Hurray! It's June!

I don't have any pictures this week because my camera is being stupid and keeps telling me my battery is low when I put brand new, fresh batteries in it. I guess I need to invest in a new camera this summer. I really wish it was working because we've had these crazy thunderstorms every day for the past week or so and the effect of misty clouds in the mountains, and wet green leaves made me want to take pictures of all the beauty I am surrounded with this summer. I am so lucky to be where I am.

I've been working at the ranger station for about two weeks now. It's been awfully slow. It's still a little chilly up here and the highway is closed because of snow. I can't tell you how many people I've had come into the ranger station and ask me whether or not the highway was truly closed. I bit my tongue and withheld my snarky comment, "No...the dozens of signs you passed coming up to the ranger station saying "Highway closed!" were there just to mess with you. We lied. Go right ahead and drive yourself into a snow bank!" I'm not a mean person, or at least I don't like to think I am, so I would politely tell them that it was indeed closed further ahead because we are at a higher elevation (the Bear River Ranger Station sits at 8,444 feet above see level, and the Mirror Lake Scenic Byway reaches somewhere around 10,000) and there is still snow on the highway further up. They'd then get annoyed like I purposefully put the snow there just to spite them and mutter, "I drove all the way from Salt Lake for nothin'!" Well, that's your fault for not planning ahead. Not mine. I have no control over the weather, nor do I have control over UDOT and when they plan to plow the highway.

My supervisor told me a story about a man who had called her and told her about a beaver that was building a dam in the Stillwater Fork up by Christmas Meadows. He then asked her if we just let the beavers build their dams wherever they want to.

No. the beavers must first sign a petition to receive a permit and then submit their blueprints for their plan.

Of course the beavers can build their dams wherever they want! As long as they're not flooding any buildings or campgrounds they can do whatever they want! They're beavers!

People sometimes don't think before they open their mouths.

This last week I've been busy training the new girl who will be staffing the ranger station along with me. She's 19 years old and I unfortunately don't have much in common with her. She's easily bored and fills up the empty time with lots of chatter about whatever comes into her head. I find myself saying things like, "Uh huh...yeah...alright...huh" a lot. She's a nice enough girl, though, but I miss Sharon who I worked with last summer.

Peter has been busy with all kinds of odd jobs. I call him their Random Task Man because they send him off to do random things all the time. Last week he was looking for Northern Goshawk nests. These birds look like this:

They're mean birds and they will let you know if you get anywhere near their nest because they'll either attack you or shriek at you. They're an indicator species though and so it's important to know if they're in your forest. Peter found three in one week and showed me one that was actually occupied. The female had eggs she was incubating so she was trying to go unnoticed but she had her red eyes focused on us the entire time we were there.

So Peter hasn't actually done anything "timber" related yet this year. This week he's in Huntsville, UT going to fire school this week. He left me to fend for myself in the woods. It's kind of lonely up here without him.

We've had a lot of couples move up this week. One young married couple is occupying the cabin next to ours and we've made friends with them. We've had barbecues a few times and last Sunday we got together with them and another retired couple, who are volunteering for the Forest Service, and played games. It was a lot of fun. One nice thing about this couple is that they're from Logan, too. So hopefully we'll keep in touch even after the summer is over.

That's pretty much all that's going on right now. We're still alive and doing well, and so far this summer looks like it's going to be a blast!

Back to Bear River!

This weekend's move to Bear River went really well! My little brothers came up and helped me finish packing and then drove up with me to our cabin and helped me unpack. I was really surprised how nice the cabin is! It's a little small, but still bigger than anything I've ever lived in before. It has two bedrooms, a bathroom, kitchen, living room, and basement. It is also completely furnished. All of the floors are hardwood which I think gives it a really nice touch. The style is a little outdated, I think the cabin was built in the 80s, but it's still nice. The best part of all is that Peter and I don't have to share it with anyone. It's all ours for the entire summer!

I took a few pictures of the place just to give you an idea of what I'm living in.


As you can see it's a rather humble looking place, but I love it! The exterior paint needs a little help though...that will probably be one of our projects this summer. The forest around is still looking a little dead because spring is always about a month behind up here. By the end of June all the trees will be green and there will be wildflowers all over the place.

