Some other sights to see

We went to a Petrified Forest in South Dakota but I have to admit that it looked more like a lot of tree trunks placed along a winding path for you to notice.  They weren't all placed there, there were actually some large fallen trees that were completely petrified and quite impressive!  It was a lovely day, sunny and very windy with a cool breeze and a beautiful forest path to walk through, it was quite nice really.  They also had a very nice rock shop with lots of beautiful specimens for sale.

We also visited a place called Bear Country which is like a zoo but you drive your car through it to observe the wildlife.  There were tons of bears, at least 40 of them and I have to admit I've always been afraid of bears especially while camping (Bear-anoia)!  They didn't look as vicious as I expected though.  We saw lots of animals in the zoo.

 Above is an arctic fox

 Big horned sheep

 Mountain goats

 And of course the bears!  The dogs did not care for any of these animals and barked hysterically!  We realized that we can't take them camping say in the Boundary Waters in MN as they would likely make good bear food.  Tune in tomorrow for more pictures!

Wildlife

Here are some more pictures of my vacation to South Dakota.  If you've never had a chance to visit this State, I highly recommend it!  In Custer State Park they have a Wildlife Loop you can drive where you will get a chance to see all sorts of animals.  There are plenty of Prairie Dog towns, Bison, Antelope, Elk, and they even have Wild Burro that are very friendly!  They come right up to your car and stick their head in the window for some treats!

Here are some pictures of the Bison. Female Bison hang out in big herds with their young and the males are generally solitary until it gets closer to breeding season.  Usually at the end of June or beginning of July males start to gather up a harem for breeding season which is during July/August.  Here are some of the female Bison with their adorable young calves.

 The above picture appears to be one of last years calves with one of this years calves.  Below is a picture of some rather fearless Antelope.                            

 There is a small herd of wild Burro in the park as well.  This cute dark colored one is a baby and the mother is in the photo below.

       They were all about the same size but had very different coats than a horse.  This one had longer scraggly fur and there was even one with a wavy coat about the same length.  They were all so cute and very hungry!! 

In a rather secluded part of the park we saw a small herd of Elk, they have very impressive antlers!

    Be sure to read my blog tomorrow, I will have more vacation pictures for you!!

Vacation!!!

Hey all!  The next few posts will be about my vacation to South Dakota and North Dakota last week!  I love South Dakota, there are so many things to see out there like Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse Memorial, Custer State Park, Bear Country park, many caves, the Badlands, and Devil's Tower!  Our first stop is to see and feed the Prairie Dogs right before you enter the Badlands, this is one of my favorite things to do!  There is a gift shop and you pay 50 cents for a bag of unsalted peanuts for the prairie dogs.  They are kinda skittish at the beginning of the season so they were a bit hesitant to take the peanuts from my hand.  After a little coaxing though, they come up.

They are so adorable, I wish I could take one home!  I know, you are all thinking about Monkey Pox right now, but the prairie dogs that had Monkey Pox where imported from Africa so it is now illegal to import prairie dogs.  You can purchase them from a breeder if you want one as a pet and they are Monkey Pox free!
Our next stop was Custer State Park.  We camped in the Grace Coolidge campground and found out that there was a resident Bison that lived there and in the adjacent prairie across the creek!  We soon found out that the pathway to the creek was THROUGH our campsite!  He was fearless and he didn't seem to care who was there taking his picture or what!  When we first arrived he was hanging out near the resident camper scratching himself on the dumpster and on signs near their camper.

One morning while I was sleeping (in the van and NOT in the tent, I might add) he startled John when he was making breakfast.  John heard a noise looked to his right and the Bison was approaching fast!  He had very little time to run around to the other side of the picnic table to watch the Bison walk through our campsite and cross the creek!  There was maybe 5 or 6 feet between John and the Bison!  Here I am hiding in the van taking his picture as he walks across the street to walk through our campsite!

 This is our picnic table, he just crossed the creek and stopped to take a drink before continuing on his way.

It was pretty terrifying at first but we soon got used to him and just got out of his way and let him walk through!  John named him Bucky Bison!  It was quite the adventure and not what you usually encounter while camping!

Weaving!

I have also been weaving in my spare time on my new/used Kircher Rigid Heddle Loom!  I had to watch a few youtube videos on how to warp a Rigid Heddle Loom and since this is an old loom manufactured in Germany, the instructions they make available on their website are all in German.  Unfortunately I don't speak any German but luckily I was able to figure out a workable warping method.  Warp refers to the vertical strands that create the length of the woven object.  The Weft refers to the strands that create the width of the fabric.

Here I am stringing the warp through the Heddle to the end of the table where I have clamp to wrap the warp around.

After all the strands of warp are threaded through the Heddle, you cut through the loop of all the strands that are wrapped around the clamp and you wind up all the warp on the opposite end of the loom.

As you can see above, I have wound the warp on the end of the loom and then turned it around so the cut ends are facing me.   There are 2 strands running through each slot on the Heddle, you have to remove the top strand and thread it through the tiny hole to the left of it's partner.  Do this will every single one, this is quite time consuming!

When this is done, you create groups of threads and tie a knot in them, you can then thread a spare piece of yarn through the middle of the threads and the knot will hold it in place while you attach it to the front beam of the loom. See below:

You can adjust the tension of the warp threads by tightening or loosening the string.  I will post some more pics of the actual weaving a little later and I will show how to finish the piece so that it looks nice on the ends.  Happy Crafting!!

Pond Update!

We got a break in the rain recently which allowed me to work on my pond addition!  Now last year, my son and I dug about 70% of the new pond and this summer I made it a bit bigger. I added some levels, opened the wall of the original pond created a channel between the two ponds and put in an upper pond which will be the waterfall.  It has been terribly exhausting and I realized that I can't dig and lift big rocks for 4 and a half hours and not pay for it later!  So I think this will be the last addition to my pond as I doubt I will have the strength and energy in another 8 years!  While this project isn't complete it is pretty close, so here are some pictures.  Here is the upper and lower levels of my original pond that I put in about 8 years ago.

 Below you can see the lower level of the original pond and the upper and lower of the new pond directly behind.

 You can see that we lined the pond with old carpeting.  This makes the best underlayment as it is flexible, doesn't decompose and protects the flexible liner from roots, rocks and burrowing animals.

 The upper pond did not come with a built in fall so we will have to create one.

The liner is in, and as it fills you add rocks and you trim the extra liner away when you are all done placing the rocks.  I have a lot of rocks to place, a new waterfall to build, and the old waterfall which has been leaking the last couple years will be dismantled and rebuilt as well.

As you can see rocks have been removed exposing the old liner which will have to be removed and replaced.  I have a lot of work to do!!!  I keep telling myself how pretty it will be when it is done and how I will never make the pond bigger again!!!  For now I am taking a break from this project for a little while and I will post pics later as it progresses!