Flint Hills

The Flint Hills in Kansas are a distinct looking region with limestone strewn grasslands stretching from Oklahoma to Nebraska. Springtime brings fires to burn off the prarie grasses leaving a bright green carpet of new prairie grasses.

Jayhawk Reststop

This patriotic version of the University of Kansas Jayhawk mascot is a new addition to an I-70 turnpike rest stop.

The Jayhawk is a combination of the Blue Jay, a quarrelsome bird famous for robbing other bird's nests, and the Sparrow Hawk, a good hunter. The name was tagged on Kansas freestaters during the bloody border wars in the 1850s. It was supposed to be a put down, but the Kansans quickly adopted it as their own.

Jenks Activity Bus

We saw this bus on I-70 on the way to K-State. We noticed that the Trojan or Roman mascot looking guy appears to have Down's Syndrome. It was a short bus.

A quick search reveals that Jenks is somewhere near Tulsa. Maybe driving around lost is what their favorite activity is.

Spring Bonfire

Remember not to have your wienie roast on your living room floor. Also remember not to have a psycho arsonist girlfriend.

Purple Carpet

I love it when these early bloomers erupt all over fields and yards that don't spray weed killer down. They only last a couple of weeks, so you shouldn't feel the need to kill them all. My Aunt Bobbie knows the name of this plant. I'll have to come back later and add the name, if I remember to ask.

Mutated Daffodil

I found this daffodil at the old home site. I'm not sure whether it's a breed the old homeowner selected, or if it's gone weird since they moved out.

Two Tone Daffodil

I may have to raid the old homestead site to get some of these interesting two tone daffodils. This reminds me of some car or fashion accessory from the 60's, but I can't quite remember what it was.... anybody?

Local Anthropology

I love to find old house sites in the spring. This is a site in Legacy Park nearby. There was once a house here, and I vaguely remember when it was still standing. The fun thing about trying to figure out where an old house was located is to go out in the spring and see where the flowers were planted. This spring, I noticed lots of daffodils, but also some of those grape hyacinths, a few irises, and some white flowering bushes. Also found while kicking around the site, a small well or cistern enterance and an array of broken stained glass. My brother Steve remembers the guy that lived in the house, his bus used to stop and pick him up on the way into town.

Kickin' back & chillin'

Smudge tries to look so cool. I think he was dreaming of American Graffiti, hanging out the window of his '55 Chevy, hittin' on the kittens. Of course, the psycho eyes kind of spoil the effect.

Big Turkey Tail

I love this time of year when the Tom Turkeys run around with their tails puffed out. It's all part of the mating dance, and you need to hear Andrea's voiceover in person to truly appreciate it.

Don't Wake the Bear

He's not a real bear, he just lumbers around and makes grumbley noises like a hungry bear. And he looks a lot like a bear with his shirt off.

Notice the deer wearing the baseball cap and the big fish. He caught a fish like it in Hawaii and when they offered to mount it to him, he handed it over. They got his address and said they would ship it to him. When it came in, it was made of plastic. The bass below that sings "Don't Worry, Be Happy" when you press the button.

Vampire Teddies

You have to be very careful when giving an new teddy bear to a child. Some are Vampire Teddies! This one tried to latch right on to Abby's jugular. Fortunately, her parents had tattooed a cross on her neck, so she escaped serious injury.

Quisp

When I was a kid, I ate a lot of Quisp cereal. There were two cereals that were spin offs of Captain Crunch. One was Quisp and the other was Quake. They had these commercials where the two characters co-starred. Quake was some burly character, a miner I think, and Quisp was a funny space alien with a little propeller coming out of his head. Quisp cereal was shaped like little saucers and Quake cereal looked like little gears. They were all made of the same stuff Captain Crunch was made of.

