Touching the Four Corners (and a few in-between points) - Part I

It is the end of Summer, and about the time of year that I usually take my vacation time, to somewhat coordinate with the start of hawking season, trapping and training, and getting old hawks back on the wing after the molt.  I had asked for some time off to give me a week window and planned to go visit Door County again, but my house-sitter was on a slightly more constrained schedule and needed us to be back sooner than I wanted to try to get to northeast Wisconsin and back. I set my sights on a somewhat closer destination, and looking at the map, got a rather hair-brained idea.  Why not tour our home state, and see some things we've not seen.  In fact, why not make an effort to touch the four corners, and some in-between points.  I had three days to start the project.  Next month I have a block of two weeks to finish it up.

The first point was rather easy, as it is about a 20 minute drive from Rich's family's farm.  They live in Spring Grove, which is already far southeast Minnesota.  On a sunny Sunday (9/17/17) I drove the additional miles and took my picture at the border.  Now, to be absolutely honest, if I was to be on the actual geographic border of the state it would require I walk (swim) an additional half mile or so East, into a marsh and then river.  The actual border is in the middle of the Mississippi River.  I'm going to go with "close enough" and just hit points that are reachable by road.

September 17, 2017    5:45 PM

43°30'3"N, 91°17'5"W

Elevation 620 ft

Rich joined me for the three-day road trip.  I didn't have a whole lot of planning for this trip, and pretty much threw caution to the wind and was spontaneous with our itinerary.  Once we finally got ourselves out on the road on Monday, our first destination was Albert Lee.  This is the gateway into Minnesota if you are taking I35.  Following the map, and getting off the interstate, I found a back road, and sure enough, there was a road called State Line.

September 18, 2017    2:50 PM

43°29'57"N, 93°21'32"W

Elevation 1240 Ft

We found our way back to the interstate and I took this video crossing the state line.

We continued our journey on Monday, stopping in Worthington for some supplies that I didn't pack.  I really hadn't planned well for this trip.  We also picked up some steaks to grill for our dinner.  Our final destination for the night was Blue Mound State Park.  It's the farthest southwest park you can go to in the state.  The night was perfect, the temperature in the comfortable low 70s, with minimal bugs.  It was a very enjoyable evening, reminding me of all the nice camping Rich and I did when we were dating and first married.

We were up early and back on the road by 8 am.  I had wanted to take a picture of the prime feature of Blue Mound State Park . . . their claim to fame of the largest pure herd of American Bison.  They have access to a large prairie enclosure, which would have made for a picturesque image.  However, all the bison were gathered near their feed bunk, and just looked, and were acting, like a bunch of cattle.  No pictures were taken!

Our first destination of the morning was the far Southwest corner.  In fact, I think this is the corner that gave me the idea to circle the state.  While looking at Google Maps, I was zooming in on this corner, and discovered the Tri-State Iron Post Historical Marker at this location.  This is the corner of Minnesota, Iowa, and South Dakota.  It was windy and a bit foggy and chilly, so we didn't stay out long.  Hey, it even has a facebook page!

September 19, 2017    9:00 AM

43°30'3"N, 96°27'12"W

Elevation 1460 Ft.

After visiting the Tri-State border, we drove North to visit Pipestone National Monument.  I had heard about this park before and was interested to visit.  If you want a more thorough history, you can go here.  It is one of the best known location of catlinite, or pipestone, which is a soft, reddish stone that can withstand heat when used as a pipe, but is soft enough to carve.  The smoking of a ceremonial pipe is very important to Native American culture, and the site is considered to be sacred, as are the pipes that are produced from the stone quarried there.  Only Native Americans with affiliation to recognized tribes are given the permits to dig for the stone.  I did discover that you can purchase products from the stone.  At the monument, we viewed the video and looked at the museum pieces, and watched and talked with a woman who was demonstrating the art of carving pipestone.

We walked around the nature trail.  The site really is beautiful, made even more so by the fall colors.  Go full screen on this video below to fully appreciate it.

The woman who was demonstrating carving this day is Alice.  She is a member of the Dakota Sioux.  His son has an active quarry on site.  She was carving turtles.  As she worked we talked about turtles and toads.

