And so it begins...

(Don't forget - click here for some photos to illustrate this post!)

Well, I've already been up here for nearly two weeks, and so much has happened!

The drive here alone was crazy - my dad came with me, and it took us nearly 2 days of driving (in the pouring rain, might I add!) We spent the rest of the weekend together, checking out my apartment, the (very small) downtown area, and we drove around the refuge for a little to see where I would be working. Our time together was way too short, and I was soon on my own.

I started working the very next day, Monday, June 8th. The term "work" is applied fairly loosely in this instance; I spent my entire 8 hour day doing training exercises on a computer! Half the day was learning computer/internet security, and the other half was devoted to driving an ATV - the "road" portion will be coming up next week, I hear. Just my luck, I was in such a rush that morning so I wouldn't be late on my first day, that I forgot to pack a lunch! My new co-workers were very nice, though, and pitched in so I wouldn't starve.

Tuesday went in a similar fashion, but that day I learned all about defensive driving, woohoo. Just my luck, I accidentally locked my keys in the car! I called AAA to get help, and the nearest person was three hours away! Fortunately the maintenance guy was able to bust into my car and help me get them back.

Wednesday started off the same, learning, learning, and more learning. But later in the morning, another new guy and I got to go into "town" and buy steel-toed boots, oh my! They're still awkward to walk in...! Once we got back, the refuge manager took the rest of the afternoon to drive us around the refuge, show us what we're working for and such. We saw so many amazing creatures, like cormorants, a river otter, huge flocks of pelicans, deer, pheasants, and more. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me, so no pictures of these critters.

Thursday was the first real day of actual work, and work it was! I worked with three guys to help gather up a riverbank full of logs, which had been deposited there from the flood they had this spring. It was pretty exhausting, I'm not gonna lie, but it was pretty fun, too!

Friday passed much the same, we finished up cleaning the flood debris. The maintenance guy used a giant excavator (construction machine with a scoop, that had a "thumb" to pinch things) to pick up our log piles, and flung them in a dump truck. That machine picked up mountains of wood like they were toothpicks!

This weekend, I mostly hung around my apartment, as I didn't have much elsewhere to go. I drove around for two hours trying to find a store to buy jeans, but there was nothing but farms! I am definitely in the boonies, but it's so gorgeous so I can't complain.

This past monday, I finally got cable for my apartment, which was a huge relief - the only wifi source was the library, which wasn't open much beyond my own working hours. I got to come in late (after the hookup), which was pretty cool. I spent most of the day listening to a CD of bird calls, to prepare me for a bird survey I was going to help with. It got pretty repetitive after a while, so needless to say I was pretty excited when the biologist I was working with (we share an office!) agreed that it was time to get outside. We drove around the refuge as he inspected a few sites, and it was cool hearing all the different things that were going on at the refuge. At one point we went to the area where I was cleaning up logs, and we stopped at a bridge/dam to check out the carp. These fishes, if you've never seen one, are pretty huge, about the size of my arm! The poor lady fishes were trying to get upstream (aka jump the dam) so they could lay their eggs, but many of them couldn't make it up and kept flopping back into the lower part of the system! I helped the biologist remove these huge steel beams, which resulted in a shorter waterfall and some happy fish.

Yesterday, not very much happened - it was rainy out, so we were stuck inside doing busywork.

Today, I had to get up at 4am to do the bird survey! The biologist, a professional birder, and myself met up at 5, and we drove around for five hours counting and observing the birds. It was a pain to have to get up that early, but seeing all the birds was amazing. There were so many cool ones to check out, like egrets, owls, even a bald eagle! Mostly they were either waterfowl, like ducks and geese, or tiny little sparrows. So cute! Starting so early, I obviously got to leave early, too. Time to veg out!

See you all next time!