A little bit of this, a little bit of that.

In which commences a series of random shots showing the various activities of a bird nerd/educator during the late fall and early winter months in a remote western town on the high plains.

Part I: Birds. Specifically, bird shots taken on the Audubon waterfowl birding day. And a few other birds shots taken at other times.

The Western Meadowlark or Nebraska's State Bird. Not to be confused with his close cousin the
Eastern Meadowlark. Fortunately the Eastern doesn't live this far west so I'm spared the challenge
of learning two different meadowlark songs.

Kingfisher. Of the belted variety. I know, I know, it's a far away shot, but we were birding by car. Fortunately with kingfishers, that head gives their identity away no matter how hard they try to blend in.

Red-Tailed Hawk. I think my camera must have been on a low resolution setting as the picture gets very grainy when I zoom in. I'll readily admit that I don't know half of the things my camera is capable of...it's on my to-do list.

Coots! We saw thousands of coots on the birding day...this was the smallest flock (flotilla?) of the entire trip.

A flock of sandhill cranes, flying high and fast, heading south. Actually, they really only headed to the Grand Island, NE area and have been hanging out in wetlands there since the middle of October. They must know about the drought in Texas and decided there was more food here.

Ok fine, so they aren't all photos of living birds. The dead ones are important too you know. This juvenile gull was lying on our doorstep at work. I arrived one morning to find him lying exactly so, with no indications as to how he got there. As it turns out, one of our office-mates had left him for us for educational uses.

So I promptly and respectfully commandeered his wings for educational purposes. It's nice to have wings I can pass around and know that if they get damaged it's not that big of a deal. Those Trumpeter Swan wings I have are another story entirely. Hmmm...perhaps it's time for a post on the education animals that live in my office...

Part II: The Inland Lighthouse.

The lighthouse at Lake Minatare in western Nebraska is one of seven inland lighthouses built during the Great Depression to provide work for those seeking jobs. This particular lighthouse has never held a light for guiding ships to safety, although one of the Audubon members told me a story of when she was a teenager living here. She, her brother and a few friends were out at the lake after graduation and her brother had some flares in his truck. So, for a brief time at least, the Lake Minatare Lighthouse did in fact have a light.

It's a lovely, well-built little lighthouse, even if it serves no real practical purpose except as a bird-watching tower.


See? We do get color changes in the leaves here too. Just not as many as back east because we mostly have cottonwoods. But the grasses, shrubs and forbs go up in glorious golden browns.

The stairs to the top of the lighthouse are very narrow and rather dark, with most
of the light provided by these small windows set into the walls.

Fun with shadows.

The golden browns of dying grasses. Ok, so this photo is actually mostly of seed corn fields, but you get the idea.

Part III: Wanderings out to the Pacific Northwest. Or, "How I failed to take any photos of Eli and Rochelle's wedding or in Portland at all, but do manage to take a few around Seattle."

Time spent on trains and airplanes calls for knitting projects and good books. And stopping in the
middle of a stairway up to the Pike Place Market to pick up dropped stitches from said project.

Cool light fixtures on that same stairway up to the Market. I definitely took photos of almost every single one that I saw, but I will only inflict two of them on all of you. Aren't they cool though???

Here's another one of the light fixtures. Others were upside down, sideways, nearly any way that a person could be.

Sculpture outside of John's physics building at UW. I have no idea what this is supposed to be.
Neither does John. Anyone want to make a guess?

I have no idea what equation this is. Clearly something to do with physics. But I am not a physicist so all I see are funny symbols that, when multiplied and added together equal zero. I do at least understand the math symbols in there. But I thought it was pretty neat to have equations carved into the stone of the physics building. You know, in case of lost English majors or musicians.

Part IV: Tis the season for snow, celebrating, baking and knitting.

This is what I woke up to Saturday morning. We only got an inch or so, but it was lovely. I was quite tickled to discover that Scottsbluff also has and employs those nifty little sidewalk plows that Keene has.

Tracks outside the office door. Bird tracks is as far as I've gotten.

Almost inverted looking tracks also outside the office door. I'm pretty sure these belong to a rabbit as there are a few cottontails hanging around looking cold. Even a fur coat doesn't entirely cut out the chill of an 18 degree day!

The cold weather outside makes it feel even more like Christmas, even if it was likely not this cold near Bethlehem. Shepherds definitely do not watch their flocks by night out here. Or if they do, they watch them inside the barn.

The three wisemen traveling from 'afar', aka the small hanging shelf. They've got a ways to go before they arrive on Epiphany...it's a long trek around the living room after all. The camels are on strike this year, so naturally the wisemen are traveling by pig, elephant and purple violin-playing owl.

Mmmm....holiday baking. This is what is left of the cranberry apple pie I made over the weekend. My apples were beginning to wrinkle rather badly, and I threw in some cranberries (after saucing them) because why not? More baking photos to come...

I told you to keep an eye on the pile of squash, didn't I? It's slowly growing larger, despite my
baking many pumpkin/squash things. Oh, and that one that looks hairy and pointy and decidedly
not tasty? That's a sugar beet. Yup, I told you they were big.


