Roadtrip = A week of snowstorms?!

I'm not sure what the worst part about these snowstorms is (because I LOVE snow) - the fact that I did not ONCE hit the ski slopes, or the fact that I have to drive from Grand Junction to Estes to Michigan between 4:30 this afternoon and Sunday. Thank goodness for 4x4 trucks, good tires, and an iPod!

I'm hanging out in Fruita, enjoying the expensive new USB wireless-N card I had to buy after my computer took a poop yesterday. The USB port wasn't even registering but with some persistence and aggravating clicking and restarting and system restore and unistalling, the USB port came back to life... but my old wireless card didn't survive the trauma. It wasn't working very well anyway. Amazing what a difference a WORKING wireless connection makes, the internet is so fast I don't know what to do with myself.

Another expensive thing in my life broke. That seems to be the trend of my holidays. My clutch on my truck went out on my way from Estes to Grand Junction. Not a surprise since I'm at 204k miles, and who knows if/when the clutch was replaced. Thankfully I know how to operate a manual without using the clutch (all that time behind the wheel of a 1970 something piece of crap split-shift Brigadeer dump truck) because I could NOT get it into 1st gear! I somehow made it from Colorado National Monument down to a shop in town... barely! Little did I know it would run me over $850! Ouch! I don't know when I'll recover from that one. Student loans can only cover so much... thank goodness I have a little emergency fund for these sorts of things!

Tim gets off work this afternoon after a week of doing trail work in the snow. I spent the time walking the dog, working out (since I was stuck at the Monument without a vehicle), and hiking in the snow.

From Colorado National Monument, Winter 2008

It was overcast and snowed on and off; maybe 5" of snow on the trail so I only went perhaps 5 miles round trip. Of course, I went off-trail side-trip I tried to take and got cliffed out... so I had to backtrack uphill and retrace my route. Oops. ;)

I didn't end up going to Vail or Beaver Creek, although they are "only" 2 1/2 hours (more more with bad roads) away... closer than when I'm in Estes. Between having no truck, plus one morning it was windy and I didn't sleep well and sure as heck wasn't going to get out of bed... then today, I have to drive 6-8 hours with Tim from Grand Junction back to Estes and probably arrive between midnight and 1 am, so I didn't want to drive 5 hours round trip beforehand! Plenty of time when we get back from our road trip though.

So the roadtrip... leaving Estes in the afternoon on Saturday, arriving in Michigan on Sunday. Busy times, too! Tuesday alone, I am supposed to go out to eat with my family and friends, plus the Holiday party with my cityworker friends, a retirement party, and the Red Wings game (WOOOOO!!!)! Then our HUGE family X-mas party on the eve, my mom's house then my dad's house on X-mas day, Jeff's party on the 26th, and then on to Pennyslvania to see Tim's family and meet Logan's "cousins" - two German Shepherds owned by his sister and brother in law. One is their family dog, the other is the new K-9 Cop that Ryan is training. Pretty exciting, big dogs everywhere! I'm sure Tim's family will give them lots of great Christmas presents again. :)

Anyway need to pack and clean before we head out in a few hours. Can't wait to see everybody back at home! LET IT SNOW... just let it wait until we are done driving. ;)

From Winter 2008-2009

GO WINGS!

Wolves!

Quick update while I'm taking a break from studying and reading "Resolving Environmental Conflict" in preparation for the test I need to take for my correspondence grad class on public relations in natural resources. Fun fun, really. Useful, but not my cup of tea. Which is exactly the point that the books in this class make - natural resources folks are in their field because they like working outside with resources and not people, but they need to focus on people in order to better manage resources. Boo. Trees don't talk back!

I finally volunteered with wolves! Yay! It is a structured volunteer program because, although most of them are wolf-dogs, they are high percentage wolf and do NOT act like dogs. Many are socialized well enough that they seek you out to get attention or a belly rub, but many are skittish and avoid people when you enter their enclosure. I only got to help feed and water them, but it was still so great. Even if they only have one "certifiable" pure, arctic wolf (160 lbs and white, his paws are as big as my hands! and he's pretty socialized for a pure wolf and enjoys scent rubbing people) and a few that probably are pure but don't have papers (apparently it is legal for photographers, for example, to breed wild animals?!), even the wolf dogs are so neat to be around. It's easy to see that they would not make good pets (which is how most of them wound up at the sanctuary in the first place - people couldn't handle the wolf behavior that comes with being a wolf!). I was scent-rubbed by one named Tunyan... and the best way to describe it is think of a cat rubbing its chin and body on you to leave its scent on you. Now make that cat a wolf-dog that weighs as much as you do. Now imagine it scent rubbing with its whole body right on top of you! It was pretty funny. She tried to steal my hat and the volunteer coordinator warned us to hide our hats... and ended up with Tunyan stealing her glove. I guess it was a small miracle she got her glove back at all.

When they all start howling, it's a pretty neat sound. I hope to keep volunteering with them and moving up the ranks to perhaps helping handle the animals at events and giving medications or helping with more involved jobs... in the meantime, I'm fine doing housekeeping and just spending time getting scent rubbed!

The sad part is that one of the older, probably 95+% wolf dog named Kenai, had blood in his pee. I mean, it was RED. He was losing a lot of fur and had a slew of health problems in the past year or something like that (I'm still learning!). He was like 12 years old but some of their other ones live to be over 17. I listened in on the call to the vet and saw how he was hurting. They ended up tranquilizing him (they avoid doing this because it is so stressful on wolves that they can die, literally) and taking him in. Bad news: some kind of anemia, apparently the treatment includes transfusions and a lot of very stressful stuff. This was on Saturday. I just got an email that they put him to sleep yesterday. :( These things happen I suppose, but he was not doing well on Saturday and it is for the best.

If you like what they are doing, donate some money! And read through some of their newsletters, like from last fall about their lawsuit and the crap the neighbors pulled, and the WideAwake stories. That's me not speaking on behalf of the organization; I don't know all that happened but what I do know is so frustrating!

Anyway I go again tomorrow to spend the day with wolves. This weekend, Ryan is in town and I get to see him, yay! Then to Grand Junction to hang out at the Colorado National Monument before Tim and I head east. Busy!

Allergic to everything?!

I had big plans for the day, including updating this blog, studying, doing some online shopping... but I'm very agitated by something I got in the mail. Since this is a public blog and I don't need it to come back and bite me in the butt, we'll just say I had issue with somebody important but that also has a history of doing poorly at his job, and dealing with people in general. I brought it up and he decided to retaliate in a nasty unprofessional way, and now I have to decide what to do about it. Either way, I can't even read the whole reply I was given because it's outrageous. I'm just glad I never have to deal with this person again! All in all it is very upsetting as I did the best I could given a crappy situation to start with, with no guidance, and I was screwed over because it's easy to pawn the blame on somebody else. I hope karma does its job!

I recently learned about this delayed food allergy test that I have yet to find out how much of it my insurance is covering ($2700 but I know at least most of it is covered), and decided to take the plunge and find out what I'm allergic to. I have seasonal and year-round allergies to a ridiculous amount of things, from cats to down (too bad I won't give up my down comforter!) to mold and mites, I think pretty much everything but rabbits and cockroaches if I remember correctly. I took allergy shots for years in college, which unfortunately when you move to a different area of the country, I am surrounded by pollen to which I was not desensitized. Given the amount of external allergens, and the fact that if I don't take Zyrtec EVERY DAY OF MY LIFE, I break out in hives and itch all over. I've also had a slew of stomach pains that couldn't be explained by an upper GI and isn't made much better by taking medication. My friend, who was recently diagnosed with Celiac Disease, told me her symptoms and they sounded like some of my symptoms but 20x worse, so the pieces came together and I got tested. Results?

I am allergic to:
Peanut Soybean Wheat Barley cranberry pear
avocado gluten lime spinach egg oat rye
sunflower white potato cashew ginger pinto bean wax bean
grouper peppermint broccoli lemon orange
safflower tomato apricot cherry peach artichoke
blueberry hazelnut raspberry corn mustard

So now I'm supposed to eliminate all of these foods for 6 weeks. Yes it is almost impossible. ;) Actually the hardest things to avoid are corn (corn syrup in any of it forms is in almost everything) and soy (because if it doesn't have corn, for some reason it probably has soy). I am most saddened by the avocado, berries, artichoke, and egg. ;) At least I can have milk! Ice cream! Chocolate! Theoretically I have different levels of sensitivities to these things, and not all of them produce symptoms... but I have to eliminate all of them, then try each one ONE BY ONE to see if they cause any problems.

