Tall Grass Hike.

I went to the Tall Grass Prairie Preserve to see what it used to look like here.

This is an ice house. Back before freezers and refrigerators people would cut a huge hunk of ice from a frozen pond or lake and put it in the ice house with things they needed to keep cold. Because the ice was so big, it would take months before it melted all the way. This is different than small ice cubes which can melt faster.

This wasa tool sharpener. A long time ago you could sit on the seat, pump your legs and make the stone circle go around and around and then put the tool to touch the stone and it would make the metal tool sharper. I would have liked to sit and pump my legs on this but it is too old for that. 

These are all the plants in this area. It was not just one type of grass and that it! There were a lot!

This is an old fashioned carriage for horses to pull and people to ride in.
This is a way people would plant rows of plants. The seeds go in the can and the pointy part at the bottom makes a row in the dirt and the seeds drop inside the dug out row.

The weather was very hot today so I kept our hike short, just about 2 miles. Mama carried a big container of water for us to drink. It was a hot hike but I did not complain.  On this hike I saw silk worms moving all around when I got close to them. I also saw cows eating. The cows were from Texas and they were here to eat and eat and eat so that they could be big for them to be eaten. I do not eat cows so I did not really like this. I also saw a very unusual bug. It was unusual because Dadsy tried to shoo it away from the path but it would not leave the trail, it kept moving forward and landing on the trail again and again and again like it was leading us. It made me laugh but we did not know if it were a biting or stinging bug. It was fuzzy but just because a bug is fuzzy does not mean it is a bug that won’t sting or bite! I asked the ranger but she did not even know what this bug was!

I earned my Junior Ranger badge and patch here too.