In the depth of winter I finally learned there was in me an invincible summer.

-Albert Camus

Adventures in Steamboat

We had another heavy snowfall last week, so Craig and I took advantage by heading up to Steamboat Springs (thanks to our new fancy snowtires we had no troubles, even over roads completely covered in ice) to go snowshoeing. Well, it was snowshoeing for me. For Craig it was the ancient pitting of man versus animal, the primordial stalk, ie. elk hunting. Sadly for our tummies it's Craig 0, Elk 1. None of Darrell's green chile elk stew for us this Thanksgiving... but don't despair gentle readers, we will feast on antelope and grouse instead!

Craig on the trail

Aspen

Lunch break in the shelter of a spruce

Our first clear elk track

Elk bed- "He went that-a-way!"


Craig's sweet post-hat hairstyle

16° Fahrenheit!

What a fun surprise to wake up to this morning! Several of the ski resorts have already opened and Craig is getting ready to put on our first set of snow tires....it's hard to imagine how the time went by so fast. If this continues it sounds like I'll be wrapping things up in Wyoming - the survey work that needs to be done requires that the vegetation not be covered by snow, so I might be heading into my winter hibernation! Made an appointment for Sunday to meet a trainer at a local barn. I'm excited to use some of my hard-earned funds to start taking horseback-riding lessons again (after ~ 15 years!). Bought my helmet and breeches yesterday, now am on the lookout for deals on boots over the internet.

Orionids

Just a reminder that Orionid meteor shower will be peaking early in the morning on October 21. Look to the constellation Orion, the meteors should appear to be coming from there (hence the name!). If you are viewing them the night before, look to the east after midnight.
Also around October 13, Venus and Saturn should be visible in the early morning sky very close together.

Recent travels....

Craig and I just took a week's vacation to canoe in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area in northern Minnesota. It's a land of berries, loons, and leeches. Thankfully the leeches were mostly found on the ends of our hooks, a tasty temptation for small-mouth bass and northern pike. The blueberries and raspberries were insane! We feasted on berries and fish (and the occasional mac & cheese burrito - coming soon to a store near you).

Gwen and Ross

Craig

Craig with his first small-mouth bass

I think we were all baptized by a leech between the toes during the week, only Ross was lucky enough to have a mom with babies attach!


Paddling through the lilypads

We also spent some time recently working nights, spotlighting and catching sage grouse to attach radio-transmitters, which happily coincided with the Perseids meteor shower.

Prior to that we spent some time mapping prairie dog habitat in the Pinedale area, which put us close to the Tetons, where we got to meet up with friends and go hiking in the ominous-sounding, but very beautiful Death Canyon.

Pinedale

Lost prairie dog

Yellow-bellied marmot

Death Canyon

Death Canyon

Fun things I've seen lately...

I love spring! It's so easy to be uplifted in the spirit of life! The birds are singing, newly fledged meadowlarks are all over the roads and baby pronghorns are hiding in the grass. Craig actually touched a deer fawn that he came across in a meadow. Here are some photos of north-eastern Wyoming where I've been working...

Coal seam running through cliffs

Elk Antler

Mourning Dove Nest

Unidentified flowers (anybody recognize them?!?)

Snow....in JUNE!!?!?!

Does anyone else find it ridiculous that I'm sitting in my hotel room, unable to work because its snowing on June 7th!?! And I'm not on a mountain top or anything, Buffalo Wyoming is only at ~4,600 feet.
On a happier note, yesterday I found my first lark bunting nest - it had 6 beautiful blue-green eggs (an unusual number, I think the average is 4-5), and I flushed a Great Horned Owl which had been sitting in the shade of a sagebrush, with a pellet nearby which included the tiny vertebrae of a rodent.

Appalachia Restoration Act

Exciting news! There is a new bill going through Congress right now that would prohibit coal companies from dumping waste into streams in Appalachia mountaintop removal mining. Please follow this link to the NRDC to read about the act and to send a message to your representatives asking them to support this bill. This would be a great stride toward protecting our water and the communities in the vicinity of these mining operations.
Consider it a belated Earthday action!

Beautiful memorial of the Battle of Little Bighorn

Frosty morning

3 degrees!