I have gone 27 years and I'm still alive, so I cheat a little bit. Maybe in the new year I will actually try to go 6 weeks. I get a consultation with a chef through the company and he just wrote me today, which may help. In the meantime I'm trying to get Tim used to millet and rice everything. It drives me nuts because I've never been the kind of person to be obsessed with nutrition labels - I've never dieted and generally eat things that say organic or natural on the front and that's about as much as I cared - but now I read all the little last details and then sigh in despair about fructose and soy lecithin and whatnot! The things I am avoiding most are wheat, gluten, and soy, and the easy things like peach and pear (yuck). Though I have had a lot of pizza lately...!

Logan's stitches healed up nicely so he no longer has to wear a t-shirt. Hope he doesn't get any more cysts ever!

From Winter 2008-2009

I am happy but not exceptionally hopefully that I got an email stating that I am "qualified and...being referred to for consideration" for a GS-7/9 permanent Forester position with the forest service with Tongass National Forest. I get that email a lot and barely ever get even an interest phone call. The only way I could take it is if they were willing to make it a SCEP position (student position that gets converted to permanent when you graduate and generally they accommodate school work in the fall and winter) because I probably won't graduate until April 2010.

From Winter 2008-2009

Tim and I are having fun over these holidays. First, we made sushi for thanksgiving. ;) No we didn't use turkey, cooked or raw. I had given him a sushi kit for last X-mas and we finally sucked it up and bought sushi-grade fish from Whole Foods. I am happy to say that neither of us got sick. Actually, it was a lot of fun and tasted really good! We waited until after turkey day to snatch up some really cheap frozen turkeys from the grocery store. Then, we went to the "Catch the Glow" holiday parade downtown. In the years I have been here, I have always avoided town like the plague for these parades, but Tim helped with some of the floats and it was fun. Logan got a lot of love. ;)

From Winter 2008-2009

We are gearing up for the next couple months of travel - this weekend Tim goes to the Colorado National Monument for a detail opportunity, I am finishing the last 2 weeks of my one class and will also be going out to the Monument to hike and ski, then we head to Michigan and then Pennsylvania for X-mas and New Years. He's not very excited about the long drive but I'm in the mood for a long road trip. ;) Plus Logan gets to meet his "cousin Thor", which is his sister's german shepherd. I can't wait to subject Tim to 50+ of my relatives under one roof for our annual X-mas eve party! And we already have tickets to the Red Wings game on Dec. 23rd.

My friend Alex, whom I have known since 6th grade but haven't seen in like 5 years, came out for a visit. It was great catching up! I took him to Arapahoe Basin and taught him how to snowboard, which was my first time out on the slopes this year. We hadn't received nearly the amount of snow we have in years past at that point. However, the past week and next few days, Summit County looks like it's getting hammered! Tim and I were supposed to go out on Sunday but alas, he either never set his clock or we slept through it at 5 am and didn't wake up until 10:30 so we didn't go. I was determined though and got up early yesterday. It took 3 hours to make a 2 hour drive to A-Basin, mostly because it was still snowing and Loveland Pass was closed, but I finally made it there and there weren't too many people on the hill, and the snow was still powder/packed powder. It made my day. :) I did much better with the telemark skis than last year, though I still have some work to do. I am determined to not suck this year. Having a healed knee helps too!

I am also looking forward to Saturday. What happens on Saturday? I start volunteering with wolves! To get more wildlife experience, I am helping out at WOLF, a place outside of Fort Collins that rescues wolves and wolf-dogs. Some are people-friendly but not enough that they make good pets; some are real skittish pure wolves; I'm not sure what kinds of opportunities I can get my hands on but everything from behavior to vet stuff to handling them will get me experience I can use. Plus, how cool is it to be around 160 lb wolves face to face?

Finally moved AGAIN, school, no snow, and Frankendog

From Winter 2008-2009

I'm procrastinating on unpacking the boxes currently sitting in my new apartment. I found a nice little studio in Drake, which is currently a pre-business bed and breakfast. They anticipate opening in Late 2009/Early 2010 and the plus for me is that it is clean, cute, sunny, inviting... I haven't lived in such a nice, happy place in a while! Of course it's more expensive than I'd like to pay for a studio, but such is the way of life in an expensive touristy mountain area. It's 20 minutes down the mountain from Estes, which means it's nicely halfway between school in Fort Collins and work and boyfriend in Estes. But I am so sick of boxes! Packing them, unpacking them, moving them... Boxes are ridiculously prominent in my life in the past couple years. Thank goodness for a pick up truck.

Speaking of truck, my Little Truck That Could, is now up to 202,000 miles. I don't see Trucky Truck letting me down any time soon! 250k... dare I say 275k or even 300k? Maybe overly optimistic but the best auto purchase I've ever made, a 1992 Toyota 4x4 XtraCab Pickup. Wonder why the Big 3 is screwed? Ask anybody that's owned a Toyota (or a Honda). However, there are inevitable repairs that come up on an old truck. Gaskets in particular are the bane of my truck's existence in the past 6 month. Boxes and gaskets drive me nuts. First it was some piston thingy-bobbers, then it was some intake manifold doo-dad, then some differential plug and pinyon thing. Good news is that those are done and no more leaks in Tim and Dave's driveway. Also had to replace a couple tires due to misaligned front end... So I'm all set for the winter. Come spring, here's my truck to-do list: rear shocks, the other 2 tires, windshield (though I'm going on 2 years with the same cracked one, so why bother? ha ha) and whatever pops up. I did finally get some plastic cut and somehow, with Dave's help, I managed to replace the back window on mytopper. Price: $55 as opposed to probably $200 with glass.

What other lovely things require my hard earned moolah? Log Dog. He had 4 small, pimple sized cysts when he was a puppy all along his right side. 2 remained tiny; one became medium; one got kindof big - big enough his hair stood up from it. It was biopsyed and non-cancerous but kept growing. I scheduled for him to get all four removed. Of course the big one decided to POP (yuck) a few days before the surgery. So they drugged him up, cut 4 patches of fur and took out the cysts. Now my Frankendog has four sets of big white stitches along his side. I really need to take some photos. The funniest part is that A. they gave him a bandana, which alone isn't that funny but B. He has to wear a shirt so he doesn't chomp on his stitches. When he has to go to the bathroom, I have to tie it up in the back so he doesn't pee on it. As a result, he looks like a little werewolf boy dressed in human clothes. ;) I always tell him he looks so handsom but in the back of my mind, I can't help but think "Animal Farm"...

School is school. I'm excited to be full time come January. I'm signed up for classes that probably sound really boring to everybody but sound great to me. Population and Community Ecology (wildlife), Park and Natural Area Management, and Natural Resource Policy something something. Might pick up one more class but don't want to overdue my course load, it's been a while since my brain has had to function that hard. ;)

Blast from the past: a friend from MIDDLE SCHOOL, that I haven't seen in over 5 years, is in town. I think even then I only saw him maybe a couple times since high school?? Alex and I met up for lunch yesterday; it's crazy to see the paths we both took, since we've, you know, turned into real ADULTS instead of silly 8th graders. :) We are going to try to go snowboarding tomorrow, but it's been so dang warm... Yeah, apparently while it's snowing in Michigan here I am at almost 8,000 ft elevation in the mountains of Colorado, riding my motorcycle. It sounds nice, but I LOVE four seasons and snow. I even bought a video on telemark skiing and I'm inspired to get that much better this year.

Hunting has been fruitless. At this point, I've hunted 4 seasons (deer 2 seasons, elk and turkey 1 season each) and come up with nothing. It's fun hiking around and when you hear some "weird noise" or think you see something, it's thrilling... The closest I came to even just finding anything was last weekend during 4th rifle season for buck, I heard a noise and stalked around, finding very fresh tracks from a deer I had startled. I keep looking around to see where these tracks went (in patchy snow) but couldn't figure it out. Started getting dark and I hiked out on a trail... and the damn deer had jumped down the trail, stopped, probably watched me until I startled it again, and jumped away and was probably watching me from another vantage point while I wandered around hoping for a glimpse of him. Never saw him, just heard some noises and saw those tracks... Guess I'll have to wait for another shot next year!

Tim and I are planning on heading back east for the holidays! We hope to leave here around Dec. 19th, hang out with my family until the 26th, then head out to Pennsylvania to see his family until after the New Year. Like always, this plan is hanging in limbo. He just found out he may be going to the Colorado National Monument for 2 months for work; he has a 5 week lay-off at this point because trails has less money this year, and the only way he can keep working is if he goes somewhere else. He may try to hook me up with some work out there, but I'd have to drive back for school on fridays. Not sure if it would be worth it or not, but I only have class until Dec. 12th so we shall see!

