He’s been enjoying the faux spring of Wyoming: day time temperatures in the 50’s, the grass is turning green, and the robins are singing. He’s feeling the sun on his hide. He’s feeling the green grass. A renewed, jaunty zing in his step. A renewed sense of energy and power. He’s no “dead head.” He’s…
Author: wyominglife
Adventure Reading List
I’m always looking for recommendations for good reads about early explorers, outdoor adventures, survival tales, naturalists and pioneers which have an authentic voice. I stumbled onto this list compiled by National Geographic in 2004. Top 100 Greatest Adventure Books of All Times. I’m pleasantly surprised at how many I have already read, and looking forward…
Gear: Columbia Omni Heat Outer Shell
This outer shell is part of an interchangeable system that includes an inner fleece liner. I only have the outer shell. I found it on a clearance rack, and since I knew it would spend most of its life at the bottom of my backpack, its compressibility was the key selling point. Since I bought…
Rookie Photographer
After having my DSLR camera for more than a year, I’ve decided it’s time to delve into its finer capabilities, ie, quit using all the auto features. I used to do a pretty ok job back in the day before digital, setting my own aperture and shutter speed, but it’s been awhile and digital has…
Gear: A Few of My Favorite Things
Have you ever been using a piece of gear doing a job, or recreating, or traveling and thought, “I love this thing.” Well, I wanted to share a few of my favorite things. These aren’t paid product reviews, (Not that I’m apposed to the idea. Ahem.) these are items I have used over the years…
Winter Treasures
I thought I needed a new look for the blog now that winter is here. Winter in Wyoming has a beauty all its own. We’ve had some bitter cold temps over the last week, but the cold creates a kind of light unmatched on warmer days. Every morning and every evening there is a rosy…
Arctic Blast
A temperature drop of 80 degrees in less than 48 hours: That’s what most of Wyoming experienced early this week. It was a balmy 60 degrees late Sunday night, and a klondike-like 16 degrees below zero Tuesday morning. I can’t help but wonder how the local flora and fauna survive these extremes. The range plants…
Western Blue Flag
Iris missouriensis forms a rhizomatous clump and can exist in large colonies. Its range extends from BC to Baja California and east to Minnesota. The beautiful purple flower is actually composed of three sepals, three petals and three petal-like styles. Also called Wild Iris and Missouri Iris, the leaves, stems and roots are poisonous if…
Easy to Miss
It’s easy to miss the subtle beauty around me. On any given day I can get wrapped up in my to-do list and forget to take the time to simply look around me. On photo hikes I can get wrapped up in looking for that “once in a lifetime” shot and not see the brush…
Real Food
I didn’t actually know there’s such a thing as a “real food” movement. It’s just a term I use for homegrown food or food I know is free of processing. You know, food where the ingredient label isn’t 100 items long. I don’t consider myself a homesteader, but living on a ranch, it just seems…
Wyoming Life 