Cimarron National Park, Kansas, USA

Back to Kansas.

The Cimarron National Park goes beyond Kansas, but I think Kansas is the main part of it.
I have read that Kansas is boring and flat. I beg to differ. It is beautiful. There are parts where wheat and other crops are grown on huge farms. It is advised not to take a bus trip in those areas. Grown people have been known to cry on those trips because of the sameness of the scenery. That might be why Kansas got an unfair reputation as being nothing but fields.
I have never been to Kansas and learned about this state from looking at pictures.
I will put WC for Wikipedia Commons. I am a lazy sot.

There is so much beauty. If you get a chance to go there, enjoy it. After you have looked around, take some pictures. If you take the pictures right away, you end up missing the beauty because you are thinking about the type of picture you’ll take.

The map.

US Map of the states  by, EPA, Environmental Protection Agency, US. I put a blue line around Kansas.

This is a picture of the expanse of grasslands  by, Zorin09, WC.

This is a picture of Point of Rocks and it’s from United States Department of Agriculture, USDA.

Here are two pictures of Cimarron by the Forest Service, USDA.

Update, I forgot to put one in, here it is.

This is Cimarron River near Forgon, Okalahoma. By, National Ocecianic Atmospheric Administration, NOAA.
Who is the person that named the US government agencies? The names are very long and complicated.

The next pictures are a small part of the wildlife you would see in the park.

Wild Turkey walking  by, Wing-Chi-Poon, WC

Dove  by, Gabriele Steren, WC

Lesser Prairie Chicken  by, US Fish and Wildlife Service

Scaled Quail  by, Tim from Ithaca, WC

Bobwhite Quail  by, US Fish and Wildlife Service

By, Samsara, WC. These two have a Latin name and I have forgotten what they are, but they are there in the park. I think they are Pronghorn, called Antelope by the less than smart. Me, for instance.

Mule Deer Curlew  by, Ken Timothy, US Fish and Wildlife Service

The last picture is of White Tailed deer. By, Raul654, WC.

Sunday Morning, September 30, 2012

The harvest moon was last night and it was too cloudy to see it here.
I got out for a short walk a bit late this morning. It had been cloudy and when I was out, the sharp autumn sun was shining through partly cloudy skies.
One of the reasons I had gotten the camera was because of pink Petunias I had seen The color was light and I hadn’t seen it before. On my first walk with the camera, the Petunias weren’t in bloom. This morning they were as pretty as a picture.

Here are the pictures I took on my walk. I am not accustomed to the sunlight s\and the camera yet.

The first two pictures are of Marigolds.

White Mums.

The next picture shows that these mums get north east light in the mornings, but not much west south light in the afternoons. Buildings block the light.

When this picture appeared in the post it was blurry as could be. It cleared up, phew.

These are Lantana. I haven’t seen many of them this year. They like a lot of sun.

Petunias

The last three pictures are of the light pink Petunias.

 

 

 

Covered Wagons, The Oregon Trail

I was looking at pictures of covered wagons used for the trail. They ranged from fancy to they put this together in a hurry.
The famous wagon is the Conestoga Wagon. They were first built in Lancaster Pennsylvania. These were called Prairie Schooners. The white covering looked a bit like sailing ships. Later on, Prairie Schooner was used for any covered wagon.
Other wagons were made in the form of the Conestoga Wagon, but were different in some ways.
Conestoga Wagons were very strong, heavy and large. They could carry about 7 tons, that’s 14,00 pounds.
The problem was that the wagons were too large to go over the Rocky Mountains. That’s how other typed of covered wagons started to be made. Even farm wagons were made into covered wagons.
The pictures are from Wikipedia Commons, unless I put a different label.

The Conestoga Wagon.

From Library of Congress

By, National Park Service

By, Podruznik, English Wikipedia

The ends of the covered hoops were slanted out from the others on the Conestoga Wagons. This prevented rain from getting into the wagon.
This drawing of a basic frame of a model covered wagon is from the National Park Service.