More time spent in Baker, Montana! Craig and I are continuing to conduct sage-grouse and sharp-tailed grouse lek surveys. I love seeing these birds on the lek. I'm attaching a video of the sharpies, to give you an idea of what fun it is to see them in action!
We were briefly in Sheridan, Wyoming last week to trap grouse and on the way there drove past the site of the Battle of Little Bighorn (aka Custer's Last Stand). Its been made into a park and is also a national cemetery. There's a neat museum with lots of things found on the battlefield. I learned each cavalry company had a specific horse color, I suppose for organization.
We hope to finish up around the beginning of May, then we'll take a couple days off at home in Fort Collins. After our lek surveys we have a lot of time to kill, and we've spent some of it watching interesting videos on the TED website. Thought you guys might want to check it out.

Baker, Montana

I'm back in the field and grateful to be here! Although it was nice having time off and a chance to work from home for a few months, it's wonderful to be out in the wider world again. Craig and I are working together for the next few weeks which is especially nice.
We headed up to Laramie, just in time to encounter snow and bad weather and had to spend the night there before taking advantage of a few days break in the weather to head up north, first to Sheridan and then on to Baker.
Baker is a very small town in southeastern Montana, and hasn't yet escaped the grasp of

winter. We got about 8 inches of snow yesterday and so can't go out today. I did get to see a few sage grouse on the lek before we got snowed in though, so I've attached a video (its using my little camera, through the spotting scope, so the quality isn't the best, but you get the idea!). It is so incredible to see these birds on the lek! The noises they produce are so cool and the males are so striking.

What else can I say about Baker? Prom was this weekend and our supervisor went out the next morning at 5am and found a couple who'd gotten stuck in a snow drift on the dirt roads and had to sleep out there. He said their truck was surrounded by empty 40's and .22 shells!
That might give you an idea of the options for fun in Baker...

Thoughtful Talk About Healthcare

So as I've confessed before, I am an NPR junkie, and tonight's Fresh Air just reinforced all the reasons why. Where else have I heard healthcare talked about in depth without histrionics and catch-phrases? Nowhere. Thank you NPR. If you missed the show or aren't a listener, but would like to check it out go to:

http://www.npr.org/templates/rundowns/rundown.php?prgId=13

and click on the link titled "Listen to Wednesday's show"

This link may move next week, but by searching www.npr.org for Fresh Air (and perhaps the date it aired - March 11 2009) I'm sure you can find it.

Sprout update

They have real leaves now!

Baby Instruction Guide

Thanks Chrissy!

"Clean" Coal

This new tv ad really gets to the point (not to mention it's hilarious):



When the coal industry talks about clean coal, they are talking about the use of a technology that doesn't yet exist and by some estimates will not be developed for decades (Businessweek, Peak Oil Challenges and Responses, 22nd Annual Public Programs, Fort Collins government, Kyle Saunders CSU prof) to sequester the CO2 that's emitted through the burning of coal. Methods of coal mining aren't even addressed by this technology. Take a look at some photos of mountain-top removal practices that are happening DAILY in the United States, some of these are on the scale of 10 square miles :








The argument is often made that the coal industry provides much-needed jobs to economically-depressed areas. But I would argue that the industry provides only temporary employment at the cost of irreplaceable natural resources (eg. Reuters).

If you want your voice to be heard on this issue, or any issue you hold dear here is a link to find your state and federal representatives. Remeber, lobbyists are paid to put pressure on elected officials to further special interests groups - often industries with millions of dollars to spend to ensure legislation will be written in a way that benefits them. Industry does not have your best interest in mind, we must speak out on things that are unethical and impoverish us in the long-term (our health, our natural resources, our communities).

http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml

Snowshoeing and Trip to Illinois

Mountain Alder



Snowshoe Hare Tracks

Snowshoeing was so fun and I am happy to report that my feet have never been toastier! Here are my boots in action:







After the snowshoeing, Craig got an assignment from work to drive to Illinois to pick up charges for rocket-netting sage-grouse. They estimated he could do it in 3 days, of driving ~ 12 hours a day. Since I didn't have much going on, I joined him. Figured I could help keep him awake, and I'm glad I went b/c we ended up driving ~ 16 hours every day. It was exhausting and I didn't do any of the driving since it was a work truck. Saw some interesting stuff along the way though - the most snow geese I've ever seen in my life, in mixed flocks with sandhill cranes. The numbers were incredible! It was nice too, to see some hardwood forests, reminded me of home...