One morning when I was about 8, I sat down to eat my Quisp, the first bowl out of a new box. It didn't taste right and I was complaining about it to my dad. He didn't believe me at first and kept telling me to just eat it. That got me through 3 or 4 spoonfuls before I really balked at eating any more. I don't remember if Dad tried a bite of it or not, but he did get out a big mixing bowl and pour the whole box of Quisp out into the bowl to look for what the source of the taste was. After inspecting the giant bowl full of dry cereal, he looked down inside of the box and found a cigarette butt stuck to the plastic liner. Some disgruntled worker had dumped the butt from the smoke he sneaked while working on the line into a cereal box. It was really nasty.

I don't think it kept me away from the Quisp completely, but eventually I outgrew the Quisp and I haven't seen it in the store for years.

Wood Ducks

We have an excellent surprise on our little pond this year. We started seeing a pair of wood ducks about a week ago, pictured here. Yesterday, we also saw a pair of Teal Ducks. After years of Mallards (no complaints!) it is such a treat to see this different breed right in our back yard.

Photo by Andrea

Meadowlark

We have a meadowlark couple at work that nest in the sign in the parking lot. This one was singing away, making all kinds of interesting sounds, including a red tailed hawk screech. One year, I used to park next to the sign and they would divebomb me as I got into the car. I just wore my hard hat and left them alone. It's a small price to pay for such a melodious bird.

Spring Wheat

At the end of our search for dropped antlers, Kyle and Tyce crossed over the wheat field, and Andrea got this excellent picture from the hill above. I like the old boxcar in the background.

Photo by Andrea

Hearing Banjo Music in Sun City

While looking for a benchmark where the old railroad station was, now gone, this little boy came up and talked to us. It wasn't clear to me what he wanted, where he came from, or why he thought it was ok to approach us. In a town that probably has less than 200 people in it, a truck parked behind your church on Easter Sunday is probably just another opportunity for some goodies.

Photo by Andrea

Antler Search

We like to do an Easter Egg Hunt style search each year when we go to the Ranch, a search that doesn't involve easter eggs. We search for dropped antlers. The bucks drop their antlers right before Easter each year, and we've never been stumped when we go out looking for "sheds".

Photo by Andrea

Spring Storms

This week saw three waves of storms sweep through. The last one had some hail in it, which always seems so odd and improbable. Today there were brief snow flurries, which are so odd to see falling on green grass.

Frolicking Cows

The cows across the street get frisky in the spring. I saw them playing tag this week, chasing each other around in circles, for all the world like children on a playground. I wonder what they feed those guys?

Mating Owls

The other night, Andrea thought that there were coyotes chasing our cats. We went outside and listened to these weird noises, almost scary they were so eerie. They were owls mating. The sound is more like a cat or some large predator. I swear there are sounds like this used in Science Fiction movies where the heroes are stranded on some nasty backwater planet, mucking through some dark swampy jungle without weapons when they hear some strange and sinister animals. Now I know that the sound effects experts just play the sounds of owls mating at that point in the movie. It works for me.

Red Turkey

We've noticed that the flesh around the turkey's faces were bluish gray in the past. Someone told me it had something to do with the turkey's mating cycles and that they ranged from blue to red. Right now they are brighter red than I've seen in a long time.

Photo by Andrea

Turtle in the Pool

The abandoned pool next door had a surprise guest. The blurry snapper in this picture is about the size of a dinner plate. I only got one quick chance before he spooked and dived. There is no way that he could get out of the pool, with it's straight sides. The pool has been uncovered for about 2 or 3 years now, with noone living in the house. It's full of leaves, has had frogs living in it for at least two years and hardly looks like a real swimming pool any more. The fact that the equipment room is flooded with 3' of water makes me think it will be some time before it gets fixed up again. I'm not sure how to get the turtle out of the pool. I'm not sure if it's possible for the turtle to have grown up in the pool, I believe it fell in somewhat full grown already. There are little claw marks in the dirty sides of the pool where it has tried to crawl out.

I'm thinking a big net is the only chance here. The question is how to sneak up on the turtle. I'll have to plan the rescue carefully.