ONE MORE IMPORTANT THING: So I signed up for this website where all your shopping, if you use the link, can give a percentage of what you spend towards my student loans. Pretty groovy if you ask me! I sent some folks an invitiation to sign up; if you do it without the link just remember to add me as the beneficiary. You can even do more than one person and allocate percentages.

SHOP HERE!

http://www.upromise.com/guest/2656704786

Thank you. ;)

Ok enough slacking off, time to unpack.

Done and done!

Finally made it back to Estes! Woo hoo!

I went hunting early last week for 4 days and didn't see any elk. Alas, I did not bag a big bull this first time around. Sounds like nobody saw much of anything over there near Bowen Baker and Holzwarth. I have another chance to put some meat on the table in 2 weeks with the buck tag I have for the Estes area. Got a really good hike in on Saturday and a great view from Mineral Point though... 7 miles never felt so exhausting by the time I was done though!

My last day of work in Grand Lake was Thursday. Uneventful, besides driving the long way around from Grand Lake to Estes and back for work, then BACK to Estes after I was checked out of my house = at least 10.5 hours on the road Thursday. I still haven't unpacked everything from the back of my truck!

Logan had his birthday on Sunday... and I totally forgot. I remembered on Saturday, and I remembered that I forgot on Monday. ;) He's 2 years old! So I bought some yummy treats and new toys for his birthday. He's going to be ticked at me though because he has his first ever grooming appointment in about 2 hours because frankly, he STINKS. Now that I'm unemployed I'm also going to get him in for a dental appointment and to get these 3 lumps removed. They had done a biopsy a few months ago and said they were fine, but one has gotten much bigger and it's so weird to pet him and feel this giant lump under his beautiful fur. He's happy to be in Estes so he can go to the dog park again!

I just tried to set up my schedule for grad school next semester and I'm not totally happy with all the classes I wanted to take, being at the exact same time! But right now I'm in Forest Policy, Park and Natural Area Manangement, and Population and Community Ecology classes. Probably sounds like a real hoot to all ya'll out there, really. Ha ha. I'm torn between continuing with my undergrad education and stay in Ecology/Wildlife, or get a degree in forestry, which is what all of my employment has been in the past few years. So I'll probably take a little of both, student loans are an amazing thing.

Sounds like Tim and I are trying again to head out east for Christmas, maybe it will actually happen this year?? It would be fun to subject him to our family christmas party with 50+ of my closest relatives to interrogate and harass him. They do it in good fun, but I remember Linda's boyfriend meeting them for the first time and that was priceless. "HEEEEEEY, TONAAAAYYYYYY!" Maybe you'd have to be there to understand, but I think Tim will have fun with my huge extended family. If nothing else he can run away and watch sports with my stepdad and uncles. ;)

Halloween, my favorite holiday... and I haven't even carved pumpkins in years. I'm determined this year though. Not sure if I will recycle an old costume from last year - I still have my "Tim" costume with the big beard! or even my girlscout costume - but Tim wants us to go as vikings if I can find cheap costumes. Logan too has to dress up, though the old photo shows how much he hated his K9 Cop costume. The things we pet owners subject our four legged friends to...!

Anyway got a lot to do but thought I'd quickly update. One other recent and very sad thing is that a former coworker here are Rocky Mt was killed by a tree blowing over this past weekend. He was a great sawyer and had the most vibrant personality and I think everybody is just as shocked and sad as I am... he had quit as trails supervisor a couple years ago to pursue his private forestry company cutting down beetle kill in Grand Lake. He does the same job I do/did, every day dealing with dead trees... really makes me stop and think about how dangerous our job really is, and Kevin was a hell of a lot more talented sawyer than I am!

Oh yeah and I'm going to try to volunteer with this wolf rescue in Fort Collins, might as well get some wildlife experience if I decide to switch away from trees for good. Tara told me she just started volunteering with horses so hey, tis the season to work with the animals!

Ready for snow!

From Watanga Lake; Mooses; Matt and Brandon Visit, August 2008

Bull moose in my "front yard" at Green Mountain

Grand Lake is absolutely killing this journal!

The only time I can really get online is when I'm in Estes, and when I'm in Estes I'm so busy doing so many other things that I never get to my journal anymore! Throw in classes, and work, and being sick, and visitors...

Where should I start?

We started getting snow up on top of Trail Ridge Road in mid August; I actually got snowed on at my cabin August 15th! Which I would be very excited for...if I were east of the Divide and didn't face the prospect of driving the LONG way around from Grand Lake to Fort Collins for grad school every Friday! 3 hrs 15 minutes each way for a 2 hour class if they close Trail Ridge Road. This has only happened once so far, but it's just a matter of time before this becomes a regular thing. I was really stressing out about it, because I didn't know how long we would be working in Grand Lake before we are furloughed, but so many questions were laid to rest about 2 weeks ago:

Management has decided that it is nearly certain they will abandon the idea of having a separate west side crew. WOOOO HOOO! Not that I don't like Grand Lake. I really really do. I'd like it more if my friends were there, I had reliable housing 12 months of the year, and it wasn't a headache being separate from all administrative/management type important people that can make my life easy, or hell. All in all, it hasn't gone as well as I hoped. In part, my cabin was a nasty little craphole that probably made me sick when I cleaned it up and moved out 2 weeks ago. Another part is it is just myself and one other person, so when I have admin/office work, she has nothing to do. On top of that, she hurt her back and hasn't been operating at even 50% most days, so it was ALL ME dropping and cleaning up trees. Add on our impossible management-decided goals of removing 50% of our moderate hazard trees by November...which is approximately 2,000 trees dropped by 2 people. I could go on and on, which I have done to enough of my friends during a venting session that I really hope I never have to speak of it again once I move to Estes.

Since my coworker is leaving for a winter job late October, my last day of work is October 23 in Grand Lake. Now, I am hoping they can change my duty station via some simple paperwork and keep me working with the east side crew until Nov. 21st but we shall see. Part of me just wants to be done with it and recover and focus on School, Snow, and Sleeping. ;)  Though the money would be nice... hello student loans come January, when I am full time student until April!

Ok let me back up a bit, so much has happened and I'm sick so chronological writing is not really happening right now. The topic of grad school will have to wait.

August 21st or so, my "random adventure buddy" Matt (of past Yellowstone ninja and Virginia horseshoe crab fame in previous journals over the years) came out to Colorado with his friend Brandon and, well, we had random adventures. We stayed in Steamboat for a night and went to the hot springs up there, then hit up some bars (and felt very very old, forgot it was a college town!); then we were going to hike to a ranger cabin in the park but nasty weather and lack of motivation turned it into a simple driving tour of Rocky Mt National Park, cussing at Long's Peak for hiding in the clouds, a beer and a cigar at the Rock Inn, and wrestling with the dog (with and without bandanas). There were lots of random quotes to go along with that but most aren't appropriate for the General Audience except, "Horses are stupid!" which I totally don't agree with. ;)

From Watanga Lake; Mooses; Matt and Brandon Visit, August 2008

Anyway as always it was great to see Matt and his friend Brandon was a great travel buddy with a good sense of adventure. They came at a great time when things have been pretty rough and I really hope he can come out and ski this winter!

And since I wasn't already tired and busy enough, my mom and two sisters came out for a visit over Labor Day weekend! I was pooped and totally missed my first day of classes at Colorado State, but I didn't care, it was my favorite girls finally coming out to Colorado! We stayed at this guest ranch, complete with horses randomly wandering around, and my mom wrote up a pretty good journal about the visit - Meggie's Mumblings!  And here's the link to her photos from the trip, which are way better and tons more than I took. It was filled with horses, moose, freaking them out driving up "Don't Fall Over Road" (Linda's name for Old Fall River Road), thunderstorms, fishing in a dress and not catching anything, my mom being an insomniac without television, watching a color tv in black and white because, well, we thought it was a black and white tv... oh and the first time my sisters had been to Colorado to visit, and the first time they had all seen Logan since he was a wee pup! Of course they loved him. Everybody loves the Log!

From Family Visit, August 2008

Linda and I on horses on our private ride

From Family Visit, August 2008

Momma and baby moose on the trail to Timber Lake

From Family Visit, August 2008

Linda and I on the saddle above Timber Lake, trying to beat the storm!

