The Good Badlands
I’ve visited, photographed, and written about the Badlands many times, yet always feel the efforts are inadequate. That’s the effect the Badlands has on me. Others too. The myriad of misarranged rugged buttes, variety of vegetation and wildlife, and stunning scenery in all directions is overwhelming. Far more than can be portrayed in photographs or […]
Maple Sugaring Day
A horse drawn wagon, flannel shirts, floppy eared caps, smiling faces, the smell of fresh pancakes, and sweet maple syrup.Vermont?Nope. Fort Stevenson State Park a few miles south of Garrison. Standing under one of the park’s most reliable box elder trees, Park Manager Chad Trautman, was talking to park visitors.“I know. We’re crazy,” said Trautman. […]
Slice of Life: Some Things Fishy
I can’t remember the first time I went fishing, or the first fish I caught. I’m thinking I was about six years old or so and do know that I’ve been an avid fisherman to this day. Every fisherman has a few tales to tell. Many have much better recollection than I. Mostly I have […]
Slice of Life: The Promise of Spring
Spring.For me it is the most anticipated season of the year. I’d guess it is for a lot of other people too, especially when winter seems to hang around a bit too long. Spring is never all sunny days and warm temperatures, but it is a season of promise, foremost being that winter, and snow, […]
Slice of Life: Rattlesnakes and Bear Breath
What follows is somewhat difficult to write. However, I can assure you, dear reader, that my intention is not to sway anyone into thinking I am some sort of fearless adventurer. Quite the opposite, more an example of why women live longer than men. As you will see, and undoubtedly agree, what I am about […]
Slice of Life: Flooded Minot
There really doesn’t seem to be very much to Minot’s Souris River, generally meandering silently through the city. Usually those who walk the riverbank, or bicycle near it, must look down to see the water which, quite often, moves very little or not at all. It’s a ruse, of course. The history of flooding in […]
Slice of Life: Snarling Ghost Dogs of Dog Den Butte
Once was – maybe. Maybe yet today. I’ve always had an interest in the history of our state, mostly the early days before roadways and fences and towns. The period when Dakota Territory was the “Old West”. Sometimes I wish I’d lived back then, just to say I saw it.When I travel in the state […]
Slice of Life: Good Sense
There’s common sense, good sense, nonsense, perhaps no sense. I like to think I have an abundance of the first two on that list, but there are those, in numbers I shall not reveal, that firmly adhere to the belief I am far more fittingly described by the latter two. To that I say nonsense, […]
Walkin’ on Water
A non-resident asks, “What makes you darned North Dakotan’s so special?”Resident — “Well, we do walk on water.”Incredulous non-resident — “Are all North Dakotans so arrogant and pompous?”Resident — “Nope. Some don’t ice fish.”That kind of sums it up. Oh yes. In North Dakota we walk on water, at least some of us do. Really, […]
Those Dreaded Lines
After decades of trying, I have never gotten it right. Not a single time. Not once that I can remember. Lines. That’s right – lines. The kind that never move the way you had hoped they would. I know I am not alone here. I think.I’m writing about those many choices a person makes each […]
