We said goodbye to our sweet little dachsund mix Ginger today. She lived a long time and was well loved but she had multiple ailments.
She was always all-in when it came to family activities.
And she always had something to say about a lot of things.
And she put up with a lot!!
We miss you Ginger and will never forget you!!
Saturday I ventured up to the Will Rogers Birthplace Ranch near Oolagah, Oklahoma where the annual Wiley Post/Will Rogers Fly-was taking place. The event is to remember the day that Wiley Post and Will Rogers died in an airplane crash near Point Barrow, Alaska on August 15, 1935.
Wiley Post was a famous aviator back before World War II. Among other things he was the first pilot to fly solo around the world. He discovered the jet stream and was the inventor of the pressure suit used in high altitude flying.
Will Rogers is like Mr. Oklahoma. He did everything, vaudeville, movie acting, broadway star, comedian, author, newspaper columnist. He had all sorts of quips including his most famous, “I never met a man I didn’t like.” He was born in Oklahoma near Oolagah and was a member of the Cherokee Tribe.
This fly-in has been going on for some time. I read an article that this is the 35th year.
Anybody is welcome to fly-in to the 2000 foot grass airstrip. They were all single engine planes including a news station helicopter that landed for a short while
The planes were all older, some of them hand built by the owner/pilots and they were all extremely small. Not too many younger pilots present. They all looked to be in their 60’s and above.
I loved the art work on some of the planes. They went from nice and innocent.
To a more worldly theme.
And everything in between.
This is my favorite. You ever see a more shapely bee butt?
Back to the aircraft.
There were a few biplanes.
This is one of the hand built ones.
Another view of the bumble bee.
Some of the planes had the huge soft tires and it looked they could take off in just a few hundred feet.
There were well over a hundred airplanes there. They come in and land kind of early and starting around 11 am they head out. I asked why and was told it’s August, it’s hot, and none of these aircraft have air conditioning. Okay, I get it. Last time I attended, I lolly gagged around and got there just as everybody was leaving. Don’t be that guy!!
Because of the Covid situation I didn’t tour the house on the grounds. The Ranch is great the rest of the year and has hardly any visitors so show up and take a look. The home is wonderful and is decorated in period style.
I am linking this week with Our World Tuesday.
This week has not been a good one for picture taking. We are getting our son ready to go back to college and working with contracts getting ready to freshen the house up a little. So I am off into my archives. I searched for photos taken in August.
This is Tulsa’s Lafortune Park. A regular 18 hole golf course, par three course, little league and Pony League baseball fields, Tennis Center, Memorial High School, a Library, Gardens with fishing ponds, and wrapped up by a three mile walking path. If I had a dollar for every lap I have run or walked on that route, I would be a major thousandaire.
Two years ago in August I visited my sister Ellen, working as a Seasonal Park Ranger at Yellowstone Park. We had a great time. The forest fires out west that year made for great sunrises. (and sunsets).
And of course we visited Old Faithful, and she blew off a steam to a big crowd.
A workover rig on a recently fracked well in western Oklahoma a couple years ago. Not too much drilling or fracking going on right now!!
Morning sky over some horse stables north of Tulsa. Son did therapeutic horseback riding for years at this place.
I am linking with Skywatch Friday – come join in!!
I went for a walk last week at Tulsa’s Gathering Place. A huge public, privately funded, free park built right next to the Arkansas River. I’ve been there a bunch of times and I am still trying to get my head around it.
It has a bunch of different facets to it. One of the things I like is the beauty of the place. From the native, sustainable plantings the landscaping. It’s a great place to hang out. No cars are allowed in the place, the parking is all in the periphery. So be prepared for walk. They do have handicapped parking closer in though.
Who says Tulsa doesn’t have a beach?
I love the Koi Pond. The park is a mixture of high energy and serene.
The native plants make for low maintenance and low water use. It also makes for critters that live in the planting areas and other critters who feed on the critters, like snakes.
There are all sorts of areas to sit and visit, while maintaining social distancing.
The main draw are spectacular play structures. They are huge. Designed and built in Europe, they are unlike anything I have ever seen.
Other times, like on winter mornings I have climbed and clambered and used the slides. I’m not really into that when kids are present though. It’s for them.
