It’s unfortunate I couldn’t get an angle without the power pole in the background, but at least I did capture the gradient of the evening sky. This windmill is on 26th street in Bismarck, actually, although I’m sure it’s outside the city limits. Since the enhanced 911 conversion, rural roads are given street names and numbers, making it hard to determine where that line is drawn.
All the space weather and astronomy websites have been posting remarkable pictures of Comet McNaught, a near-earth object that put on a fabulous display as it passed through our solar system. The sun started to melt the comet more and more as it approached, and it is now even visible in daylight…if you live in the southern hemisphere.
I tried to capture this comet with my camera…repeatedly. People from as far north as Great Falls, and perhaps even further north, were posting their pictures of it…so what was my problem? Clouds.
I would dutifully get up early to go find a nice high point from which to stalk this celestial event, pull out my little locator map that I’d found on the web somewhere, and wait for the comet to come over the eastern horizon. Many mornings I never even got out the door; a look outside would indicate far too many clouds for the trip to be worthwhile. On some particularly frustrating mornings, the sky would be perfectly clear…except for a thick band along the horizon! It seemed I could NOT catch a break. Soon I began to read on the websites that Comet McNaught would no longer be visible from the northern hemisphere. So I guess I missed it…or did I?
Obviously I didn’t use my telephoto lens or adjust my aperture to try to find the comet, but I think that I did get it. Had I tried to find it and set the camera accordingly, who knows? Maybe I’d have been able to get a shot of the tail. Maybe I would have had to show up a little earlier, before the sun began to blaze in the eastern sky. In any case, that’s apparently as close to Comet McNaught as I’m ever going to be.
One concern we had was how Scooter would take to a baby. Having a jealous pet is one thing, having one that can fly and dive-bomb is another! True to his sweet personality, Scooter accepted PJ from day one and gives him a wide berth. If we let PJ sleep on our bed for an afternoon nap, Scooter perches atop the closet door, fluffs up, and guards the baby for us.
This is an interesting stage in a newborn, where they start to develop personality and become more expressive. I can’t wait until he starts to babble and smile and all that! Even more I look forward to taking him hiking with me, maybe giving him a little digital camera of his own, and having some father-son time as we ramble around Bismarck-Mandan and the rest of the world.
I love the Beacon. It features articles by many talented local authors and commentators from a perspective that’s hard to get anywhere else. Among the authors are my former Creative Writing teacher from Mandan and former ND governor Ed Schafer.
This issue is special to me because I took the photo on the cover! It was an honor to get a call from Steve Cates, the magazine’s devoted publisher. He has a passion for North Dakota issues and the way his magazine tackles them, much like I have a passion for the lighter side of Bismarck-Mandan. We also share a love of Applebee’s appetizers, and I love when he picks up the check!
I invite you to grab an issue of the Dakota Beacon and see for yourself. Sure, they’re free at several locations, but I suggest you subscribe. Since the magazine first started and my mom brought me a copy to read, I’ve been an ardent supporter and subscriber. Try it out, I’m sure you’ll be equally pleased.
This statue is in an area of very heavy traffic, yet I had forgotten about it entirely. I stumbled upon it by accident while running errands Saturday. Can you identify it?
In the summer I take frequent trips down this road to the river bottoms, and I’m not alone. Sometimes I’ll take the truck, sometimes my dirt bike. It’s fun and there are plenty of photo opportunities down there. But when those ruts fill with snow? No way! I’m no stranger to offroading in deep, crusty snow, but this is a recipe for a chilly walk home.
The driver of the Jeep you see down the road a ways was having a grand old time, and even did something I’d never seen before: he hung a hard right and ventured off into the wilderness. I don’t know if he ever drove out of it, but to me that seemed like the craziest idea in recent off-roading memory. The fields on either side are full of fallen trees and soft, sandy soil…the perfect combination for even a big 4×4 to become hopelessly stuck. I hope they made it out okay.
Once the snow’s gone and the ground dries out I’ll be out on this road again. If you’re gutsy and have a truck, you may want to try it! But do so at your own risk.
No, this is not a piece of war history. Yes, it does fire. It’s a homebuilt novelty capable of launching tennis ball sized projectiles for entertainment purposes. It would not be useful in holding back the British; however, it’s a great example of what a guy can do with an idea in his head and a welding stick in his hand.
The owners are two very nice folks who I’m glad I’ve met. The guy who built this device reminds me a lot of my dad and his brothers, who also would simply weld whatever they needed (and overbuild it as well). He graciously allowed me onto the property to look at his masterpiece and gave me a history of how it came to be. I love North Dakota hospitality…thanks for allowing me into your home.
As an aside, I’d like to point something out to my readers. I take a lot of photos from places that a guy wouldn’t normally be, and in doing so I make every effort to have permission first. My Fallen Farm series of photos are either taken from outside the fence lines of these dilapidated farms, or up close after tracking down the owners and receiving permission. I value my privacy and property rights so I must repect that of others.
If you see something really cool on this website and want to go check it out yourself, please contact me by email using the link at the top right of this page. I can let you know how to get permission to visit a particular site or let you know who to contact. It’s a simple matter of respect, something I think our society needs more of these days.
I did some extensive poking around inside almost every single powerplant in North Dakota during the summer of 2006, including standing atop one of the 23-story boilers at the Coal Creek Station. You could fit the state capitol, the tallest building in North Dakota, inside that boiler. Crazy, huh? One thing I saw that hadn’t occurred to me before was the volume of steam generated by these plants, something that many people assume is smoke. After all, that’s what a power plant does: generate steam. The steam powers the big generators, sure, but everything upstream of the generators exists solely to produce steam.
While I still think that ethanol is a waste and the numbers show it to be a thermodynamic loser, I have to give credit to the guys who came up with the idea of using steam generated by the Coal Creek Station to power an ethanol plant. At least they’re not adding to the amount of energy it takes to produce ethanol, only to get a product with 70-80% of the energy output of an equivalent amount of gasoline. And one thing that nobody’s making a big deal out of is that E85 can actually be sold as E65 in this state without running afoul of state regulations!
None of these thoughts really crossed my mind when I snapped this photo, they just popped into my head as I started typing. After a long day in the garage, I guess it was just time for a big ol’ word dump accompanied by a reasonably neat picture.