Vulture Friends

We have some vultures that live nearby. The seem to like to sun and court on the roof of the nearly destroyed barn next door.

Photo by Andrea

Forsythia Fence

The house next door has a long and solid fence of Forsythia bushes along the southwest fence line. They usually bloom right as all the trees are starting to bud out and right before the cherry, flowering crab, bradford pear, and fruit trees start to bloom. We took cuttings from the bushes and put them in a milk jug with water last fall. This spring, they bloomed in the garage. I thought they had been long dead. We're going to try to plant our own fenceline of Forsythia from cuttings.

Daffodils

I love the look of Daffodils. The center looks like a trumpet. The front view looks like a child's picture of the sun. I've noticed white and dual color ones this year.

Truce

Here are the cats and turkeys, maintaining their wary truce.

Unpleasant Surprise

When we leave town for just a couple of days, we put out an excessive amount of food and water and let the cats fend for themselves. This has never been a problem. This year when we got back, Andrea noticed that there was something wrong with Bullseye. His eyes could not look straight and messy discharge was coming out of them. He had a bulge on top of his head that looked nasty.

He had been in some kind of fight, probably with a stray cat that came around, or possibly a raccoon or possum. In any case, something had pierced the top of his head all the way though the top of his eye socket. He had a massive infection and it was seeping through the puncture in the back of his eye. It must have felt horrible, particularly since the swelling on top of his head was almost the size of half a tennis ball.

We took him to Warren and had him fixed up. After a round of antibiotics and some time living inside, he was feeling much better.

Here he is the day after, with his surgery wounds still fresh.

Tiny blue mystery flowers

I find that the little flowers are very interesting. These little blue gems are in our courtyard in the spring. So tiny that they would be easily missed, they are beautiful if you get down on the ground and look at them close up.

Surprise Crocuses

I was telling Andrea about a line of crocuses that I planted out near the road several years ago. There was a group by the house, one in the middle of the yard and the ones out by the road. The ones by the house bloomed first, then the ones in the yard, and then about a week or two later, I noticed the ones by the road. This is the first time I remember seeing them for several years. I'm not sure if they skipped a few years or if I just didn't notice them. I remember when I planted this line across the crest of the drainage ditch that there were a wide variety of colors. Now there are only yellow ones.

The First Peonies of Spring

This always amazes me to see plants coming back in the spring. Peonies start to come back pretty early. The come after the crocuses have bloomed and around the time that the daffodils are starting to bloom. The thing that I find interesting is how they have the shape of little missiles coming up through the earth. Then they change their shape and become little bushes.

Shedding Antlers

We know that deer and elk shed their antlers about this time of year. I had never seen what their heads look like afterwards.

Face to Face with a Buffalo

If you want to get this close to a 1200 pound buffalo, just wave a celery stick in his face.

Tree of nests

We noticed this tree with something like herons nesting in it. It was odd to see something that looks like a water bird with nest in trees so far away from water. It was also interesting to see a whole colony of birds in one tree.

Photo by Andrea

Buster's

These decorations are set on the post above the patio of Buster's, a little bar in Sun City Kansas. We went there years ago to have a hamburger and a shake, back when Kyle was about 3 or 4. They gave the kids a special treat, big bowls of ice cream. Then Kyle got sick and puked. For some reason, this is a fond memory for Steve.

Blue Steel

You never know when a supermodel celebrity will drop in.

Bar 7

The Ranch is called the Bar 7 Ranch, and they have this sign at the entrance. Each year we stop on the way out the gate and pause to take this same picture. You'd think one is enough, but for some reason, we complete this same tradition every year as if it never occurred to us to do anything else.

Silk silk silk silk silk

While we were in Walmart buying kites on the way down to the Ranch, Kyle played a trick on me.

He asked me to say "silk" 5 times fast. I did. He asked me to do it again, and I did. Then he asked, "what do cows drink?" and I said "milk". "No, cows drink water."