We also found out that we have an unexpected neighbor that moved in. Here is a picture of its home.

That hole is nearly as wide as my shoulders and is the entrance to a badger's burrow. I haven't seen him yet, but hopefully it won't decide to jump out at me one of these mornings as I head to work.

After my brothers helped me unpack, and I had a chance to reunite with Peter who I hadn't seen for about five days, we drove back down to Evanston to grab a bite to eat. On our way out of the forest, a yellow-bellied marmot jumped out into the road. I screamed thinking we'd hit the poor thing, but it managed to stop itself just before the front passenger-side tire rolled over. It then tried to jump out in front the truck my brothers were driving, only to narrowly escape death once again. Apparently my youngest brother, Jacob, nearly had a heart attack and he screamed when the marmot jumped out in front of them.

After eating some hamburgers we said goodbye to my brothers and then headed back home. The next day we spent cleaning the cabin and waxing the woods floors. Holy crap that is a pain in the butt! Actually, more like a pain in the knees and back! That is some hard labor! The floors look much prettier now, though. :) We then had to chase some guys on ATVs off the property because they thought it would be cool to drive around on government land. They somehow failed to notice the no trespassing sign.


Idiots. They tore up the lawn around the ranger station too. I have to say, I hate ATVs and the people who drive them. ATVs are loud and destructive. There's no getting around it. They tear up trails and anything else they drive on, and people who drive ATVs tend to think they are entitled to drive anywhere they want. They really piss me off. I know there are responsible people out there who actually respect the rules and regulations and are conscious where they drive, but they are few and far between.

In other news, it turns out that Peter is going to fire school the first week of June. I guess it's a good thing we decided to buy him a pair of smoke jumper boots this year. Friday he has to take his pack test. He has to walk/run 3 miles in under 45 minutes while wearing a 40 pound vest. I don't think he'll have a problem completing it, but I bet he'll be really tired afterwards.

It also turns out that the timber crew this year consists of Peter and...Peter. He is the only person on the timber crew this year due to budget issues. Normally they have about 8 people on the crew. I think he's going to have his work cut out for him.

Today I drove back down to Logan to grab a few things I forgot (like the boots to my uniform). It's kind of a long drive, about four hours round trip. I also had to turn in the keys to our apartment since we're putting it on storage for the summer. So I'm snagging the Wi-Fi from a little cafe here in town.

I love being back at Bear River. It's so beautiful and peaceful. At night I can hear the rushing of the river and the frogs that sing on its banks. Occasionally I can hear the Sand Hill cranes that are migrating through. They have a very distinct call. Not like anything I've heard before.

Wednesday I start work and I'm excited to be working for the F.S. again. I'm really excited about this summer and all of its prospects and I'm happy to be in one of the prettiest places in the world. I feel like I'm home.

Moving Day!

Tomorrow is the big moving day! I'm leaving Logan behind for another summer in the Evanston district of the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest. Peter has been up there since Monday morning, and we had a bit of misfortune when he was getting ready to leave. In keeping with moving tradition, we got locked out of our apartment at 4:30 a.m. Last summer we had all kinds of issues with being locked out. When we first got to our apartment in Evanston last year, we found there was a key mix-up and we had the wrong apartment key. The apartment manager had given Peter the key to another apartment he had been looking at instead of the key to the one we were actually renting. We couldn't get a hold of them, so we ended up staying in the other apartment that night. Peter had to work the next morning so I got to spend that day getting the key situation fixed and moving into the correct apartment. Then later in the summer, the only key we had to the apartment fell off my keychain somehow and we had to get a new key made, and then when we moved out...I left the new key sitting on the bed and realized it just as I had shut the door behind us. Again our landlords were unreachable, and Peter ended up climbing from the stairs onto the airconditioning unit, and through the window we had fortunately left open. Our apartment was on the third floor so it was rather treacherous! He also had an audience to the whole debacle. Some kids in the trailer park behind our apartment building saw him breaking in and were actually cheering him on. It was really funny...later.