The structures are complex and interconnected and there are multiple ways to play on them.
And great exercise to, sliding down the tubes is fun, but you have to climb up to them.
I loved their boat with the sail.
They had their water/hydraulics feature working. It had never been working on my previous trips. You have hand operated pumps, valves, dams. You can make the water go this and that. Talk about fun!!
And then off by itself is the sensory garden with all sorts of things to look at, touch, feel and make noise with.
So you can go from the busy and noisy to isolated and quiet easily.
And make your own music!!
One of my favorite places is the Lodge. It looks like an expensive resort.
I love the woodwork and the midcentury modern vibe with the furniture. Masks required!!
They have a great big fireplace that is just the place on cold winter days. And wifi and a snack bar.
So, this is just a sampler. They also have a boat house where you can rent canoes and kayaks. Bicycle and skateboard parks, and lots of sports courts, cafe’s. Play areas for smaller children, lots of rest rooms. And guess what, no admissions fees, no parking fees, no nothing. They are open 9 am to 8 pm seven days a week. Check out their web site for more information. The home page has some great drone video footage of the park.
I am linking with Our World Tuesday – Come join in!!
We are still having nice skies along with a lot cooler weather. Yesterday morning I walked outside to get the paper and was greeted with a great sky. (And yes, I did use a filter, I hope you don’t mind).
I’m still flying my drone, mainly in periscope mode. The above video is an example. I just take it straight up and the gps in the drone holds its position. I couldn’t take it too far up because of windy conditions in this video.
Earlier, I got it higher and took some pics of the neighborhood and sky. I used a filter on these because otherwise the items on the ground were black.
Another view looking soutwest showing the local elementary school.
And straight west, one can see clouds starting to pile up.
And straight north across the greenspace.
And we had a Full Moon the other day. Since it is August, they call it the Sturgeon Moon. I love full moons, what about you.
Prior to the Trump Rally in Tulsa way back in June some local community members went out and painted this mural on Greenwood Avenue. Now the local community and the city are trying to figure out what to do with it. Many people would like to keep it but the problem is of course what keeps other groups from painting streets with their own messages. I’m hoping that they can keep it somehow.
I’m linking with Skywatch Friday
Sunday morning, before anybody got up, I ventured out to do some geocaching out of Town. I went through the city of Mounds and stopped to take a photo of this building which looks to be unoccupied at the moment.
What got my attention though was this mural on the side of the building. I checked out the web site and it looks to be not very active right now. It was state sponsored organization and I imagine that funds got cut. But the mural survives and I love the handprints.
At a nearby cemetery I found this little angel. I like hanging out in graveyards. I get a sense of peace there.
I found this really old marker. Eliza A.N. What’s up with just initials for a last name. 1822-1907 – A lot happened in the world during that time. A mystery!! I tried googling a little bit but couldn’t find anything.
Here we had three crosses put up on fenceposts. Some sort of trinity type thing. I think this is fairly recent.
Close by a long forgotten hibiscus is growing up among poison ivy.
Anyway, that was my little outing. I’m linking with Our World Tuesday.
After a dry June things have been rainy in July. Makes for green country side and interesting skies. Northeast Oklahoma is called Green Country for a reason.
Here’s a shot from directly over our house to son Logan’s first elementary school less than a block away. Remember when schools were open and had classes. Good times right! The state of Oklahoma is letting every district decide for themselves how to handle the coming school year and it is amazing the variety of programs the administrators of the various districts have come up with.
Went on a walk yesterday at Lafortune Park and got rained on a little bit. I don’t mind, as long as I can keep the phone dry.
Here is a beer truck Skywatch shot. Too bad it is crap beer.
Lafortune Park has the prettiest crepe myrtle I have ever seen. It has all sorts of room to itself and gets full sun all day long. I think the staff has been taking very good care of it as well.
Son and I took the drone to north Tulsa’s Reservoir Hill subdivision and took some shots of the Tulsa Arrow. The Tulsa Arrow was originally put up for Charles Lindbergh’s transcontinental flight to show the way to the airport. Apparently all sorts of cities put arrows for that purpose way back when. A few years ago the subdivision’s residents recreated the arrow. You can see the story here. I think it is pretty cool. I have a geocache nearby.
That’s it for this week. I am linking with Skywatch Friday. Come join in!!
