Of all the days to have a broken flag pole at the capitol…

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Memorial Day Weekend has to be the worst. While driving past the capitol, I couldn’t help but notice the absence of the United States Flag. Closer inspection showed that the line running up the flag pole was no longer attached to the top, and was instead lying on the grass below. There was no sign of the flag anywhere, so I guess the problem had been discovered.

But where do you get a guy to do flagpole repair on a holiday weekend? Good question. If I had a cherry picker I’d rig something up, but that would probably result in my arrest. I would hope that someone would go to whatever lengths necessary to get Old Glory back where it belongs, especially in time for Memorial Day. You’ve got 48 hours, folks…let’s make it happen!

By the way, it didn’t look to me like the flag pole had been sabotaged or vandalized. My guess was that the recent high winds probably broke something up top that was near failure and finally broke. Maybe the North Dakota Peace Coalition was trying to run a white flag up the pole and broke it! I don’t know. In any case, I just hope they get it fixed. It’s really embarassing to have the flag missing from the state capitol during the Memorial Day holiday.

They’ll need a crane

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A little song reference for you there. While I was out taking photos of large birds and the May cover photo of the Dakota Beacon (and collecting ticks) I came upon this wreckage. It’s visible from the Expressway Bridge as well as Fox Island Road, and looks pretty old. I doubt it had anything to do with the construction of the bridge, but perhaps it was at one time involved in the rock wall built to control flooding. In any case, it’s rotting away silently in the grass along the Missouri River. Whoever owns it should probably take the batteries out and other caustic pollutants, but it looks like it’s become part of the habitat otherwise.

New Beacon

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It’s that time again: a fresh, new Dakota Beacon is available across North Dakota! Available at Barnes & Noble, many convenience store counters, and dispensers around the city, the Dakota Beacon features local Bismarck-Mandan authors as well as contributors from our region. I particularly like the cover photos as of late 🙂

I have a LOT of readers who are former North Dakota residents, and there’s a section in the Beacon for you. In fact, it’s often my favorite section: R. Schmid’s “Looking Back from the Left Coast” features tidbits from around North Dakota, many of which you won’t find anywhere else. How does he do it? I don’t know, but he sure has his ear to the ground. Local news outlets could learn a lot from Mr. Schmid!

Another of my favorites is the back cover automotive stories by local car buff and former North Dakota governor, Ed Schafer. This month he highlights former President Theodore Roosevelt’s 1910 flight in a Wright Model B airplane. Last month talked about a special edition Chevrolet designed solely to win NASCAR races! That was, of course, back when they actually raced real “stock” cars in NASCAR.

A third series that I look forward to is Tessa Sandstrom’s articles highlighting local landmark buildings. It would be a blast to perform the research she puts into these articles, but it’s also a joy to read the results of her work. She doesn’t have an article this month, but I suspect that’s because of the exhaustive coverage of the WSI scandal. I expect her to reappear in the June issue of the Beacon.

My mom originally discovered the Beacon and gave me a copy with her recommendation to give it a read. I was hooked immediately and subscribed shortly thereafter. In fact, this week I’m renewing my subscription for another year.

Last night’s storm

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I’ve become a little nervous in regard to severe weather these days. The reason: I just had new siding and shingles put on my house, and so has my next door neighbor! That’s just asking for a good pounding from those nasty North Dakota hail stones. Thankfully, all we got last night was a nice soaking rain.

After I got off work Monday, I noticed these clouds boiling up east of town. When clouds get that big, you know something’s brewing. When they start travelling northwest in North Dakota, that means there’s REALLY something on the way. It was, in the form of a long stretch of thunderstorm activity reaching from South Dakota nearly to Canada. There were even a few tornado and hail photos on Kevin’s weather last night from the Beulah area. Check them out on KFYR’s Sky Spies page.

I had just spread fertilizer/weed killer on my lawn, so hopefully this will help me rescue what’s left of it after last year’s scorching summer!

Talented tunes – Strolling Strings

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I was grateful to receive an invitation to the Strolling Strings of Bismarck’s annual Family Concert this weekend. In case you’re not familiar with this group, they’re young students from the area who entertain as they play (and sing) while strolling among the groups they entertain. They’re in great demand for playing a hefty calendar of dinners, conventions, and the like. Led by director Scott Neumann, they put on a fantastic show and are an impressive group of young people.

To play the violin, cello, viola…any such instrument is a challenge in itself, but to do so while walking about and keeping a smile would be even more difficult! These kids do it with apparent ease.

One of the demonstrations of their talent is when they offset their bows by one person, playing each other’s instrument while they stand and smile – and occasionally giggle!

A treat this year included accompaniment for the Orange Blossom Special by the founder of the Strolling Strings back in 1986, Rosemary Person. She looks like she’s having a blast, and the kids and crowd were plenty excited to have her join in for a tune. While I’m certainly no insider at this function, it was easy to tell that this was a very special addition to the evening!

