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Category Archives: Life Science
Tracing Native Prairie
Big bluestem, aka turkey foot, is a warm season grass that’s pretty easy to identify in a native prairie. That’s because it ripens to a distinctive purple-red color this time of year. And, the top has a shape like a … Continue reading
Posted in Life Science
Tagged biodiversity, environmental disturbance, soil seed bank, warm season grasses
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Mother Trees on the Prairie
There’s a growing body of scientific evidence that trees share information, warning their neighbors about danger and nurturing nearby small trees. If you Google “trees communicating” you can get some notion of the traction that this idea is getting. Trees … Continue reading
Posted in Life Science
Tagged competition, cooperation, cottonwood trees, plum thickets, root systems, wild plums
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Oxbow Mystery
OXBOW MYSTERY When a channel cuts through the steep bank in a meander loop there’s a distinctive landform produced called an “oxbow”. This blog has a number of posts describing our oxbow because it’s a cool complex of unique small … Continue reading
Posted in Earth Science, Life Science
Tagged cricket frogs, ecology, frog calling, habitat
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Weeds and Feed: Learning from a Prairie Hill
About ten years ago, a part of a west-facing hill was fenced off (“exclusion”) from the rest of the pasture because it had a remnant prairie with lots of native plants. This year the exclusion was added back into the … Continue reading
Posted in Life Science
Tagged forbs, native prairie, Prairie Coteau, regenerative agriculture
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Animals in the Oxbow
Last week I saw this turtle in the Creek. Usually we see snapping turtles (and have had some exciting family adventures with them!), but this one is different. I don’t think that I’ve ever seen one like this before. It’s … Continue reading
Rural Fall
We had about two inches of snow the other night, but it blew into drifts. Several weeks ago, we had our first accumulating snow that stayed on the level. I had forgotten how much traffic is recorded in a few … Continue reading
Posted in Earth Science, Life Science
Tagged autumn, coyotes, eagles, fall, snow, tracks, trees
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Picking Wild Plums
Several weeks ago, I waded across the Creek and picked twelve pounds of wild plums. That’s not so easy to do this week because the channel is back to running full after the latest “rain bomb”. Most of the major … Continue reading
Posted in Farm History, Life Science
Tagged fall season, jam, jelly, moon of ripe plums, plum thickets, pluming, wild plums
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Fall on the Farm
Our currant pop culture recognizes Labor Day as the last weekend of summer. Some schools started in August, but most started this past week. The astronomical end of summer and beginning of fall is still several weeks away (September 22-23), … Continue reading
Ice Age Animals
Last week we left the Farm on a quick, nostalgic trip to the Black Hills. We did all the “touristy” things that we haven’t done for decades, including the Mammoth Site at Hot Springs. My bright wife suggested that we … Continue reading
Posted in Earth Science, Farm History, Life Science
Tagged bison, Ice Age fossils, mammoths, paleontology
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Two Layers of Bones
This tooth was found several years ago on a sand bar along Kanaranzi Creek. It probably eroded out from the layer of gravel that’s buried beneath the Creek bed. And, it’s probably a tooth from a wooly mammoth. That suggests … Continue reading
Posted in Earth Science, Life Science
Tagged alluvium, buffalo bones, buffalo skulls, glacial gravel, Ice Age bones, mammoth tooth
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