You can follow Jonathan's postings about his adventure at http://chasingthesloth.wordpress.com/At one place he mentions almost stepping on a caiman in a river. I looked up "caiman". Oh my!
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Jonathan
You can follow Jonathan's postings about his adventure at http://chasingthesloth.wordpress.com/At one place he mentions almost stepping on a caiman in a river. I looked up "caiman". Oh my!
Monday, August 22, 2011
Peter and Jonathan
The alarm went of at 3 a.m. and we took Jonathan and another Gustavus junior to the airport. Jonathan is going to spend the fall semester in the rain forest jungles of Costa Rica studying the biology there. We won't be seeing him again until December.
At noon Sargent Sargent (no kidding) arrived at our house to pick up Peter and drive him to Fargo. There he will, in the morning, take a plane to Fort Sill, Oklahoma for 2 1/2 months of boot camp. He will remain there for another 2 months of specialized training in surveying and weather analysis. We don't know when we will see him next. His only contact with the outside world will be through the post office - once we are given an address. . .which may not be for a week or two.
It is suddenly very quiet at our house. Josie's passing has reminded us that each moment of life is a gift and nothing should be taken for granted. A prayer or two for the safety of our boys would be appreciated.
Jonathan is going to try and maintain a blog with photos of his adventure. We'll get you that site as soon as we get it. And Peter's address at boot camp too.
At noon Sargent Sargent (no kidding) arrived at our house to pick up Peter and drive him to Fargo. There he will, in the morning, take a plane to Fort Sill, Oklahoma for 2 1/2 months of boot camp. He will remain there for another 2 months of specialized training in surveying and weather analysis. We don't know when we will see him next. His only contact with the outside world will be through the post office - once we are given an address. . .which may not be for a week or two.
It is suddenly very quiet at our house. Josie's passing has reminded us that each moment of life is a gift and nothing should be taken for granted. A prayer or two for the safety of our boys would be appreciated.
Jonathan is going to try and maintain a blog with photos of his adventure. We'll get you that site as soon as we get it. And Peter's address at boot camp too.
Sunday, August 14, 2011
The World's Largest Jack Pine!
I've lived in northwestern Minnesota over 30 years now, but it wasn't until just last year that I learned that we had the world's largest Jack Pine a mere 40 miles away. How could I have missed this important piece of information? Am I ignorant? Why isn't this a huge tourist attraction? I couldn't even find any photos on-line.
The large jack pine is located in Lake Bronson State Park. They don't even highlight it in their literature! What's up with that? I'm pretty sure I've been to the park at least 30 times over the years and I've never heard about it.
Well, as it turns out, it's not real easy to get to. One has to walk about 2 miles through the woods:
I walked about 3/4 mile when I realized I didn't have enough mosquito repellant on. I was going to have to turn around and miss this opportunity. Then, a small miracle happened. Right there in the middle of the trail was a can of Deep Woods Off! I drenched myself in it and continued on my way.
Well, I finally saw a sign pointing to the right that said something like "Large Pine". I was the only one there. I hadn't seen anyone on the trail during the whole walk. As it turns out I wouldn't see anyone on the way back either... I walked about 150 feet down the trail to a small opening. The opening isn't even large enough to capture the whole tree in the photo. Well, here it is:
Okay, it's a humble Jack Pine. It's not a Sequoia. This is what Jack Pines look like. It's approximately 56 feet tall and 116 inches around (although there's no plaque or monument at the site providing this information).
And no, it's not dead, JaNae. Here's a photo showing the needles near the top:
As far as I can tell, these are the first pictures of this tree on the internet. (I suppose now the floodgates will open and tourists from all over the world will visit the park.)
The large jack pine is located in Lake Bronson State Park. They don't even highlight it in their literature! What's up with that? I'm pretty sure I've been to the park at least 30 times over the years and I've never heard about it.
Well, as it turns out, it's not real easy to get to. One has to walk about 2 miles through the woods:
I walked about 3/4 mile when I realized I didn't have enough mosquito repellant on. I was going to have to turn around and miss this opportunity. Then, a small miracle happened. Right there in the middle of the trail was a can of Deep Woods Off! I drenched myself in it and continued on my way.
Well, I finally saw a sign pointing to the right that said something like "Large Pine". I was the only one there. I hadn't seen anyone on the trail during the whole walk. As it turns out I wouldn't see anyone on the way back either... I walked about 150 feet down the trail to a small opening. The opening isn't even large enough to capture the whole tree in the photo. Well, here it is:
Okay, it's a humble Jack Pine. It's not a Sequoia. This is what Jack Pines look like. It's approximately 56 feet tall and 116 inches around (although there's no plaque or monument at the site providing this information).
And no, it's not dead, JaNae. Here's a photo showing the needles near the top:
As far as I can tell, these are the first pictures of this tree on the internet. (I suppose now the floodgates will open and tourists from all over the world will visit the park.)
Friday, August 05, 2011
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