Lake and Trail Photos

A recent trip to Watkins Mill State Park. The lake just after sun up.

Following a trail

The Life and Adventures of a Quaker Amoung the Indians

I found by chance by looking among the library stacks another Western Frontier Library book.

"The Life and Adventures of a Quaker Among the Indians" by Thomas C. Battey





As always click on the photo to make it larger to read.



There were descriptions of the landscape which were also interesting. The best part of the book showed how a God fearing man could bring peace to Indians being goated into war.

Carbon Calculator

American Forests has a carbon calculator that tells you how many trees you need to plant to counter balance your carbon footprint. My family needs to plant about 100 trees a year to counter balance our carbon footprint.

New List of Environmental Groups

At the bottom of this page is a new list of environmental organizations. Links to each one was added. I am sure there are many more, but these are the ones I had a list of.

I will be checking these links and adding to them.

Sunlight Shinning Through The Woods

Hike along Missouri river

My dog and I started hiking along the path following the Missouri river.

When we came to the end of the trail, you can see the bridge where we started. It looks closer than we walked. The trail weaving causes a longer walk than it appears. We sat down along the river and rested. My black lab is not too friendly with water. I threw a stick in the river, she jumped into get it and went under. That was enough for her, she turned around and got out.

Hiking further into the park we left the river and headed to some bluffs. To the left was cane grass and to the right it appeared to be a planted weed for the whole field was covered with it.

Getting to a stopping point I tied up the hammock and rested. My dog was bushed and went to sleep under the hammock.

We followed the tree line as far as this photo shows on the way back.

It was a good day off.

Moon Set

Photo taken at 6:22 AM September 26th 2007
Photo taken 6:23 AM September 23rd, 20007

The moon went down fast after I took these photos.

"When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers,
The moon and the stars, which You have ordained;
What is man that You take thought of him,
And the son of man that You care for him? "
Psalm 8:3,4

Cattails on Frozen Swamp

Link to use of cattails.

Forest Edge

A lot of times woods will present an imposing front that will discourage people from entering. But after you get through the forest edge the forest opens up. The photo below is about 50' inside the forest edge of the photo above.

What happens is the availability of light. Along the forest edge trees put out branches to catch the light all the way down to the forest floor. Inside the forest light sometimes will not get down very far so the trees shed their branches below because they are not producing without sunlight.

When I enter these woods it is almost like going into another world.

Walking by faith can be like this at times. God may lead you to do something and you are afraid to follow that leading. But when you do things fall into place. God will direct you how to go as you follow His directions.

"Isaiah 30:21 "And you ears will hear a word behind you, 'This is the way, walk in it,' whenever you turn to the right or to the left."

A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains

"A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains" by Isabella L. Bird

Surprisingly this is a good book. It was written in the 1870's about a 40+ year old women in Colorado riding around and seeing the country. She tells the struggles and adventures of different people. It is interesting to see how some prosper and others suffer. She describes nature as she rides. She climbs Longs Peak or should I say she was carried to the top of Longs Peak. But she was no tender foot. A lot of the time she traveled alone and endured much hardship and freezing cold.

I would recommend if you want to read a journal type book.

It is easy reading and is one of the Western Frontier Library books. 2 3 4 Not all books are listed but here is a few I found searching.

My wife found the book in a thrift store.

Click on the photo to enlarge it.

Riverbank Grape 2

This first photo shows the Riverbank grape vine as it comes out of the ground.

Here is a photo of a leaf. The tendril is growing opposite the leaf.

Here are some grapes.

Riverbank Grape Vine

Riverbank grape



Vitis riparia




Native American grape.

Fruits are edible.

Tree Sap Droppings

Riding my bicycle Saturday morning I noticed a number of times that I rolled over tree sap. The sound of the tires were completely different.

Here is an example of tree sap on the road on the left of the road and the right side of the road is dry.




And this is the culprit Black walnut.






Here is a Red bud tree growing under a Black walnut tree. The red bud tree is saturated with sap, but it seems to be from the Black walnut.

Possum haw

Leaves shape varries narrow to egg shapped. Leaf edges wavy. Leaves don't match my field guides exactly but branch pattern seems obvious.


The twigs are stiff and the buds are pointed.


I found a Possum haw.
Ilex decidua

Also called Deciduous Holly


Here are the photos I had in the winter. I went back and ID'ed the tree with my Tree guide.

It is fun finding trees in the winter, then going back in other seasons and finding them again. It is interesting to see the changes.

Intoxicated birds may be observed after eating the fermented fruit.

The tree or sometimes shrub is also called Deciduous holly.

The tree is easy for me to identify by the branching characteristics.

The tree can withstand some flooding in the formative first few years. It is a good tree for fruit production. Most trees will have some fruit. The fruit will stay on the tree into the winter.

Hollies have only one bundle scar in the leaf scar!

Nature on Youtube

Cyote youtube video

Peregrine Falcon Tribute


Osprey call and video

Turkey Vultures one the Gasconade

Red Tailed Hawk Hunting at Fresh Pond Reservation

Missouri River After High Flood water

Here, some grass is growing where flood waters killed the vegetation earlier in the summer. Cottonwood trees are in the background. They can withstand saturated soil at times.

This photo shows the cracking of the dry soil of the river bed. This area is lower than the first photo.

As always, you can click on the photo for a larger view.

Box Elder Understory

These small stems are box elder maple. The canopy being so dense that no leaves could live below. The large tree in the background is a Cottonwood.

Holly Hocks

Different hollyhocks. We planted hollyhocks in our back yard years ago. For many years they came up as volunteers. These photos were taken in a park near my work.

Deer Browsing

American Sycamore

I twisted the camera to get this picture of this twisted sycamore. An unusual tree looking for light.

Goldenrain Tree

Goldenrain tree
Koelreuteria paniculata

It is as beautiful as the photo above show. The tree was introduced in the US in the 1700's Thomas Jefferson started a tree from seed he received from France on his Monticello estate.

It is native to China, Japan and Korea.

This tree is planted for ornamental in urban areas. It may escape cultavation.

The trunk may easily branch, though this one has not done so.

Fawn Spotted off Trail

Hiking for lunch I spotted this fawn. It was a treat to see it and she wasn't in a hurry to leave.