So, Peter ended up scaling the cinder-block trellis in the back of our apartment and up onto our balcony and unlocked the door. I felt badly about the whole thing because in a roundabout way it was my fault. Peter had given me his key to the apartment so that I can turn it in to USU housing when I leave and put our apartment on storage for the summer. I assumed he had his keys with him when I was helping him carry stuff out to the car, and indeed he did, but I had put his key on my keyring...which was sitting on a table in our apartment. We both realized this as we were shoving boxes into the back of the Jeep. This too became funny...later.

Any ways, my brothers are coming up tomorrow with a truck to help me haul all my stuff up to the woods. Thankfully I don't have to move much because the cabin Peter and I will be living in is completely furnished. We can't actually live in the cabin just yet, though. The permanent staff there has been working really hard to get the bunkhouses ready for the seasonal employees and they won't be able to get the water turned on to the cabin until Monday. I start work on Wednesday so I had to move up this weekend. Water or no. So for a few nights I will be staying in one of the bunkhouses with Peter and a couple of the other seasonals. Not exactly an ideal situation, but oh well. I'll be happy to see Peter again though. I've really missed him. I admit, it has been nice to have some alone time where I could paint my toenails and watch chickflicks without him complaining, but it's also been a little lonely around here. I miss hearing his laugh and snuggling with him at night.

So, after tomorrow I will become relatively unreachable! I will check my e-mail, Facebook, and this blog whenever I'm in town getting food. Other than that the best way to get a hold of me will be by calling the ranger station. I will miss Logan and my friends here, especially the ladies at C.C. It was actually hard to say goodbye to them, but I'll be back at the end of August for another school year! Next weekend I will try and post pictures of my cabin and the local area. So wish me luck! Hopefully I won't lock myself out of the apartment this weekend.

Randomness...

Another semester is over bringing Peter just that much closer to graduating. Just one more year until he has his bachelors! Yay! Peter had two finals and a final paper for his classes this semester. He would have had an additional final project, too, but for some reason the professor tossed it out. He was pretty happy when he heard that. It was a pretty rough week any ways due to the fact that he's had a cold (which he has now passed on to me, marriage can just be so awesome sometimes...), but he managed to do well despite being sick. His grades came back today for all of his classes and he managed to get straight A's this semester! So, yeah...he obviously picked the wrong major because he's definitely failing. Yup.

I just hope that he can survive his senior year. He's scheduled to take 20 credits in the fall. The maximum allowed without special permission is 18. He has to do it, though, if he wants to graduate on time. It's going to be rough, but I know he can handle it.

In other news...don't buy Wal-Mart bread. This has nothing to do with the fact that Wal-Mart is a soulless corporation that should not be supported (I loathe them even more because I'm poor and their crap is cheap, so I end up buying stuff from them any ways!), but because their bread does not appear to decompose naturally.

I was at Wal-Mart several weeks ago with Peter getting something...I can't even remember what it was now, but we were there late and we happened to need bread, too, so we picked up their in-store brand while we were there. Normally I opt for Crumb Brothers, Great Harvest, or Old Grist Mill bread due to the fact that they don't use additives or preservatives, but it was late, we were in need, and the bakeries were all closed. The next day I made a sandwich and the bread was so horrible I haven't touched it since! It tasted...weird. Not like bread should taste. It tasted like...chemicals. So, the Wal-Mart loaf of bread has been sitting on top of my refrigerator for the last three weeks, uneaten and forgotten.

Today I decided to clean off the top of the fridge. I found the loaf of bread tucked behind some mostly consumed box of cereal, and to my astonishment--there wasn't a speck of mold growing anywhere on it! Now, when I buy Old Grist Mill bread it starts to grow mold nearly halfway through the week if I haven't eaten it by then! The Wal-Mart bread has been sitting on top of my fridge for nearly a month and it has yet to show any signs of spoiling! That's just not right! What kind of super chemicals did they put in that thing? Formaldehyde? The thought of putting all of those preservatives into my body just really makes me nervous. It's not...natural.

So, for that reason alone, I will never buy anything from the Wal-Mart bakery ever again. Next time, if it's late and the bakeries are all closed, I'm just going to make my own bread. That way, I'll at least know what's really in it.

P.S. I fixed the picture on my last post. For some reason it had disappeared.

