I was talking to my Dad last night via Facetime and he was giving me a little grief about not fishing. He said, “you say its too hot yet you’re running around all over doing other things.” He was right! We were trying to come up with something to do today so opted to hit both of our local lakes. We got up early to beat the heat and headed out.
The first lake was a bust since it is completely overgrown now and fishing from the shore is virtually impossible. We caught zero fish after walking all the way around it. As usual I was on the lookout for plants. Here is just a few of what we ran across.
Indian woodoats (Chasmanthium latifolium) 
Prairie sunflower 
Prairie sunflower (Helianthus annus) 
Chicory (Cichorium intybus)
After getting skunked and picking all of the burs and stick-tights off of us, we opted to try the other lake near us. As we were driving down the gravel road we were witness to a Bobcat crossing the road carrying a rabbit in its mouth. We watched as it loped across the road and coursed up a steep hill. We thought that was pretty cool…especially with how big it was.
We reached the next lake and chatted with a local. He was out on his 4-wheeler with the grandkids and was letting them burn off some energy. We know the feeling all too well.
All told we caught 5 largemouth bass, a perch and a crappie. I wanted to get a few pictures for the blog and quit fishing after an hour. Remember me mentioning that this area was covered by the Western Interior Sea during the Cretaceous Period 145 million to 66 million years ago? I took some pictures of the fossils that cover a large portion of this area.
These fossils are everywhere. 
Lots of bi-valves. 
Not sure what this one is.
As we were roaming around the area just looking, we ran across this guy!
After interacting with the snake we decided to move on and see what else we could find. As usual, there were numerous plants in bloom in the area.
Honey locust (Gleditsia triacanthos) Watch those thorns! 
Giant ragweed (Ambrosia trifida) This plant was cultivated by several indigenous tribes. 
Bearded beggarticks (Bidens aristosa) 
Rough gumweed (Grindelia scabra Greene) 
Gumweed flower 
Purple false foxglove (Agalinis purpurea) 
Field thistle (Cirsium arvense)
We had fun with the few hours we were out. We tend to free-range the chickens on the weekends so we decided to head home to let them out for the day. As I sit here typing, I’m surrounded by foraging chickens. There is shade at the moment and a breeze blowing through the tree tops.
Thanks for reading and have a great day!
Velox Seeker 