After our walk, we returned to the information center and I was chatting with the Ranger, then looking up was wondering where Richard had gone.  I found him in the gift shop.  He had observed my fascination with a certain design of pipe, eagle heads, which could just as easily be hawk heads.  He surprised me by purchasing one for me.  I then bought some herbal tobacco, and would go on once we got home to share the experience with my house-sitter (a long-time friend of mine), and some close friends of ours who we visit often over food and a movie.  The smoking of a pipe has significant ceremonial importance to Native American culture.  I do not share their heritage, but I can respect the practice.  Producing smoke is seen as an outward manifestation of prayer to the Great Spirit, or God.  When I shared the practice with my friends, I am thankful for the birds I get to work with, the animals we can hunt together, and the friends that join me in this activity.

After our visit to Pipestone, we got on the road and took the long hike up North, to our furthest destination on this trip, the joint cities of Fargo-Moorehead.  I finally found a bison I could take a picture with.

At the information center I located they even had the famous (infamous) wood chipper that was used in the 1996 movie Fargo.  It is a well-known tourist attraction for the city.  We had dinner in the city, and then visited a museum dedicated to the Hjemkomst.  We got lucky, and it was "stay open late and no entrance fee" night.  I'm not a big boat fan, but Richard finds them interesting.  We saw the original that inspired the construction of the Hjemkomst when we visited in Norway and saw the Gokstad ship at the museum district of Bygdoy.  I was surprised and intrigued to learn about the story of this Norwegian-inspired ship and the story of the people who built and sailed her.  There is a old documentary shown at the museum to explain the ship and tell the tale, and sure enough, I found it on YouTube.

Here is a quick view to give perspective of the size.  Yes, the ship is entirely enclosed in the building.

On a similar theme, behind the museum, a different person was inspired by the stave churches of Norway and decided to recreate one here in America.  This building is made entirely of wood, with many fine carvings.  We got the opportunity to see the inside and get a tour.  We also saw several of these while in Norway.  The link above to my blog post has pictures of some of them.

Inside the church, while on tour, our guide had some historical recreations of weaponry, which I had to have my Norwegian-descent husband try on.

In the lobby, before we left, he posed with some of the locals.

It was a very quick visit to Fargo-Moorhead, and perhaps we will visit again next month when we set out to finish this project.  They had a very nice bridge that would make the perfect location for my pictures and GPS coordinates, however . . . IT WAS RAINING!  Not just raining, but there was a lightning show too.  This put the kibosh on my plan to camp another night.  It was just too windy, wet and frankly dangerous.  Documenting our being on this in-between place in Minnesota would be a video crossing the Red River which transects the two cities.

September 19, 2017    I don't know, sometime after 8 PM

GPS - I don't know . . . it was raining!

Elevation . . . no clue . . . it was raining!

After crossing the bridge, we made our way to Alexandria and found a hotel for the night.  The next morning we acquainted ourselves with Big Ole, a tourist attraction just outside the Kensington Runestone Museum.  This is an artifact that was unearthed in 1898, which if authentic, would lend proof that Norsemen made it far into the new world long before Columbus did.  The validity of the claim is disputed.  After you visit the museum, you can make up your own mind about it.

With museum visiting and giant viking watching done, we left Alexandria in search of an apple orchard.  On the way, I spotted this rather beautiful red tail catching some morning rays.  It is an adult with it's rusty red tail, so not trappable, even if I had my trapping gear with me.  In the morning light, the rest of its body was rather washed out light.  It would have been nice to see this bird in hand.  Red tails have such a variety of color, even among standard eastern type.  Soon I will be trapping for this season . . . the cooling fall weather and colors lends excitement to that prospect.

We found the orchard and purchased a lot of apple-based products to take home.

We briefly thought about trying to find the geographic center of the state, however the exact coordinate was disputed by various web sites, I did not have a GPS tracker on me, and some of those coordinates placed the point somewhere in the middle of a lake.  We gave up on that plan and decided to make our way home.  Along the way, we stopped in at New Ulm, where many people of German ancestry settled.  Here they erected a statue at what has become known as the Hermann Heights Monument.  The residents just call him Hermann the German.

