Earth Explorations

Sunset on the Solstice. Pierre, SD. 12/21/21 For me, the time between Solstice and New Year’s is a time to reflect upon the past year and plan for the new. This period of about 10 days feels separate from the regular hum of everyday life. The separateness gives it a sacred feeling. These, to me, are the holy days aka the holidays.  I am feeling my way forward in how to observe the holidays in a way that is enriching to the soul, the Earth and other people. I do observe Christmas and I celebrate with lights, music, presents, gathering with family, and feasting types of food.  These celebratory acts feel old to me, older than the birth of the Messiah, even. But I feel and have felt for a while there is more to the holidays. I found wisdom and good suggestions for practices to observe this holiday time in an article by Sarah Sunshine Manning, the communications director for NDN Collective. Before I go any further and link you to the article, I want to say I try to be considerate when shar

This post is modified, updated version of one I wrote on my Facebook page on Dec 5. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  Most weekend mornings for the next few months you will find me with a cup of tea watching the birdfeeders for Project Feederwatch , a citizen science project run out of Cornell University. In Project Feederwatch, backyard birders keep a watch on their feeders or other areas where birds gather to count and ID birds. This information helps scientists understand birds' winter behavior. Red-breasted nuthatch To get more citizen bang for the science buck, I'm taking photos of birds I see during the Project Feederwatch time and uploading them to iNaturalist , specifically to my  iNat Feederwatch project . Before you click through to see the project, I will clarify in advance that I did not see a Hooded Merganser at my feeder. I do not have a pond or small lake in my backyard (sadly). The merganser is included because filtering it out from the project

 Thanksgiving is winding down. There are few leftovers in the fridge. Family and friends have gathered (hopefully after being vaccinated and everyone rapid testing on the day of the event) and are gone or will be shortly.  It is time to move into the next season of solstice, of Christmas, of a New Year. But before we leave November I want to put this here, my new Thanksgiving decree. Thanksgiving is a celebration of all things indigenous, of food sovereignty, of gratitude for bounty, of reciprocity to the Earth, and of writing Indigenous people back into the narrative of who we are as Americans. While these specific words may be mine, the ideas behind them are inspired by the work of many thought leaders. I would like to acknowledge Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer, Citizen Potawatomi ; Chef Sean Sherman, Oglala Lakota Sioux ;  Steven Peters, Wampanoag  and Dr. Heather Cox Richardson for their generosity in sharing their words and ideas with the world. Their ideas have alchemized with my own

 With the return of fall, I start maintaining the bird feeders again. And by maintaining I mean spend a ridiculous amount of money on food that ends up feeding  A lot of "trash" birds, i.e., Eurasian Collared Doves and House Sparrows  Squirrels which are not birds and I'm not happy about that A few of my favorites e.g., Northern Cardinal, nuthatches, assorted woodpeckers  And for the past few days, a lone American Goldfinch. The first day I saw this little guy, shortly before I took this picture, he sat very still and was tolerant of our proximity while we worked in the backyard in a way that none of the other birds were. I figured he was either sick or exhausted. Eventually he started to eat and perked up. He looked quite robust when I spied him last night, bobbing around the feeder. I wonder, where is his flock? How is he off on his own? I'm assuming he hatched and fledged this year and somehow lost track of his parents. This happens, I'm told. Apparently, the y

I'm not sure what happened to me in July. Normally I'm all about the wandering but apparently I had a need to get deeply rooted in July because I spent a large part of it setting up gardens and planting things. At home, I set up a row of container gardens in the backyard as well as a garden of potted hostas in the front. Who am I?   More in line with what I'm about but still garden related, I spent a Saturday morning staffing a table at Little Wings on the Prairie, a pollinator festival at, you guessed it, a pollinator garden . I handed out journaling supplies so families could take clipboards, paper and writing implements into the garden to make observations.  It was a good July. We'll see what August brings. Besides tomatoes and zucchini, that is.

