Briefly Visiting "Jenny"

Click on the title of this post to visit the Museum of North Texas History's site about the "Jenny." 

D-Day today. Thanks to you across the pond, fallen. Rest well. 

The WWI biplane, Curtiss Jenny, was built between 1916 and 1918.

Tom Danaher poses with Gabriel.

Tom shows Gabriel the oil indicator on the biplane.

Cranking up the Model T Ford.

Tom and the Model T.

C47 Converted to DC3

Back at the Well

I visited the completion well again.

Replacing the swab cups. 

Frac tank containing oil. 

A device to measure the oil inside the frac tank. The paste can indicate the amount of water in the oil by changing color. 

One of the camels on the Hudson approached us. 

Fledgling Yellow-crowned Heron

      This little fellow fell out of his nest, thirty-feet onto the pavement. His sibling did not survive, unfortunately. This morning, Alicia will drive him to the sanctuary in Lubbock.

End of Spring: Exhausted Hounds

Dogs feel tired after chasing birds all spring. 

Flags for the Fallen

           We spent the first part of the morning placing flags on the graves of the people who served during the wars. The flag I placed on Delphus' tomb in the mausoleum a couple of years ago is still there, but I placed another one there for him, for his spirit, for insisting in joining the US Army as a forty-year old man to serve his country.

Art in the Den of Sinners

         The church MyMrMallory and I attend has beautiful stained glass windows. I look up at them in awe and feel some inspiration by the images. On a side note, the windows are close to one hundred years old. Mr. Chris said today that one may not stop service, or retire, but one may continue to serve for as long as one lives. I wish the beauty of the windows representing the devotion of those who lived before us to inspire everyone to serve and to quit sinning. With a history of two thousand years of sermons, lecturing, and Bible thumping, to no avail, this may seem too much to ask of some folks. So far away are they from a relationship with God, that they cannot even understand pictures that surround them as they kneel, much less comprehend the words over which their eyes glaze over when they open a Bible. And the choir continues to sing to deaf people sitting in the pews who are as deaf to the words and the music as they are blind to the message of the art in the windows.

Kathmandu Cat

I found Kisses meditating on my cosmic tankha. 

The Combines are Here!

It's time to harvest the wheat!

These fellows drove down from Kansas to begin harvesting wheat fields in Texas. They bring new technology: The blue machine pictured above removes the wheat head and leaves the plant intact. The plant is later cut and bundled for cattle feed. 

Dropping in on Prairie Dogs

       In Prairie Dog Town this afternoon, I spotted species of flowers I had not seen before. Urgently, I will photograph them, for unless we have another year of unusual moisture, I may not see these flowers again for several years.
       As I approached the town, already within ear-shot of the dogs barking my presence, I spotted a Jackrabbit.

Entrance to the Prairie Dog Town seemed impassable through the high growth of flowers. I made my way along the wheat field, but returned to the road to find another spot. Finally, I found my way across the tall, thick grass and found the town. I was rewarded by the sight of the dogs there, including the mischievous "mooning" by a pup.

Bird life, as always, was active and prolific at Prairie Dog Town, particularly at this time of year. No Burrowing Owls sighted. Many Mourning Doves, Scissortails, Sparrows, Redwing Blackbirds, Great tailed Grackles, Lark Sparrow, Bullock's Orioles.

Drilling in a Sorghum Field

There are drills perforating the land to find oil.

A drill rig stands within a crop of Sudan sorghum.

The operator of the rig.

He gathers drilled basalt.

A drill bit behind the boots of an oilman.

Nearby, we saw a well head.

Here, a drill rig prepares the hole for a pumping unit.

The trucker measures the amount of water in his truck with a post.

Water flows through the valve.

Two views of the reserve tank.

The drill post and one of the stakes that maintains it upright.

Four men tighten the valve.

A leak in the valve released vapor. 

The men worked until the sun set over the crops.

In the foreground, the "slush pit."

The water truck driver heads for home, too.

On our way home, a full moon rose over wheat fields. 

Bullock's Oriole at the Nancy

           There is a part of the ranch that I like to call "The Nancy." It was a gentle woman named Nancy who sold this parcel of land to us. This afternoon I explored the Nancy after we chained the Mesquite plants. In regard to chaining, two bulldozers attached with each end of a large chain. The chain is the same size employed by ships as large as cruise ships to hold their anchors. Together, the bulldozers pull the chain across the land, uprooting dense Mesquite plants. Soil conditions for this method of curbing the Mesquite occur only once every ten to fifteen years. In chaining, we regain the natural grasslands and cacti that the Mesquite overwhelmed by their prolific expansion from the southern part of Texas. A couple of months after the chaining, the grasslands have emerged healthy and dense, and so have the Prickly Pear cacti, able to grow with more sunlight.

Below, a Bullock's Oriole and its nest.

          Other birds I sighted on the Nancy were Cardinals, Brown-headed Cowbird, Redwing Blackbird, Starling, Great-tailed Grackle, Bufflehead Duck, Scissortail, and perhaps the Great Crested Flycatcher.

          Back at home, I finally found photographic proof of the Carolina Chickadees visiting my feeders!