kissalostsoul

Yep.  That was on my work list for this morning.  At least there were three of us working on that detail.  Remember all those hundreds of kids that have been visiting out at the Chippewa Picnic Area the last couple of weeks and all the rain?  Use your imagination to picture what this does to a pit toilet bathroom with five stalls.  Yuck!  Add to that the fact that there is no running water there.  We had to haul in two of those big yellow 5 gallon water coolers that you see strapped onto construction trucks so we could wash the floors.  Apparently the mops have disappeared so we had to use a toilet brush and rags to clean the muddy floors.  Did I mention these were pit toilets?  P-U!!  After the picnic area, there was one other pit toilet to clean several miles away.  It was only a one holer, so we thought it would be a breeze.  Ha!  Turns out someone had gotten sick and spewed their guts all over the throne.    Our clean up crew consisted of myself, an intern, and a staff member, bu

As of 7:00 pm this evening, I declare that the mosquito season in Minnesota has begun, and I’ve got the first two bites to prove it.  So now I’ll have to deal with ticks and mosquitoes.  Uf-duh.  I haven’t been to a National Wildlife Refuge yet where I didn’t have to battle biting bugs.  I guess it just goes with the territory.                                                                   Red-bellied woodpecker The other 120 fourth graders from Moorhead, MN, cancelled their field trip to the refuge this morning.  It was a good thing they did because overnight and throughout the morning we had another inch of rain.  Kids and adults would have had a miserable time of it had they come.  That wraps up the school groups for this spring.       <-----/--^            Male purple finch. Since my work for the day was cancelled, I decided to head to Detroit Lakes to take care of several errands.  Rainy weather really doesn’t matter when you need groc

Didn’t think I’d have anything worth posting about tonight, but I was wrong.  We had 120 or so fourth graders from Moorhead arrive this morning for four different environmental education presentations.  I was slated to help out at the Water Cycle station.  Local volunteer Craig was doing the presentation to groups of 36 students at a time for 50 minutes each.  Since I’m new here, my assignments have been about helping rather than presenting.  This refuge has a great support system of local volunteers, many of whom are Minnesota certified Master Naturalists.  What a resource for these visiting school districts!  They do a marvelous and exhausting job each day that students visit.  These school groups are busy enough for all of us that there is no time to take pictures. We got the whole four hour program in just in time before the rains began again.  I decided to give the wildlife drive a go on my way back to the rig even though it was raining.  I’m glad I did. The chestnut-sided w

To celebrate Memorial Day, yesterday, Jack and I each got to do something we wanted to do.  First we headed for a casino.  What?  I have no interest in casinos, but Jack was on a mission. He was on the hunt for a couple of $1 poker chips.  He uses them for the center of some of his pine needle baskets.  Some of you may remember our escapades around Mississippi Sandhill Crane NWR when we went out hunting longleaf needles when he visited me in 2012.  No longleafs around here, but there are casinos.  I think it takes about eight hours of work to weave a basket this size.  Of course, that doesn’t include the finding of the needles or their preparation for weaving.  This is an old Native American craft, and I think it’s rather poignant that these baskets are a melding of the old and new Native American culture.  Kind of sad to me. After lunch at the casino, it was my turn to enjoy a different kind of hunt.  We went back to the refuge to try to find some morel mushrooms.  I have spent

Well, we were off again yesterday morning on another road trip.  Eventually we made our way to Bemidji, MN, to find Paul Bunyan and Babe.  And find them we did at a nice park downtown along the lake shore.  We also encountered Chief Bemidji and a marvelous metal sculpture dedicated to all pow-wow dancers.  Jack got up close and personal with Babe, and found a bird’s nest in her nostril!  Did you know that these statues are thought to be the second most photographed icons in the nation, behind only Mount Rushmore? Then it was on to Itasca State Park.  Itasca was the first of all the Minnesota State Parks, and is famously known as being the headwaters of the mighty Mississippi River.  Because of all the recent rains and the spring thaw, we were not able to straddle the headwaters that emerge from Lake Itasca, but what a difference from crossing the Mississippi down in, say, Baton Rouge.  I tried to get Jack to hop the rocks into the middle of the headwaters, but he just wouldn’t

The funeral for the late Fürstin Benita zu Schamburg-Lippem, who died on 08. May, was held on Friday 24.05.2013 at the Mausoleum of the Princely Family in the Castle Park of Bückeburg. Around 500 invited guests, including many representatives of the German nobility , took part in a moving , one-hour funeral service in the mausoleum to Bückeburg farewell . The late Fürstin was after the ceremony buried next to the Mausoleum near the graves of her alte husband Fürst Philipp-Ernst and her older son Hereditary Prinbe Georg Wilhelm. S peakers were broadcasting the ceremony in the adjacent park , where about 200 attended the celebration of the end of mourning . The Citizens Battalion Bückeburg stood guard of honor as the coffin of the Fürstin was carried   down the stairs of the mausoleum . The riding school was represented by a squadron . "With their concern for others She stood in the background. So was our princess , "said Pastor Tho

After visiting the Big Books at the Fergus Falls library on Friday, we headed out to find the last big thing in Fergus Falls. It was the Big Canada Goose that was located on the grounds of the Otter Tail County Historical Museum.  It was not as impressive as some of the other big things we had seen, but the bonus was that the museum was open and it was free. It turned out to be one of the largest and best county museums that I have ever visited.  I couldn’t believe all of the displays they had depicting life in Otter Tail County from the time of the early Native Americans to the present.  Two of my favorite things were the information on how the county, lake, and river got their name of Otter Tail, and the cedar waxwing portrait made out of butterfly wings. (top right pics in the collage) As the skies were darkening with rain clouds, we hurried on to what we thought were the last two Roadside America attractions for the day.  How do you like this ‘Booming Prairie Chicken’?

The Grand Ducal House of Hesse and by Rhine House of Lorraine-Brabant After the death of Landgrave Philipp in on 31.03.1567 the Landgraviate of Hesse was divided among his four sons. His fourth son Georg 1/8 part of  part of the lands the upper county of Katzenelnbogen around Darmstadt. Therefore he became Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt. He took over the power in Darmstadt on 15.01.1567. Determined Georg began to make out of the farming town of Darmstadt , a  residence n city. The castle was extended and fortified with a moat and bastions. Armory and stables , and a new building for the government agencies where created in the castle. For the princely representation also the extended castle garden   was created north of the castle. 1572-1580 a   farmhouse was rebuld into the hunting Castle Kranichstein. Georg's father was in 1524 converted to the Lutheran doctrine and put this reformation in his country by county . Spiritual subjects such as w