Ice Fishing on the Missouri - Ft Rice, ND

Life of ice fishing on the Missouri. There is not enough money in this world right now to pay me to sit on top of a frozen river, dig a whole in the ice and sit around waiting for the fish to bite.







We watched a fellow pull his sled out on the ice and set up his 3 or 4 holes to fish out of. He used his auger to make the holes in the ice. He then had a "thing ama-jig" (fish finder) to put down in the water to see if there were any fish where he dug his holes. I understand you can have up to three lines going at once. I think there must be a better way to do this before you go to the trouble of digging all of the holes. Then basically, it is a lot of sitting and waiting for a bite. Mind you, it is 40 degrees or less outside.

As you can see some people have fancy tents they sit in with heaters blasting to keep them warm. I'm not buying it that you can stay warm very long that way. What happens when the heater starts melting the ice out from under you?

We have even seen fancy trailers that they pull out onto the ice. They leave the trailers out on the ice all winter fish season. When the trailers get out on the ice, they crank the tires up somehow inside of the edge of the trailer. When you enter through the door of the trailer you see that there are bunks for sleeping, a whole in the bottom of the trailer to cut open the ice through which you fish. There are places to sit and play cards. Even some kitchens. These must be the trailer cadillacs of ice fishing.

They fish for Walleye and Northern Pike Catfish. It must be a male bonding thing like hunting. You know you spend $800 on equipment for the big event to bring home $40 worth of fish to eat or feed to your dog.

I think I will wait until the ice thaws and the sun is shinning to get my rod out and catch me a Walleye! But I will need to find a stray dog to feed it to!

I survived Fargo!

The movie "Fargo" has made Fargo - North Dakota famous. I have never seen the movie, but what I can tell from the tourist picture spot in Fargo, it has to do with some guy that ground his wife up in a wood chipper machine. Great thing to be famous for...right? (I don't think it was a true story from Fargo.)

We had an three day weekend with Presidents Day off, so we thought we would adventure to the eastern border of North Dakota. We could not get a hotel in Fargo, ND, so we actually stayed in Moorhead, Minnesota, 200 ft. beyond the North Dakota state line.

It was a fun trip. Ok, It could have been a great trip if I had not decided to go do leg squats the morning we left for the trip. By the time I sat in the car for 3 hours, the lactic acid in my legs had really done its job. I could hardly get moving from a sitting position for three days. To add insult to my injury, we stayed in a an "AmericInn". Come to find out they did not have elevators in this hotels. So, we packed our luggage up to the stairs to the second floor. Cowabunga! I wanted to die everytime I had to face not only going up, but the going down the stairs was worse. I know,you think I am a wimp. Well I will tell you something...I never do anything halfway. I did really good squats, and I did really good damage on those thigh muscles of mine. Yes, I am a wimp! I would have welcomed a wheelchair a few moments on the trip.




We visited a airplane museum while there. We drove up to the location and sat in our car waiting for the musuem to open. Finally a worker came out to let us know that they were in operation. When we walked in the worker said, "Are you from St. George, Utah"? Of course we could not deny it, nor would we want to. She told us a story of her staying in St. George in route to L.A. after graduating from College.
She and a friend, got to St. George and were so tired they pulled into a parking lot and slept in their car because there was no available hotel. When they woke the next morning, they about died, to find out they still had a good six or seven hours to go to L.A. She was the manager of the museum.










While at the museum, a local tv weather man arrived to do a workshop for kids about airplanes. He was so great with them, and had them eating out of his hand.












We also visited a Norweigan Museum while in Fargo.




North Dakota is made up of a lot of people from Norway, Germany, & Poland. We visited a Norwegian museum. It was built to house this huge ship that was made after the design of the early norwegian sailers designs. Once built it sailed from New York to Norway. As you can see in the picture showing the top of the berth view, that it was not large in side, and the crew lived in very cramped quarters on their voyage.