The wagon box was made from hardwood. This kind of wood wouldn’t swell when wet and wouldn’t shrink when the weather was hot and dry. Tar could be used to seal the wood.
They didn’t paint the woo because paint would dry out the wood.
The wagon box had to be waterproof when they crossed rivers. A well made wagon box would float in water deeper that the bottom of the wagon.
On the Conestoga Wagon, the floor of the wagon box sloped toward the middle so things wouldn’t roll and hit the sides of the box.
The hoops for the cover were made of wood that was soaked in water and then bent into shape. They had to fasten the hoops very well. If a hoop came loose, it could tear the cover.

The covers could be made of sailcloth. They also used other types of cloth and used linseed oil or beeswax to waterproof the cover.
The covers were fastened tightly to the bottom of the hoops or the wagon box. If a flap of cloth was picked up by the wind, It could tear off the entire cover.

The wheels were made of wood. They had iron rings on the outside to make them durable. The wheels could be put in a river to prevent the wood from shrinking. If the wood shrank enough, the iron rings would fall off.
There were brakes on the wheels and a brake lever to operate them. I am not sure the breaks were helpful on mountains. It was a lot of weight to stop uphill or downhill.

I read that the average wight of supplies that people put in the wagons was about 1,000 pounds.

More pictures of different kinds of covered wagons.

Photographer unknown

By, Gary Halvoson, Oregon State Archives

A modified covered wagon, not used on the trail. By, Russel Lee, 1903-1986, Library of Congress

The last picture is of a covered wagons during a reenactment of a trip on the Oregon Trail  by, National Park Service.

Crop Harvests

This time of year is known for harvest some crops. If there is a lot of rain, the farmers have to wait until things are dry enough to bring in the crops.
Cereal crops are brought in at this time. Once a crop is ripe, there is a time limit on how long the grains can sit in the fields  before they die.

All the pictures are from Wikipedia Commons.

Women hand harvest potato crop  by, National Archives and Records Administration

Crop ready for harvest  by, James Denham

Bhawana City, harvested crops  by, Rafhan513

Crop ready for harvest above Isle Court  by, Pierre Terra

Harvested turnips  by, Pauline Eccles

Evening harvest before it rains  by, Dennis Simpson

Ready to harvest wheat crop at Mirza  by, Muhammadrabdullah

After a heavy rain, bails wait for collection  by, Pauline Eccles

Harvesting cereal crop  by, David MacCaskill

The last picture is of sheep harvesting grass in a meadow near Norton Court by, Penny Meyers.

 

Monarch and Swallowtail Butterflies

Butterflies are lovely. The stages they go through to get to be butterflies aren’t so lovely.
There are four stages. First is the egg. Second is the caterpillar. Third is the cocoon. Fourth is the butterfly.
This process is called metamorphosis.

All the pictures are from Wikipedia.

First is a picture of an egg. I don’t know what kind. By, Hectonichus.

The next picture is of a Monarch caterpillar  by, Antived.

A Swallowtail caterpillar.

The only cocoon I found was a Monarch. It is a new cocoon.

By, User:Armon

The butterfly can be seen in the cocoon later on.

By Hectonichus

This is a Monarch  by, Quarti. I think it’s a boy.

Another Monarch. I think it’s a girl. By, Joe Mabel.

And another Monarch. I don’t know if it’s a boy or a girl. You are on your own. By, Richiebits.

Here is an albino Monarch  by, Tomhemen6.

I found three pictures of three kinds of Swallowtails. First one is Eastern  by, Ltshears.

The last two pictures are by Tony Hisgett from Birmingham, UK.

Black Swallowtail

The last picture is of an Emerald Swallowtail.

Harvest Moon

The full moon that is closest in time is called the harvest moon. It usually happens in September. This moon appears large in the sky and sometimes has a bit of gold or reddish color to it.
All the pictures are from Wikipedia commons.