Maybe you've heard about the newest member of my little family, and maybe you haven't. This is Squirt. She is a Barred Tiger Salamander, a native to these parts. She'll probably grow to twice this size eventually-more quickly if I keep feeding her giant nightcrawlers. She lives in a nice little box of Sphagnum moss with a few things to hide under.

This is Squirt on her first-ever school program trip. She behaved so well! :) She came along for one of our PEEP programs for the animal exploration segment and was the only live animal featured that day. Our usual round of live critters were out of town for a co-worker's wedding.

I give you, The Sock!!! There's a mate to this one out there somewhere, still happily wound in a ball.

This is how knitted projects get blocked in my apartment. That will soon be a scarf, but at the moment it's still drying. Also, please ignore the running clothes that are drying on the bicycles.

Part V: The wonder cat.

Because I can't end my post without giving you all at least one picture of my little ball of fur, I give you this one. The day Pavlov turned his back side green. Because he's just that good.

Apartment life in Scottsbluff

For those of you who have been waiting to see what my apartment here in Scottsbluff looks like, wait no longer! I now present: The Apartment of Maggie Whalebutt. Ta-DA! :)

My front door faces the driveway. Picture a three-bedroom house on the front of the property and the a little granny flat in the back. I live on the first floor of the granny flat, which has been divided into two units, and have a basement neighbor. In the front house there are two units as well, one which is smaller than mine and one which has two bedrooms, a large living room and a large windowed porch. My neighbor in the larger front apartment gets to park in the driveway. My parking spot is behind the garage off of the alleyway. Technically I have a front stoop, but given that my view is either of a driveway or an old minivan under the carport, it's not such an exciting place to sit. I generally end up heading up the street to the library when I want to sit outside and enjoy the sunshine. Yes, I live a block away from the library. It's really quite wonderful.


We'll start off in the kitchen. I really like my little apartment, but the kitchen was a bit of a let-down, especially with as much as I cook and bake. The stovetop and oven are both gas, which I much prefer over electric, but I have a baby apartment-sized oven which means regular cookie sheets don't fit, I can't bake things on both racks at the same time, and I have to very, very carefully place my bread loaves on the baking bricks so that none of them are too close to the sides (so they won't burn).

Refrigerator: covered in photos and magnets as every good fridge should be. Those are jalapenos strung up to dry hanging in the window. Yum, yum, yum.

My counter space in all it's entirety. Yes, it's the size of a suitcase.
At least I have angel fish canisters and awesome cabinet decorations. :)

The amazing, ever-growing pile of winter squash. Keep an eye out as this pile (and its offspring) will continue to make appearances throughout the fall and winter. Pavlov sometimes tries to play with them, which utterly cracks me up.

Sink, cabinets and part of the oven. There's a lot of white in this kitchen, so cabinet decorations were necessary.

My very cute (and annoying) little apartment stove.
And the cookbook bookshelf providing extra counter space.

My new favorite appliance addition: my very own chest freezer. I'm getting half a pig from a local
farm later this month, and knew I needed something besides my fridge freezer to hold
that much pig. Did I mention my fridge is also apartment-sized?

Dining table/desk (before the arrival of an actual desk). Kind of a cluttered mess most of the time.
This is actually the cleanest it generally ever was.

I had my co-workers over for dinner a few weeks ago and was excited for the chance to bring out the nice china and my pretty tablecloth John got for me in Greece (he was over there in 2004 with the Yale Solar Car Team).

Moving on to the living room/work room. My apartment has three rooms and the bathroom, so the living room doubles also as a work room, hang-out room and general use room. The desk in the back corner is a new addition within the last few weeks, and I really like having a separate desk from my dining room table. Makes it a lot easier to eat and not get crumbs all over my files and computer!

The living room facing the desk/work corner.

China cabinet and entry into the kitchen. There isn't a door between the living room and the kitchen, only an arched doorway. I love the fact that my apartment has wood floors. And my landlord has given me permission to paint the walls if I so desire (right now they're all stark white and it looks rather depressing in some lighting).
Color suggestions anyone?

The big purple bookshelf. When I was younger I painted this bright pink. And then painted it this lavender color a few years later, which was a great improvement on the pink. In front is Gladys (hat tip to Flavia de Luce), my trusty single speed Motobecane. She is awesome and we've already had some good adventures around the area.

The entry way which is generally occupied by Francoise Trek. Someday these ladies may move to the garage, but for the moment there isn't room for them in there. I may become very depressed come February when it's -10 and icy/snowy outside and they're just sitting there begging me to take them out for a spin.

Moving on to the bathroom. Really the most exciting part of it is that I have a bathtub and really hot hot water. So nice for cold evenings (especially last week when my heat wasn't working!). Pav likes to hang out with me when I take soaking baths and drink out of the bathtub.

Pavlov in one of his favorite hangouts: the bathtub. He rolls around in there making happy little kitty noises to himself. He also loves to drink out of the bathtub faucet. Such an odd little furball.

Self-portrait post-Halloween run. I enjoy my ducky shower curtain.
It helps break up the massive amounts of white in my bathroom.

