There is something dead in the draw west of my station.

Judging by the frequent visits by turkey vultures (buzzards), crows and ravens, I am sure of it. And the masked heeler's raised nose when the wind came from that direction. Told the local warden, but his only concern was whether any coyotes had come in to it for him to shoot.

I hope it isn't somebody human.

Today was my first day wearing one of our brand new "badges".

Despite my specific request for number 13, boss sent me "007". Like this makes you look suave and debonair like James Bond. I'm pretty sure the top enforcement boss rejected the first bunch of badges because they looked too good, and selected these just because they make us non-enforcement types look ridiculous.

Especially when they're flapping in the wind.

A visiting warden pointed out my new decoration to a hunter we had stopped. I asked the man...

Would you like a towel, sir? Cologne?

He didn't get the joke. Maybe because it's on us.

Missed my check station pets in the morning. They were all feeding one draw over. But by afternoon, most had drifted our way for dinner.

This doe had quite a limp in her front left, but was still taking good care of herself and her fawn.

Almost quitting time...

Wait for it... wait for it...

Okay. That's Venus in the western sky.

We go home now.