Over the Coltswolds  by, Harvey Robinson

By, Plismo

Kings Park, a football field  by, Chris Downer

Over Bangor  by, Ross

Over Vineyards  by, Hahn Family Wines

Over olive trees near Roaix  by, Kucharz

This last picture is by Roadcrusher.

Rocks, In Kansas, USA and On Mars, by Curiosity

In trying to find out about the terrain of Kansas for the Oregon Trail, I found out that Kansas has tons of rocks and they have formed into dynamic shapes.
There’s more to Kansas than wheat and grass.
There is a tie to the Oregon Trail, but not all the rocks or formations I have pictures of were along it.
I’ll get to Mars Rover Curiosity after Kansas. She took pictures for NASA.

Let’s start with the maps. The first is the Oregon Trail Map by the National Park Service. The second map is from NASA, a topographical map with the Oregon Trail drawn by Matthew Trump.

The picture of Kansas are from Wikipedia.  I am indeed lazy and will just write W. The National Park Service also took pictures. I am using NPS for that.

Rock City  by, Nationalparks, W

Rock City  by, User:Smarkflea, W

This is Mushroom Rock  by Nationalpaeks, W

The next pictures are of Castle Rock and that area.

Badlands by Castle Rock  by, Ngresonance, W

Castle Rock  by, Glamafez W

Castle Rock in 2005 after a thunderstorm took off some of the top  by, Ngresonance, W

Badlands  by, Ngresonance, W

Badlands  by, Ngresonance, W

Bluff near Castle Rock  by, Ngresonance, W

Curiosity has been busy on Mars.
Here are two pictures of Mount Sharp.

These are three pictures of Jake. It is named after Jake Matijevic. Jake is close to the size of an American football. The last picture is a close up of Jake.

“I did a Science!” Curiosity tweeted.

In Hot Water

It is a cool morning with bright sun. A hot spring would be nice to see about now.
Some hot springs come from down in the crust of the Earth where water is heated by the rocks. They farther down in the crust, the hotter things get. Other hot springs come from the hot magma that comes from volcanoes.

It you see stem rising from a pool of water, I wouldn’t stick a finger or toe in there. It could be very hot. Too hot.

All of the pictures are from Wikipedia Commons.

Boiling waterfall in Wakarewarena  by, Peter Harrison from Aukland, New Zealand

Grand Prismatic Spring at Yellowstone National Park  by, Jan Krosell

Hot Pool next to Raging Meager Creek  by, JohnHarvey, Canada

Crab Tree Springs  by, CrabTree13

In Wyoming  by, Charles Willgren from Fort Collins, Colorado, United States

This last picture is of  Alpha Pool Liard river, Hotsprings, British Columbia, Canada  by, Lee Tengum.

First Day of Autumn 2012

I was out fairly early and took a walk. It was breezy and a tad nippy. The sun was bright. I took some pictures of some of the things I saw along the way.

The leaves are tuning a dull gold.

Pachysandra

More Pachysandra

Ornamental Grasses

The last two pictures are of Petunias.

 

Autumn/Spring Equinox 2012

I was reading about the equinox and got as far as the celestial equator. The sun shines on it at the equinox and that makes the day and night 12 hours each. That was far as I got.
In the eastern US, the sun rises at 6:44 in the morning and sets at 6:52 in the evening. Close enough to say it’s a balanced day and night.
The Sun And Earth. I forgot to put spring as well as autumn.

The Earth hemispheres.

I found two pictures of early spring in New Zealand.  All the pictures, except for the last two, are from Wikipedia Commons.

Queenstown in September  by, Malcolm Jacobson

Ruapehu, dawn in October  by, JShook

The last day of summer in the UK.

Duckhole Bog in New Forest  by, Jim Champion

An autumny feel in Greenwich Park  by, Chris Downer

Two more autumny pictures.

River Skell in early autumn  by, Alan Hawkes

Coolaught Garden in early autumn  by, Jonathon Billinger

Last night I took my first picture of the moon.

The last picture is Mars Rover Curiosity’s first picture of the Martian moon Phoebos on the edge of the sun.