Discovering the world around me.
A small creek known as Cherry Creek runs at the bottom of the hill near Owl Acres. We were surprised recently to see beaver activity at the creek. A beaver had built a dam across the creek, and had gnawed through a large tree near the bank. The creek is fed by drainage tile and […]
Continue reading Civil Engineering: Beaver
It was about 2:00 a.m. The sky was clear, and the moon shone brightly, reflected by the pure white snow that covered everything. Shadows of the trees lay across the yard, and footprints of passersby advertised their presence. Clancy saw something in the yard and started barking. Bryan went to investigate. Two white-tailed deer stood, […]
Continue reading Antlers: White-Tailed Deer
We didn’t have horses when I was growing up on the farm. The year I went to college, though, my younger sister got her first horse. I learned to ride over the next couple of summers, and really loved it. Life took me away from the farm and the horses though, and the opportunities to […]
Continue reading Power on the Prairie Part 2: Horses
The other day Bryan was out in the shop patrolling for mice. He discovered that one of the traps he had set contained a white-footed mouse. As he watched, a deep red creature wriggled its way out of the mouse. The mouse’s abdominal wall was also pulsating as something tried to escape. It was the […]
Continue reading A Little Horror Show: Mouse Bot Fly
We have a number of fox squirrels (Sciurus niger) on Owl Acres. Clancy loves to bark at them, and I suspect they like to tease him as they run across the yard and shoot up the trees where they sit and chatter incessantly. Our fox squirrels are reddish-brown in color. Except, what’s this? A black […]
Continue reading Squirrels, Labs, Genetics
At the time that Owl Acres was settled, a source of power beyond the physical manual strength of human beings, was needed to achieve the goal of hauling households across the prairie and then breaking the sod to create farms. The industrial revolution in the 1800s brought a new mindset to people who had hard […]
Continue reading Power on the Prairie Part 1: Oxen
Clancy, our golden retriever, loves to retrieve. He also loves to chew on beef bones. The other day he carried one of his bones with him when he went on a walk. Somewhere along the walk something else–probably a squirrel–grabbed his attention, and he dropped his bone. A few days later on the same walking […]
Continue reading Woodchuck, Whistle Pig, Ground Hog
By Dr. Jessica LaPrice Dr. LaPrice teaches biology at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia. Recently I visited her at her university where she showed me a goat skeleton once used in a comparative anatomy class. It reminded me just how similar our skeletons are to Dave’s and Clancy’s, and even to that goat. […]
Continue reading Bones: Comparative Anatomy
There’s a lot of living going on outside on Owl Acres, but there’s also a lot of living going on inside the house. The principal actors, besides the humans, are two beautiful canines—Dave and Clancy. These two beings bring a verve and energy to our world that wouldn’t be here if we didn’t invite them […]
Continue reading The Canine Component: Dave and Clancy
We don’t have a lawn per se on Owl Acres. We have a yard. The difference I suppose is that we aren’t trying to create that lush green uniform and aesthetically pleasing golf-course monoculture. Instead, we are celebrating the diversity of creatures and plants that live in that space. To that end, Bryan set the […]
Continue reading Digging Machines: Plains Pocket Gophers