Looking Down

I hate to fly, but never tire of looking out the window. I am forever trying to piece something to a bigger picture. As a child when I would fly with my Dad I liked to spot swimming pools. Fargo had its share of them, despite the long white winters. Now I love Google Earth from the comforts of my recliner: flying without fear.

On this last junket to DL we crossed two hundred miles of North Dakota. My trusty Nikon, with the different lens choices, granted me some photos of our great state.

Some of my thoughts were about water, not in swimming pool form, but water - God given water, just plain sitting due to the lay of the land. Plenty of potholes this year, more God given moisture. We could see Devils Lake to the north, it glistened for miles and miles and more miles. It is bursting at the seams. No, it has burst at the seams and nobody wants to stake a claim on its drainage: Eco systems in jeopardy, farm land in jeopardy, on and on. Having lived downstream of Minot for six years during the tumultuous flooding of the 70's, I know how touchy water issues can be, not only to keep our farm afloat (no pun intended) but how to manage water to keep most all happy and prosperous. Nobody is ever on the same page.

As we flew over Harvey I saw the McClusky canal, dry as a bone. Another water project with good intent. I am not up on the current politics and why it flows near Turtle Lake/Audubon outlet but empty by Harvey. Wait until we don't have any!! It made me wonder which is more virulent in history: water or religion?

Before long we were between Carrington and New Rockford. My thoughts went to North Dakota State University. NDSU was a land grant college started in 1890, it was to be a "People's College" with more emphasis on Agriculture, Science and Engineering. In its early days it was North Dakota Agricultural College. Growing up I recall my father (an NDSU alumni and Achievement Award winner in 1977) telling my mother, "I'm going to run out to the AC." In 1960 it became North Dakota State University.

The following pictures are of the Experiment Station at Carrington which is run by NDSU. Experiment stations are outreach farms and ranches around North Dakota (nine to be exact) which test and trial varieties of grains, vegetables, trees, grasses and legumes, etc. If it involves agriculture and ranching in North Dakota, NDSU has data from research. That is what made it a People's College, and still is.




A patchwork of research.

This next one is just west of Fargo, a mile or two from the University, it must be a mini plot for SU. Carrington has this one beat hands down for design, curb appeal.



North Dakota is now home to many, MANY turbines for wind energy. Renewable energy, sometimes it seems like it would be a never ending energy; wind is a part of North Dakota no matter how you look at it. Question: do the wind towers contribute to more wind???







Many years ago I read the book "The Checkered Years" by Mary Dodge Woodward. It is her diary of living in Dakota Territory outside of Fargo, during the early bonanza farming days in the later part of the 19th century. This following picture made me remember the book. Mary Dodge, while living in their shanty on the prairie, recounts of seeing only three lights, two in Fargo and one in Moorhead on bitter cold winter nights. Soon the people came and homesteads sprung up on almost every corner. The flat Red River Valley is not home to the prairie pothole as in central and western North Dakota.



The lush fertile soil of the Red River Valley, remnants of glacial Lake Agassiz, made for many a prosperous farm. There were many to look down on and it didn't take too much imagination to realize the land had been good to them, generation after generation. Good land and good farming practices made it possible for these farms to grow and to stay within families. This one looks like it supported more than one family.



It was a good fly day and made me think about how much I love North Dakota, even if it was from the right seat of the Cessna.