Be Proud Walking

Walk the good road my daughter, and the buffalo herds wide and dark as cloud shadows moving over the prairie will follow you…. Be dutiful, respectful, gentle and modest, my daughter. And proud walking. If the pride and virtue of the women are lost, spring will come but the buffalo trails will turn to grass. [...]

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What ARE These Things?

The insect I know. It’s the larval form of a ladybug. But what is the spotted hard-shelled immobile creature? What on earth is that miniature albino zucchini that’s attached to the body of the cute green caterpillar? Here’s another view of it. Ignore my ragged cuticles and dirty, uncut fingernails. We found lots of elm [...]

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Our Newest Temporary Pets

Meet Curly and Flicker

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One Moment

We were back at the pond today searching for tadpoles, and after a while, I squatted down in among the reeds and tall marshy grasses, ostensibly to take photos, but mostly because I just wanted to. I wish I could have captured the feeling of being there, warm in the sun, amid the rustlings and [...]

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Tadpole Hunting

Our tadpole habitat is all set up. It’s quite a palace for the one tadpole we managed to find today. After we replaced the leaking ten dollar tank we got at the used pet supply store with a better ten dollar tank, R hauled up some river water. T and J dragged a few pails [...]

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Owl Pellet

Dissecting this owl pellet was the highlight of the morning. At least for Jay. Tee was more interested in the book he was reading. I’m pretty sure that the skeleton was of a mouse, not a rat, based on the size of it, but it still had very impressive incisors. Jay squealed with excitement at [...]

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Bird Watching

For the last two weeks or so, I’ve noticed a pair of crows in our yard. They’re interesting to watch because they have regular habits, and if you watch them often enough, they start to seem almost like flying people, unlike the song birds that hop about in little twittering groups. One crow starts off [...]

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Wood Duck Sighting

At breakfast this morning L spotted a male wood duck entering the nesting box! It was very exciting. The female sat on a nearby fence post and watched, and then she checked the box out too.

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Spring River Watch

It’s an interesting time of year for the river. It changes every time I look at it; sometimes choked with ice, and other times almost wide open. I took these two photos an hour apart. Any day now we’ll get to witness the exciting ice break-up, when chunks of ice come surging past us, with [...]

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Books and Being Outside

I usually read out loud to the kids right before lunch. It isn’t necessary, because they’re perfectly able readers, but it’s so nice to cuddle up on the couch with mugs of lemon tea and a shared book. I actually miss the picture books that were a staple for so many years, and suggested to [...]

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This Morning

It’s really amazing to watch flowing water freeze over. It started with small circles of ice at the river’s edge, then a few floating chunks of ice, then a lot of chunks, until it was hard to see the water underneath. Now it’s mostly all ice.

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Tall Grass Prairie

Only 1% of the tall grass prairie that used to stretch from Manitoba down to Texas, is left. It used to be one of the most bountiful ecosystems on Earth, rivalling the plains of Africa, with bisons numbering nearly 60 million, as well as pronghorn sheep, deer, elk, wolves, cougars, coyotes, even huge plains grizzlies. All [...]

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