Tag Archives: Mooser Creek Greenway

Working and Enjoying

I have been busy. I love being busy. Especially being retired and doing the things I want to do.

I went out to Turkey Mountain and checked out the new board walk they installed over the western rock faces of the mountain. This is an area called Rock City and I love how they put the walk right in and over the boulders using cedar that was cut on the mountain.

It is a small network of new trails interconnecting with two trails, one on top of the rock faces and one below. I bet it would be fun on a bicycle. It looks like they put a mesh on top of the cedar to add a little traction for the bikes. You slip off the wood on a bike it would ruin your whole day. Me and gravity are not friends these days so I will never take my bike across this.

I ventured back to the parking lot on the Tiger Muffin trail. It’s the trail name for a friend of mine.

Last Saturday I put my cold weather gear on and joined a bunch of people from the Tulsa Urban Wilderness Coalition and Bike Club to clean up a trail called Mooser Creek Greenway. It had a lot of tree falls from Tulsa’s Father’s Day windstorm last year. The trails were cleared back then but a lot of the downed were a little unsightly. Plus there is a never ending chore of repairing erosion and wet spots on trails.

So I helped clear the limbs and trunks that were being cut up by people with chain saws.

I love the trail work days. Tulsa really responds to stuff like that and all sorts of people show up to help. I got a promotion with the Wilderness Coalition. I am now the Vice President of Government Affairs. My trail job didn’t change much. Moving limbs and cut up trunks off the trail is what I do along with whatever else needs doing.

Later that day Heather and I went out to the Tulsa Botanic Garden to check out the flowers and new projects.

They have added an event space in the middle of the pond. They are also converting some wild land they had into an arboretum. They have done a good job adding onto the gardens and it is getting more and more settled as time goes on.

The tulips put on a quite a show. Last year when we went some deer had gone into the gardens ate a bunch of the tulips and other plants.

They also had Lego animals scattered around the garden. I love this woodpecker.

And I always love redbuds. The Eastern Redbud is the State Tree of Oklahoma.

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The Daffodils were putting on a show even though their time is short.

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This was my favorite tulip. It looked black in the sun but is actually a deep purple. This one is the only one I spotted.

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And to end up, we had an almost full moon the other day. I captured the image in the late afternoon so it was almost a daytime moon. I love the moon in all its presentations but I especially love a good daytime moon.

So what have you been up to?

I am linking with Skywatch Friday and My Corner of the World.

Saturday’s Critters – On the Ground and in the Air

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I went on a bike ride on the Osage Prairie Trail north of Tulsa. It is a Rails to Trails project done years ago where an railroad is converted to trails. I love it because it goes through a lot of back country including ranches. I saw this Hereford cow looking happy in some tall green grass. Don’t see too many white faces like this any more.

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And some of his friends, Angus cattle also grazing.

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And in a different pasture I found some horses with their heads down.

And I found this little turtle crossing the road. Why did the turtle cross the road? (To get to the shell station!)

And a few miles away another, bigger turtle getting across the road.

And on a different outing on my first hike on Tulsa’s brand spanking new Mooser Greenway trail system I found myself a deer.

I love seeing deer.

Later on I found this feather. Google lens says it is from a red tailed hawk. I left it near where I found it.

And this might be the Shell Station. Just so happens I worked for Shell Oill for a short time and I learned that nothing makes a die hard Shell Oil employee madder than calling their logo a clam. It’s a pecten they will say in a heartbeat. So of course I doubled down on calling it a clam. Alrighty, sorry, I’ll get back to Saturday’s Critters.

I found this fresh cut disk cut out of a tree blocking the trail. I tried to count the rings and I came up with a 102 years old.

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And speaking of red tailed hawks, this dude was up- on power pole looking for his lunch. He was a long ways away. At the very limit of my ancient Canon Superzoom camera. How far away you ask?

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He was on top of the rightmost power pole as seen from our back yard. I love my DSLR with all the various lens but it is hard to be beat a superzoom for lightweight and usefulness in a wide variety of situations.

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Here’s another photo of the hawk.

And here is the mandatory pic of Kodi the Pomeranian in a pensive mood. He’s the same color as our floor so he is Kamo Kodi in dim light inside.

I”m linking with Eileen’s Saturday’s Critters. Go check it out. Lots of talented bloggers link up with her.