Karen Keninger, Author at Heartland Safari

The 1915 red barn on Owl Acres. Weathered, board-and-batten siding and green metal roof. Four-sided cupola with louvered panels perches on top. The roof has a sharp, pointed extension over the east gable, housing the track for the hay conveyor and providing partial cover for the large hay doors.

Paean to the Past: Barn

Updated February 5, 2024

The barn was one of the aspects of Owl Acres that drew me to the place. It’s old, proudly flaunting its birthdate—1915—in big white numbers on its red front. The brothers who farmed the land around Owl Acres in 1915 probably used local timber to build the barn. They had a sawmill powered by a […]

History

Small mammal tracks in stark white snow. Best guess is Least Weasel

Ferocious Hunter: Least Weasel

Updated January 29, 2024

Owl Acres is a busy place after the sun goes down. Owls and skunks are out hunting, raccoons are out foraging, and mice and rabbits are out and about looking for supper. All this activity goes more or less unnoticed most of the year, but when there’s a new snowfall, suddenly there’s a whole story […]

Mammals

Head shot of a small raptor. Sharp-shinned hawk is blue-grey on top and white-tan underneath. Round head, red eye faintly ringed in yellow. Short, hooked beak.

Little Raptor: Sharp-Shinned Hawk

Updated January 22, 2024

On a winter day just after a blizzard, Bryan was cleaning the snow off the bird feeder when a small hawk swooped past him. At only three feet above the ground, the little raptor skimmed between the house and the bird feeder and glided up to perch in one of the elms in the north […]

Birds

A red fox stands in a stark white snowscape looking at the camera. Large, erect, black-edged ears, pointy snout, bushy tail and amber eyes with vertical pupils.

Ever So Clever: Red Fox

Updated January 15, 2024

One morning when the sun was just coming up, a red fox strolled across the driveway near the road on Owl Acres. In the time that we’ve lived here, that’s the only sighting we’ve had of Mr. Fox. That’s not too surprising really. Foxes are generally nocturnal and will claim and defend an area of […]

Mammals

First Snow

Updated January 12, 2024

The wind is blowing at 30 miles an hour, and snow is flying sideways past my study window. The birds on the bird feeder are facing into the wind, and the dogs are joyously cavorting in the snow. The temperature is around 32 degrees. The snow is wet and sticky, plastered to the vertical surfaces […]

Weather

A flock of fat birds of both sexes sits amid the dense foliage of a prickly hedge. House Sparrow.

Shakespeare again: House Sparrows

Updated January 8, 2024

One of the most familiar sounds on Owl Acres any time of the year is the scolding of house sparrows. They seem to have a lot to say even when it’s really cold out. We hear them as Dave, Clancy and I head off for our morning walk. In the spring and summer, their noisy […]

Birds

Red Oak

Updated January 1, 2024

Most of the trees on Owl Acres are elms, walnuts, boxelders, hackberries and cedars. We only have one oak. It’s a red oak that we planted along the driveway about fifteen years ago. It was a sapling then, battling with the rabbits for survival. Those little creatures of the night wanted to eat its tender […]

Trees

Family Life: American Crow

Updated December 28, 2023

As we start our daily walk, Dave and Clancy and I hear a crow calling from a tree in the woods. Its harsh and easily recognized caw-caw occurs throughout the year, including through the winter. I don’t think we have any crows staking out territory on Owl Acres. We do have visitors quite often, though. […]

Birds

It’s time for the bark to come off the owl tree sculpture. Thousands of red ants, each no more than 1/16-inch-long, are instantly cast into a desperate effort to save the cream yellow babies. Their home is gone, their society in tatters in the blink of an eye. The giant who destroyed their world pauses a moment to reflect on the enormity of the act he has just committed. He snaps a couple of photos and brushes away a few of the tiny creatures who are biting him.

By the Thousands: Field Ants

Updated December 25, 2023

When I built the house on Owl Acres 20 years ago, a walnut tree stood sentinel at the corner of the driveway. Unfortunately, as time went on, that tree began to lean more and more toward the garage. It had apparently been compromised by all the building activity. We decided to take the tree down, […]

Insects and Spiders

A narrow Figure 8 in the sky. Think of a gently twisted loop, like a rubber band, viewed edge-on. This is an analemma of the sun, a composited photo of about 85 separate images, taken at the same time of day and at the same place for a year. The composite photo was then placed on a single, daylight image of the location to complete the work. It records the position changes of the sun in the sky due to Earth’s movement on its orbit. The high and low ends of the figure mark the solstices, and where the lines cross, the equinoxes.

New Beginnings: Winter Solstice

Updated December 21, 2023

Today is the Winter Solstice. Technically the solstice is a point in time when the north pole is tilted the farthest away from the sun that it will get in its yearly orbit. It occurs because the earth is tilted on its axis relative to its orbital plane. At this point in the earth’s orbit […]

Weather