Farmlands all around us

Even though we live inside the city limits of Scott City, just one half block puts us walking among the cornfields and maize.

The maize ripens to a beautiful reddish brown color and there are miles and miles of fields of it.

The corn fields line the other side of the road as we take our walk a mile down the road to the cemetery.  Notice the track alongside  the corn field.

These pivots are the  way they water these huge fields and the reason the fields are round.  They are a series of connected sections which starts at a pump and the sprinklers spray the crops as the whole pivot turns slowly in a circle with the wheels going on the track. 

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Above is an example of the track the pivot moves on through the corn field.

And then in the middle of a field you see an oil pump pulling black gold out of the farmland. I was very surprised to see these  all over western Kansas.

Because the wind never stops blowing in Kansas, they have these Wind Farms to harness that power and turn it in to electricity.  Some fields we pass have hundreds of these giant windmills always turning.  What a great natural resource!

These are my favorite fields.  We passed sunflower fields on both sides of the road as we drove north to Colby every week.  

The  sunflower is the state flower of Kansas and the wild ones line the roadsides and highways.  There are sunflowers  on the welcome sign, on hotel signs, banners on the light poles in town, painted on sides of buildings, on t-shirts and sweatshirts (gotta get one of those), everywhere!

And I LOVE SUNFLOWERS  so all these sunflowers make me happy! ! ! 

Interesting sights in Western Kansas

Well, I am so far behind in my postings I guess I will just start with sharing some of the places around Western Kansas that we have enjoyed and shared with others.

This was the last p-day with Elder Jacob Hughes before he left for Bountiful and home.  We took him and his companion, Elder Denson north of us to an area where the last Indian battle in Kansas was fought in September 27, 1878.

The monument in the first picture overlooks the cave, canyon, and the bluffs where the Northern Cheyenne hid waiting to ambush the U.S. Cavalry and a fierce battle ensued. 

 Quartelejo means barracks or dwelling place.  This is the remains of a Pueblo Indian dwelling as explained above. 

We spotted this flock of wild turkey trying to escape our cameras.

These are what is called "The Monuments".  They are 80 million years old and are made of layers of limestone laid down when this area was a salt sea.  They find amazing fossils all around this area.

These very strange shapes have shells and fossils embedded in them from so long ago.

The Museum in Oakley, just up the road, has an amazing collection of fossils found around here including this 7' fish from long ago.

And this head of a fish with some pretty nasty teeth.

With all the miles we travel, we have learned that there is more to Western Kansas than just flat prarie, corn fields, and wheat farms.  We are enjoying our time here and wish you could come visit but I guess you will have to be content with enjoying it through our pictures.