Jeez what else. My life is filled with work and driving. Driving to Estes, driving to Fort Collins, driving all over. And chainsaws. I don't know my tally but I at least tripled the number of trees I had felled this year in the past month. Some pretty big ones, about 30" diameter, that's always a nice treat. We completed our clearcut, oh pardon me, our "buffer cut" at a certain picnic area so all that's left is trees under 20'  tall (save for a few spruce). I hate doing it but having green trees just fall over is probably a bad thing, so we have to do it in the name of safety. I could go on about THAT too...

Remember, I do not speak on behalf of my employer, I speak on behalf of myself! There's my disclaimer so they can't yell at me. I have a lot of opinions that just don't seem to line up with what we are doing, and a lot of theories on why that is. This is why I am getting a masters. With a masters you can tell other people what to do and actually have the credentials to do it in the government. ;)

School. Yep, grad school. Colorado State University. Just taking 5 credits this semester so I can keep working - a 2 credit required seminar on Fridays, and a 3 credit correspondence course on Public Relations and Communications in natural resource management. Yeah, I'm not known for my PR skills, tact, or butt-kissing so maybe I can learn a thing or two on how to deal with telling my superiors that their plans are stupid. Last I checked, telling people in charge anything that contradicts what they say isn't tactful or a good way to get them to listen. And I checked recently. :P  I just keep stepping on toes lately. The worst part is I don't even care anymore! It's almost liberating, but probably overall a bad idea.

Anyway so next semester I'll go full time. I planned on doing the same thing - taking only a few credits next fall, then full time next winter - but who knows. That's a year away and a LOT has changed just in the past month yet alone in the next 12 months.

I had to move out of that horrible cabin by Sept 15th so I now live in a nice big 3 bedroom, 1.5 bath house with a woodstove and a real kitchen and a garage... with my coworker (which I'm not keen on working 40 hrs then living with my coworkers) and some older lady that works for the park. It's fine, we all mostly stay in our rooms, but that lady snores like a chainsaw...which I can hear through the wall...which made me have a dream that a bear was looking in my window and grunting at me, ha ha! That and the bull elk are going NUTS in the rut right now, bugling right outside my room... had a weird dream about that too. But after this weekend they both move out and I have it to myself for my remaining month in Grand Lake (I hope!).

Why I am updating my journal on a Monday? I've been so freaking sick. I think I may have had the flu last week, but I've had 5 migraines in 8 days. And I mean MIGRAINES. Bad. Nasty. I finally went to the doc and I have a sinus infection and an ear infection so just maybe it's making my head hurt. I mean, even my teeth were hurting! And my stomach problem from last year (that I never got a camera stuck down my throat for; guess that's what I get for blowing it off) is back, so my stomach hurts 24/7. Hiatal hernia? Ulcer? Who knows til I get it scoped. Stress tends to make it flare up, and there's been an overabundance of stress lately! (If you aren't sure what I'm stressed about, reread the entire freaking journal!) Hopefully with a hefty round of antibiotics, stomach meds, and migraine medicine I'll be back to work by Wednesday. Boss isn't psyched but there's no way I'm running a chainsaw with a migraine!!

By the time Tim gets back from Alaska (which I obviously am not going up there to meet him as we had planned months ago), I will have literally only seen him once in TWO MONTHS. There's a lot of reasons for that but he gets back this Friday so hopefully we'll get to hang out at some point. Lots to talk about for sure, can't wait to see his photos. We've been able to talk over the phone a bit so he's finally in McCarthy, AK where his property is. He hasn't been up there in 3 or 4 years! I'm sure he's very excited to be there and I wish things would've worked out different and I could've made itup there.

The fall colors are starting to explode out here, last weekend the aspen in Grand Lake just turned in the blink of an eye. My favorite time of year, and it will be gone so soon. That's ok, gotta whip out the telemark skis and hope for a better season - no knee injuries and more progress in getting better!

Now, my priorities are doing this correspondence course, finding a place to live in Estes (can you believe I've moved 3 times in 6 months?! UGH!), finishing the season safely at work (with a good attitude!), trying to update this more often, and getting in better shape for telemark skiing = damn squats and lunges!

A few more exciting things I did, I ran my first race since I was in 2nd grade! We had the Running of the Bulls on Saturday and, despite being sick, I dragged myself out of bed and ran... good enough. ;)  I felt horrible and my head was throbbing but I finished in pretty average time for me. If I had felt better could've shaved maybe a couple minutes off my time. My friend Steph got 1st place for our age group (because the "real" 1st place woman won for overall women's, so she couldn't win both) which was cool; I got #6 but it was only out of maybe 17 in our age group so not like I was that great. ;)  Still though, I did it! It was fun and I am a little bit inspired to run more, though it did slightly aggrivate my chronically-finnicky achilles.

I also finally bought a rifle! I have a bull elk hunting tag for mid October so it was time to suck it up and dish out the dough. I got a Savage .30-06 which might not mean anything to most of you that read this. Now I have to get some knives and a bone saw and some game bags in case I actually get anything, and my book on how to field dress it aka cut it into pieces small enough so I can move the darned thing. Mmmmm elk! And if that doesn't work, got a buck tag too...
Well, time to pop another migraine pill. FYI Frova doesn't work worth crap. :P  Enjoy the photos and hope to update sooner than 6 weeks from now!  At any rate, I'll be done working in probably 4 weeks so at LEAST by then!

From Watanga Lake; Mooses; Matt and Brandon Visit, August 2008

Watanga Lake

From Family Visit, August 2008

Things I learned on the night shift on a wildfire in California...

Things I learned after almost 2 weeks of working the night shift on the Ukonom Complex fires in Forks of Salmon, California:

-Scorpions sting and it hurt, but not as bad as I thought it would
-Getting stung on the neck, however, is psychologically disturbing
-I'm immune to poison oak; unfortunately, most other people are not.
-Poison oak can go systemic, meaning you get it in weird and often uncomfortable places
-Did I mention I'm immune to poison oak? ;)
-California has lots of weird bugs.
-People should be required to keep their boots outside of the mobile sleeping trailer
-The river by Orleans and Forks of Salmon is remarkably clear and refreshing
-Being told you can't go river makes people upset
-Being told you can't drink on the way home from the fire makes people upset
-Poor leadership makes people upset
-Even a "dark cloud" has a silver lining. You can see it better when you drink
-I do pretty well working the night shift. It's the vampire thing...
-When I wake up at 5 pm to work the night shift, I do NOT like it when people say "Good morning". It's 5 pm, I don't care that we are just waking up, it is the AFTERNOON
-Eating breakfast for dinner is better than eating dinner for breakfast
-It doesn't matter how old you really are, sneaking out of a hotel to the liquor store when you're told you're not allowed to still makes you feel like you're in high school...and not in a GOOD way
-Nate is a rageaholic. But not really.
-Even if you don't think you can drink a whole bottle of wine by yourself, once you open it, I'm sure you can find a way
-When you start counting down the number of days left on a fire roll by day 2, you know it's going to be a long one
-People that wake up too early and start singing and being annoying before everybody else wakes up at fire camp really pisses people off
-...Especially when you ask how they are doing, and they say, "I'm ALWAYS fine!" Don't ever EVER be that guy
-Yellowjackets will swarm and attack, even at midnight
-I'm glad I wasn't there for THAT...not that scratching your eye and not being able to see out of it for 24 hours is much better
-I wish I could have seen Andy freak out, apparently it was hilarious when he started getting stung
-You CAN get pneumonia during the summer in 110 degree weather
-Running a chainsaw for my job here at Rocky is WAYYY cooler than brushing out poison oak and manzanita on a fireline
-I need a new iPod
-Nate has the best taste of music of anybody besides maybe Tom back in Michigan
-It is possible to tend to a bonfire for 14 hours straight
-It is possiblyto sleep in the most uncomfortable positions ever, on really steep slopes, wearing a hard hat and a fire pack
-Don't try to sleep on top of a steel truck; it will NEVER warm up from lying on it
-Setting up tents of different styles, shapes and sizes in a straight line, no matter how perfect, will never look that good, so don't bother
-Getting injured, stung, or poked in the eye while doing some crappy task is the BEST thing you can do for yourself; I got to shoot the shit with Sheean and nap in a warm reclined truck seat while everybody was cold and miserable; it got Andy a hotel room; it got Ruth to go home!
-On that note, I recommend carrying a live scorpion around for when you're REALLY itchin' to get off the fireline
-I don't want to eat Skittles or drink Gatorade for a LONG time
-There's always a short, hyper, impressionable young man on every fire that will at some point drive you up a wall
-Having a big black dog come out of the night to keep us company on a cold spot fire really does make everybody smile.... I miss big drooling Jake!
-It's freakin' GREAT to be home... even though there were 5 huge spiders in my sink and my window fell out, and yes my windows fall out for no reason

I could go on and on. As I made it perfectly clear to those in charge, it was the worse roll I have ever been on. It has nothing to do with the work we did; brushing out contingency lines during the day in 110 degree weather was pretty grueling but it kept us busy. Poor leadership, miscommunication, and bad decisions all made for an unhappy group. Most of the crewhad never been on fire before, but those of us who had been "in the biz" for a while were pretty disappointed/frustrated/RAGING ANGRY. Yeah that was a joke. One of the nicer guys on the trip was threatened to be sent home for being a "bad influence" on our morale and he has "rage problems". I still can't get over it!

