Spring 2012!

 

Just some random pictures taken on the farm this morning. It's a beautiful sunny day!  Hope everyone has an amazing week! ~D

Farm wear...

So last year my excuse for not wearing my perforated leather jacket while riding my motorcycle was that it was a pain in the a.. annoying. I had lengthy conversations with my jacket while riding. Mostly these conversations consisted of me telling my jacket how annoying I found it.

Since I'm really growing fond of my skin, I've decided to wear in my leather jacket. I'm now sporting leather while I feed horses and clean out the barn and pastures. Am I trendy or what? However, a downside to this fashion statement is that I get a lot of slobber from curious goats and horses.
~D

Mild Winter

Okay, so we're officially not that far into winter, but in my mind winter starts at the end of November. I've been taking full advantage of this mild weather and have been hiking and riding my motorcycle as much as possible while trying not to feel guilty about slacking on the farm work. Okay, so I haven't been trying that hard.
As some of you may know, the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge offers hikers and nature enthusiasts ample opportunity to have a good weekend. If you didn't know, well, now you do. The Wichita Mountains are worth a day trip at least! This past weekend I found myself in the Charon's Garden Wilderness Area out by Job Corps (north of Indiahoma). We did some pretty good climbing while we were avoiding the trail.

Found 2 of these Xs close to Treasure Lake where Jesse James is rumored to have buried his treasure.

The cat's out of the bag...trap.

So we've had a bob-lion and a raccoon problem lately. They've been enjoying an all you can eat chicken and goose buffet at Stone Turtle Ranch. You're probably thinking: Hey! Wait. What's a bob-lion? Well, let me explain. It's what we've determined the cat is. It's a cat the size of a young mountain lion with a bobbed tail. Yes. You probably don't believe me. That's fine. I didn't believe Ingrid until I came face to face with the bob lion either. Sorry, Ingrid.

So one of our permanent ranch guests built a trap for the bob lion. The trap was complete and the bait set. Now all we could do was wait.

It had just gotten dark and we were sitting outside enjoying a beautiful Oklahoma night, when we heard a loud bang in the hay field. The trap!
Great...our trapper is gone for the night. Who's going to be brave enough to wander down into the pitch-black hayfield to check the trap? And, with our bad flash lights??? No way.

Well, we'll just take the truck. Lots of light if one does that- way better than a flashlight. Ha! I didn't go to college for nothin'. So we drove into the hay field. And sure enough, we find ourselves with a victim. Unfortunately, it was not the bob-lion; We had ourselves a nice little bobcat in the trap. I had to take pictures. Proof, ya know? It was not a happy camper, our little Bobette.The way it was pawing, I didn't really expect it to stay in there.

Our trapper finally gets home, and we drive back down into the hayfield... to find a big fat skunk in the trap. The bobcat broke out of the trap and a skunk climbed in. I was extremely happy to be able to clear my name with the pictures I took.We all had a good laugh.

Time for plan B. It may have won the battle, but we shall win the war. We still have to get the bob-lion to take the bait, though.

Live trap for the raccoon is also set. Will see the results in the morning.

Medicine Bluffs

Finally, the dog days of summer are behind us and fall weather has moved in. Great temperatures for excursions and sightseeing. My nephew came to visit us from Germany and we had a wonderful week exploring our area. One of our excursions took us to Ft. Sill. We started visiting the Medicine Bluff area. What a great place of beauty. Definitely one of my favorite places to enjoy the great outdoors. The Bluff  is a 300 feet escarpment of gray-white granite that rises above the Medicine Bluff Creek. The area was sacred to the Plains Indians. It is easy to see and feel why. Medicine men held vigils there, communicated with the spirits, made medicine, used it for fasting and meditating. A place where they sought the blessings of the Great Spirit. The sick came to place their life virtually into the hands of the Great Spirit.
The place north of the Bluffs was frequently inhabited by the Wichita Tribes who called it Medicine Waters.

My favorite book 'Outdoor and Trail Guide to the Wichita Mountains' by Edward Charles Ellenbrook quotes Thomas C. Battey's 'A Quaker Among the Indians':
The Indian Legend of Medicine Bluff
A noted medicine man of the Indians, in company of some friends, in their travels rode up the slope of this hill from the south, when coming to the top, this frightful precipice of two hundred or more feet appeared before them, stopping them in their course. But the medicine man was not to be stopped, neither turned aside. Uttering some words of Indian magic, he rode his horse over the precipice, but to the astonishment of his friends, instead of being dashed to pieces at the bottom,he was gently borne across the chasm to the opposite bank of the stream, where finding himself alone, he turned his horse to look for his friends, whom he beheld at the top of the bluff, afraid to follow and too proud to go around. To relieve them from their unpleasant position, he rode back to the bottom, crossed the creek and rode directly up the perpendicular wall of rock, which rent at his approach, dividing the bluff in two parts by forming a chasm through the cliff several feet in width, through and up which he rode, rejoicing his companions at the top, who then followed him down, through the pass thus made, now known as the medicine man's pass. This pass is an inclined passage, ten or fifteen feet wide, extending through the cliff to the top.

There is such a serene feeling to this beautiful place. It invites to spend some quiet time, do some meditation and enjoy nature's bountiful beauty.  

The awesomeness that is Fort Sill

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You'll even find a little piece of the Berlin Wall on Fort Sill.

 

 

The awesomeness of Fort Sill

You can literally spend hours walking through Fort Sill's museums and exhibits and then some!