Natural North Dakota

There is much to see and do outdoors this time of year.  When winter is finally in the rearview mirror and spring has sprung, it is as if life comes gushing out from everywhere.  

I was recently perusing through Lewis and Clark in North Dakota by Russell Reid (1948) which contains the journals of Lewis and Clark as well as the Biddle texts and annotations by the author.  

Spring is here!  The equinox occurred on the twentieth.  Animals are starting to become more active now, even the porcupines.   

Are you ready for spring?  The calendar says it will start next Tuesday the twentieth.  Now if the weather cooperates we will be in business!

The Great American Desert came up in conversation recently.  You may recall from your American History classes that that back in the 1800’s explorer Stephen H. Long, coined the phrase to describe the Great Plains.  

Do you ever cook with juniper berries?  I was recently snooping on the internet and found a recipe for sage and juniper venison sausage on Hank Shaw’s website “Hunter Angler Gardener Cook.”   

Did you know that this is the “Year of the Bird.”  No, that is not the Chinese year. This is different.  

The North Dakota landscape is occasionally described as a stairway rising westward.  It is not a long stairway, and each step certainly differs in height.  Nevertheless, the stairway metaphor is a good descriptor.