We were out for 21 days; 4 days in the beginning were travel days, as it was an all National Park Service Crew and 8 of us from Rocky had to meet the rest of the crew in Albuquerque, New Mexico. There were folks from other parks in New Mexico and Texas. From there we ended up first at the base camp in Orleans, CA. I ran a saw for a day and decided that cutting real trees down is much more fun than cutting brush up steep slopes on hot days. I'm just getting soft I guess, ha ha! We were soon moved to a spike camp that was actually nicer than the base camp in Forks of Salmon, and went from day shift to swing shift to night shift and all of us, our biological clocks were just jacked. At night we'd hold the line when they were burning out; which then turned into babysitting a COLD dead fire; which then turned into sleeping in a gravel pit all night, waking up for about 2-3 hours in the morning, then trying to go back to sleep in a mobile sleeper trailer (the "catacombs"). Blah. I'm done complaining about it, at least we all made it home safe and ALIVE. Two folks died while we were out there; one was burned over on the Panther fire, north of us; one was on the Olympic National Park fire crew and was killed by a falling tree. After we left, that helicopter went down and 9 more people died. It's been a bad year.

I'd love to go out again this year, just to make up for how unsatisfying this last roll was. Doubt it will happen until September or October, if at all, with the amount of work we have to do here at the park!

We are on hold with cutting trees down at the park while we do a site analysis for every front country area in the park. We should be done early this week; then I think we're just going to clear cut EVERY SITE. We're calling it a "buffer cut". It's the safest way to do things, given the high chance of trees falling over from the wind.

I have to move out of my crappy cabin by Sept 15th, thank goodness. My living situation will improve; however, there is a required class I need to take for grad school at Colorado State in Fort Collin every Friday. Surprise! I wasn't going to take any classes until January when I am off work so I can live in Estes and be around for school, and for pre-season work next spring. So now, once the road closes, every Thursday night I need to drive the long way around just for a 2 credit class on Friday. I want to get a place to live in Estes, but I can't pay double rent! I'll have to get creative...

Hopefully the east side crew leader gets that promotion they should be flying soon and I can put in for his job so I can get back over there and this won't be an issue, but we'll just have to wait and see!

Yesterday I finally went and got a new tattoo... actually, 4 baby sea turtles swimming across my back. One for myself and each of my siblings. Linda and I both wanted to get Galapagos Island-related tattoos since that's our goal to go there some day, which will probably be in like 20 years... 2 hrs 15 minutes and I think that's my max time I can sit under the needle. Very cute though! I'd like to add more water/bubbles/something to tie it together more and give it more "movement" but we'll see when I get the money/pain tolerance to hit it again. ;)

Other news is that I've been going through some very tough stuff lately; if you don't know what it is, then don't worry about it, I've got my mom doing enough of that as it is! ;)  But thank you everybody who has been supportive and kept my spirits up. Things aren't back to normal or "good" but I'll get through it...

From Ukonom Comple...

From Ukonom Comple...

This is how firefighters have fun in camp when they're supposed to be sleeping... shaving mohawks into people's heads

Learning in Leadville

Well whadda ya know?!

Free internet with my hotel room here in Leadville!

Yep, I was finally let off my short leash (attached to that dump truck!) and am down in Leadville for Forest Insect and Disease and Hazard Tree Training. I got here on Monday and will be going back to Grand Lake on Friday. It's like a vacation! I am off work by 5:30 instead of 7:30! And I like this kind of stuff. The mornings are in the classroom but all afternoon we are in the field, looking at "bugs and crud", driving around these sweet mountains down here. Found a few nice places to trail run yesterday by the Fish Hatchery (complete with big and little swimming fishies in the hatchery!) but wasn't so successful today... for future reference, the trails around Turquoise Lake are up, up, UP! And I didn't even bother today. :)

So along with this wireless internet I get CABLE. Ooooh. Ahhhh. Ehhh... there's a reason I haven't had it for years. I swear everything on TV is a reality show and very very much LAME. I did watch Dirty Jobs and Deadliest Catch though, so it's not all crap. Just most of it.

This weekend my friends Chris and Edie got married. Hooray! It was a nice modern small QUICK ceremony at the Wild Basin Lodge in Allenspark, it was absolutely beautiful and the food - salmon and buffalo - was fantastic! Tim left for the North Fork for 8 days on Monday morning, and I left for Leadville later that afternoon. Next time I see him, it will be our 2 year anniversary! Actually he gets out the 30th, and our anniversary is the 28th, but can't do much about it I guess!

From Chris and Edi...

The trails guys and their respective women; click the photo for more pictures from the wedding

Leadville is a great hub to hike 14ers and do offroading (where Tim and I went last fall) and other outdoors stuff, but the restaurants here pretty much stink. If you ever go out here, eat at the Tennessee Pass Cafe - especially if you dig Kona beer, goat cheese, spinach and avocado as much as I do - and maybe Doc Holliday's if you like meat and grilled cheese with hashbrowns.

Next week, we have a Stihl chainsaw rep coming up for an advanced chainsaw teardown class. It's my idea of a good time! I tried to set it up for just my crew... which has since gone from a small intense class to a big, possibly not as good class, but I tried. Then I get Thursday off (since Friday is my leu day and it's the 4th of July) so Tim and I are planning on relaxing or maybe a short trip somewhere. I'm soooo bummed I am missing my best friends Kevin and Beth's wedding in Michigan, but I just can't take the time or money or stress of leaving before I hit it hard at work again.

Oh speaking of dogs, did I mention I adopted Luna out to somebody who wants to put her to work as a real cattle dog on a ranch?? She has too much energy and brains to ever be happy with me, and I think she'd like the challenge! We'll see if it works out though, maybe she'll be back to haunt me. I miss my little girl! And I cried my eyes out. But you gotta do what you gotta do!

Besides that, hopefully I'll be done with the obscene amount of overtime in the next 2-3 weeks, but sounds like as of today that is a false hope. We are working with the power company on getting trees by the lines felled, and secondary lines dropped so that we (or somebody else AGAIN, grrr I just wanna cut trees and nobody will let me do my job!) can haul them away. I'm getting ready to throw a potato in the exhaust of that dump truck!! Will it ever end!

I'll find out in the next week or two if Tim gets to go to Alaska to blow up boulders for a trails project in the Kenai Fjords (I think that's where it is) for 2-4 weeks. If so, I can't wait to ask my boss for a month off of work. Will he let me? Doubt it. I'll have to figure something out so I can go...

There's a bunch of crazy fires going on, especially California and New Mexico. We'll see if they let me out this year; even though we're swamped and I'm the crew leader, we are on the fire crew so I think they'll send me out when the time comes.

I was looking up interesting news about Rocky Mountain National Park, and besides the two people that have died in the park so far this year (one heart attack, one fall... both at very popular areas) I found this article saying, VOLUNTEER FOR THE PARK! IT'S FUN! Or if you actually want to make money, here's how to get a job in the national parks. I also found this one talking about suicides in the parks - none lately in Rocky, but a couple in Colorado National Monument. Did you know there was such a word as "suicidology"??

Here's another one: I could get flooded out of Leadville right now as snowpack melts and all this water is backed up in the old mines around town. Sweet. Everywhere else is flooded, why not here?? :P

Here's my photos from visiting Michigan (mostly at the Wings game) and a few of a tele skiing day trip I took... and my last remaining photos of Luna before I adopted her out. Booo hooooooo!! :(

All work and no play makes Lisa cranky

Let me sum up why I haven't updated in forever, or called anybody, or seen anybody.

