A rancher's life on the Great Plains, South Dakota, Black Hills, social life and customs. The owl in the dark -- Sonata for horses -- Blues for shoveling horse manure -- Reckoning the cost of a dead steer -- Lightning strikes the white heifer -- Looking for the dark : buffalo winter -- Beekeeper -- Badger's business -- Looking for death : the deer harvest -- The young cow : going back to grass -- Looking for the light : the elk in the aspen -- Climbing into the bull pen -- Nighthawks fly in thunderstorms -- Looking for life : fire in the wildlife pasture -- Badger's daughter.