Last Post from N.D.

When I do a post, I let my pictures do the talking. This post is a mixture of things for the month of July...picture wise, without mentioning prior posts. So, here goes...

Another favorite shot is of the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, male and female, coming together to share in the suet.

The woodpeckers are eating us out of house and home!!! Especially now that there are little ones to feed...and the little ones are coming in now on their own. What a joy to sit and watch these beautiful birds while learning more of their behaviors.

While Wallace is off mowing, I am making bungees.

We have needed these to hold down the kayaks on the trailer and securing garbage bags in several trashcans. Colleen does not like to see the bag flapping outside the container and neither do we. Problems solved!!!

This is the old entrance. It is pretty with the old lichen covered stones. 

We still mow the area because there are trails with one vault toilet.

Wallace's chainsaw certification comes in handy, especially when there is no one else around to take care of things like this.

We have one fireman and he is off on detail.

We need this tree off the fence as well as the firebreak. My job comes in after he is through cutting.

Then there are special wagon tours...this one is for retired teachers.

It was a fun tour, we even got to see the bison up close and personal. They were blocking the road.

One day we were sent out to do sign inventories.

All the little green spots are some of the outlying places to go out for an adventure.

We took down the coordinates for six places. Wish we could have started on this before time to leave as there are a lot more of them to do. Kneeling Moose was the best!!!

Here is a close up showing K.M. and Martinson. Each square represents one mile.

Trying to find these places and the road to get you there is fun.

The beautiful colors...this is a canola field.

A close up of flax. The field looks like water, a beautiful color of blue, but I could not capture it in all its glory.

We must not leave out wheat. They say now the main crops are corn and wheat. Most of the fields depend on rain for irrigation. They all look healthy.

Now for our last look of the pollinator garden we have worked on.

This is what it looked like after mowing some trails throughout. An earlier photo before it came alive with color.

We are planning on putting mulch on the trails after spraying with round up.

Wallace and I pulled and cut around the islands and the garden producing a lot of stuff. Canada thistle being the main culprit.

Here is what it looks like now with monarda being the predominant color.

We broke it up into manageable pieces by putting in trails for the visitors enjoyment to get a close up view of the plants and critters.

Here is your close up view of monarda.

It is interesting to walk around to see what else is blooming.

Following is a few of the plants in the garden.

Purple prairie clover.


Yellow cone flower to your right.

Purple cone flower.












           Gallardia thrown in at bottom right.

With a little hyssop thrown in...the crushed leaves smell like licorice.

On my day off (we are required to work only 20 hours per week) I walked up to the visitor center to work a little more. I did not have the camera with me to show you what this area around the building looked like...but you can see it now...all the rocks are now clean and free!!!

I take great pride in my work even if nobody else sees the work I do. It just looks so nice now...to me.

I hope the work in the garden continues after we leave here.

You will see, we finally lowered the flag for the four service people who were shot at the recruiting office.

As for me, I will continue to "Paint the Prairie."

We leave here August 2nd and head south to New Mexico. We will be volunteering at Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge. August 15th, we will be having a butterfly count...come see us!!!

One last picture...both the male Hairy and Downy Woodpeckers.

You can certainly see the size difference between the two in this picture...kinda like the yellowlegs, eh?

Until next time...