Posted on in Traveling

Hill City, South Dakota

If you see enough signs, you have to stop and see what Prairie Berry Winery is all about!

6716BF90-00B3-4CBD-9155-50C6CD9F5D32

The billboards advertised Red Ass Rhubarb wine. Mom made rhubarb pies, not strawberry rhubarb, but plain rhubarb. But rhubarb wine??

Another billboard said, “ Wine is simple. If i like it, I drink it. And if it’s award-wining, with free wine tastings, even better!” So we stopped!

Red Ass Rhubarb was not my favorite, but Pumpkin Bog was pretty good! It was a semi-sweet with a blend of pumpkin and cranberry. No cinnamon and spice in it! Lovely pumpkin flavor.

Posted on in Traveling

Near theMissouri River in South Dakota

At the Chamberlain Rest Area we found the Dignity sculpture. This 50 foot sculpture of a Native American woman is depicted wearing a traditional star quilt. The 128 stainless steel blue diamond shapes were designed to flutter in the wind, but were not moving when we arrived. The quilt represents respect, honor and admiration in Native American culture.

2561727C-F6F6-498F-B392-5DE80890356C

I love the fact that even her leggings are decorated as most formal wear among Native Americans.51865E6E-C826-4DEE-A1A1-361BB02BAC2A9897A2CC-55EB-4C69-A06F-4DDD043354C6

 

Posted on in Amazing Creations, Nature, Traveling

Oh Give Me A Home

where the buffalo roam, and the deer and the antelope play!

How about traffic stopped by a heard of bison? Think Custer State Park, South Dakota.

6811C77C-14BD-48CB-9650-5FE8EDE1E8467B3F1B7C-6CC2-449A-9524-9BF3FA4E8D37

Do not ever remember seeing bison calves before this! Well worth the wait in traffic!

F829BC99-86B3-43C8-A480-501D547AB195
C9130729-C52A-41CC-BBDF-F203F75C9439

The herd came down a hill and crossed into the meadow. We were uncertain if the traffic was stopped because of gawkers or the herd. In a while two men in pickup trucks arrived with warning lights flashing on top. Turns out they were “herders” there to move the herd along. They encouraged them to cross the road again. And eventually the traffic began to move again.

991C17E9-D0C4-4469-89CD-3AAC3C35366E1EE9D4F2-9E68-4167-916B-48F10E055B6F303491E9-EE0A-48E9-BCDB-AD176D2A9E67

Posted on in Nature, Traveling

We Went to the Dakotas

One of our main goals was to see the massive sunflower fields in bloom. And we found them. Here is the first series of sunflower fields in North Dakota.  Here is my favorite photographer capturing the flowers. Most had already lost their petals.

E2F167D6-7FA5-4F5B-8AF9-608C036559A5C466AD53-D556-49E8-A613-B17B2C44D777

I really admire the non-conformists! Most of the flowers move with the movement of the sun. We learned that when the seed heads from the flowers get too heavy, they simply face east rather than turn with the sun.

Imagine having a harvest so heavy that we would simply face east watching for the Lord!

Posted on in Family

We were traveling!

That is why I have not posted lately. But oh, the sights we saw! One of my favorites was the synchronized diving white pelican, but I cannot post the video. Absolutely cracked me up one of our last days on the road when we stopped for lunch in Granite Falls. I also had no idea there were pelicans in a fresh water river. I had only seen them at the ocean.

596FEE5F-8B2D-4A35-AB60-59C6D8D8276693ED3048-5108-4683-90D8-CFB21142F4D9

So here are these big birds, with really big feet, sitting around. Then they start to swim together and all at once they dive together!

4305BA12-3C73-488C-8BA3-921E8C965714

4179C4D9-2002-48AC-82C9-080D11460163

Bottoms up, boys!!

Posted on in Amazing Creations, Nature

Well, Maybe Not Quite Plain Sight!

Manatee

By U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey – Photo from U.S. Geological Fact Sheet 010-99; FS-010-99, Public Domain, Link

Have you been to Florida? Or a zoo? Have you seen the Manatee? Also known as the Sea Cow, Wikipedia describes them as slow plant eaters, similar to cows on land. They sometimes sleep up to 50% of a day! They range from 800 to 1200 pounds each!

Imagine my surprise when I discovered Water Bears. They have a remarkable ( to me) resemblance to these giant Manatees, but they are microscopic!

These guys can survive radiation as well as extremely low and extremely high temperatures, pressure, dehydration according to Wikipedia! I have a small photo of both the water bear and the manatee on my kitchen bulletin  board to remind me of the diversity and creative of our awesome God! Someday I hope one day to see a water bear under a microscope for myself!