Of course, once the Germans got settled in, they had to start making beer.  While in that town Richard wanted to visit the Schell Brewery.  At this time of year, tours are only offered on the weekends, so we could not actually see the beer being made.  We were able to visit their museum and gift shop.  I don't know why I didn't take my own pictures.  The one below is stolen off the Internet.  We were in this room, and saw some of the surrounding grounds, which are very beautiful.  This was the former home of the family that established this brewery.  After purchasing a few souvenirs, and with suggestion from one of the staff, we returned back into New Ulm and found a bar that serves Schell's brews on tap.  I bought Rich a flight of beers, which he enjoyed.  Afterwards, we sought out a German restaurant and had dinner before heading home.

It was a quick whirlwind road trip of three days.  I have some more time next month when we will pick up and add onto this trip.

Until then . . . . . . .

The Great American Eclipse 2017

On Sunday, August 20th, Rich and I headed out to go chase the eclipse.

If somehow you have been hiding under a rock somewhere, there was a fabulous eclipse crossing our continent, which was named appropriately "The Great American Eclipse".  However, to see it, to experience it at its most exquisite, you would have to place yourself in the path of totality, a zone spanning about 70 miles wide, stretched across the continent from the West in Oregon to the East in South Carolina.  Minnesota was not in the path, so I have been planning since last November to journey to experience it.

Our eventual experience of the eclipse was not exactly what I would have hoped for, but because so many cameras were focused skyward, many others with very good equipment caught the action.

I would like to thank Colin Ross of CC Megaproductions for giving me permission to use his exceptional recording.  He produced it with appropriate music, and without too much crowd noise.  It is a good representation of what happened . . . if you didn't have too many thick clouds in the way.

We left on Sunday and journeyed to Lincoln, Nebraska, which would be our "home" base for our time in Nebraska.  Arriving late and getting settled into our hotel, we then walked across the street and picked up some greasy Sonic dinner.  Not the best thing to eat when you need to get to sleep for an early start, but it was quick, and it was right there.

All this time, I had been watching the weather and trying to decide in what direction we would drive in the morning.  I wanted to be out the door and on the road by 6 am.  Originally, I had planned to go directly South, very near to Beatrice but not directly in that town.  There was a very large party planned at the Homestead National Park.  I am somewhat adverse to being in large crowds, thus I would not be going to that party.  Also, the weather in that direction didn't look good.  For that matter, the weather in all directions didn't look good.

(Click Map for more detailed image)

One of the local television stations had a pretty good weather report.  There was a narrow band of potential clear-ish skies just South and East of Grand Island.  The weather program I was following at NOAA seemed to agree.  Guaranteed clear skies could not be found unless you were willing to drive an additional 5 hours or more into Western Nebraska or Wyoming.  I was not willing to do that.  We would take our chances.  Google Maps found a quaint little town named McCool Junction (a very cool sounding name) that had a nice park.  When we arrived at about 7:30, there was only two other cars.  We staked out a claim, and I set up my telescope.  As you can see, it was fairly sunny in the morning.  Oh, and added bonus . . . bathrooms!

  

Hindsight is a wonderful thing.  I don't know why I didn't think to acquire an adapter to take pictures with my iPhone.  I guess I figured since I was able to just hold up my cell phone and take a picture, why did I need an adapter.  I probably would have had better pictures.  Without the urgency of the limited time during totality, at my leisure I could take many pictures and discard those I did not like.  Here is the full face of the sun, pre-eclipse.  You can even see sun spots.  As more people came to join us at the park, several ventured over and asked to take a peek.  I also gave out some of the extra eye protection glasses I had.

Richard was the GoPro guy.  We set up our older GoPro on a white surface to capture any shadow bands (we were unsuccessful as it is hard to capture them when you have no sun just before and after totality). He wore the newer one, but then opted to set it up on a fence pointed skyward.  The clouds seemed to have gotten their thickest leading up to totality, and after.  The morning was clear enough, and within an hour after the event it was clear.  Just damn bad luck!!

What I did clearly document was the temperature drop.  Just before C1 (first contact of the moon over the sun) our temperature was 95 degrees.

As the moon traversed across the sun, it began to get cooler.  It is amazing that even with 3/4ths of the sun obscured it visually looks just as bright.  The odd light effects only come into play at the last sliver of light.