I moved to Grand Lake in a flurry. The cabin was not clean; I lived out of boxes up until last weekend, because I couldn't unpack them amidst the mess. I didn't have time to clean, because I have been working 60-80 hrs a week of hard manual labor. Luna needs more exercise and doesn't like being locked up for 12 hours so I've tried to deal with that but I am giving her to a friend who will try to train her to be a working cattle dog. (Good for my little girl! I'm so proud!) I'm sad to get rid of her, but between being allergic, and not having time, and she being such an energetic dog and my ridiculous and unreasonable schedule, it is the best thing for her. I'm still trying to unpack and finish cleaning, but it's nice coming home to a cabin where the frogs and crickets chirp, nobody has a porch light, and it is totally SILENT. Logan has been limping from a resurgence of his panostisis, so I've had to deal with him not eating from that, and being depressed because we just up and moved. I didn't even get to say bye to anybody, because I had so much crap to do and no time to do it! I finally fixed my motorcycle and got expensive fancy new tires. Did I mention I've been working 7 am to 7:30 pm every day? And on the weekends Tim and I take turns going back and forth but some days, the road has been closed which meant a 3 1/2 hr drive for me to Estes instead of just 1/2 hr. Did I mention I'm cranky and tired?

The work load on the west side has been insane, so as a response, fire decided to make it an "incident" and brought in a crew from Yellowstone, and a crew from Whiskeytown, California to help, as well as our local fire crews and the hot shot crew. Everybody finally went back home this weekend, so Ruth and I are in cahoots with the East side road crew, manually loading logs and slash into a loader, which is then loaded into a dump truck that is older than I am, and I drive that big yellow beast to the dump... 20, 30, who knows how many times a day. I am exhausted from the loading, and more exhausted from the monotonous drone of that damn truck! I haven't cut more than 1 tree down in a month, which hasn't help my mood any either. That's my stress relief! Instead, everybody else cut them down and we get to clean it up. Short end of that stick, eh!?

This weekend, Tim's parents, aunt and uncle are in town so I met them for the first time and we did the tourist thing. I found them moose, bighorn sheep, coyotes, etc... And I'm even more drained! I opted out of a tour of some of Tim's trail work, instead sleeping this afternoon and hopping on here to take care of business.

I have tons of photos to post but not the time to do it! If anybody wants to visit me... don't even plan on it until August. I don't think I can keep up this 12 hr days/5 days a week minimum for much longer. Thank goodness I'm going to training in Leadville for a week, will be a nice vacation!!

Miss everybody and sorry I have been so out of touch. I did finally switch from AT&T to Verizon, which is the only thing that works at my cabin in the park, but now I have to put all my phone numbers in the phone. Of course I don't know anybody's numbers by heart! Grand Lake is nice, if I only had the time to enjoy it!

PS: I'm so very very tired. I could just sit around and sleep and watch Scrubs for a week...

Gloating about the Wings, gearing up to move

Let's face it, not having an internet connection at home is just killing this journal!

This is what my days consist of lately: Wake up at 5:45 am, hit snooze once and then let the psycho mutts outside before 6 am. Get ready for work, try to play ball with the muttskis for about 15-20 minutes and walk to work. Sit in front of the computer and try to make a respectable, official program out of our newly formed hazard tree crew; this means researching OSHA regulations, coming up with a training schedule, researching other training besides boring OSHA crap, teaching people how to fell trees, working on the tree spraying logistics, helping hire my other term for the west side, and just up to my nose in paperwork. Throw in the wildland fire refresher, pack test, physical, CPR, and in-house meetings and training. I did manage to get out and drop 19 trees one day out of the past 3 weeks I have been working. :) Get off work at 5:30, arrive at home and promptly let the dogs out; walk them or take them to the dog park, since they're all wound up from being inside all day. After they're exercized, it's my turn, and off to the gym with Tim for 40-60 minutes. Get back home and shower, look at mail, eat dinner. At this point, it's usually past 8:30 pm and I still haven't sat down and relaxed since 6 am. Repeat this Mon-Thursday. All other days of the week, the dogs consistently start rough-housing in my bedroom (sometimes ON my bed) around 6 am, so I let them out and try to sleep in; however, they like to get tangled up and start whining that they're strangling themselves. I let them back in, and there's just no rest for the weary. Loud and rambunctious! Plus they're shedding EVERYWHERE no matter how much I brush them, so everything I own is covered in dog hair. I've had something going on pretty much EVERY DAY and getting online has not been a high priority lately.

Yesterday, I dropped Tim off at the airport; he flew out to California for a week long Trails Management training. I went to REI and used up the rest of my dividend on backpacking and kayaking gear. Today, I dropped the dogs off at the kennel because I am going to Grand Lake tomorrow (Monday) through Wednesday to mark pines to be sprayed; set up our new cache/workshop; drop some trees; yadda yadda. So today is the perfect day to start packing up my cottage over here in Estes, clean the house, clean the truck, read a book, maybe go for a hike in the park without feeling guilty about not being able to take the dogs!

Those are the boring stupid details only my mother could probably appreciate, and explain to her why I haven't been good at calling her lately!

My highlight was going to the Red Wings-Avalanche game 4 in Denver last Thursday! WOOOO!!!!! Tim and I endulged and got club level seats, I'm so glad he loves hockey as much as I do... and is a Wings fan despite being from Philly! Our friends were apparently all at the bar watching the game, half expecting to see Tim and me kicked out of the game or dragged away by the cops for fighting with Avs fans... to our surprise though, nearly 1/4 of the people at the Pepsi center were sporting Wings jerseys! We were surrounded by Detroit fans in our section also. We wanted to bring brooms with us, knowing Detroit would sweep Colorado, but we both realized that neither of us own brooms... and bringing a dust-buster or a Swiffer Wet-Jet really didnt' seem as convenient. ;)  Tim and I both screamed and cheered enough that my throat was still a little hoarse two days afterwards. I absolutely love being a Wings fan out here, and lately I've been quite the jack-ass and take every opportunity to shove it in my Avs friends' faces. LOSERS!! Ha ha ha!

The Park did end up coming through for me with regards to housing in Grand Lake. They weren't going to provide anything except possibly a bed in a shared bedroom in a shared house; and I wouldn't be able to have my dogs. Which isn't even an option in my book! So they came up this: I move into the "weight room" house for about a week with my co-worker Ruth. May 23rd, our cabins at Green Mountain are supposed to be ready; however, it sounds like the snow is still pretty deep and they won't be able to turn the water on by then. Which is fine, because I have to be back in Estes the following week for the S-212 Wildland Fire Power Saws chainsaw class, and I'll stay in my place one last time in Estes. Then back over to Grand Lake, and hopefully my cabin will be ready. However, they turn the water off in September, so I'll have to move into the main housing area for the winter, and move back out to the cabin in the spring.

Yeah, that sounds GREAT. (sarcasm)

In the meantime, I'm getting a storage unit in Estes and just stashing all my crap there, since the cabin is furnished. At least having a place in the park will give me time to find something affordable that I can live in year-round. It's more expensive in Grand Lake than it is in Estes, yet we get paid less per hour (the locality rate is different and, frankly, so NOT RIGHT it's not even funny). Maybe I mentioned this before, but I'm contemplating buying some land and building a YURT. Pretty easy to build and a neat idea that my friend Tara gave me... and pretty much the only thing I can afford!

So I'm down to my last two official weeks in Estes, but there's a lot of back and forth over the next two months for various reasons. Still waiting for the trails supervisor in Grand Lake to sell his house so Tim will at least have a chance to apply and possibly live over there. We shall see...!!

Oh, and I have a turkey hunting tag, and the season goes until the end of May, so my friend Tate took me out one evening to show me how to call them, and where to look. His gun was wayyyyy to big for me so I'm borrowing my friend Mark's gun next time, but will try to go out possibly on Friday morning. The toms are all call-shy and probably run onto private land by now, but it's always fun running around in the woods. I even bought my own camo this time, and I look like a little kid dressed in big clothing. I even wore camo-green eyeshadow. ;) 

That's the boring update. Lunatic Coyote (Luna) is still spastic and drives me up a wall. Raising a traumatized rescue puppy is much harder than training Logan ever was. She is a "nervous pee-er" and well, everything makes her nervous. She's probably up to 30 lbs but is still pretty tiny but with big teeth. I'm still dreadfully allergic to her. I just don't have enough time in the day or energy to ever wear the little bugger out. Some days I think I should find a new home for her, other days she's a sweet little angel. She looks like a coyote, maybe I can just let her loose and free?? Just kidding, but I'm happy to have a mini-vacation from sneezing. Thank goodness I have health insurancenow! Allergy shots! Never thought I'd be so psyched to get poked by needles.

GO WINGS!!

Lead Chainsaw Kitten!

From The New Puppy...

Guess what?!

Not only am I a term, year round with benefits and retirement CHAINSAW KITTEN, I'm the CREWLEADER!!!