The round disc shapped markers on the side of the ship represents the countries they visited enroute. My mothers' family is "Thompson" so I was sure to get a picture of this.









As you can see, Roger and I have not changed much since we left.







Fargo, like Bismarck suffered from the flooding this past spring of 2011. We were taking a drive on Sunday afternoon and came across a strange site. There was this huge home so close to the roadside.


As we got closer we realized what was going on. They had lifted the home up on blocks in order to move it across the street to get it out of the flood plain. I have never seen a home of this size ever moved. Plus, they even moved the garages. In the picture you can see the Telephone man disconnecting the lines in order to move the home throught the telephone poles and not destroy the whole phone system. They were also up against the weather. The forecast was showing rain followed by snow. Not a good mixture for a home on blocks and tractors trying to move it.

Smilebox Playback

Click on the Smile Box reference below to check out our Christmas Card greeting with Pictures.

Smilebox Playback

Medora, North Dakota - Theodore Roosevelts favorite place to visit.

Over the Memorial Weekend Break, Roger and I traveled West towards Medora, North Dakota for an overnight stay. Medora is a small tourist town celebrating Theodore Roosevelt and other explorers and settlers to the western part of North Dakota. The town of Medora was founded in April 1883 by a 24 year old French nobleman, the Marquis de Mores. He named the town for his bride, the former Medora von Hoffman, daughter of a wealthy New York City banker. The town fell into disrepair after a few decades then in 1962 and entrepreneur, Harold Schafer and his Gold Seal Company began a restoration and modernization of the old western town, developing many additonal attractions.



Medora Musical
While there we were entertained at the Medora Musical. This is a professionally produced musical that is dedicated to the legacy of our 26th President, Theodore Roosevelt. It is held at the Burning Hills Amphitheatre. The setting reminds me a lot of the Tuacahn stage in Ivins, Utah. The performance was informational about the history of North Dakota, and also very entertaining.

Theodore Roosevelt National Park


The following day we traveled through the Theodore Roosevelt National Park. The park covers 110 Square miles. There is a 36 Mile scenic loop through the park. They call this area also "The Badlands". It reminds me a lot of Southern Utah. This area is what inspired Pres. Roosevelt to pass the 1906 Antiquities Act to preserve National Monuments throughout the United States. By the end of his presidency he had preserved 230,000,000 acres of public land.






We saw wild horses, Prairie dogs galore, and bison. We went on a hike to check out coal deposits that had caught on fire and burned for years through out the park. Most likely lightening struck a coal vein and once it started burning it did not stop until there was no longer a natural connection for the coal to continue burning. This burning caused the oxides in the surrounding dirt to turn red.

Burned Coal Veins

There are a lot of nice hotels amd motels to stay in while visiting Medora. There is also a few campgrounds for those who love camping. The small town of Medora has historical buildings, museums, shops, and we even witnessed a gun fight. I would recommend a trip to Medora, North Dakota.


On the drive back to Fort Yates, we viewed a huge brick church from the freeway. Due to the explorers that we have become, we exited the freeway in Richardton, ND. Here we found this large Catholic Church. I love architecture and this building was magnificent.

Bull Snakes Everywhere

This is going to be short. Just wanted to share with you my favorite animal in North Dakota. (Be sure and click on the picture to really see the size). In fact I love them so much, Roger made Kyle swear to not tell me they saw some Bull Snakes while Kyle was here in June helping Roger move in. They are nearly five feet long, just in case you can't tell in the picture. In about a 5 mile radius we saw three bull snakes that had been run over. Lets just say, hiking through the Dakota plains with knee high grass does not tempt nor thrill me right now. That kind of adventure I can live without.

Also, the other day I stepped out on our front porch. I jumped as nearly 100 small black crickets were jumping to avoid my step down. A few did not move fast enough unfortunately. I had not seen this phenomenem before. Pretty Gross! I later found out that this is not a usual happening here in Ft Yates. I was told that legend is that it is a sign we are going to have a really bad winter. Great! The lawn, the house, the sidewalk are all covered with these sweet little critters. Maybe the bull snakes will eat them?