How I'm Spending My Summer Vacation...

It's about time I blogged about where Peter and I are going to be this summer. I think I have told most people, but there may be a few out there who don't know what the plan is for us. Unfortunately, Peter didn't get the SCEP in the Shoshone National Forest, so we're going to be working for the Evanston district of the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest. This will be Peter's third summer working there, and my second. I'm actually very happy with this outcome. The SCEP would have been better for Peter's career in the long run, but I wouldn't have had a job up there, and I probably would have gone nuts. So instead I will be working here, at the Bear River Ranger Station...


It's a pretty cushy gig. I will be working as an information receptionist, and collection officer. Fancy words meaning I answer people's basic questions regarding the area and I take their money in exchange for a recreation pass which is mandatory if you're going to be in the area. Weekdays are generally slow and I get a lot of reading done, which is just fine by me. The area is beautiful and the higher altitude means that the temperature remains cooler during even the peak of summer. Generally no higher than 80 degrees. It's a really chill job and I can't wait to go back!

We will also not be living in Evanston like we did last summer. Instead, we will be living in the government supplied housing available at Bear River. We pulled a few strings and worked out a deal so that we could stay in one of the cabins instead of a trailer. It's going to be really nice! Especially because we won't have to commute 30 miles (one way) every day, so we'll save on gas (which is good for the environment and the wallet). I also won't have to get up at 5:00 a.m. to go to work with Peter who works from 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. four days a week, but the ranger station doesn't open until 8:00 a.m. and closes at 4:00 p.m. Last summer I had a one hour block before and after work three days a week where I had nothing to do but bum around the ranger station. Since I will be living just directly back in the woods behind my "office" I can sleep in or go home instead of waiting for Peter.

The downside of this arrangement is that we will have no cell phone service or Internet access. We'll be really cut off from the world, which actually sounds kind of nice, to be honest. I will really miss raiding with my guild on World of Warcraft, but we have plans to meet up with the gang later this summer in Anaheim for the annual convention, BlizzCon. Yeah, I know...we're really nerdy. My friends and family will also be able to reach me at the ranger station. The lack of technological distractions will also provide us with more time to actually enjoy the area we will be living in. I was really bummed that I didn't take the opportunity to do more hiking/fishing/mountain biking last summer, so I'm hoping to make up for it this year. Peter and I are even going to try and hike up King's Peak which is the highest peak in all of Utah! I think it's somewhere around 13K feet above sea level. We may not be able to work out the time we need off to do it, but we're at least going to try.

We will be moving the second weekend in May. Peter has to report to work on May 11th, but I don't start work until May 22nd (tentatively because it's dependent upon the snow melting). I may actually stay in Logan for a week or two while Peter is working because I might as well stay at my job and earn some more money instead of sitting around twiddling my thumbs. It's really not fun to be seperated from my hubby but I managed to do it for a whole summer two years ago, so a week or two will be a breeze.

I'll try and blog about any fun things that happen (hopefully, there will be no incidents of me getting stuck in a Forest Service truck in the middle of nowhere, requiring me to radio for help again). I will have to go into town once a week for groceries any ways, so I will be able to check my e-mail and let people know we're still alive and that we didn't get eaten by any bears.

You are all more than welcome to pop in for a visit, too! :)

I Want to Ride My Bicycle!

"Bicycle! Bicycle! Bicycle! I want to ride my bicycle! I want to ride my bike!"

Oh Queen...you crazy, flamboyant band...but this is basically how I have felt for the last month. Most of April has been cold and snowy and I haven't been able to get out on my bike, but finally we had a break in the crappy weather this last week and I managed to get some good cycling in!

I've been biking to work every day this week...and boy am I sore! I haven't been on a bike for many months and I can really feel it. Not to mention that bicycle seats aren't very friendly things to be sitting on, so I've been walking rather funny for the last few days.