I’m thankful again for the invitation by my favorite stroller and family, and encourage anyone who receives an invitation to see and hear these kids perform to jump at the opportunity. Their schedule is pretty much over for the summer, but they have typically done a Medora event in the past and will resume in the fall. Congratulations on another talented season, Strollers!

The cutest picture…with the saddest story

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When I came to work Friday, it was to a pleasant surprise. Near the garage entrance at work, we have a plastic bin full of wood chips from the landfill, which we used in a video last year. Our videographer and I happened to glance inside, and there we found…four baby bunnies!

These little guys couldn’t have been very old, perhaps even a day or two. Apparently one of the bunnies we see hopping around our building must have jumped into the bucket of wood chips to have her babies. She was nowhere to be found, although I’m sure she was nearby.

This was a pretty odd location for them, but the consensus at the office was that we shouldn’t move them or otherwise interfere with them. We put out a company-wide email to make sure that nobody disturbed the babies, then left them alone once everybody had gone out to take a sneak peek at them. They were climbing around a little bit within the little burrow, but their eyes weren’t open and they didn’t do much besides snuggle.

The parking lot this is in faces south, and that brick wall next to the bin acts as a giant reflector. Sadly to say, when I checked on them in the afternoon, they’d burrowed deeper in the chips but couldn’t survive the scorching heat. While it’s unlikely they would have survived any tampering on our part, by leaving them in place we were unable to give them shelter from the sun’s heat. All four were casualties yesterday afternoon.

As my boss and I disposed of the poor little guys (I work for a compassionate guy, I’m proud to say) we did see the mother hopping around the edge of the parking lot. It’s too bad she didn’t stay with them to care for them throughout the day; I’m not sure if she could have helped keep them cool, but at least she could have provided them some shade. In any case, I’m hoping she picks a different location to have her babies next time around. We’ll have to move or dispose of the bin of wood chips so it doesn’t encourage the same mistake.

Under the great wide open

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Wide open sky, that is. My wife and I had taken our son out for his first sunset and were enjoying the beautiful sky over Double Ditch when a guy pulled up in his car, got out and threw on a set of waders, and worked his way down the cliff to go a-fishing. He could hardly have picked a finer evening!

One thing that was remarkable was the low river level and its impact on the layout in the Double Ditch area. There were a lot of sandbars I hadn’t known about before, and it looked like a pretty interesting place to try to bring a boat through. Apparently it was a good opportunity to wade out into the Missouri and see what’s biting.

Bath day

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Spring means new feathers, which also means that a certain Scooter loves his bath. His feathers come out like little porcupine quills, and he has to break off the outer coating so the feathers can unfold. It’s busy work for a bird, keeping him preening for most of the day. That also makes a lot of bird dandruff, too! With that in mind, a bird bath is a wonderful feeling indeed.

Endangered view

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As Bismarck and Mandan grow steadily northward, a lot of really scenic riverside views are becoming history. This view, for example, will likely not survive 2007. It’s on a hill just north of Bismarck, where a neighborhood is being built at this very moment. I’m not the only one who knows of this spot; in fact, someone had put some old patio furniture there last time I ventured out there!

This looks like the fencepost at the end of Double Ditch park, but it’s actually overlooking Pioneer Park. The doubletrack trail leading up to it is still intact, but will likely soon become someone’s back yard. That’s okay…there are plenty of other nice vantage points surrounding our fair cities. Many are just waiting to be discovered.

The Fort Lincoln rip-off, and the night of ten ticks

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Out on a drive the other night, I decided to see how the blockhouses would look at sunset. I had my family with me in the truck, and we went good ol’ Fort Lincoln. I like North Dakota parks and the opportunity to support and enjoy them, but I have to give Fort Lincoln a big “thumbs down” for this trip.

It’s five bucks to get into the park. If you approach after hours, just slip a fiver into one of the envelopes at the gate and drop it in the slot. That’s what I typically do. Then you’re free to roam about the park, including a short drive up the hill to the blockhouses. The only problem is: the gates to the blockhouses were locked! There’s a sign next to them indicating “GATES LOCKED AT DARK.” Fine, but it wasn’t even close to dark yet. This is the second time this has happened to me, and I’m getting really tired of not getting my money’s worth. In fact, on my desk I have a ND State Historical Society Foundation membership form ready to send in. Part of the benefits include free admission to state historic sites. What good would that be if the gates continue to be locked?

My wife is a saint. She said that if I wanted to hike up the hill instead, grab a quick couple of shots when the sun got to the horizon, and bolt back down…well, that was fine with her. I did so, not really getting any decent shots at all, but collecting TEN wood ticks. It was almost a tick a minute on that hike, since I had forgotten to apply any insect repellent. I found nine that night and one the next morning. I was working on a DVD and felt a tickle on my neck and…YIKES! Then I had the creepy-crawlies all day long.

If you’re thinking about going out to Fort Lincoln, just park on the north end and hike in for free. You’ll save five bucks and achieve the same result. And don’t forget to take a can of OFF or another type of tick repellent. They’re crazy this year!