A parking lot shadow selfie at the end of the day recently.
Shadows at the entrance to a trail on my outing Friday.
A jigsaw puzzle I finished the other day with some railcar shadows.
I am linking with Shadowshot Sunday
Sunday’s Shadows
The Goats of Turkey Mountain
I follow the Turkey Mountain social media pretty closely and had been reading with interest the news that they have been using goats to manage the invasive plant species on Turkey Mountain. They are provided by a third party who monitors them and they are guarded by a special guard dog. I knew roughly where the sheep were supposed to be but I had never run into them.
On of my recent hikes I started smelling what I would call a barn smell or a ranch smell The smell of animals and their manure and a little ways later I ran into them on a legacy trail.
They were totally chill, some were eating, some were resting. None of them looked stressed in any way. I thought this is cool. I have volunteered at Turkey Mountain and other places and sometimes we work on invasive special removal. It is hard work!! Other methods such as controlled fires are great but require the right weather and the availability of a crew to manage it. Mechanical mulching works well but is expensive and it really tears the forest up temporarily.
These goats were happily munching away. I found a source, goat foraging dot org, and they discuss that the manure that goats poop out also builds up the soil, their hooves help break up the soil and mix the manure in. The goat’s digestive systems also destroy the seeds as they pass through the digestive system.
It’s all pretty low cost and sustainable and provides another tool in land managers’ tool box to help manage the land.
I didn’t see a guard dog, nor a shepherd and no fencing but I’m assuming they maintain control over the herd somehow. I’m all about stuff like this.
I’m linking with Saturday’s Critters
A Very Merry Christmas Skywatch to You
Today is Christmas, Merry Christmas to you!! This pic is from back in August. My dream is Christmas on the beach one year.
Kodi, the mean Pomeranian wishes you a Merry Christmas. Just don’t try to pet him, or pick him up, or even look at him. Unless you are Heather or Logan, he loves them.
And Lizzy the Christmas Kitty.
And Sadie, the Christmas terrier. She loves everybody, even me. We got her to settle Kodi down and she does. If he gets out of line she flips him over on his back and puts a paw on his chest. Works every time. That’s Lizzy in the background. Sometimes Sadie thinks Lizzy is a squeaky toy but over time she has got more gentle with the cat and now they play pretty good together.
We are not going anywhere for Christmas, just us.
I’m linking up with Skywatch Friday.
Shadowy Stacked Rocks of Turkey Mountain
Seen on a hike on Tulsa’s Turkey Mountain Urban Wilderness Area. I used the Hipstamatic app on my phone to take the photo to enhance the texture and emphasize the age of the formation.
Linking with Shadow Shot Sunday
Saturday’s Critters – Real and Imagined
Here’s Lizzy doing her favorite activity. She is a world champion sleeper.
Here she is reluctantly posing for a Christmas photo.
Nothing cuter than a newborn calf on a ranch in western Oklahoma.
And I fired up my jigsaw app on my elderly Ipad. Google tells me that it is either a green sea turtle or a ridley sea turtle. I suspect the photo is AI. I was amused because you can buy the same exact image from various places on the web.
I’m linking with Saturday’s Critters.
Dirty Window Cross Country Road Tripping Skywatching
We drove from Tulsa to Colorado Springs last week. The drive takes all day. My wife and I take turns with the driving. When I’m driving, I just drive. When she is driving, I google all the small towns we pass and give her interesting (to me its interesting) tidbits about the town’s history, attractions, or culture. When I’m not doing that, I take photos.
The entire trip is across the Great Plains of the Midwest. To many they are very boring. I love them. I look for things. Is the land grassland or crops? I’m on the lookout for pipeline infrastructure and try and guess if it is for liquids or natural gas. I also look for wind farms. About 11% of our electrical needs come from wind. Think about all the carbon dioxide not being put into the air because of windfarms. That number is from 2022. I bet it is more than that now.
I love grain elevators. They are so photogenic. When you are up close and have good light. Not so much when you are shooting through a dirty window.
I love hay bales as well. There are hay bale enthusiasts that regard them out the field as an art form. I guess I can see that. Back when I was building pipelines I talked to a lot of farmers about all sorts of things and cutting and baling hay was fascinating. If you don’t let the hay dry out enough before baling it, it will have spontaneous combustion and start on fire where it is. Hopefully in a field, if you are unlucky it will be on your trailer or truck. Just one of the many useless little farming tips I picked up while buying pipeline right of way.
Most of the drive was in Kansas. I love Kansas, especially the work I did there. The thing about Kansas and business is that Kansas likes to protect Kansas based businesses and everybody can look out after themselves. That’s why I called Kansas, the People’s Republic of Kansas. Sometimes I think they took their protectionism a little too far. It’s a nice state though and the people are great.
