Sept. 1
We joined the Spirit Lake Property Owners group this
year, dedicated to preserving the quality of our lake... One of
the perqs of membership is getting a tour of the Inland Empire Paper
Company land which surrounds Spirit and Twin Lakes... Most of the
time was spent in the back seat of a dusty windowed van, but when we
got out we learned about their serious stewardship efforts, in spite of
the land looking clear cut... Both sets of lakes have
issues with the water feeding them, having had the stream beds
straightened for logging reasons 100 years ago. Just above both
lakes marsh turns to thick grassland, and cattle have grazed there and
contributed to water quality decline... Our last stop at the
Easterday ranch on Twin Lakes showed how volunteers fenced off most of
a mile of creekbed from the cows, and planted trees which are already
growing vigorously, which will shade and cool the water making it
better trout habitat... At that location I took this picture, not of
the creek, but of the fire hazed tree covered hills making some of the
100,000 acres of timber land we toured:
Sept. 19
The week after the last posting was filled with smoke, then I made a
getaway visit to my family in Minnesota, which I'm just back
from. The weather turned totally while I was gone, including the
first rain in nearly 3 months, snow in the mountains, and many of the
regional forest fires being naturally shut down... The rain is
still here today, as it was on and off across the plains...
I took S.D. 34 east from Sturgis, where Black Butte is prominent to the
north... This highway is generally empty of traffic, and very
relaxing to drive...
On the way back I stopped at my brother's cabin up a mountain by Deadwood S.D. and the clouds and trees were dancing...
I think this is the Tobacco Root range along I 90 in Montana, taken
today, with fresh snow (also snowing in places)... I'm pretty
sure there's no better drive along a freeway than the view from
Livingston to Bozeman of the mountains which are south of
Yellowstone... (Although the peaks along Snowqualmie Pass in
Washington state are lovely as well)
Using the illustration camera mode, I took a few artsy snapshots of life in the fast lane...
This is a slightly washed out view of an abandoned farm in western S.D.
taken while driving... I think it's my favorite, evoking Andrew
Wyeth and S.D.'s own Harvey Dunn...
Sept. 26
In 2011 I took this photo of a weird blob in the Mill Pond. Last
month we found more of them, and I noticed an article on Magnificent
Bryozoans invading the Northwest US. There was a link to report
sightings, which I used, and heard back today from a researcher
requesting a photo if possible, so I looked it up on the blog... Turns
out it's a nonvertebrate animal existing in colonies... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phylactolaemata
Books read and other media of note
Collared by David Rosenfeld. Another good dog/lawyer mystery.
