Monday didn't amount to much - did junk around the office in the morning, and then veg monitoring again in the afternoon. Poor biologist tripped in some animal burrow at the very first plot we went to, so he was in poor shape the entire time. I felt bad for him, but we managed to amuse ourselves enough so he wasn't in too much pain. I hope?

Today was much more interesting! Yesterday, the fire guy asked me if I had accomplished everything I had aimed to do this summer, to which I half-jokingly replied that I wanted to ride the Marsh Master, which is basically a tank-like machine designed to go in...well...marshes. Cattails and the like, shallow water. To my surprise, today he set it up so that he could take us (me, another intern, and the YCC gang) all out for a spin while he did "recon" - gathering info about future burn sites. So that is how I started off my morning...and it was a blast, to say the least. The cattails we were going through were a good 10-15 feet high, which easily was taller than the machine, so finally we decided to stand on the little platforms that extend out over the...tread thingies (I don't know the proper name, sorry gang!) to get a better view. We had to cling on for dear life to avoid falling, but it was worth it! Since the platforms were only about a foot wide, when I looked down, I could see the water right beneath me, it felt like a glass-bottom boat!

We had to cut the ride short, though, since apparently the biologist told him (the fire guy) that I needed to be back ASAP! So I get back to the office, where we (biologist and I) ate an early lunch - over which he told me stories of his brand new puppy dog, that he got this weekend - and then we took out the trusty ATV. We had a pretty good time! The vegetation was pretty tall, the area had marshy spots, and it was hard to see too far ahead of us, so we had many instances of '[thunk]...that was a rock' or suddenly finding ourselves driving into water...the reverse gear was heavily used this afternoon, to say the least.

Probably the highlight of my day, though, happened midafternoon. We were writing down some information, when suddenly I hear mooing. I point it out to the biologist, who informs me that i am going crazy, because there aren't any cows in that area of the refuge. I insist that I'm not crazy (not in this case, at least!), and there are definitely cows. We turn around, and lo and behold, there are 11 cows that had broken loose, wandering probably about 25 m from the ATV! Not only was I vindicated, but...come on. COWS ON THE RUN! I actually did see them run, when the owner came by later with his SUV and was herding them by blaring the horn.

That's about it for this time!