And cows, there are lots of cows in Oklahoma, Kansas, and Colorado. I’ll give you a fun fact about cows that I bet you didn’t know. They only cows that fall into open pipeline ditches and die are prize breeding stock. At least that was what ranchers would tell me when I was trying to settle damages. Yep, they drove all the way to Maine to buy the animal, paid $50,000 dollars for it. For some reason though the cow on the bill of sale is a different color than the cow in the ditch. Ranchers tell me that can happen though. (Actually, 99,9% of ranchers are honest and just want to be treated fairly, but every once in a while you get “that guy.”
And trucks, freeways have lots of truck traffic. I have lots of stories about truckers from back when I was working. Most of them are pretty boring so I’ll spare you.
And then the sun started going down. Sunset lasted a long time.
I like road trips. The wife not so much. I get it.
I am linking with Skywatch Friday
Rest in Peace Brother Bob
Last week my brother Bob was laid to rest, with full military honors, at Pikes National Cemetery in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He passed away in November from complications of Parkinson’s Disease after a six year illness caused by viral encephalitis.
The military honors were very moving and emotional and I was teared up all the way through the ceremony. The Navy Honor Guard, the Rifle Team, and the Honor Bell crew performed their jobs perfectly and with great precision. I am sure Bob would be happy with how they did it. The Cemetery workers who were almost all volunteers were very soft spoken and gentle with the families and explained how everything would go. I didn’t take any photos of the ceremony. I wanted to be fully in the moment to honor Bob and show my appreciation for the service members and volunteers in the ceremony and there and taking photos requires stepping back (at least for me it does.)
I talked about a little bit about Bob and recounted a few stories of events in his life. My sister, Ellen, the verbal one in our family gave a heartfelt talk. The VFW Chaplain gave a wonderful message as well.
Brother Bob, Sister Ellen, and me way back when.
And a more recent photo of the three of us. Ellen and her husband live in town so Bob will have family visit him from time to time.
And here is Bob and I on Tulsa’s RiverParks Trails. You knew when he visited there was going to be running going on. We would take off and he’d leave in the dust, he’d run back from time to time to make sure I was okay and then take off out of sight again. He ran over 50 marathons and over a hundred half marathons.
Here is his spot. He’ll have a marker in a few weeks.
He is going to be under the big Colorado Sky and have a great view of Pikes Peak in the distance, and he’ll be in the company of thousands of veterans from all branches of the service. He loved the Navy. He served twenty years as an enlisted man and after he retired, he worked another ten years as civilian employee.
The US Olympic Marathon team trains in Colorado Springs not so far from the cemetery. I know in spirit he’ll be lacing up his shoes to go run with them and trying to talk his fellow vets to go with him. He was a great running ambassador.
So long Bob, you will always be remembered.
Skywatch Friday on the Drive Home
We had quite the sunset Wednesday evening. I got to photograph it because son Logan now has a drivers license so I get to sit shotgun and kibbitz and take photos and all that because I’m leaving the driving to him. Only occasionally do I scream in fear for my life.
We are heading east so this is a not bad reverse sunset. The sun is behind us and ahead is the sunset reflecting off the sunset.
And then he turns south, still kind of a reverse sunset and getting a little more intense.
And we park at our house. I get out on our driveway and am looking just west. Great color, and no filters, honest!
I’m linking with Skywatch Friday.
Shadow Shot Sunday – Shadowy Trails
Shadowy Trails and a Shadow Selfie on the Mooser Creek Greenway in Tulsa last month.
Saturday’s Critters – Our Pets
A post for our pets.
Our female terrier mix, Sadie, in a rare moment of hanging out with her older, but littler brown brother Kodi the Pomeranian. Kodi is kind of a pill to have around and our vet suggested a female terrier mix who was bigger than he was. That is why we got Sadie and it was worked out wonderfully. Sadie is a little sweetheart and not aggressive at all until Kodi lunges at her and then she flips on his back and puts a paw on his chest to hold him. That has done wonders for his attitude. After all these months he is starting to try and play with her. So progress is being made.
One even recently when my wife was at an event at night, Kodi was all morose, walking around with his tail hanging down. I took my favorite throw and just put it on the floor by my chair. He quit whining and went over, laid down on it and went to sleep. He likes me okay but after he bit me early last spring and I had to go to urgent care and get four stitches I am very leery of him. I got a new knee in February and got strict instructions that if I get a dog bite to get an antibiotic right away. They said the bacteria will go the metal in my new knee and there could be complications.
Little Sadie is having a tough time this winter. Kodi has a thick enough coat it doesn’t bother him. Sadie loves playing outside but she gets cold and heads for a throw to snuggle up in.
And Lizzy, the sweetest of the three. It is hard to get a sleep photo of her because she always wakes up. She was fast asleep on the couch and woke up when I got close.
Our animals are such a blessing to us.