A Tall Tale Or Just A Whopping Lie?

I just have to come right out and say it. I lied. I'm a terrible liar. I lied in my last post. I never went on a pokemon hunt at all. In fact, I've never played the game. I've never even seen it. I have a wonderful phone, but my operating system just isn't one of the popular ones that can get this game. So I lied to make myself look cool.

I have another confession that you just won't believe. Wait for it. It's a shocker. I never even broke my leg. See, I knew you'd think it was unbelievable. Now that I've confessed you'll never believe again that a broken leg can heal after two weeks. What will the world do with that information?

So how can you ever trust my word again? Well, the simple answer is that you can't. I lie all the time. I can't say that I don't enjoy it, because I do. But I also tell the honest truth much of the time. So you can never know which is which, what's a lie and what's the truth. Does that make me like a devil? Or just a guy who enjoys wearing a rat suit far too much?

I've said before that my love of this rat suit has long passed. I would have taken it off long ago, but the zipper seems to be stuck and every time I try to ask someone to help me get it they run away screaming for some reason.

I never really thought that wandering around through the forest in a rat suit would be seen as strange, or even demented. But after some of the reactions I get, maybe I miscalculated just a bit. I still get some good pictures sometimes though, don't you think?

(I'll still swear today that a talking squirrel named Flynn took the picture above.)

If you see this guy coming at you in the forest, run for your life. The last thing you'll hear is a high pitched little voice saying, "Hold still, I'm gonna make you famous."

But this is where I have beaten him. I moved far away. Far away from crazy little adventurer squirrels armed with their own cameras. In fact, I haven't seen a squirrel in months. But now because of my cowardice even the birds are ashamed to look at the guy in the Ratty old rat suit. So I have to catch them off guard to get any good pictures.

I'll say this. Even though I saw so many squirrels in the past that they began speaking to me, none of these robins have uttered a word. So far anyway. Their mocking body language is enough for them I guess. They think they're smarter than me, but I have the last laugh. It's them you see in the pictures, not me. Except for that one picture up there I guess.

So after all of that, even though it was all the truth, and I confessed to being one of the biggest liars of all time, do you believe my story? I swear it's all true. It all happened. Except that pokemon hunt of course. Oh, and that broken leg. And maybe a few other details. But it's the truth. Really it is. And I have the pictures to prove it.

Maybe in my next post, if I'm on the right medication, I'll get back to my normal serious posts. But maybe this is normal. If you check out a few of my old posts you'll see that maybe I was always like this. Don't be afraid. I'll talk to you later.

A Monster Of A Tale

It's been a little while since my last post. So, what happened? Well, I went on a little pokemon hunt and ran into a few little problems. First I wasn't paying attention to where I was going and walked off the side of a cliff. Broke my leg on that one. Then I accidentally walked into a raging river and got washed two states away. After some walking I accidentally crossed into Canada and got arrested by the border patrol. Finally, after straightening that out, on my way back here I was driving down the street playing this stupid game and I drove right into the back of a police car. All of this cost me half my fortune and took me two weeks to finally get back home.

So now I'm finally back. My broken leg heeled fast and I'm raring to go. Now I'd just like to forget about that moronic little adventure. Geocaching is much more fun than that game anyway.

But remembering what I was saying at the end of my last post. How could I top walking with bison? maybe an elephant? No. How about swimming with a whale? Unfortunately swimming just isn't for me. I had to think of something incredible. So I decided to look for an animal that hasn't been around for millions of years. This Stegosaurus is just the perfect thing.

Let me tell you, this giant dinosaur was much more dangerous than a few bison. I got just as close to this beast, but I really had to stealthily sneak up on it. I couldn't believe my luck when I saw it just standing there in this grass. Who wouldn't want the first genuine pictures of a real dinosaur in millions of years?

I parked my truck far enough away that this monster wouldn't notice. Then I crept up on him, but I did it fast, and I was able to get close enough to reach out and touch him. I have to say that these creatures must be kind of blind because he never really seemed to realize at all that I was there. He didn't react to me at all. He never moved a muscle.

I thought about trying to ride him, but the thought of those plates sticking into my backside wasn't very appealing. So needless to say I decided to just take my pictures then leave this poor lonely creature in peace.

Later I met some guy not too far away that told me this stupid lie that this wasn't a real dinosaur at all, it was only a statue. I told him I knew he was lying just to keep it to himself, but he stuck to his story no matter how much I objected. What a jerk!

So that's my story. I think my next post will come a little sooner than this one took. I'm not sure if I can top getting pictures of a dinosaur, but we'll have to see just what happens. Hey, anything can happen here. I'll talk to you later.

Walking With A Herd Of Bison

I told you a few posts ago that I was on a quest to find a herd of bison and a herd of rabbits. Well, here's the herd of bison. I'm still hunting for the rabbits. I'll get them soon enough. The only problem is that I don't think rabbits gather in groups. So let's talk about these bison.

From time to time I do some things that would be considered strange or dangerous to some people. I did indeed get this close to these bison. I was actually even closer than this. Let me tell you, these are huge animals. They make cows look small. You don't want to mess with them. They're not tame and they can get angry very quickly.

See that bison in the front there? Look at that lighter area toward the back. That's its baby standing there nursing. There are a few little ones in this herd. They're hard to see in this tall grass, so watch for that lighter color.

I told you in that earlier post that I might even get a picture of me riding one of them. The only problem is that I didn't have any way to get the picture because I was all alone. Who was going to take the picture? So maybe next time.

I didn't mention while we were on the first picture about the houses you can see in the distance. I wasn't exactly out in the wilderness here. But this is a bit of a wild area with the bison here. The reason I was able to get so close was because they don't exactly have miles to roam. The bison are still very wild and very dangerous.