You can see below my less-than-expert pictures as the eclipse progressed.  I do find it somewhat artistic to see my own reflection in the lens.

A fellow eclipse watcher, Barry of Wichita, Kansas, a retired science teacher, had brought his spotting scopes, and was using them to project the image of the sun onto a white surface.  He was one of the many people we met and chatted with leading up to the eclipse.  I think this was one of the best features of the location we chose.  It did not get overly crowded, and people were happy to chat with each other.  We met several travelers from Minnesota.  Some of the grounds crew tasked with keeping the ball field mowed were out working that morning.  They came over and said hello and indicated no problem with all of us setting up our equipment and lawn chairs.  They knew very quickly after the event, we would all be gone.

As you can see, getting closer to the point of totality, the images are all getting fuzzy.  It's the clouds!

Richard took this picture with his camera just prior to totality.

I got this image through the telescope.  We did see a pair of hawks lazily soaring together just prior to C2 (totality).  I imagine they were about to be very surprised when the sky would get very dark.  I didn't watch them to see what they would do, as I was distracted with my telescope and all going on around us.  I did see with my own eyes the effect of Bailey's Beads, the last rays of light shining through the craters and valleys on the edge of the moon, like so many shiny pearls on a string.  This I simply enjoyed with my own eyes, knowing I would not capture the effect with my camera.

The temperature during totality.  Notice how dark it is.

I asked a fellow watcher to take our picture during totality.  I think it flashed, as it doesn't look that dark.  That was the most spectacular feature of the eclipse.  Right up until the moment the moon fully occludes the sun, and the deepest shadow crosses over, it just looks like dusk.  Then suddenly, even with obscuring clouds, it is like full night.  Someone at our location shot off fireworks.  You also get the effect of a setting sun at all horizons, and 360 degree sunset.  I did attempt to take a video of that, but must have fumbled the record button, for upon review later, I only see the video after I told it to stop.  I'll not post that as it is very un-exciting to see.

It truly is coldest just after "dawn".  77 was the lowest temperature I recorded.  That was an 18 degree drop within one hour.

During the distraction of totality, and the cloud cover, I managed to lose the sun in my viewing window.  At this point so high in the sky it moves very quickly out of the field of view.  It took awhile for me to find it again, as I did not have strong shadows to guide me (for sun viewing, you can use the shadow of your telescope to orient, as I did not have any solar filters for my spotting scope.)

As the sun returned, the temperature jumped up quickly.

My last view of the event.  By this time, most of the people in the park had packed up and headed out.  Rich and I were in no hurry, and knew the roads would be packed with cars, so we just sat back and enjoyed the sunny park.  Oh, yeah, SUNNY!  The sun came out afterwards.  Of course!

When we did finally decide to leave we opted to skip I80 back to Lincoln, and instead took backroads following our map.  It was a nice drive back to our hotel.  After a shower to get all the sun screen and sweat off, I searched out and found a nice restaurant for us to enjoy an eclipse evening dinner.

We found a place called FireWorks, where you could have tasty wood-fired food.  It was a great ending to a fabulous day.

The next morning we planned to begin to head home, stopping off to visit my sister and brother-in-law at their new home in Marion, Iowa.  Not wanting to come empty-handed, I stopped by a cute bakery I discovered the previous evening when I was researching places to eat dinner.  It is very appropriately named, as it is below ground (see the cars in the reflection) and you have to go down some stairs to get to the front door.  It really was a "rabbit hole".  What was offered inside was an assortment of tasty treats, of which I brought a box full for my family.

It was a great little vacation.  I do so wish we hadn't found all the clouds, but I'm still happy we got the chance to experience life under the moon's shadow.

Total Solar Eclipse 2017

Where will you be on August 21st?

Rich and I plan to be in Nebraska, chasing the 2017 total solar eclipse.  Nothing like a sky event like this to make me drag out and dust off my old telescope, and then go ahead and buy a solar filter for it. I asked for vacation time off last year.  I'm approved, and we plan to have a party "in the shade" . . . hopefully it won't be cloudy.