Posted on in Marriage and Memories, Traveling

National Cowboy Museum

Someone told us the Cowboy Museum was a great place to visit. We had not added Oklahoma to our list of States visited, so we headed there one late autumn.

Approaching the museum I was amused by this statue. What in the world was that Indian Brave doing carrying that umbrella? Was it a joke of some sort? Not very funny I thought to make fun of the Native Americans that way!

(I know, not the best light for a photo, but wait! Wait! There’s more!)

IMG_3705 - Copy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As I went around the side of the statue, look below for what I found! (Again not the best light, but a joyous surprise!)

IMG_3706 - Copy

Such love, trust and devotion captured in a statue that at first seemed to mock. From then on the museum was one surprise after another. Yes, it celebrated both Cowboys and Indians. Stop in if you ever get a chance to visit Oklahoma City.

Here is another exposure

7B984719-FC75-4933-A35A-CC4071F34EB8

The National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum is a museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States, with more than 28,000 Western and American Indian art works and artifacts.

Posted on in Family, Nature

I’m SO Excited!

A few minutes ago I was dancing in the street, literally, singing, “I’m so excited and I just can’t hide it! I’m about to lose control and I think I want to! Want to!”

Last year we had monarch caterpillars in the garden on the milkweed. The third day I went out to see if they had formed their chrysalis yet and every single one of them was gone! Assumed something ate them.

This year we have two large milkweed plants that Bob had to stake because they are so tall. They have already formed seed pods. And this morning, oh glory! Caterpillars on those two and on shorter plants, also!

I am hoping these will come to adulthood. I am going to enlist a good buddy to help tend them and feed them from our garden, keeping them until they are ready to fly.

Will keep you posted!

Posted on in Nature, Spiritual growth

Living Sunflowers!

Right outside my office window my husband was able to keep a sunflower from the deer. It is branching and blooming now. Imagine my delight when I glanced out the window to see the sunflower come alive! The Goldfinch have found them. There is a black oil sunflower feeder not four feet away, but these guys like their food fresh and locally sourced.

E7BF3277-1B6C-46F4-A524-77BA3AB6E4AB

Yes, truly a treasure in plain sight!

Luke 12:22-26 (HCSB)
Then He said to His disciples: “Therefore I tell you, don’t worry about your life, what you will eat; or about the body, what you will wear.
For life is more than food and the body more than clothing.
Consider the ravens: They don’t sow or reap; they don’t have a storeroom or a barn; yet God feeds them. Aren’t you worth much more than the birds?
Can any of you add a cubit to his height by worrying?
If then you’re not able to do even a little thing, why worry about the rest?

31  “But seek His kingdom, and these things will be provided for you.

Look, seek, watch for the Lord to manifest His presence around you. Then rejoice! He IS a good, good Father.

Posted on in Family

Change, Change, Change

“The world for which you have been so carefully prepared is being taken away from you by the grace of God.” -Walter Brueggemann

Change is inevitable. Come to Expect it. – Anon.  I heard this as a teenager and hated the saying. I wanted to keep the fun parts of my life going on forever! Why would I want change?

hand 293The only constant in life is change. – Anon. I found this on a bookmark in a parking lot one summer. I had big plans to help build a storage building at a Homeless Shelter in a few days. That same day I tripped over the dog’s tie out, fell in our driveway, and broke my arm. I was not going to be able to help at the Shelter, or cut up my own food, or use my arm and hand for quite sometime!

I heard a minister preach once that control is an illusion. I argued with him all the way home from church. Now that I am older and wiser I know he was right in every way!

Do you remember the song “To everything turn, turn, turn, there is a season, turn, turn turn?”  Wikipedia says: The lyrics are taken almost verbatim from the book of Ecclesiastes, as found in the King James Version (1611) of the Bible (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8), though the sequence of the words was rearranged for the song. Ecclesiastes is traditionally ascribed to King Solomon who would have written it in the 10th century BC, but believed by a significant group of biblical scholars to date much later, up to the third century BC.

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, a time to reap that which is planted;
A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
A time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

The Biblical text posits there being a time and place for all things: laughter and sorrow, healing and killing, war and peace, and so on. The lines are open to myriad interpretations, but Seeger’s song presents them as a plea for world peace because of the closing line: “a time for peace, I swear it’s not too late.” This line and the title phrase “Turn! Turn! Turn!” are the only parts of the lyric written by Seeger himself.The song is notable for being one of a few instances in popular music in which a large portion of the Bible is set to music!

Humans do not like change, regardless of age, race, nationality, religion, ethnicity, or gender. Guess that is why we need grace and patience as life unfolds! Try to go with the changes today.