And finally, my bedroom. This is the second arrangement of furniture for my bedroom, and I much prefer the way it's arranged now. It's a really nice, cozy little room with a good-sized closet for clothes and other storage. I also have a hall closet that has an upper cabinet and a lower, larger closet in which everything else is stored.

Why yes, that is half of the periodic table hanging over my bed.

Oh look, there's the other half of the periodic table! And yet another bookshelf. I didn't even get photos of all of them. Really, none of you should be surprised at this...especially those of you who have seen the house I grew up in.

And this concludes our tour of my lovely little apartment. I have a small bit of yard in the back next to the alleyway in which I grew tomatoes, basil and squash this summer. I'm planning a larger garden for next year and am already drawing up plans for what will be planted where! I've also started a compost pile so that I can add in a lot to the soil as it's really quite lousy for growing anything except grasses. Right now though my garden is covered in leaves and dead squash plants and really not very photogenic, so you'll just have to wait until spring to see what it looks like.

Fall is the time for turning leaves, winter squash and...sugar beets?

One of the first things I remember noticing about Scottsbluff when Mom and I drove into town on Highway 26 back in May was the Western Sugar storage towers and factory. We spent some time our first evening here debating what the factory used to make sugar because it couldn't possibly be a sugar cane factory out here in the high plains! Driving around a bit and talking with the folks at the check-in desk at Super 8 clued us in.

The storage towers of the sugar factory. Think of them as grain elevators for sugar, and like grain elevators their contents make them highly volatile. One of my co-workers remembers when the towers sparked and exploded nearly 20 years ago. Their reconstruction began within a few days of the explosion.

The rest of the factory where the processing occurs. Supposedly the factory opens up for tours once or twice a year, and I'm waiting for the next time so I can see the process first-hand.

Sugar beets. Western Sugar processes sugar beets, makes sugar from them, and then ships that sugar all over the place and most of it ends up as an added sugar to other processed foods. Who knew? I mean, I'd heard of beet sugar before, but never really connected beet sugar to needing a sugar factory much the same as sugar cane begets a sugar factory. While the factory runs nearly every day, and on some days fills the air with the scent of roasting beets, summertime is not harvest time for sugar beets. So I only ever saw the factory and the stacks putting out steam, much the same way Wonka's Chocolate Factory puts out steam and chocolate, but no one ever goes in or comes out. Until a few weeks ago ne'er a beet did I see near the factory or heading in one of the doors.

The was our other clue as to what sugar was made at Western Sugar. Yes, that is a giant metal sugar beet statue.

And then the nighttime temperatures began to drop close to freezing and the beet harvest suddenly sprang into action. Sugar beets are grown across the southern panhandle of Nebraska, but there are fewer sugar factories than there used to be, so many of the beets are harvested and then trucked here to Scottsbluff for processing at our factory.

Beet truck that has just offloaded its cargo.

This machine is how they get the beets into such tall piles. The trucks either dump their loads onto the conveyor belt or their loads are removed by another machine and then the beets go bumping along the conveyor belt all the way up to the tip and spill over onto the top of the beet pile.

Here are the beets plopping off the top of the conveyor belt and spilled over onto the existing pile.

This results in giant piles of beets. And I mean giant. There are piles out there that are 4-5 times the size of the house that I grew up in, that are larger than buildings I've worked in, that are the size of 747s (only without actual wings). And this isn't even close to how big they'll get as the harvested beets really start coming in. Right now in towns like Alliance and Kimball, the beets are harvested and then stockpiled there by smaller trucks before being trucked to Scottsbluff. I think there is also the rush to get the beets out of the fields before hard freezes start to turn the sugar to starch, the plants die and the ground freezes solid.

The pile doesn't look as large in the photo, but keep in mind that those are regular-sized electric poles standing around the pile of beets. And that's just one of the 8 or 9 piles already growing in vacant lots around the factory.

Those are semi-trucks parked next to that beet pile.

I'm also amazed by the size of these beets. Now I've seen large beets in my day. I've bought them at farmer's markets and gotten them in my winter farm shares, but nothing prepared me for the size of sugar beets. They range from normal beet size to nearly the size of my head! And I'm not exaggerating here either. These are serious beets. I've been warned by several area natives not to hit any beets that may be lying in the road after tumbling off the top of a beet truck because they can take out your oil pan, damage your car's undercarriage or even kick up and break a windshield or window. These are not beets that you want to mess with. And heaven help you if you hit one while riding a motorcycle or bicycle!

Here's a close-up shot of the beets. Unfortunately I couldn't get close enough to have my hand or foot in there for scale since the piles are on factory property and I didn't want to risk getting escorted from the premises. You'll just have to take my word for the sheer size of these beets, or at least you will until I find one on the roadside and get a photo of it in my hand. I'd say softball is the average size of these beets.

These days the air smells like roasting beets almost continually, although with the strong north and northwesterly winds we've had lately, I only catch the scent when I'm right near the factory. All things considered, roasting beets is not a bad scent to have pervading your community. And it does fit right in with the other scents of fall such as dead leaves and wood smoke.