K, Soooo

Queso? Mmm... cheese. Not the baby kind.

Anyways! As per request of some person or other, I've put some photos online - not on Flickr, but on my Picasa Web Album. This fall's adventures are found in, you guessed it, the "Fall 2009" folder. Address showing here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/floundergirl/Fall2009

Hope you enjoy!

A Brush-Cutter No More!

As the title says, I'm done! My last day was Thursday and gosh was I happy about that. The last three days that I was out in the field, we were experiencing a little bit of snow, but Thursday was the absolute worst. It snowed for a couple hours starting late morning, then turned to rain. We were drenched, the wind was blowing, the brush was infuriating. Even I could barely keep my cool (figurative cool... I was very cool temperature-wise).

All in all it was a good gig. I'm glad I went back for this second shift to make a few more bucks. I also made some friends along the way and got to know people that I feel like I should have known before. I'm going to miss the social parts of it - like being chipper at 6 am before everyone has had their coffee :D

So now I'm hanging out in Kokhanok for a few days to a week. Rob and Beth got two horses recently and I'm having a lot of fun going with Beth to take care of them and helping her get things better set up for them. I've also been helping the brothers a little bit. Yesterday we ran up the bay to get a lumber mill. That was quite the feat of strength between us and Colter. We managed somehow, but part of me wishes that they had brought another man along instead of putting such a vote of confidence in the strength of their sister, as flattering as it may be.

And soon I have to think of the things I better do when I get back down to Naknek. I don't get to be there long until I'm off on my U.S. travels. Everything should be fine though. Like I always say - I can sleep when I'm dead.

Week down...

One to go! Not that... I'm that excited to leave.... :D Okay, I am. I'm looking forward to being done for good, as nice as making money is. I've just got too many other good things to look forward to!

Yesterday was FANTASTIC. We were working on fixing the O line for the second day. It started blowing a little bit. And then it started blowing A LOT. And then it was raining too. Better yet, we had to turn back the other way and walk into the wind. My face hurt. But it was great. No bugs, it stayed nice and cool, had my rain pants to protect from devil's club.... mmm... yeah... that's all I've got for being positive.

Today was better, there was a little breeze, no rain, and even a little bit of sun. We finished O line today and didn't have to climb the mountain (yay!) because Jesse came down and marked the line from his side. We were hoping that we would get done late enough that we wouldn't have to move to the next line, but unfortunately, as hard as we try to be slow, we're pretty much great at cutting lines. So now we're on line Q, the last line that we have to fix, then we can go on to making our own lines!

Hum hum hum.... I've promised myself that I'd go to bed early tonight, because I've been staying up too late hanging out with Kyle and Isaiah lately. It's both convenient and inconvenient that they're living right next door. Good night all!

F'n Mtn :(

Not my exact sentiment, but it was something that AES wrote on one of the lathes we picked up today. We thought it was pretty funny.

So, yes, it seems as though second day on the job is designated mountain climbing day. We were up in the fog all day today and went over a lot of rocks. It was a lot more fun than climbing Sharp (I think), but that might just be because I like to pretend I climb like a mountain goat. I didn't feel the burn as much on this little mountain, but I definitely had the shakes long before we were done.

It's okay being back, I guess. The first day back, I thought I had realized that I didn't want to do this, but it's going okay now that I'm back into it. We're redoing a line that another crew (AES) cut because they didn't have a very accurate GPS, so it's quite crooked. Davy worked one day with us (yesterday), but I guess he quit, so we were one person short today. I'm a bit disappointed in him, but I guess I don't know the full story, so I can't judge. BUT, because of being short a person, I finally wielded a chainsaw today (only when Tom went to fix the base). Now I'm a REAL line cutter.

We were weathered in at the Weathered Inn until about 10:30 today. We tried going out at 7:30 as usual, but it was too foggy up in the hills to set up our base station. We saw a lot of ptarmigan while we were up on the mountain today, so that was fun... except it made me hungry.

I think that cousin Kyle is to be our bear guard soon, so it'll be fun to have him around. The other good thing is that, even though he just went on break yesterday, Nils is back to fill our empty spot, so I'll get to spend time with both of my cousins :)

Hrm. I can't think of a lot else to say right now. Oh, I have a room mate this time, Honalee, she's a bit older, but she's laid back and I'm having an okay time talking with her.

Oh, and I love cheese. That's all.

Adventure Cancelled

Well, one of my adventures has fallen through, so it looks like I'll be going back to Iliamna for another stint of brush-cutting starting the 11th. It'll be a good opportunity to make a bit more money for my travels and to see my new friends one last time. Everyone needs a little closure ;) The weather has definitely turned into what we around here call fall weather - a lot of rain. So it looks as though we may be spending a few days fogged in when I get back up to the Project. We'll see, either way, I get paid.

This weekend I'll be heading up to Lake Clark with the family for a cousin's wedding. That should be a lot of fun, then I'll spend the rest of my time until my shift starts in Kokhanok, exploring the countryside (maybe) with my dog.

Looks as though after this my life really gets busy. I'll be traveling to Connecticut, Seattle, Honolulu, Portland and Victoria, BC (for a concert :D). I can't promise a lot after mid October, but I'll try to keep you updated a bit on my adventures. Should be a lot of fun, but it'll be really nice to finally get back home!

The rain has definitely put a damper on activities around here and probably my biggest point of productivity the last few days was making a couple discs of pictures to send out to people. And I sure wish the fuel-mobile would show up and fill our tank! Chilly weather plus no heat doesn't always equal happy. In fact... I'd say it rarely does. You know me though, always upbeat ;)