Here's Gina on Red, with more of the ranch house behind her. Julie is on the other side of the horse.

Here's Mary on Red. Behind her you can see the view out of the kitchen and from the upstairs deck. It is also where we pull out the lawn chairs at night and enjoy some adult beverages and watch for shooting stars. One of the most amazing things about being at the ranch is the view of the stars at night. There's very little in the way of ground light and the climate lends itself to clear night skies, and for city folk, it's always impressive to see the vast wash of stars in the sky. The milky way really is the milky way.

The sky's big, too; our last night at the ranch this year, everyone else had gone to bed, and I was about to turn in. I turned off the TV and the last of the lights downstairs, when I notices flashes of light out the window. Of course I immediately thought what anyone would think: UFOs. Actually, I did think that for a second, but I had been drinking heavily all day. I walked outside to see what it was, and while the sky was clear overhead, to the north there was a monstrous dome of cloud that was flashing like a midway ride. You couldn't hear a sound, since the storm was probably a hundred miles away, but you could see all of the lightning, flashing and popping at the rate of several times a second. Awesome.