April proved to be very warm - continuing a trend all winter. It was also dry.
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The gravel pit is operating again. I talked to Gene who farms the East Farm,
and he said the gravel in this pit is nearly played out. He thought that meant they might
backfill this pit, but he also heard the county wants to use this pit to collect excess
runoff water. The pit has signs all around warning trespassers. Folks like to search through
the gravel for agates.
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Here is the last bit of snow along the road. The amount of snowfall this winter had to
be below normal. This is directly across from Bluebird Treeline.
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A float plane flies overhead. If you enlarge this you can see the two floats used to land on water.
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Here is an eagle. A mating pair has set up a nest nearby. I have seen the eagles all winter long.
I observe that eagles don't do much flapping - they almost always seem to have their wings locked
in a permanent glide. I will take lots of close-up eagle pictures later in the year.
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Caterpillars out on the road again. This is a different type than the one spotted back on January 28.
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Feral pigeons (Columba livia L.) up ahead on the road. Note the white one.
These appear to come from the East Farm. The feral pigeon descends from the
rock pigeon, introduced to North America in the 1600's by Northern Europeans who settled in Nova
Scotia, Canada.
Many domestic birds escaped or were released over the years and gave rise to
the feral pigeon. These show a variety of plumage - some can be entirely chestnut,
white, or black.
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Buildings except for yellow shed destroyed 2007
If you have never lived in the countryside, you don't know about the high-pressure liquid natural
gas tanks. With no city service, this is the method of supplying fuel for the furnace and
stove. The one on
the West Farm is located next to this red barn. A metal gas line runs from the tank into the house. A
liquid natural gas truck comes when the tank is empty and fills it up.
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These interesting flowing blossoms belong to box elder trees. This fall each strand will
develop into a seed that will helicopter to the ground.
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Gophers ...
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Quite plainly you can see the sun powering spring in this photo. The rightmost photo is the
blossoms of this tree located along the driveway of the East Farm. Yes, it's a lousy picture -
I didn't get the right focus. Beyond is Bluebird Treeline. In Field #7 you can see weeds sprouting
in lines which mark out last years row crop.
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Here you can see how the road repair ended up. The original damage was from a truck that got too
close to the soft edge of the road and got stuck.
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This is taken walking North - you can see the ditch is greening up.
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Not sure what this little fellow is, but he lends a deep red color to an otherwise bland ditch.
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Here is one of the burr oaks in Bluebird Treeline beginning to bud.
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The trees in Field #4a are also starting to leaf out.
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This cattle path along Field #3 has not seen use in many years. At some point the West farm had
cows and the farmer used this lane to get his cows from one pasture to another without trampling
his crops.
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Everything but garage destroyed 2007
Young twenty-something's rent the house on the West farm. Last night as I walked late I observed
they were having a bonfire - the chairs were put out around the fire last night.
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An anthill along the road.
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