Cross-stitching Projects

I haven't done much cross-stitching lately but I'd been thinking about it a lot. Finally I sat down and finished one project and started another:

I finished this one for Dave's mom, who loves red wine as much as I do!

This is for Dave's younger sister who is expecting a baby boy in July. It's a little off-center but I think I can use the extra space for the baby's name and a little design. The Raccoon's not quite finished but all it needs is the outlining.

I've got another bib planned for his aunt who is also expecting in October and a bookmark for my friend Wendy who likes to read.

New Hair!

My new hair cut and color! I haven't done anything with it since November...so I thought maybe it was time to get something done. I cut off about two inches and had it colored--the color book at the salon said it was only a shade darker than my natural color...but I think it ended up a little darker than I had planned.

I really like it though!

Iris and Random Pictures

These were taken last night during the solar eclipse. Dave was experimenting with his camera:

Interesting lighting...This was around the middle of the eclipse.

The one and only flower in the yard (besides the mustards and heron's bill)

Kind of a cool shot...black and white except for the grass around the campsite. I guess I was looking for bugs in my drink.

Haven't Been Posting...

I haven't been able to post a lot lately because while Dave's gone he takes the internet with him! And I don't want to pay for my own...

Dave was going to be working for the BLM in Vernal so I thought I wouldn't see him at all this summer. Instead, he got a job with the Nevada Department of Wildlife in Ely, which is only about 5 hours away. He works 4 10-hour days, so he's around for 3 days a week. His mom keeps checking on me, which is really sweet.

My boss retired at Fort Churchill, so we've been anxiously waiting for the "new guy" to come in. His name is Scott and he's the supervisor at the Old Las Vegas Mormon Fort. Since he's in the Southern Region, I haven't heard much about him. My co-worker met him and was happy, so I guess that's a good sign. I think it's cool he came from an interpretive park.

Mike hasn't been around much the past couple months so I did seasonal interviews and hiring paperwork, deposits and month-end reports. It's all been good for me....even if it's been a little stressful at times because I'm still pretty new to the park.

I did my first guided hikes and full moon hike of the season...and both brought in over 50 people so I think people really like seeing these programs at the park. We'll see if it continues! So far though, there's been a lot of interest and support.

Anyway that's all the excitement so far. Soon (today?) I'll get around to posting some pictures but I wanted to at least write a little about what's been going on!

Learning New Things...

I did it! I learned to French braid my hair!

I've wanted to learn to French braid for years...but it was always something I thought I'd never be able to do. With this new job I've been learning all kinds of new things...including welding, riding a quad, using a chainsaw and even running a backhoe (I should mention most of these were just an introdution...except the quad, which I'm getting better at).

Yes, it's me using the backhoe! A volunteer and I were knocking down stacks of adobe bricks that no one ever did anything with. The were once wrapped in plastic...but in this sun and wind, the plastic disintigrated and the bricks were left exposed...so they're pretty much on their way back to the sand and clay they started as.

I decided one morning that if I could learn all these new things, why shouldn't I be able to French braid? I understood the idea, but could never get it to work. That morning I was determined to make it work! I washed my hair and then braided it into two French braids! I didn't get a picture of the double braid but here is the single, which I also got to work.

It usually ends up being really loose and comes out before the end of the day, but I figure it's a start!

It's the part at the end I have the most trouble with...but it still works for hiking and working!

I was a little too excited about this!

Solar Flares, or Crazy Guy?

Yesterday I was at work in my office at Buckland Station. Sometimes Buckland brings in some "interesting" people because a lot of locals think it's haunted. (I'm in there alone all the time and haven't been bothered yet...) A couple from Yerington came in and the wife said her husband had a gift that he could see orbs and spirits, and he could also witch for water.

Later, Dave told me everyone could witch for water--you take two metal rods and when they cross there is water under you. I thought that was something my "Grammy" taught my sister and I to do to get us outside and get us out of her hair. He said he did it at work when he worked for AT&T, looking for water pipes and buried electrical wires.

Anyway the husband didn't find anything inside, but said there were spirits all over outside and he could see them a lot when he drove by at night. He also got out his St. Christopher medallion necklace and hung it from his hand. It started swinging around, pulling towards me, then pulling towards his wife. That was the coolest thing I saw all day.

He also asked me if he had a broom. I went and got one and he explained that it would stand up straight because of the solar flares that have been hitting the earth in the last day or so. It was a "corn broom" so the bristles are really uneven and it's kind of rounded. It only stood up for a second or so, but I really wanted to see it stand up on its own. No such luck, so I called Dave and told him to try it. It stood up for about 5 minutes before falling down and I tried it myself tonight:

It's been standing up for about 10 minutes now on its own.



Dave thinks it's because the bristles are holding it up. I think the real test will be trying this when there are not solar flares hitting the earth. Verna, my volunteer at Buckland Station, and I tried standing the broom up for a long time after that guy left...we really wanted to test it out, but the other volunteer, Richard, was the only one of us to get it to work.

Has anyone heard of this phenomenon before? Do brooms really stand on end when solar flares hit us? Hmmmm...........

Dave's Internship in Wildlife Management

I thought I'd use this blog post as a shout-out to Dave and what he's studying...

He's doing an internship with the Nevada Department of Wildlife (NDOW). He's been doing all kinds of new things that actually make me jealous and I have a pretty cool job too! He uses the tractor and backhoe, excavator, and bull dozer to do various "odd jobs" on a daily basis. We have a tractor at work that I told my boss he should teach me to use for smoothing out the dirt roads.

Habitat restoration.

I was off work one day when Dave was working. I was headed for either Carson City or Virginia City and he called me to say they had trapped  a beaver and if I wanted the pelt I had to do it myself. I wanted it, so I went back to the house at the wildlife area, expecting to spend an hour or so skinning a dead beaver. Four hours later we decided we were finally finished and skipped the head, arms and legs. Not an experience I EVER expected to have but like most things I do, not as bad as I thought it would be, but still kind of gross. And sad...it was a dead animal, and a cute one, so that was hard... but it was dead anyway and why shouldn't I use the pelt for programs at work?

Checking the beaver trap...

Anyway, another job NDOW does is burn the cattails from beaches for fishermen and fields for geese habitat. I thought it was a wildlife refuge at first, like Ouray (between Vernal and Roosevelt, UT) but it's actually a wildlife management area, where they manage for hunting and habitat. So at first, the idea of trapping beaver, burning fields and allowing hunting was a shock to me, but then I realized later what they actually do. I don't fully understand it but now I have more appreciation for it.