 And just like that, life feels like it's back to its pre-pandemic pace at least in terms of my job. June is normally one of my busiest work months with lots of travel. Last June, pandemic June, wasn't of course. I believe I made one trip out of town and that was to the Badlands for a day hike as part of a remote workshop.  But this June started off with a bang (actually a half marathon), and continued with workshops and field trips throughout. Since the workshops and field trips were about connecting educators to the outdoors I was in my happy place. You can see photos from June here:  https://photos.app.goo.gl/Hp6hWn16GsPDPkjL8  July will not be so whirlwind in terms of travel so I hope to be able to find time to work on some personal projects. Summer is supposed to be lazy, right? More kayaking. More wandering with a camera to take photos of things. More outside office. More field projects to serve as exemplars for learning and exploration.

In April I felt like all the plates I'd kept spinning had gone winging off, some falling, some shattering, some disappearing. And now it's May and May in my corner of the world means migratory birds. I am not a particularly early riser but I do get up early enough to enjoy a bit of time with a cup of tea in the backyard watching the birds. I also am still working at home so whenever I can, I take my computer outside to enjoy the day when it's fine. Normalize the outside office, I say. These backyard excursions (emphasis on the backyard rather than excursion) have afforded me the opportunity to see the migrants, some passing through enroute to points further north and others here for the summer. Harris's sparrow. This bird has been called a showstopper and with the pink bill and dark face I'd have to agree. Clay colored sparrow. It's the gray neck. Spotted towhee. The white tips on the wings give kee a spotty appearance. White throated sparrow. I love kee's s

While driving around looking for birds I came across this old building located on Lower Brule off reservation trust land. I believe it was a one room school. In the photo below, you can see the frame of a chalk board through the door.    Based on the plaster and lath, the space for the stove and the light fixtures (zoom in). I'm guessing this was built in the 30's or earlier. You can see more photos of the school house in this photo album .  

I use an app when I walk outside. After each walk logged you can take a photo which becomes part of your training record.  Instead of New Year's resolutions, I have themes which I sometimes call projects. These themes/projects aren't aspirational e.g. New Year, New You! but more reflective, giving me a way to think about my my life.  I can't really say how I pick these themes. It's an intuitive process of listening to my subconsious through reading my recent journals, casting an objective eye on what's going on in the world, and thinking about my core values. There's usually some Baader-Meinhoff phenomenon involved too. All I know is that when the theme/project appears it feels right. There has to be a certain satisfying click about it, as if it fits into my life the way the right puzzle piece fits in a large, complicated jigsaw. This year's theme or project, I'm not sure which, is Walking and Wayfinding. In reviewing my blog entries from the past 6 mont

Two weeks and a few days on, the dress challenge is no more, undone mostly by the pandemic. No, I didn't get sick or even sick of the dress. Rather there were so few days when I actually put on the dress over the base layer to leave the house that I sorta forgot about it. I think I wore the dress three times.  So, the dress challenge turned into a leggings challenge and isn't that what we've been doing since COVID sent us home to work? I also was beset by taking on too much. I believe you  should set yourself little challenges to check in with where you are with regard to living out your values. The results can be revealing and should be fodder for reflection and self discovery even if you don't like what they say about you. Own your shit is one of my mantras. But also be kind to yourself. That's a different post, though. I've learned (and am still learning) take up just one or two of these challenges at a time. We all have only so much time and energy and somet

 I am of the demographic, according to Facebook, that is interested in minimalism and clothing made of natural fibers. I believe the encompassing term is "crunchy", and yes, yes I am though if I'm honest I'm actually crunchy-aspiring.  Because I am who I am, I have been eyeing a dress challenge from Wooland where you wear a merino wool dress for 100 days straight, documenting your progress through social media or uploading photos to a google drive. Actually, I did more than eyeing. In a weak moment, I tried to start the challenge a few months ago by which I mean I tried to buy the dress. Alas, they were sold out which disappointed me at the time but in hindsight saved me money and buyer's remorse.  I see that ad a lot, more so since I clicked through to try to buy the dress. And every time I've seen it, I have considered doing the challenge thinking about what adaptations I might want to make. The last few times I've mulled it over, I didn't come up w