Now we come to the part I really promised you. I have a new episode of Rat TV, a video of this herd of bison. As usual I kept it short so you don't have to suffer through a long video that you may not want to watch. But you do get a better idea of what the herd looks like, and you get to imagine just how close I was to them.

I took a few pictures from a little ways back from the herd. I wanted to get more of these huge animals in the shot. You can see that it's not the whole herd, but it gives you a better idea of their distribution. maybe there are bigger herds, but this was a good sized one.

I didn't take many pictures of the bison. I usually take lots. This time I thought it might be a better idea to get in there and do what I had to do and then get out. I was really standing there. I wasn't in a vehicle with protection or anything like that. I don't recommend anybody else try that. I will say that I was perfectly safe though.

So now that I've met this one goal, what can I do next? How can I top this? No, I haven't gotten that herd of rabbits yet. So what comes next? I know what it is, but I haven't done it yet. I won't reveal what it is here, but I hope to have it in my next post. See you then. And I'll talk to you later.

My Newest Butterfly

I have to admit right off the bat that I've decided that I'm too lazy to keep searching for the identification of this butterfly. I searched for about thirty minutes with no luck and I'm giving up. The worst thing is that I've seen this type of butterfly many times before and I know that it's very common.

But who really cares anyway. The real thing is that I have pictures of a butterfly today. This plant was just swarming with them until I got kind of close. This one was the only butterfly willing to come back for me. It did good. Now it's famous. I'll call him Benny.

Here you can see Benny Butterfly just sitting there on the strange and possibly alien plant helping the plant plot to take over the world. I'll bet you didn't know that about butterflies. They don't start out evil. But when they get together with these evil alien pod plants they become evil super villains. I guess we can all be glad they're only butterflies. Right?

Now isn't that last little paragraph better than a boring old examination into the type of butterfly and plant we're looking at? You can find all that stuff just about anywhere else. You can always go to Wikipedia if you miss it. Well, if you really want it I'll give you just a little bit. Kind of. Not really.

Here above is a better look at the plant the butterfly is on. It's a kind of milkweed plant. These milkweeds are scattered all over the area. I have several pictures of them. The different kinds of milkweed make up a favorite kind of plant of mine. I may do a post about this particular type in the near future. We'll see.

Alright, I couldn't resist, so I looked a little more for the identity. I'm probably completely wrong, and I don't care, but it looks similar to a Spangled Fritillary. That particular type was the first one I saw when I searched for "Iowa butterflies". Maybe I'm a winner. If not, then ehh.

The one thing I can tell you for sure is that butterflies are special little creatures. So now that I presented a butterfly to you, how can I top it in my next post? I don't know. (Actually I do know), So you'll have to read my next post to find out what is better than a butterfly. I'll talk to you later.

My Favorite Wild Fruit

The subject of this post will be a light little look at my favorite wild fruit. What is it? It's mulberries! I look for mulberry trees wherever I go. I wasn't sure I would find one around here, but a nearby nature park is just full of them.

You might be able to tell by the picture that not all of them look the same. The black ones there are the ripe ones. The rest aren't ready yet. Whenever I find a mulberry tree I stop and eat as many mulberries as I can. There are plenty here for me and the birds.

The birds leave plenty of evidence that they've been eating them by their huge droppings all over the bridge on the trail in this park. I won't show you that picture this time, but I think you get the idea. The birds really do love these berries.

When I was about three years old we had a small mulberry tree in our backyard. My mom used to take me over to it and help me pick mulberries from there. That is my earliest memory of mulberries. I have loved them ever since.

I've had the trees at a few other houses that I've lived in. And I have found these trees on some of the nature trails I've visited in the past. But I've never found so many as the ones at the park I visit around here. This park is mulberry heaven for me.

You'd think I would get some good bird pictures from these trees, but even though I always hear lots of birds around I can never quite see them well enough to get any pictures. You'd think birds would see the camera and want to cooperate, but I guess these particular birds just think they're too good for me.

If you've been hanging around here long enough you know I've posted about mulberries before. Now I'm doing it again because I like 'em. The only place you can probably find them is in the wild on trees. Not at a grocery store. That makes them kind of unique.

These many mulberry trees at the nature park are one thing I've learned that I can appreciate about my local area. My quest this year is exactly about learning of the things around here that I can appreciate about nature. I want to learn to love the nature here as much as the nature I had when I began this blog. I think It's finally starting to happen. I'll talk to you later.

What's Up, Doc?

There are rabbits everywhere around here. I could open my front door and see rabbits just like this one much of the time. But I didn't do that this time. No. That would be too easy. I went out to the hills to find some genuine wild rabbits that may have never seen a human before.

When he saw me this little rabbit looked up and said, "What the heck is that ugly thing?" Hey, it's not every day that a rabbit sees a crazy guy with a camera wearing a rat suit. I know it's a strange sight. I didn't used to realize it until people began running from me.

After the rabbit got a good look at me it decided to go back to its main business. But I'm not foolish enough to think it didn't keep an eye on me. Even if he'd never seen anything like me before he probably wasn't too fond of me pointing my camera at him.

Look closely at the rabbits mouth in the pictures above and below. You can see the difference between them if you look closely. See? I knew you would. That difference is the reason I have two similar pictures here. The rabbit is chewing on the grass in front of it.

I'm on a quest this summer. I want to get video of a herd of bison. I've shown you up close pictures of some in the past, but I forgot the video. I hope to change that one of these days. Maybe I'll ride one of them this time. I don't know, they're kind of dangerous.

Maybe I'll show you a herd of rabbits one of these times. That's something I've never shown before. I know just where to look. Now I have two quests. I wonder which one I'll complete first. We'll find out one of these times. I'll talk to you later.