Where are the seagulls when you need them? Actually there are seagulls in North Dakota. North and South Dakota were once covered by an ancient ocean. So there are seagulls all around the area. Not as big as the ones around the great Salt Lake, or at the ocean.

South Dakota - McLaughlin

Roger splits time between two dental clinics, one in Fort Yates, North Dakota, and the other one in McLaughlin, South Dakota. They are in the process of hiring another dentist for McLaughlin, South Dakota. He called me to bring his special magnifying glasses to him at the McLaughlin clinic which is 30 miles away from Ft.Yates. As long as I was there, I thought I would travel another 30 miles to a town called Mobridge, South Dakota.

North and South Dakota, besides the Indian population was homesteaded by Russian, German, and Norwegian Immigrants. While I was in Mobridge, I picked up a local "Centennial" cookbook. It has been fun to browse through the recipes. I thought I would share one of the German Russian Dishes found in the recipe book.

Fleich Kuechle

Dough:

4 C. Flour
2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. baking powder
4 tsp. shortening
1 2/3 cup milk

Mix together flour, salt, and baking powder; cut in shortening with fork or patstry blender until it looks like coarse corn meal. Add milk and mix in to make a soft, but not sticky, dough.

Filling:

1 1/2 lb. hamburger
2 tsp. sat
2/3 c. water
chopped onion and pepper to taste

Brown hamburger and onion in water; stir in salt. Roll half of dough to 1/8 in. thickness. Cut into 6 inch squares. Spread meat thinly over 1/2 of each square; fold over and pinch edges to seal. Drop dough into deep hot fat and fry slowly until nicely browned. Makes about 20 meat pies.

Good Day Sunshine! Sunflowers Galore

Pictures of the fields of Sunflowers in full bloom throughout North Dakota. If anyone knows me well, you would know that I love Sunflowers. I had a patch in my backyard in St.George, UT.

Temple in Bismarck, North Dakota

Lauren and Joe came to visit on their way to Sycamore, Illinois. We traveled an hour north to Bismarck and walked around the Temple grounds.




The Temple in Bismarck is one of the smaller models. Roger and I have been there a few times and the most we have been with in a session is 16 people. The great thing about temples, it does not matter what size they are....the same peaceful spirit is there.
The Temple is near a huge water tower, so that helps me find it everytime I travel there. It is also nextdoor to the Bismarck Stake Center Building. I love how all Temple grounds are maintained and always have such beautiful flowers.

It is a good thing they have an Angel Moroni facing east on top of the temple, because I can not yet tell East From West, or North from South. There are no mountain ranges near Bismarck like there are in Utah to orient yourself with to determine the direction. The Missouri River does not help with directions either, It takes a turn from a West to East direction onto a North to South Direction near Bismarck somewhere.









We had lunch at this quaint Restaurant "Fiesta Villa". It was once the Train Station on Main street, downtown Bismarck, North Dakota.

Indian Pow Wow

Picture 1: Teenage Boys in full dance costumes.




On Friday night we went to the big event of the community - the "Standing Rock Indian POW WOW"




During the summer each of the Indian tribes have a Pow Wow, in which they invite the other tribes to participate. Each tribe has groups of dancers and drummers who compete at the events.

Picture 2: Junior Princess from the Standing Rock Indian Reservation



The costumes are so colorful and it is mesmerizing watching them dance around the pavilion where the Pow Wow is held. Each tribe has their own set of drums with anywhere from three to six men drumming on the large drums at one time. They have their individual styles of drumming and dancing per tribe.

Picture 3: The very young to the very old participate in the competition.

At the same time, in another location close to the Pow Wow there was a tribal
rodeo going on. The Indians Tribes in North and South Dakota are into rodeos just like our towns and cities in Utah are in the summer.