Foggy morning church

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We had another foggy morning today, and it gave me the opportunity to photograph the sun as it rose above the steeple at Buckstop Junction. A friend mentioned that as he drove in from north of Mandan, the river valley had a really neat silhouette effect from the fog as well. Mornings like this are so incredible and make getting up early worthwhile!

From our “just when you thought you’d seen it all” department…

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One of the last things I thought I’d find in the middle of a field in central North Dakota is a big pyramid of bowling balls. Some look like they’ve been painted black with what looks like stove paint (regular flat black turns gray) but maybe they’re just aged. Some are left with their original color(s). This stack of bowling balls was next to a brush pile in a field well east of Bismarck.

I’d love to hear the story behind this one.

Misty morning hop

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As I ventured around the periphery of Bismarck-Mandan via obscure gravel roads Saturday morning, I noticed a lot of fog in low-lying areas. I noticed this old abandoned farm house poking through the fog in one area and grabbed this quick photo of it. It was a long way from the road, so in compliance with my “not without permission” policy, I simply took the best photo I could put together from the road.

More proof that liberals are liberals first, above all else

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In taking a firm stand not to put Sarah Palin on her show, Oprah just threw the “two” in “the ol’ one-two” punch to her credibility:

Punch One: Oprah declined to have Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas on her show. Not the first black Supreme Court Justice in our nation’s history, but a qualified man who rose from impoverished roots. He’s a conservative. A Republican appointee. Oprah decided she was a liberal before a black person.

Punch Two: Oprah declined to have VP candidate Sarah Palin on her show. Not the first female VP candidate, mind you, but by far the most popular…a regular superstar, if you will. She’s a conservative. A Republican candidate. Oprah decided she was a liberal before a woman.

For a bunch that needs to “group-ify” everybody into factions in order to appropriately pander to, and make victims of, everyone they see…Oprah has just shown that her allegiance belongs to neither of the two most prominent demographics to which she belongs: black Americans and women.


Oh, there IS one group that which Oprah belongs to which she’s not afraid to put on her show: liberal millionaires. The list of them appearing on her show is quite long, and includes such prominent members as Barack Obama. So much for “the decision not to use my show as a platform for any of the candidates” eh?

Wispy clouds

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These were some of the last clouds of August, taken mid-afternoon. It’s not often that I shoot clouds without something else in the frame, but these were just too cool. I also threw on a couple of filters to get better color, contrast, and some lens flares.

North Dakota skies are fantastic, no two ways about it. Whether they’re clear or cloudy, we’ve got it good.

Tractor row

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I see these tractors every time I head toward Lincoln on south 66th Street. They’re parked in such a way that a photo of them is a little tricky; there’s other stuff in the background, there are trees interfering with the light, and their arrangement is set. Nevertheless, I stop on occasion to try a new idea when I’m on the way to visit friends living in Lincoln. Sometimes, like this example, I play with the light in Photoshop. A challenge is usually a good thing, especially in photography!

So far, so good, for our little doves

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Remember those doves that I posted about a few days ago? Well, they appear to be doing better! The mom huddled atop her babies for a few days, and they are doing well. They’ve been hiding around the yard and eating from a plate of wild bird seed that we have left out for them. First we saw only the mom, then the mom and one of the little ones. I don’t know for sure what happened to the third. Now they’re all gone, presumably having moved on to someplace better. We did our part to help nurse the poor little birds along after they were blown out of their nest…now the rest is up to the normal course of nature.

Sixty years ago, North Dakota nearly bordered FOUR states

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Not much can be easily found with merely a cursory Google search, but there are those souls on the Internet that love chasing down such details. I was tipped off to this by a blog I frequent, Strange Maps.

Apparently a few disgruntled folks were looking to make a state of their own back in the 1930s, borrowing bits from Montana, Wyoming, and South Dakota. “Absaroka” would have been the 49th state, cutting in line ahead of Hawaii and Alaska, a.k.a. “Seward’s Folly”.

The name Absaroka is tied to the Crow Nation, according to this article from the New York Times. (Of course, we know how reliable THEY are…I’d rather trust a blogger!)

Apparently these folks were quite serious, even to the point of printing up state license plates (as pictured above), and even a Ms. Absaroka contest (as pictured below).

I wonder what Montana, Wyoming, and “the other Dakota” would have thought about losing a big chunk of their territory to this new state? I can hardly imagine they’d be thrilled. And of what serious offense would the instigators of this movement be guilty? Not secession, at least on a national level. In any case, it must have fizzled out. The last time I headed south of Belfield, the signs said South Dakota.