This will be the view of the sun through my telescope with a special Baader AstroSolar safety film solar screen attached to my 8" reflector telescope.  I will have Rich bring the GoPro, and plan to record the entire 2 minutes and 36 seconds the total eclipse will last.

If you want to find out where the path of the eclipse will follow, and information about length of time, check out this really cool 2017 Eclipse Link.

Now we need to hope and wish for CLEAR SKIES!!

Kid . . . Kid, Kid, Kid . . . Kid, Kid, Kid

With these "lazy days of Summer" there is not much hawk related going on.  Birds are molting like mad in their chambers.  I would like to weather them if I could, but they would get eaten alive by the biting flies, which take a fair chomp out of me when I go out with the dogs.  I'll spare them the discomfort until the bugs die back a bit.

What has been going on around here . . . is a lot of goat births.

For now, I have three breeding females, and they gave me one kid, triplets and triplets, for a total of seven new kids.  With the exception of one, they are all doelings (females), so my herd is going to get quite a bit larger.  This coming fall I have three of my doelings from two summers ago ready to join the breeding herd, so little by little, I'm becoming a "goat Baron".  They are not being able to keep up with the pasture for now, as it is the height of grown.  They will catch up as summer wears on and the plants don't grow as fast.

This year's kids are going to be named after nuts, or have the word "nut" in their names somewhere.  Here is the start of the rundown.  I'll finish this posting as I bring them all out from the maternity barn to join the rest in the pasture.

Oreo was the first one to deliver, on May 30th.  She had a single female kid.

She is already out in the pasture with her mamma.  She's also already figured out she can slip through the fence.  This is a typical problem for us during the early days of the kids, until they get big enough that they can't squeeze through.  Recently, handling her, I can feel she has horn buds.  I don't have a disbudding iron, and frankly don't care if some of my goats have horns, so she will be allowed to grow hers.

Her name will be Pistachio!

The next goat to deliver was Biscotti.  On June 1 she had our first set of triplets.  I will be moving her and her kids out to the pasture tomorrow, so will get some close-up pictures of them at that time.

And here are their pictures and names.

The first one is the only brown colored kid we got this year.  Also, you'll notice that all three of Biscotti's babies have the long, floppy ears, which are a trait of the Nubian goat, of which I think Biscotti's dad was.  I've decided to name this doeling Cashew. I forgot to check if she has any horn buds, and now she is out loose in the pasture, so unlikely I could easily catch her and check.

Then there are two mostly black babies.  I decided to keep a kind of theme, with their mom being named Biscotti, and include a few of the ingredients you may find in that tasty, crispy snack you dunk into coffee.  The one above, that Rich is holding, is just about all black.  No horn buds on this one.  I shall call her Cocoa.  The one below has a big white patch on her belly, and I can feel horn buds.  She shall be called Almond.

Always, when we separate a goat, then put them back with the herd, there is some politics and head butting to establish the pecking order again.  Biscotti had to show this young wether born last year that she meant business, and to leave her and her kids alone.  

After awhile, they all moved off, and got busy with the important work of weed eating.

Our final goat mamma, Macaroon, had her triplets on June 9.  I'll post their profile when I let them out from the barn, most likely in a week or two.  They were born over a week later than the others, but look so much smaller.  Fortunately, they do seem to grow quickly.  I also checked them over today, and found two of them needed a little back side cleaning.  The first milk poops can be a bit sticky, and two were plugged up.  

Fun work . . . all part of goat keeping.

And now we are more than a week later, and I've let my last mamma goat out into the pasture with her triplets.

This baby below has very curly fur, which you really can't see well in this picture.  I am calling her Coconut.

Richard is holding the only buckling from this year.  I'm taking a suggestion from my friend Darla, and have decided to call him Wingnut.  He even has a white patch on his back that looks like a folded up wing.  He's not too happy in this picture, as I just "banded" him . . . that is, placed a tight band around his balls to make them loose circulation, dry up and fall off.  Don't need no stinkin bucks around.

The last, and smallest of this year's kids I'm calling Hazel.  She really is quite cute.

Again, there was some head butting and pushing when I brought Macaroon and her family back into the pasture, but they settled down quickly, and now the whole herd is back together.

Now if they would get busy on that pasture.  Even with all the goats, it is overgrown right now.