badlands national park

I really wanted to see the sun come up over the Badlands, and I wasn't disappointed. It was hard to capture it with my camera, but here are a few I really like:

true love shadow puppets

After the sunrise, we headed back to our hotel room to rouse the children who were too lazy/sleepy/travel-worn to get up so early, grabbed some breakfast, and headed back into the park. We drove the whole park road, stopping at overlooks and taking hiking trails. I made an error in judgment for the hike we took by wearing my prescription sunglasses, which are polarized, which made it nearly impossible to focus through my camera lens, so Mike took over for a while and got some wonderful bird shots. We also ran into this deer just off the trail.

"don't you forget about me"

spotted towhee

blue grosbeak

At the top of Mike's wish list was spotting a bighorn sheep in the wild, and trust me when I say that we were awfully excited to see one. And then ... we found more! We found moms with babies! We found lone bighorns on the sides of rocky hills! We found bighorns eating grass! It was a bighorn bonanza.

We had so much fun just exploring. We went down a fossil trail looking for fossils, and just generally tried to take everything in. Not an easy feat considering how overwhelming the scenery is!

runway model

western bluebird

representing the home crowd

I think my favorite section of the park was the Yellow Mounds. The Badlands are all interesting to look at, but the colors in this part were just extraordinary. The boys were nice enough to pose for me too.

The last official stop in the park was the prairie dog town. I loved watching them pop up out of their holes and run around. Their noises are pretty funny too. Mike tried to get close to take pictures of them, and I appreciated that view as well. :)

We saw a bison covered in birds (brown cowbirds, I think).

And one antelope for the road...

drive time

Today we left behind the world of blown well tanks and coffee spilled on keyboards, loaded up, and headed out for Vacation Land (population 5). We left Thunder and Pluto behind in care of Dylan, aka the best dog/house sitter ever (doggos were thrilled!), and hit the road early. There's not much to say about the drive itself except it was very long. We stopped every couple of hours to eat/fuel/walk around, and about 11 and a half hours of drive time later, we made it to our first stop: Mitchell, South Dakota.

Mitchell is home to the Corn Palace, and also right along the way we were taking anyway. Mike wasn't terribly thrilled about stopping at a kitschy monument to a foodstuff he doesn't even like, but he indulged us, so we walked around and checked out the corn murals and bought a few souvenirs.

After that, it was a "quick" three hours to our home for the night in Wall, South Dakota. We thought we would go have dinner at Wall Drug, another kitschy kitschy roadside must-stop, but when we got there, we discovered that it was maybe not the place for us. It was big and sprawling and confusing, and also quite expensive. So we ended up getting Subway for dinner. All's well that ends well, right? We did buy some souvenirs, though, and spend plenty of time exploring the sculpture garden.

 

the long, wet day

Well, I suppose this is one way to start a month. This morning, I was driving Max to my parents' house so he could go to a party with them. We forgot the card, but we had to stop at Walmart for something, so Mike offered to drive the card to us while we were shopping. While I was in the store, Henry called to say the basement was making a very loud noise. I asked if he could see anything wrong, and he couldn't, so I let him know that Mike would be coming back home soon. Then I let Mike know that Henry heard a loud sound in the basement.

Friends, it took 10 minutes for Mike to get back home, and in that time, the tank on the top of our well completely failed, and the basement was flooded, and more water was shooting out. Mike tried calling my parents but neither of them answered, so he called me to let me know what was happening and that he couldn't find a shut-off valve. Turns out that's because there isn't one. (Yes, that sounds weird to me too, but it's totally normal.) At my parents' house, I found my dad standing out in the driveway talking to a guy (like you do), and rudely interrupted them with my tale of watery woe. Luckily, my dad knew what to do (turn off the power from the electrical box), so Mike got the water stopped. I called a well company and left a message on the emergency line, and luckily they called back right away and were able to come to the house within the hour. A couple hours later, we were all set up with a new (and expensive) well tank. Now all that's left is the cleanup. Oh the joys of being homeowners. Sigh.

birds of may

Spring migration continued, so we had a pretty good month for birds around here. The red-winged blackbirds are all nesting out in the pasture, and all three birdhouses seem to be in use. There's so much activity around the feeders!

tree swallow

male goldfinches

male house finches

female Baltimore oriole

male orchard oriole

male rose-breasted grosbeak

female cardinal

brown thrasher

male Baltimore oriole

male ruby-throated hummingbird

gray catbirds

male eastern bluebird

just a very pretty day

Our pinks (dianthus) are in bloom, a whole sea of them. And the sky was gorgeous today. That is all.

celery bog

It's the end of May already. Memorial Day, official start of summer ... and I've barely been out of the house lately. Happily, Mike and Liam took pity on me today and accompanied me to the Celery Bog, a nature preserve in West Lafayette. We left very early because the birding is better earlier in the day.

First bird of the day was sighted before we even left the driveway:

Note: This bird is domesticated, or as domesticated as a bird can be. Our neighbors have chickens, and this one apparently decided to come over for a visit.

At the Celery Bog, we found a whole bunch of muck. It has been raining a lot lately, so we had to tromp around on some muddy, squishy, boggy ground. (Yeah, the name should have been a clue.) BUT we also saw some great birds, including one I had never seen in person before (the blue-gray gnatcatcher).

black-capped chickadee

double-crested cormorants

cedar waxwings sharing breakfast

blue-gray gnatcatcher

house wren

red-winged blackbird with turtle friend

great blue heron with swallow fly-by

"I find this bench placement completely impractical."

The great blue herons put on amazing show for us. The first heron, let's call him Harry, caught a fish right in front of us! Then he carried the fish over to the bank of the pond to eat it. He had just barely managed to gulp it down when another heron, let's call him Harvey, came swooping in, hoping to steal Harry's breakfast. A brief tussle ensued, lots of wet feathers flapping around. Ultimately, of course, Harry prevailed and flew off, still with a fish-shaped lump in his throat, leaving poor Harvey on his own to go fishing. Impressive, sirs!

Until next time, our avian friends!

estate sale!

Friends, we have an estate sale convert. Henry accompanied me and my mom to an estate sale this morning, and he found treasure beyond his wildest dreams, including this giant glass turtle. He also got a lovely antique pen set for $2 that I then had to spend $18 to buy a replacement ink cartridge for, but really, what price can you put on TRUE LOVE?

Anyway, I managed to find a little something for myself in the process, AND it was half off. I wanted to go on the first day because there were a ton of the presentation Fiesta pieces I love (pitchers, carafes, etc.), but alas, I had to work. I can't believe nobody snatched up this beauty on the first day. Their loss! It's already cleaned up and on display on the bookshelves in the library.

Bonus: Alliums might be my new favorite flowers. Look at them against this blue blue sky and tell me you're not in love with them too. Go on, try.

you guys, i don't know

Mike thinks the scenery is ugly in Indiana. I think he's wrong. I love the cornfields, the soy fields, the wheat fields, the mint fields, the trees. I love the straight flat highways. Don't get me wrong — I love a lot of other places (a LOT of other places!) too, but I think our home has its own special beauty. I especially love the sky. Sure, every place has sky, but ours does some cool things. May I present two exhibits from mornings this week?

CASE CLOSED.

happy mother's day

Mike and the boys made me a special present for Mother's Day: a platform feeder. Now we can feed them peanuts and mealworms, yummo! Yes, the birds are kind of spoiled around these parts, but they bring me a lot of happiness in a world that mostly seems like one giant dumpster fire lately, so it's more than worth the effort.

The birds gave me a gift too — check out this amazing Baltimore oriole battle I was lucky enough to get pictures of!