It was time…my fellas and I ran out to Fort Lincoln to grab our annual Parks Pass for the truck, then took some time to run around the blockhouses for a bit. I remember when they were so little I had to closely guard them as they went up the steep ladder to the roof. Those days are long gone. As they enjoyed their independence, I looked out one of the ports on the side of the blockhouse and caught this view. Thankfully I had a camera handy so I could share!
Driving on Divide Avenue yesterday I noticed people swerving around an obstruction in the road. I rolled up on it myself and noticed that the problem was one of those “bike lane” markings protruding into the driving lane, freshly painted and marked with a cone. I think these are a bad idea in the first place, but they’re a real head-scratcher when found in places like this.
Aside from mixing bike traffic with motor vehicle traffic in an unsafe manner, these markings are often placed in areas where that merging can’t possible work well. Case in point: this is a hundred feet or so down the road from the previous photo. Traffic on Divide is pushed into two lanes to provide a left turn lane at 4th Street. Where’s the room for the cyclist here? This bottleneck seems dangerous to me.
If people have to cross the center line to get around the cone and paint, are they going to do the same to avoid a cyclist? That’s better than hitting the guy on the bike, sure…but still not a desirable result on a busy street.
This is just one more example of how some of the starry-eyed “progressive” ideas of our community leaders don’t always translate into real world solutions. If I find myself biking this area, I’ll just stay on the sidewalk, thanks.
While poking around in the trees, I came upon a picnic table which hadn’t seen a lot of love lately. While the area nearby had been slightly maintained over the years, the immediate vicinity of this table clearly had not. It had allowed some hearty young saplings the opportunity to reach toward the sky, regardless of what obstacle loomed overhead. What made this noteworthy, however, was viewed from the other side of the table.
Yes, I know. It looks like a butt. This tree looks like it’s sitting on the edge of the board. I saw it, others I know saw it, even my little kids saw it. Must be the groove in the middle. I’m not going to the point of wondering if it’s an ash tree, though. Sorry, I couldn’t resist.
I took my boys to an area near the Square Buttes for a sunset tonight. We managed to find a couple of ticks climbing on us and even a pretty decent sunset, before clouds on the horizon cut the show short by choking off those golden hour colors.
I’m still struggling to get back into the swing of things photographically. Last year and the year preceding it were consumed with health-related issues for our family. 2015 is being consumed by happier circumstances, as we’re building a house to replace the one we gave up last year.
I keep telling myself that we’ll have more photo time soon, but I’m starting to realize that I have to make that time. There have been times where I’ve been able to get out and pursue a certain shot but have simply been unmotivated, burned out, or just too darn tired to do so. I know that getting into a new house is a huge task and that there will be plenty to be done, but having a home again really is the closure we’re looking forward to after the last couple of years. Having reached that milestone alone will allow us to relax and take things as they come. I expect to have lots of photo opportunities sprinkled in with all that.
Maybe it’s a guy thing – we go with what we know. That would explain why so many dudes to back to their ex-girlfriends, or something. Anyway, as I continue to resume my photographic journey, I find myself shaking the cobwebs by visiting some of my favorite sites…and this is one. It’s a small no-maintenance road east of Crown Butte, from which I am able to get some pretty nice sunsets (if the sky will comply).
On this particular night, I was surprised to see that there was no water in the lowlands below the Butte. Only a few remnants of last year’s cattails remained. Given this week’s rains, maybe that has changed…but it was dry as a bone when I took this shot.
This was one of those nights where I hiked into position, photography buddy nearby, receiving my first tick (and bite!) of the year…and then something on the horizon flipped the OFF switch on our sunset. Thankfully I was able to catch these colorful clouds before things fizzled!
My calendar was clear Friday afternoon, so I decided to knock off early and head out with my camera. As the recent dearth of photos on this blog has illustrated, I haven’t had a lot of camera time lately. I figured I could clear my head and work out any photo-atrophy that may have set in by venturing west. I hadn’t been to Sims lately, so I figured I would check it out…most notably the Gray House. While the title of this post could have actually referred to Friday morning’s sky, the sun came out by the time I rolled into Morton County.
I’ve tried this shot before but figured I’d take another crack at that too. It’s a real challenge to match the interior light with the bright, sunny scene outside.
I poked around the house a little bit, then pointed the camera in the other direction for an additional Fallen Farm. I believe the concrete steps in the foreground are from the old Sims Schoolhouse, which has been relocated to west of Almont.
After poking around the site for a little while, I took off for a date night with my sweet wife. We still have a lot to keep us busy in the next few months, but I’m hoping for plenty more opportunities to get out with my camera and share the results here.
It’s kind of ironic. The latest reason why I haven’t been able to enjoy my photo hobby, and share the fruits of it here, is because we’re building a house. So when I do get a chance to go out and capture some North Dakota for y’all, I photograph something that’s being slowly deconstructed by time.
I’ve approached this particular barn from other angles in various seasons, but for this shot I was able to locate the proper people to ask permission to approach it closely. It looks much better this way than it did from the road!
Meanwhile, my project is coming to fruition and I hope to be a homeowner again soon. Then you can expect a lot more rants here about property taxes! I’ll try to smother them in fresh, new photography though.
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