Getting to work in the morning is easy because it's all downhill from where I live, but biking back at the end of the day is another story. There are some pretty killer hills, or at least they're tough for me. Oh, but how I love to be on a bike! To enjoy the fresh air and warm sunshine as well as get in some good exercise (it's especially great for us ladies because it targets some of the areas we tend to have issues with, like our butt and thighs). There are also several pastures on my route home where there are sheep and right now there are lots of little lambs so I can stop and watch them for a little while which makes me happy. It's not really safe to observe them from a moving vehicle. Peter jokes that one of these days I'm going to be so busy looking at the fluffy little babies that I'll just drive off the road and roll the Jeep into the ditch. That would be a fun one to explain to my insurance company.

I've also been going nuts about bike accessories. I spent a lot time online today just looking at cute outfits and reading up on technique. Peter and I really need to invest in a bike rack so that we can transport both of our bikes, too. Right now we can only squish one in the back of the car and it's not very convenient. There are some awesome bike racks by Yakima that are attached to your hitch receiver and hold up to 4 bikes. They're around $300 but I think it would be a worthwhile investment somewhere down the road.

So much cool stuff...so little money.

Any ways, I love spring and summer, and I especially love spending time outdoors after being cooped up inside all winter long! My father-in-law gave me a bike last year which I can't even begin to express how awesome that was! Now Peter and I can ride together, and I won't have to keep adjusting the seat on his.

I hope this summer is filled with many biking adventures...but hopefully not like the one I had two years ago when I went up a curb at a weird angle and I ended up eating it on the pavement right at a red light where everyone could stop and watch me hobble off sheepishly. That was embarrassing...and painful.

Wicked!

Today started out as a normal Saturday. I woke up around 11:00 a.m. and puttered around the apartment for a little while to try and work up the motivation to do some cleaning, but it quickly turned into an unforgettable day! Shortly after noon I received a phone call from Peter who was over at the university working on a service project with the forestry club. His first question to me was, "Are you dressed?" My response was, "Uh...kind of..." because I was just wearing my pajamas and bathrobe. My fear was that Peter had decided to have everyone in the forestry club stop by the apartment for lunch or something. Then he followed up his question by saying, "Well, would you like to go see Wicked?" I think my response was, "What?"

The official Broadway touring company of Wicked is currently in Salt Lake City at the Capital Theater and it has been the hot ticket this year. I have always wanted to see it, and going to New York was out of the picture, so I was excited when I heard about a year ago that it was coming to SLC. Well, unfortunately we couldn't afford tickets when they went on sale back in January, so you can imagine my confusion when Peter asked me if I wanted to see the musical. Apparently his aunt had an extra ticket and she had called him wondering whether he or I would like to go. Peter knew how much I really wanted to see it, so he gave me a call. He was so cute about it. I think he was just as excited for me as I was about going, and I could hardly believe it! I was going to see Wicked!

There was only one problem...I hadn't even showered yet. I also live in Logan and the play was in Salt Lake...and it started in two hours. So Peter drove home so that I could have the car and in the meantime I did whatever I could to make myself look remotely presentable. So in just a few minutes I was on the road and headed to Salt Lake to see Wicked. I have never driven so fast in my life. I normally don't like to speed because it's reckless and I can't afford to get any tickets. Besides, I have a perfect driving record and I'm not about to spoil that! Well, luck was on my side because I didn't encounter any cops on the road (and I'll admit, I thought about calling my brother-in-law who happens to be a cop about giving me a police escort) and I made it from Logan to Salt Lake in an hour and 30 minutes and I got there with ten minutes to spare! I rule! Turns out my mother and father-in-law were also there and had no clue I was going as well, so they were both shocked when they saw me. Unfortunately, my seat wasn't by any of my relatives which kind of sucked. Especially because the woman who was sitting next to me was texting throughout most of the production, and her bright, glowy cell phone screen was really distracting! I mean, come on! Can you not put your cell phone down for two hours? How inconsiderate can you be? Geez!

Well, despite the rude woman's efforts, I still had a great time! The production was fantastic! It was different from the book in many ways, but that was to be expected. The singing was incredible as well as the costumes and backdrop. My only complaint is that after the play I had to turn around and go home instead of hanging out with my family. I haven't been home on a weekend for several weeks and things have been getting out of control around the homefront and my parents are coming up on Sunday to celebrate my husband's birthday. So, I needed to get home. It was totally worth the trip, though! Now I just need to come up with an awesome way to thank Peter's aunt for the free ticket. It really made my day!