Yes, that's right. I just found out yesterday. I get my very own crew of chainsaws, minions, trucks... and a million trees to cut down! Even better, I still get 3 months or so off every winter. SWEETNESS!

What's the catch? Well... I have to move to Grand Lake in a month.

Hmmmm.....

Grand Lake is on the West side of the park, I had lived there for about 2 months in 2006 when I was still cutting trees down. It's a nice quiet little town surrounded by thousands of red dead beetle kill trees, all just waiting for the wildfire of the century to burn them all down. The downside is that there isn't really much of a night life, all my friends are in Estes (even most of them that used to live in Grand Lake), and I have to move. Don't even ask what this could mean between Tim and I; that's a whole nother story within itself!

The good news is that my friend Dan is moving over there too, and I think Travis is going back over there. Since my boss will still be in Estes, supervising both sides, it's pretty much my show over in Grand Lake. I can't wait to start working! I get to help hire and train folks, and bend them to my will! Bwa ha ha ha! Just kidding. But it will feel good to run a saw again.

No, I don't know where I'll live. Housing is hard pressed so we'll see if I bid and win anything in park housing.

I do still start in Estes on April 14th to do prep work and get things ready for our insane season coming up. I'm hoping for tons of overtime and maybe going out on a fire or two. Looks like I'll be skiing Winter Park from now on, eh? I'll have to get a snowmobile becuase that's pretty much all anybody does in the winter - drink, snowmobile, ski, and drink. Oh, and Wednesday night Trivia at the Lariat. :)

In other news, instead of driving back to Michigan like I had planned, I booked a last minute trip to Fort Myers, Florida over Easter weekend. My dad and stepmom were down there on vacation, and I had tried to get my friends to go somewhere cheap and warm but alas, none of them could go when I could. I said screw it, talked my sister Linda into flying out, and was there for 4 days. I was "cold" to all the natives and my dad - mid 70s - but it was plenty hot for me. One day we went to Lover's Key State Park and hiked around, found gopher tortoises and birds and stuff but no alligators or manatees; the next day we drove that 2 lane bridge to Sanibel Island and Captiva. We drove through Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge and saw tons of birds. I was convinced it was too "cold" to see any alligators, but we just so happened to pull off at this little gator viewing area that everybody else except some people on bicycles was passing up; there were two little gators just lounging around. Didn't find momma, but these little 2 foot guys still looked like they'd do some damage. I really had wanted to do some kayaking, but it was very very windy and 73 degrees; it felt much cooler on the ocean too. Regardless, we drove to the cute (insanely priced houses; even the grocery store advertised $50 an HOUR parking because there is NO parking around there) Captiva and talked to a Kayak rental place. I was fine but Linda felt cold; the wind would have made it tough to kayak against it. We decided to grab lunch at some place named something Otter and see if it got any warmer after noon. I happened to stumble upon a lost cell phone and must have aquired some good karma from hunting down the owner... We ate lunch and to my delight and utter surprise, they even had Bell's Oberon beer on TAP!! Karma karma! Then it gets even better. We go back to the kayak place down the street (where we were able to park for $5 for the day!) and here comes that good ol' karma... the wind died down and the temp went up... perfect kayaking weather! And since it had been not so great earlier, we were going to be the only people out on the water in almost ANY kind of boat. We got set up in a 2 person sea kayak, complete with rudder. Linda and I always work well together so we quickly got our paddle strokes syncronized. As soon as we pushed off shore, directly to our left in the little bay was a momma manatee and two babies (of which we only saw their noses of course)... and right next to that, two dolphins playing around! I didn't get photos because I didn't want my camera to fall into the water if they knocked the boat. What a perfect day! We ended up going out for a 4 hour jaunt around Buck Key, an undeveloped island that is a part of the wildlife refuge; we stopped at the bridge between Sanibel and Captiva and layed out on the beach for a half an hour to get some sun. Then we paddled back, a nice peaceful trip around the mangroves.

It also just so happened to be spring break, and these impossibly dark, scantily clad kids that didn't even look 18 were causing a ruckus on Fort Myers Beach (we didn't stay on the beach, so we had to endure the aweful traffic on the only bridge on and off the island). Lani Kai, a hotel and rooftop restaurant and beach-front bar, was apparently THE place to be. We ate on the roof and watched this pretty ridiculous, how-slutty-can-you-be "bootie shaking" contest and just laughed at how bad these girls "danced" or whatever you'd call it. They also had a water balloon throwing contest (in bikinis of course... "Oh WOOPS it broke ALL OVER ME! TEE HEE!") and a limbo contest (bikinis once again). Then the stupid scuzzy boys around there were just loving the meat market atmosphere... one guy tried to sneak a cell phone picture of well, a certain part of my person, and he was too stupid to turn off the shutter sound and look surprised when I gave him a nasty look. What can you do but roll your eyes I guess?? It was probably 75 degrees outside and the water was 72-74 degrees; NOBODY was swimming because it was "cold". Well, living here in the Rockies and becoming accustomed to ice cold arctic lake dips must have toughened me up, or maybe the general population is just a bunch of WUSSES because 70s is WARM, but I jumped out in the ocean and made Linda go with me. Even she was shivering and could barely make herself get in the water! In the meantime I was frolicking like a dolphin in the waves. When we got out everybody looked at us like we were nuts. Kids these days (rolling my eyes). Spoiled rotten! :)

We ate out at pretty good places every night and I made a point to get local seafood. I tried raw conch sushi and snapper our first day; the shrimp was fantastic but I was shocked at how expensive a fish fillet was, considering they caught the fish RIGHT THERE. So, no fillets for us. Crab cakes, and seared tuna... At Lani Kai, their big thing was clams and oysters. I've always been mortified by anything squishy and especially mussels and would never even think of trying one, but what the heck. The waitress brought me one raw oyster. BIG oyster. She coached me through the whole process too, ha ha! She said first, try half of it on a cracker with lemon and cocktail sauce. Ok. Ate that... Weird. Like chewing a lugee. A lot softer than the conch, which was firmer than I thought it would be. Then she said, now just put lemon on the other half and swallow it. Which was fine, because you don't taste anything except lemon! Some people chew it... I don't know if I could do that. Just like a big snot ball ha ha! Ok, not really that bad... maybe I'll try it again.

It was good to see my Dad, Pam, Linda, and Missy (Pam's dog). Linda got sick and a migrane for one morning which I felt bad for her, but it all turned out ok. One night on Fort Myers Beach, Linda and I went beach combing at night. We ended up trying to "save" all these ocean creatures from this band of 7 year old kids that kept taking things and killing them! Little hoodlems. But one of the kids didn't want to kill them, and he had the shovel, so he'd throw things back in the ocean with us. :) Our best discoveries: two very large (bigger than a dinner plate), 9 legged starfish, still alive. One was growing back two legs (or are they arms? hmmm), they were pretty neat. To touch them felt like touching a dead cold finger. Not that I've ever touched one, but I can imagine! The other one was quite a shocker and pretty cool. I went to pick up a pop can that I thought was just trash on the beach. I swore I saw something crawl inside it when I grabbed it, but it was dark and I couldn't quite tell. I shook the can out and what plopped wetly into the sand?? A TINY LITTLE OCTOPUS! I mean, complete with two little eyes, a bulbous head, and lots of long gangly arms that were twisting and stretched out sooo far. This thing, in a ball, was smaller than the palmof my hand, but those ARMS just splayed out so far into the sand... CREEPY!!! We just barely saved that cute little guy from those kids because their one friend tossed it into the ocean before they could grab it. I thought it was way cool, but I'm still pretty dorky for my age. ;)  Further down the beach, I came across another can... this one had the most bizarre, squiggly trail leading away from it... straight to another tiny octopus! I didn't want to touch them (trust me, I couldn't keep my hands off anything else except these little buggers, too creepy) so this guy I just put the can in front of him in case he wanted to hide in it again. We also found a bunch of cool things one morning at Bunche Beach, which was just down the road from the La Quinta (very nice) that we stayed at. Some of our more favorite findings were a crab that wanted to fight me and my camera lens; a tiny baby horseshoe crab who's body was barely bigger than my toe nail; and a huge freaky looking blob that ended up being a sea slug! We have plenty of pictures of our sea treasures.

