Illinois


On Mount Moosilauke
Originally uploaded by mineral2.

I’m in Illinois now and will be here for a good majority of the year. While I’m living 40 miles in the Chicago suburbs, I’ve already taken a trip to the Mississippi River to see the Bald Eagles and am planning a weekend to Nebraska to watch the mass of Sandhill Cranes as they stopover on their migration north. As the spring approaches, I hope to go south to some terrain that is reminiscent of Alabma. I also plan to go northward to view the waterfowl and the flowers of the North Woods. Of course, I will also get back into city photography with some extensive shoots of Chicago and the suburbs. It looks like I’m on my way to amassing a collection of photos that I can only call “America.”

Similar Posts

  • The Joy of Home Ownership: Adventures in Plumbing

    When we moved to Moscow, we knew we’d be here for more than five years and that buying our own place would probably benefit us more in the long run than renting. There are many advantages to owning your own home. The most obvious is that your monthly payments go toward something tangible. When you pay rent on an appartment, all you get back is a place to live for the month. With a mortgage payment, you’re that much closer to actually owning the place you live in, which means when you move out, you can get that money back…

  • Elk Creek Falls

    I think I’ve mentioned Elk Creek Falls in passing, but haven’t actually written a featured post about it. Elk River is a small outdoor recreation town (read: hunting & fishing mostly) a little over an hour east of Moscow. This small community represents the “end of the road.” The paved road ends here and forest service roads pick up to take you into some remote places. While most people come back here to hunt, ride ATVs and snowmobile in the winter, there are some family-friendly hikes and other attractions that make Elk River worth a visit. There’s the giant cedar,…

  • Another conference, how about that?

    Somehow, I managed to go to two conferences in one semester. Tomorrow, I’ll be heading to Port Townsend, WA along with several other members of the department for the bi-annual Evo-WIBO conference. This is a small, regional conference for evolutionary biologists in the Pacific Northwest. There are only going to be around 200 or so people attending (compared to the 2-3000 at SICB), and there is only one talk session at a time. So lucky me, I got chosen to give an oral presentation. Did I mention it’s a small conference? It begins Saturday morning and ends Sunday at noon….

  • What have I been up to?

    It has been quite some time since I last made a post here, so I’d say I’m a bit overdue for an update. For the past two and a half years, I have been living in northwestern North Dakota. Saying this is an adjustment is an understatement. North Dakota is considerably flatter than any place I’ve lived, and there are almost no trees here. Winters are extremely harsh and long. We can have weeks where the daytime high does not exceed 0ยบ F, and the wind will send a chill to your core. Our corner of the state doesn’t get…

  • The Last One

    Since last week, we had been down to three puppies. Three is much more manageable than seven, but still a crowd. In fact, having two out at a time was still a handful. Tuesday, I made up posters advertising the rest of the pups, and in less than 24 hours, we had two more sold. This left us with one Pink Girl to care for. Having one puppy isn’t so bad. They’re a lot more mellow by themselves, they don’t eat as much, and most importantly, there’s not as much pee and poop to clean up. Of the three that…

  • |

    A Walk Around the Yard

        When you live somewhere long enough and see the same scenery day after day, you sort of become numb to it. It no longer thrills you the way it did when you first moved in. That’s sort of how I feel. Don’t get me wrong, I love my house and its location, but it feels like I could have better scenery out my window living somewhere else. The scenery here is never actually dull. I’ve got a great view of Spud Hill, Deary’s local “mountain” that stands over 1000 feet above the town, and most evenings, we get…