Camping 101

On Saturday, June 28th, Prairie State Park hosted a special program on camping basics. Not many attended, but we still had a good time. Here are few pics from our day...

Basic Camping And Tent Set-Up

Basic Camping And Tent Set-Up 

Bev and Al - Is that snake poisonous????

Basic Fire Building

Eric, Meagan, Eric, and Al

Bison Burgers

Snakes and Plants - What's Poisonous? And What's Not?

Until next time...
~Rebecca

Oh, Deer!

It's hard to see, I know. I took this picture this afternoon at Prairie State Park, but it was just too far away for an Ipod to do justice. What is it? That little brown blob in the center of the photograph is a doe. She was standing right there facing the window. Beneath her was her little fawn, with it's white tail twitching, as it nursed. It was so sweet! I wish I could have gotten a better picture to share with you.

Have a blessed evening!

Until next time...
~Rebecca

Surrounded By Bison

My co-worker, Jessi, and I had a great day at Prairie State Park today! At one point, the building that we were working in was almost completely surrounded by the bison herd. Here are a few of the photos that I took this afternoon...

Here the bison are approaching the building from the south.

Soon the bison were peering through the windows of the Visitor Center.

We were watching the bison while they were watching us.

If you look closely, in the background there are a couple of bison dusting themselves in a buffalo wallow.

This big boy was really kicking up some dust!

Here a couple of male bison engage in a little sparring.

Curiosity got the best of this yearling calf. He just had to come take a peek at us.

Here is one of this year's babies. As you can see, it's still dressed in its new baby pumpkin color.

This new baby comes a little closer to the window to see what's up with Jessi and I.

The herd has looped completely around the building and bison are filling up the parking lot.

These big boys and girls are right out in front. See that one on the far, back, left? He's scratching his chin on my van mirror. 

Look at all those new babies. That's just a few of them, and, boy! Aren't they cute???

This little guy was the smallest baby of all. He was so precious!

Finally the bison decide to back off and move away from the Visitor Center. They went up the hill to the north, then, in a bit, made one more pass behind the building before settling down for the afternoon on the hill to the east of us.

A baby bison's hoof print.

What a great day!

Until next time...

~Rebecca

Project Wet

Attended PROJECT WET at Prairie State Park on June 16, 2014. Here are a few pics of our day...

PROJECT WET facilitator, Cyndi Cogbill. A good friend and a great teacher!

PROJECT WET facilitator Erica Cox.

Some of our PROJECT WET classmates.

Enjoying an outdoor project. It was such a beautiful day!

Enjoying an outdoor project.

Part of our group. 

Miss Erica going over our books with us

We had a great day!

To find out more about PROJECT WET click HERE.

Until next time...
~Rebecca

Life Along A Gravel Road

While out and about last Thursday I took these shots of life along the gravel road that runs through Prairie State Park...

A Regal Fritillary Butterfly atop a Pale-Purple Coneflower.

Prairie Wild Roses

White-Tailed Deer Print

Black-Eyed Susan and Wild White Indigo

Obedient Plant

Three-Toed Box Turtle

Hoary Vervain

Gray-Headed Coneflower

Until next time...

All My Love,

~Rebecca

Life On The Prairie A To Z

I recently started working part-time at Prairie State Park near Minden Mines, Missouri, but the tall-grass prairie, and the park, itself, are nothing new to me and my family.

We have lived on the edge of the tall-grass prairie for nearly two decades now, and have visited Prairie State Park, over the course of that time, literally, hundreds of times. Our children attended Junior Naturalist Day Camp, annually, during their growing up years...the first time being before we even moved here...and our whole family, at one time or another, has volunteered at various park events. Three of our six children have worked at Prairie State Park, and two of them still work within the Missouri State Park system. Even I, myself, have worked at Prairie State Park in the past for a short time.

There are so many things that I love about the tall-grass prairie, and I'm excited to get out and experience them on a regular basis again. I decided to list a few of my favorite things, here, in an A to Z blog list. If you are interested, just click on each link below to see pictures of the various plants and animals that can be found on Southwest Missouri's tall-grass prairie.

A) ASHY Sunflower and AMERICAN Kestrel
B) American BISON and BULL Thistle
C) Prairie CRAYFISH, COYOTE, and COREOPSIS
D) DICKCISSEL and DUNG Beetle
E) EASTERN Phoebe and EASTERN Screech Owl
F) FIELD Sparrow and FROST FLOWERS
G) GREATER Prairie Chicken, GAYFEATHER, and GRAY-Headed Coneflower
H) HENSLOW'S Sparrow
I) INDIAN Grass, INDIAN Paintbrush and INDIGO Bunting
J) JIMSONWEED and Prairie JUBILEE
K) Prairie KINGSNAKE
L) Slender Glass LIZARD
M) Prairie MOLE Cricket
N) NEW ENGLAND Asters and NORTHERN Harrier
O) OX-EYE Sunflower
P) PURPLE-HEADED Coneflower
Q) Bobwhite QUAIL
R) REGAL Fritillary Butterfly, RATTLESNAKE Master, and RED-EARED Slider
S) SCISSOR-TAILED Flycatcher and SHORT-EARED Owl
T) TURKEY Foot (a.k.a. Big Bluestem) Grass
U) UPLAND Sandpiper
V) Prairie VOLE
W) WHITE-TAILED Deer and WESTERN Meadowlark
X) SphinX Moth (I know...I kind of cheated here...I really couldn't think of a better way to represent the Letter X.) (~smile~)
Y) YARROW
Z) ZEBRA Swallowtail Butterfly

Until next time...

~Rebecca 

My First Day On The New Job

Was greeted by these four big boys the first day of work (6/5/14). As you can see, it was a very, VERY rainy day!