Howdy,
It's been a long, long week but I finally got a break in. The "Minnesota Safari" is not open, so I went for a walk around the lengthy bison enclosure. This involved trudging through mud and flooded areas and I discovered my waterproof boots are no longer very waterproof!
When I did come up on them, the bison were right next to the fence! So close, in fact, that one of them was sleeping with her horn poking through the wires. The lady in the above photo watched me warily, while chewing on the twigs within her reach.
This 1800's windmill was broken beyond repair a century ago. The area of the park is only reachable on foot from about October through April so, with the flooding and mud, I had the place to myself.
While walking through a warmer stretch of trail, I heard a continuous noise of leaves being disturbed. It turned out to be not one, but several garter snakes! These harmless snakes used to be all over where I grew up, but were displaced by the much nastier fox snakes. Garter snakes aren't venomous and their fangs are very short. Having been on the receiving end of many bites, I can attest to it feeling much like someone pinching your hand with a piece of sand paper.
Sorry that last one's a bit blurry. I wasn't expecting her to do that and the shutter speed was a bit slow for it.
Well, it's time to get back to work. I've got to create and record a 15-minute presentation, translate some stuff, and get my taxes done before Monday. On the bright side, I managed to complete my capstone project (pending review and revision). That's a huge load off of my shoulders!
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