Gardens of the Cross Timbers: Christmas miracle
Becky Emerson Carlberg
Contributing writer
Here’s something for you to ponder during the holiday season. What is in a cloud? Cooled water vapor that has condensed into droplets or solid ice crystals. The water comes from lakes, creeks, oceans, puddles, the soil and plants. As the water vapor evaporates, it rises up and begins to cool until the molecules hit saturation point (dew point) and condenses into a liquid. Done.
Not yet. That vapor can’t condense without some additional ingredients. Microscopic bits of dust or smoke, to name a few, are flying around the atmosphere and provide surfaces where the water vapor molecules can adhere and accumulate. Cloud scientists call them cloud condensation nuclei or CCN for short. If the temperature drops below 32 degrees, the tiny vapor droplets freeze and they themselves turn into CCNs, offering additional attachment points for other freezing droplets. The ice crystals
True West Magazine
The Sioux chief Sitting Bull was arguably the greatest Indian chief of all the tribes in the American West in the 19th century. In the decades since his death, his name has become known to most Americans and treasured by many as the supreme embodiment of Sioux values. He lived from 1831 to 1890. – D.F. Barry, Courtesy Library of Congress –
The Sioux Leader’s Final Flight to Freedom
Sunday, June 25, 1876, was a clear, hot, sunny day in the valley of Montana’s Greasy Grass River, which the white man’s maps labeled the Little Bighorn. Six tribal circles of Lakotas and one of Northern Cheyennes, the coalition of winter roamers, sprawled for nearly three miles down the narrow valley, rimmed on the east by the snow-fed river. The Hunkpapas occupied the extreme upper end of the village, the Cheyennes the lower. In between rose the lodges of Blackfeet, Miniconjou, Sans Arc, Oglala and Brule. It was an unusually large village: 7,000 people, 2,000 warriors, hous