Happy Holdays!
Category Archives: North Dakota
Tracks
Happy Holidays to everyone, everybody, and everything !
Deer tracks on frozen Beaver Creek. Linton, North Dakota
December Roundup
Some shots of a roundup of 28 Nokota Horses
Customer service at the waterhole
You start by dressing for the occasion after all it is North Dakota.
Then you drive to the pasture, park, and grab a pick-axe.
Take the pick-axe lay the head of it on the top wire of the three strand barbed wire fence so that it will partially pull the wire down. Then use the top of the pick-axe as a stable cane and step over the wire. Carefully.
Then start hiking. Use the horse trails. The trails made by horses that is. Observe the beauty and remind yourself how lucky you are. Don’t leave the pick-axe, you are going to need it.
The whole time the majority of your customers have their heads up watching what you are going to do.
Get to the water that is now sheathed in Winter’s grip.
Now start picking.
In no time you should get a decent enough hole open.
If you are lucky one or more customer will come partake in the product you are trying to give them access to.
Take a selfie. Get more than you and the horses rear in the pic. Your friends would have a field day.
Walk back using the horse trails. Similiar to game trails but way bigger!
Observe the beauty, and feel the indescribable feeling of joy of being there in that moment.
Look for wild animal tracks.
Cross the barbed wire again.
Sit in the truck and observe all around you. Tell yourself how lucky you are. Over and Over!
Nokotas going to France
A few Nokota mares had to be sorted out from their bands so they can catch a flight to their new owners in France.
There is over 170 mares in these bands so……
Roundup!
Frank got them in from the plains, and into the corrals.
Watching them all come over the hills is mind blowing!
In no time he had the ladies who will soon be learning French and the others were returned to the open prairie.
Fancy Machinery
So I picked up a third job as a ranch/farm hand.
Been working hard with the boss, Paul, to get the rest of his sunflower crop harvested. It is done.
So we went to move equipment to get the last of his corn crop in. The cornfield is 45 miles away.
Want to guess who drove one of his combines the 45 miles?
Yep, after some fast instruction off I went at a top speed of 16.2 mph in a beast of a machine worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
With 35-45 mph sustained North Dakota winds that gust up to 60mph and the fact that the machine steers from the back I drove through a field, down a dirt road then over a gravel road I tried to keep my confidence with the feel of how it works.
Sitting up so high you get to see real well all the obstacles that would make this little journey a complete disaster.
I was getting a little confident as I turned left on a two lane highway to my destination with white knuckles.
I noticed that everyone waves at you in North Dakota when you drive. It gets worse when you are in a large piece of farm machinery.
Hope nobody cared that I was afraid to take my hands off the throttle and steering wheel for the first hour.
Was so relieved when I made it !
If I went to a fortune teller a month ago and they predicted this I would have called them crazy.
You never know where life will lead you! No doubt about it!
Long Lake NWR
Long Lake National Wildlife Refuge. Near Moffit, North Dakota.
Saw tens of thousands of geese in the air last evening.
Western Grebes in the lake, hundreds of Sandhill Cranes in formation headed South.
Wow!
Feeding time!
Using a Bobcat I take a huge rolled hay bale into the corrals.
I drive thru one gate, close it, and open another.
Very quickly I am sorrounded!
With a little coercing, and a slow move into the corral I manage to get the bale spread out.
Then I have many content, chomping Nokotas.
One of the best jobs I ever had!
In The Middle of Somewhere 