OK, that was tricky. I thought, oh, they do drink water, they make milk. But if you think about it, what do them make milk for? For little cows to drink. So who's been tricked now?

It's what's for dinner

They should use this mug shot in the Beef commercials.

That thing in the foreground is what they drag on the dirt roads to keep them smooth. Country ingenuity.

Photo by Andrea

Double Bottle

Sometimes you have to hit the calves with a double bottle blast. This is serious business.

Prairie Moonrise

Here's another shot from my camera mounted on a tripod with a long exposure. The elm trees in the foreground frame the scene across the Cedar Creek valley of the Gyp Hill ridgeline. To the right of the moon are some radio antennas with their stobe lights, and directly above the moon is Jupiter.

Orion the Hunter

This long time night exposure shows Orion the Hunter and his dog Canis Major.

You may want to click on the picture to make it bigger and see the stars better.

Orion is one of the most prominent and easily recognizable constellations, after the Big Dipper. The three stars of the belt are perfectly spaced out, all the same intensity and easily recognizable. This constellation actually looks like what the ancients said it looked like. Some say the hunter is raising a club over his head, others say he has a bow. His legs are easily spotted trailing below his belt. The Dog, his faithful companion, has in his ear the brightest star in the sky, Sirius. He faces Taurus the Bull, whose perfect V forms the horns as he charges Orion. Riding on his back is Pleiades, the seven sisters, daughters of Atlas. They are an open cluster or stars from the same cloud, and form a shape like a tiny and very bright little dipper.

Lisa and her teddy bear

I got a picture last year of Lisa using her teddy bear as a pillow, here's a slight variation to the theme.

Country Geocaching

Tyce enjoyed his introduction to Geocaching. This one totally fooled us because it was supposed to be "up a hill" and instead of all the little hilltops that were around, it was up a roadside bank. It didn't matter, as Tyce was the first one to spot it, and experienced the Easter Egg Hunt-like thrill of the find.

Spring Burning

The prairie grasses of the Great Plains would occasionally burn. The fires were started by lightning strikes, and would sometimes sweep for hundreds of miles, burning off the dead grasses. This pattern developed to the advantage of the grasses in the plains. It kept trees from taking over and overshadowing the grass, it provided fertilizer in the form of the ash from the burnt grass, and it opened the ground up to sun and cleared the way for the new grass to come up. Come back in 3 weeks and these hills would look like a golf course.

Puppy Dog Tails

Just like the nursery rhyme says, little boys and puppy dogs just go together. These guys were not your normal frolicking energetic puppies, they were kind of sleepy. I wonder if they've had all their shots.

Photo by Andrea

Riding the Range

No trip to the Ranch would be complete without a ride on the horses.

Go fly a kite

We finally revived the Easter tradition of flying kites this year.

Before going down, I tried to find some fancy high performance kites. We had several years of buying $1 kites at Walmart, only to find that they were no match for the stiff Kansas breeze. It's not so much the waste of the dollar when you take the kite out, assemble it, and watch it get shredded instantly. It's the complete and utter disappointment of taking all the effort to get ready to have fun and have nature slap you in the face.

So we decided to dare to love again. I found out online that the fancy kites are available by mail order, but you can't find them in a store that you can go into and walk out with one. So we went to Walmart.

We lucked out. The cheap kites weren't that crappy and the wind was not so strong.

When we first went out to fly the kites, there was no wind. Then Renee wanted to try it while we were all busy talking, and we thought she would probably fail to get the kite up. Then we saw the little green owl kite above the trees and realized that a nice gentle breeze was making it ideal kite flying weather. Soon every kite in the Walmart bag was out, assembled and in the air.

When life deals you no breeze

Cade Still wants to fly a kite, but without the standard breeze, it's pretty hard. A little bicycle action can provide the breeze, but the flight is short.

A Van Down by the River

It was like being in our own Saturday Night Live episode. While visiting the Peace Treaty Monument, we found the proverbial Chris Farley character, camping out, writing his next motivational speech.