I came back to Colorado and was greeted with a little snow storm. So, in the same week, I went from sea kayaking and bikinis to skiing and snowballs. I met my friend Lindsay and her friends Lindsay and Mark at Breckenridge and hit the slopes, still trying to get the hang of this telemark skiing thing. I did bring the dogs, so afterwards we all went back to their condo in Frisco and they made shishkabobs and hung out in the hot tub. A few too many Jameson and Cokes later, I just crashed on their couch. Then I find out that that night (Sunday) they were getting 20 inches of snow! Alas, I just had to get myself and the dogs home. We got hit pretty good in Estes, and the snow caused like a 60 car accident or something on I-70 on Monday. Good thing I hadn't stayed out there, or I may have been one of those cars!

Been a busy last few weeks of unemployment but definitely can't wait to get back into the swing of things at work. I'm sure I won't start packing for at least 3 more weeks; I start in Grand Lake around May 20th.

Here's some photos of, you know, stuff. :)

Double Trouble

Oh boy, you guys are going to get a kick out of this if you haven't heard already.

I got a puppy.

!!!!!!

I must be out of my mind, right??

Let's start from the beginning. I finally got Logan in to see an orthopedic specialist regarding his hip dysplasia. He looks at the films and gives my dog a full work-up and says, "Your dog doesn't have hip dysplasia."

You can't imagine the relief I felt at that simple statement. I had geared myself up to spend at least $2,000 for surgery on him... And this whole time, I had been freaking out for nothing! However, with my relief came some annoyances. For example, my vet in Boulder had pointed out all these things on his x-rays and said, HE HAS HIP DYSPLASIA. The fact that he was oh so very very wrong is a bit disconcerting and I don't know if I will go back to him (despite him being great at the holistic part). So this whole time, I had been worrying for nothing. The other annoying part is that he (at the time) is still limping, regardless of his "healthy" hips. We took more x-rays to evaluate for that pannostisis (too lazy to check spelling) that he had in his front legs when he was younger. However, the radiologist could not for certain say he even had THAT. The other option was a soft-tissue injury, and to just "wait and see". This 1-hr long eval and 1 x-ray of course still cost about $300, but it was well worth the money... despite not having a definite diagnosis, we now know that it is NOT my worst fear - dysplasia!

This was perhaps a month ago. Now, my original plan before I even got Logan was to eventually get two dogs. Makes it a little easier in the long run, not having to be the sole entertainer of one dog, 24/7. I hoped that having two dogs, they would keep each other company during the day, and Logan wouldn't be such a momma's boy (because he is!). Now that I didn't have an impending expensive surgery to worry about, I started looking online for rescues. If Log Dog DID have hip dysplasia, I would've gotten another shepherd puppy from the breeder at a discount/maybe free price... but now that he's in the clear, it would probably be full price (though I really would love another shepherd). I went to Project REX in Loveland and checked out some pups I saw online. Their intentions are good there, a no-kill rescue... but they are so crammed in there with so many dogs, these puppies were covered in poop and pee and I felt so bad for them. The pups I was interested in weren't available yet, so I went back a week later (Februrary 20th). I played with three female puppies, all around 10-13 weeks old; one fluffy, amber colored shepherd mix with a black nose, that was super energetic and jumped alllllll over me; one German shorthaired pointer mix, shy but friendly; and this little reddish who-knows-what mix that was a little shy but still friendly, and not as rambunctious as the amber one. She had pointy ears, shepherdish color on her face, and green eyes. Of course, I decided I wasn't going home empty-handed... I went with the little green eyed girl. :)

From The New Puppy...

After bringing her home, she wasn't just a little green eyed girl... more like a little green eyed DEVIL! As in, Tazmanian Devil! Stick her in a crate and you'd swear it was a wild animal jumping and yelping around in there. Let her out, and you better look out! She runs around like a little red whirlwind. Logan at first had a love/hate relationship with her; he liked having a dog to play with (and they play great; puppy is real spunky and gives Logan a run for his money!) but sad that he wasn't the spoiled rotten only child anymore. Thanks to Linda, we named her Luna in honor of getting her on the date of the Lunar eclipse. Ironically, after I realized how nuts she is, Luna is now short (in my mind at least) for "Lunatic"! She's about 14 lbs and 13 weeks old, now that I've had her for almost two weeks. The rescue said she was a "Shepherd/Cattle Dog" mix... but since then, my friends and the vet and I all have different opinions. We do see shepherd... perhaps Australian shepherd?? But she has a curly tail and white "stripes" along her shoulder blades, which are typical of the Asian dogs - Akita, Chow, Jindo, etc. Some people even think husky. I have no idea how big she will get (60 lbs?? 50 lbs??) or what she will look like, but she is incredibly smart. I've already taught her to sit, lie down, and even roll over sometimes. Potty training has been a pain, she pees SO MANY TIMES but only a little bit at a time, so it's nearly impossible to always catch her! I even took her on a 3 1/2 hr drive with Logan to Grand Lake for my friend's going away party, and she slept the whole time and was fine. She sleeps through the whole night. She's really quite the sweety though she does drive me nuts. :)

The only problem I might have is that... I think I'm allergic to her. I've been pretty sick the whole time I've had her, but I can't seem to get better and I'm not sure if allergies have anything to do with it. I'm not allergic to Logan at all... So, we'll see what happens.

In the meantime, Logan finally got neutered, but not without slight complications. There was supposed to be a little swelling and fluid, but he ended up devoping a hematoma in his scrotum. Which in turn, became the size of a softball! Poor guy. But with antibiotics and anti-inflammatory, he's finally healing up nicely.

I took the dogs to the annual Dog Weight Pull Competition this weekend and watched dogs pull a weighted sled across a snow track. I think Logan would enjoy it and will hopefully be able to enter him next year! The most weight pulled was about 1,200 lbs. They had every weight class from the little 20 lb dogs, to the 135 lb dogs.

Well, I'm crossing my fingers that THIS year, I will get a hazard tree crew leader job - and now they've turned it into TWO TERM crew leader GS-6 jobs, and FOUR crew member GS-5 jobs. Then maybe I can get back to work before mid-April.

Tim is in Fruita, CO for training this week. Last week, he was shoveling snow off of rooftops in Grand Lake (west side of the park). He will be back next week, and then off to Bandelier National Monument, New Mexico for another month. Sigh. And so it begins, a summer of him being gone. It sucks, but it's his job. At least he has fun doing it. He has a good shot of getting Trails Supervisor job on the west side of the park once the current Sup. sells his house and moves. That would be an incredible opportunity for him and I really hope he gets it!

I can't even remember everything else that has happened in the past month. OH yeah, I had painted a picture of a mountain lion head for the Valentine's Day Art Show at the Rock; I was really happy with how it turned out, titled it, "Universal Look of Feline Bliss", and slapped a $160 price tag on it. Guess what?! Somebody bought it on Sunday! Woo hoo! Talk about an ego boost. What should I paint next? :)

My friend that had the going away part in Grand Lake was getting rid of some of his stuff, and Tim surprised me by buying me... a kayak for my early birthday present! It's funny because I keep teasing him to buy me one, which I have neven been serious about because they are expensive. Well, my friend gave him a really really good deal. So I'm still driving around with a 13 ft. sea kayak on top of my truck, until I decide where to put it!

And last but not least, I put in for my hunting licenses today. Turkey, elk, and deer. This year, I am determined!

Oh and another thing I forgot. Tim's sister and brother-in-law came into town a few weeks ago, so I finally got to meet somebody in Tim's family! They were a blast, and we kept them busy... we were all exhausted by the time they went home. We went snowshoeing in the Park one day; out to eat quite a few times; to the annual Rails in the Rockies model train show; skiing/snowboarding at Keystone; and can't forget the Red Wings/Avalanche game at the Pepsi center! We had reserved Club Level seats through the University of Michigan Alumni Association of Denver, and I'm telling you, once you go club level you will never go back. It was about $100 a seat, but they only play in Denver maybe 2x a year so we have decided to make it a sortof tradtion. Club level is sooo nice, you even get a waiter to your seat... with great prices on good food, and so much less crowded because you're not allowed on that level without a club ticket. Tim and I were surrounded by all Avs fans except for one woman behind us, and the rivalry was good-natured and a lot of fun... until some 60 year old dude, who wasn't even CHEERING, got ticked at Tim (which is funny because I was just as obnoxious as he was) and stood up and tried to pick a fight. This stupid old guy finally sat down but you could see him clenching his hands on his legs, his knuckles turning white. We still have no idea why he got so set off - the other Avs fans all thought that guys was out of line and totally nuts too, because we weren't saying anything inappropriate or different from what they were saying. We even took our picture with that chicky Wings fan, and some Avs fans because we all had such a great time. :)

Here's the only photo I got (from my cell phone) of my painting; forgot to take a good one before it sold!