Crazy long-horned bull where we picked up the charges

Once we got back to Laramie, Craig's employers asked me for an interview (I'd sent in my resume a month or so ago). I was nervous b/c this was the first in-person interview I'd done in 5 years! I always do phone interviews since the jobs are usually so far away from one another. Despite not getting to wear pj's and having cheat sheets, the interview went well and now I'm working for HW too! Hopefully Craig and I will get to see each other more frequently this way, maybe even get to work on projects together. My first project will be sage-grouse lek surveys, and I'm really excited to see the lek displays of the males!

Lovely quote

Here's a quote I just wanted to share:

The last word in ignorance is the man who says of an animal or plant: "What
good is it?" If the land mechanism as a whole is good, then every part is
good, whether we understand it or not. If the biota, in the course of aeons,
has built something we like but do not understand, then who but a fool would
discard seemingly useless parts? To keep every cog and wheel is the first
precaution of intelligent tinkering.

  - Aldo Leopold, Sand County Almanac
and Sketches from Here and There, 1946

Snowshoeing tomorrow in the Red Feather Lakes region- will try to take some photos and share them with you all! Will get to try out my snow boot for the first time, so I hope it's good and cold...

Lately...

Just scored a great winter clearance deal on my first pair of snow boots! They are rated to -25 degrees (a little late, but if I end up in Wyoming this spring I will be glad I got them).

But the biggest news is that Craig's website is up! Check it out:

www.craigokraska.com

And please go to Care2 for the click-a-day donation program that partners with The Nature Conservancy to save 1 of 3 habitat types: rainforest, American prairie, or marine wetlands.
Thanks!

Craig's New Blog

I forgot the biggest news! Craig has created a new blog (Deanne, we are still working on the self-portrait!). It's really nice and he did all the html code himself, which I think is pretty cool.
Check it out:

CircaPresent

Also coming soon will be his new, wedding-photography dedicated website. Hopefully it'll be complete in the next week.

Still thinking about spring...

Well, despite another dusting of snow, it seems like the days are getting longer and I have been thinking about building a cold frame so I can go ahead and plant lettuce and spinach next month, instead of waiting til mid-April. I haven't made one before but it looks pretty easy, here's what the finished frame would look like (hopefully!):

It probably won't look as pretty as this one! Instead of window panes, I might use plastic, or find some old panes from a salvage place/flea market. I've found some links about building plans on Mother Earth News. It's my favorite website! So many interesting and practical tips.
Next I am looking forward to choosing what tomato varieties we are going to have this year, any recommendations? I'm going to be using some giant pots I salvaged from our neighbors shed- they are about the size of 10-gallon buckets, maybe a little larger.
Another score from the shed was a bike! Its not in great shape, but I'm hoping to take it to the local bikeshop and see what it would take to get it going.
It's a boy's bike, but does that really matter? Haven't really ridden a bike in years, other than a couple times just cruising around, not dealing with traffic.

Return of Winter

Happy Valentine's Day!
We woke up to a snowy wonderland....

Went for a walk so Craig could take some photos using his new flash and I took a few too. Later we took part in the Audubon Society's Great Backyard Bird Count. This year it goes from Feb 13-16, so if you want to participate, its not too late! Instead of staying at home we went to a city park, but even in the park it was pretty quiet thanks to the newly fallen snow and blustery temperatures.

My Valentine!

Mourning dove tracks on our front porch

Take action!

Since the House and Senate are now going to debate the final economic recovery plan this is a perfect time to take action and urge your representatives to support clean energy with some of that money - it'll create new jobs and help ween us off of oil! Please follow this link:

http://www.nrdconline.org/campaign/nrdcaction_021009?rk=D7_e6IdqnfwTE

Every voice counts!

and check out this new take on wind energy:

http://www.geekologie.com/2007/11/new_kites_used_to_harvest_wind.php

Kale on the Rise

Fast progress on my little sprouts!

Seed planting time!

Well, despite the 3 inches of snow last week, the instructions on the back of my basil and kale seed packets don't lie - it's time to start seeds indoors to get ready for spring! I am so excited because I only started mine a couple days ago and already I've got brave green little leaves poking through the dirt! I can feel the warm breeze through the trees already.....