I did a little bit of exploring while looking for geocaches Sunday. I found a new nature trail I didn’t know about in the Tulsa suburb of Jenks.
It even has a bench. I just love benches on trails. Downtown Tulsa used to have benches on the sidewalks but the homeless population grew so much that they took over the benches all day long so all the benches were removed. I don’t know blame the homeless people. Many of the services for homeless are downtown and they got to sit somewhere right? With the benches gone, they sprawled on the grass at churches and other buildings. Anyway, I digress.
So I found a cache on the trail. About 40 feet from where it was supposed to be.
Elsewhere I found this gadget caches. Gadget caches are the big thing in geocaching right now. The caches are easy to find but hard to open. This one had various screws and such on both sides of the box so you were supposed to use your fingers on each side to use your body to complete an electrical circuit and you look through the hole and you are supposed to be able to see what the combination to the lock is. Well I completed the circuit but I couldn’t figure out the combination.
I went bicycling on Friday. I pretty much stick to the RiverParks trails because their are no highway crossings and I can make a good 13 mile to 15 mile loop out of the trails. That’s nothing to a good rider. I am not a good rider but I love riding my bike. My bike is about 15 years old so by now.
This was Sunday morning at our house, actually most mornings. We get them up, outside, fed and then they sleep. After sleeping all night long!!
I’m reading John Bolton’s latest book on his time at the Trump Administration. I saw a few of his interviews and I was shocked that he actually had a great sense of humor and could laugh and smile. The only thing I ever remember him doing was threatening hellfire and war on countries he wasn’t happy with. He is still that way but I am seeing that he has consistent set of principles that he acts from so I have a new respect for him. His book has lots of quips also. He has an excellent sense of dry humor.
We are looking at freshening up our house of twenty years. We brought it brand new and we are going to get new flooring and make a bunch of other changes so we went to Tulsa’s Parade of Homes. We saw all sorts of stuff we liked in terms of flooring, windows, decor, etc. Also, everybody was masked up and there were not the crowds of previous years.
Afterwards we went to a produce stand. Dotson. One of the many things about summer I like are the vegetables.
So on my bagels nowdays, at the suggestion of a blog friend, I am using avocado and orange marmalade. I was a little leery but I love it. I bought some spicy mashed avocado and I love it. It’s also good insurance that nobody else in the house will eat it.
That’s all this week!! I’m linking with Our World Tuesday
We finally started getting a little weather here. So I have been flying my drone in periscope mode where I launch it from our house and go straight up.
This is looking west at the sunset.
Some rain to the north of the house.
Another day’s sunset.
Here’s the drone pilot wearing his favorite flamingo shirt. He’s got a haircut since this photo so he’s not quite as shaggy. I’m not one of those dapper retired guys who are all buttoned up. I haven’t ironed a shirt since I retired.
Switching gears, hear is Lizzie the kitten after I woke her up from her nap. Miss Lizzie is getting kind of fluffy from all her eating and napping. Not that I am trying to fatshame her or anything.
And I can see!! My first optometrist exam in two years. My prescription hasn’t changed in three years. I was prepared to get new glasses but I’m sticking with what I got for now. Not only am I a scruffy old retired guy, I’m cheap as well.
I went on a bike ride and passed these oilfield heater treaters all trailered up and nowhere to go. Heater treaters are used to separate crude oil, water, and natural gas after the liquids come out of the ground. Most wells produce all three at the same time. Blood, guts, and feathers is what I call it. Heater treaters use heat to help with the separation. The fact that they are sitting there and have been for some time is not a good sign for the energy industry. Somebody is paying some pretty steep storage fees.
Here’s a view of downtown Tulsa from the bike path.
And at the end of my ride. I love that bear fountain. You notice I am admiring from the shade. It was close to 100 F when I finished.
So everybody, be safe, be kind, and take lots of sky photos.
I come upon a web site that has a dynamic wind map of the United States. I’m told that many wind turbine control centers keep it on display. Check the link, it is pretty mesmerizing to watch. It seems to update once a day or so.
I love the description on the site: “An invisible, ancient source of energy surrounds us—energy that powered the first explorations of the world, and that may be a key to the future. This map shows you the delicate tracery of wind flowing over the US.”