(no subject)
Life lesson number 31.
When camping alone on a stormy night, 5+ miles from your car and civilization, do not bring along a book involving rape and murder for pleasure reading.
Other than that, deciding on a whim to hike a few miles into the backcountry last night to try out my tent in the rain was fairly successful.
This week was a week of “Holy shit, I can DO this?”
1)Jule camping/hiking. “The bunnies kept running into the side of the tent!” Having Amanda and Jule come to visit me was the highlight of the month so far. Never have I enjoyed camping with a first-timer more, even if she did offend Mr. Sam.
2)Bison tracking. Even Katie said she had never seen her bison gather in a herd larger than the one we stumbled across- 1097 bison. Plus lots of bison babies. Which are extraordinarily fun to watch. They like to run into the adult bulls and then run away, daring them to chase them. When the bulls sigh with exasperation and go back to grazing, the calves just do it again.
3)Talking to real-live cowboys while eating bison burgers and drinking wheat ale. Enough said.
4)Porcupines. And dodging porcupines when they scuttle across the road at midnight.
5)Goose banding. Um…. Geese can be herded? I feel like I’m in that Superbowl cat herding commercial from a few years ago. We scout out the goose location, have 30 people spread out on all sides of the lake and then the fearless few with knee high rubber boots.. namely me… are to wade to the island in the middle of the lake where the geese are and move them into the water, where people on kayaks corral them into a cage we’ve set up on the opposite shore. To then pick up a goose, you must lunge at it, and then tuck its head under it’s wing to quiet it, and then we sex and band their legs.
6)Making sun-brewed iced tea with mint from my backyard and fresh guacamole? I’m turning into a country chef. Someone save me.
Next week? CPR training, get to take the park horses out on backpacking trip, drive to Fort Collins to deliver our plant samples, and then god knows.
Please tell me that life has been bizarre for everyone else.
When camping alone on a stormy night, 5+ miles from your car and civilization, do not bring along a book involving rape and murder for pleasure reading.
Other than that, deciding on a whim to hike a few miles into the backcountry last night to try out my tent in the rain was fairly successful.
This week was a week of “Holy shit, I can DO this?”
1)Jule camping/hiking. “The bunnies kept running into the side of the tent!” Having Amanda and Jule come to visit me was the highlight of the month so far. Never have I enjoyed camping with a first-timer more, even if she did offend Mr. Sam.
2)Bison tracking. Even Katie said she had never seen her bison gather in a herd larger than the one we stumbled across- 1097 bison. Plus lots of bison babies. Which are extraordinarily fun to watch. They like to run into the adult bulls and then run away, daring them to chase them. When the bulls sigh with exasperation and go back to grazing, the calves just do it again.
3)Talking to real-live cowboys while eating bison burgers and drinking wheat ale. Enough said.
4)Porcupines. And dodging porcupines when they scuttle across the road at midnight.
5)Goose banding. Um…. Geese can be herded? I feel like I’m in that Superbowl cat herding commercial from a few years ago. We scout out the goose location, have 30 people spread out on all sides of the lake and then the fearless few with knee high rubber boots.. namely me… are to wade to the island in the middle of the lake where the geese are and move them into the water, where people on kayaks corral them into a cage we’ve set up on the opposite shore. To then pick up a goose, you must lunge at it, and then tuck its head under it’s wing to quiet it, and then we sex and band their legs.
6)Making sun-brewed iced tea with mint from my backyard and fresh guacamole? I’m turning into a country chef. Someone save me.
Next week? CPR training, get to take the park horses out on backpacking trip, drive to Fort Collins to deliver our plant samples, and then god knows.
Please tell me that life has been bizarre for everyone else.