Finally an update! (part 2)

After wading through the many pictures from June I think I have found the ones which can best illustrate my experience.  Most of June was taken up by an 11 day work stint out in North Dakota. We were working at Sully's Hill National Wildlife Refuge.

The refuge is located in Devils Lake, North Dakota and is special in a number of ways.  Devil's Lake itself is an interesting story as it is a lake with no outlet.  This means that any water which gets into the lake stays in. So with wet trends over the last few decades the lake has grown enormously in size. This has created a situation where many people have had their land flood, forests end up underwater, and roads have been washed out.

 Construction is really bad in this area. They are trying to keep roads open that now, because of the flooding, go right across the lake. This has involved hauling in ungodly amounts of dirt to make the roads high enough to prevent them from washing away.

Dirt road across a bay.

Devil's Lake as seen from the top of Sully's Hill

 Another unique aspect of this area is that it's heavily wooded. The lake acted as a fire break from raging prairie fires over the years and have allowed woodlands to grow. The hills are thanks to glaciers depositing their soil.

 The woods of Sully's Hill as seen from the hill. Note how quickly it turns back into prairie.

A prairie fringed with woodlands.

With Prairie and Woodlands comes wildflowers. We spotted a lot on our stay but here are a few of my favorites.

 An unknown wildflower

 Yellow Lady's Slipper (an orchid)

Coral Root (an orchid)

Phlax

    Sully's Hills is also unique because of the wildlife it has. It is full of a wide variety of birds as it has very diverse habitats. It draws in woodland birds, wetland birds, and prairie birds. The park is also home to a Buffalo herd of about 20 animals.

 The Buffalo loved hanging around this algae laden swamp.  There often a pair of wood ducks joining them.

 Christy is trying to photograph this curios Buffalo.  They often hanged out near the shop where we left our tools and cooked our meals.  More than once we had dinner with the Buffalo right nearby.

Though mostly sticking to the prairies, you could sometimes find the Buffalo browsing through the woods.

Sully's Hill is also home to a smaller elk herd of 15 animals and a prairie dog town.

 Prairie Dog sounding the alarm

 The elk were much harder to spot than the Buffalo. This female elk considered me for a while before retreating back into the woods.

The actual work we did at Sully's Hill was varied. We spent a lot of time felling trees along a fenceline, in hopes that it would prevent the trees from later falling on the fence. The logistics for this were at times hairy as we were felling on the highly inaccessible outer portion of fence.

 Scaling the fence

Hung up a helmet!

 Mike felling a tree

We used logs we cut out of a big deadfall to stabilize this boardwalk.

  We also did a bit of trailwork here, put in some erosion control measures on hillsides, and did a bit of debris removal. Overall a very awesome trip with gorgeous scenery, engaging work, and great animal sitings.

Uncle Dan was able to come up to go fishing with me the following weekend after Sully's Hill. We had a great time and had some good luck fishing the north country.

 Dan pulling in a Walleye on Cass Lake

 I caught 2 perch on 1 cast on Moose Lake

 My first 2 for 1!

 Dan with a good sized Northern.

 A merganser with it's chicks.

 Blue Flag Iris

 Me catching a small mouth bass. This was actually on my canoe after Dan took back off for the cities.

   This past weekend was spent at a cabin relaxing and doing some canoeing.  We spent the day canoeing down the Pine River which ended up being really awesome. As I was in the back of the canoe I didn't take many pictures as I was focused on driving but took this one on one of our breaks.

Beth, Sarah, John, and Bandy (the dog) our group floating down the Pine River!

    Well that is what has been keeping me busy for the last month and a half.  It's been a bit crazy being out of town so much and not having much time in my apartment but it's been so worth it.  Next month will take this to the next level of craziness as I have been deployed for disaster relief in Joplin, Missouri.  This is a bittersweet thing really. Being deployed means I miss out on the family reunion, two of my good friends return to Minnesota, and a wedding. On the other hand though this is a great opportunity to make a big impact on peoples lives, a community, and myself. I will learn a lot of new skills with this assignment as it will involve a lot of construction type activities. The work is going to be very hard but the rewards from the hard work will make it all worth it.  Keep me and the people of Joplin in your thoughts this following month. If you have questions or would like to hear more about any of my projects, adventures, or see more of my pictures (I have many more) leave a comment here, via email, or give me a call! Be well and stay tuned for the next update!