The Hitchhiker's Guide

One thing I'm amazed about here is the amount of hitchhiking that is done. Every day that I leave the house, I'm bound to see at least 2-3 hitchhikers thumbing for a ride. Now, I wouldn't pick up anyone as it is, but I particularly wouldn't after some of the stories I've heard. Evidently meth labs are a big problem here and some of the people walking around are meth addicts. My coworker Laurie told me about a friend of hers who got bitten by a meth addict after he confronted the guy for stealing belongings out of people's cars in the neighborhood. Of course, not everyone here is an addict. There are tons of decent, regular hippies, artists, musicians, and foreign travellers who are just looking for a free ride to the coast or up to Eugene (hippie central). That being said, I still don't plan to stop my car for anyone anytime soon.

Memorial Day Thoughts...

Just thinking about the thousands of troops serving overseas right now, away from their families and their lives. Even more, I'm thinking about the hundreds of thousands (troops, Iraqi civilians, peace volunteers, contractors, etc.) that have died since this disastrous war started 4+ years ago. No matter what side of the issue you're on, the sacrifices those involved have made should be acknowledged and commended. I just hope that the political leaders whose war all of these people are fighting keep them in their thoughts, too.

Where We Live

In case anyone was wondering what our housing accomodations were like, I thought I'd include some pictures of the magnificent viewpoints we 3 girls have everyday. Janice's house is surrounded by farmland, mountains and the Umpqua River. Despite the toll that the sloping terrain takes on Shabbi's walking abilities, the beautiful landscape more than makes up for it...

This is our view from the backyard deck. The mountains in the distance are part of the Cascades, east of Roseburg. The Umpqua River can be seen in the center left. We get loads of birds through here every morning (Spotted Towhees, Juncos and Stellar's Jays are common). Also notice the makeshift fencing near the bottom; those are the barriers Janice put up so Shabbigirl wouldn't go a-tumblin' down the steeply sloped hills.

More of the countryside here in Wilbur, Oregon (~10 miles outside of Roseburg). The windy mountainous road to Janice's house is a little intimidating, as there are steep embankments and high dropoffs with no guardrails. The traffic in the opposite direction often comes flying around corners, so I always try to drive ~30 mph so I have enough time to react to the hairpin turns or careless drivers ahead.

Shabbs and Kiks on the backyard deck. I think Shabbi was disappointed that she'd eaten all her food; Kika was sympathizing...

The girls and I came home to this surprise on Friday evening. Kika had run right up to it, not noticing it. I just happened to glance up to where she was and saw that she was traipsing around next to a snake. I am not at all familiar with either Eastern or Western snakes, so I immediately called her back to me and put her in the car. Art's car was in the driveway, so I started calling his name to have him come outside to identify it for me. He didn't hear me calling, so I went inside and got him and Janice to come out. Janice immediately recognized it as a Kingsnake, which might be aggressive, but is not venomous; in fact, they eat rattlesnakes. She couldn't get enough of it, and even touched it to see how it might respond. It recoiled and got pissy and moved off the walkway down into the yard. I was just glad to know it wasn't poisonous. Like in Michigan (the Massassauga rattler), Oregon only has a few or less poisonous snake species, so there's not much to be concerned about.

Reconnected

Today, after scouting my coworker's property for the millionth time, I finally found my cell phone. Adam (my screen saver) was smiling up at me as soon as I turned it on and I was ecstatic.I thought it would be too obnoxious to take a picture of where I found it, but it had fallen in between the kennel crates where Shabbi and Kika sleep while my coworker and I are in the field.In any case, I am happy to be connected to the rest of my life again. Sorry I was out of touch!

Lost and Found

This week has been AMAZING. I haven't even officially been in Oregon a full week yet and already I've had some amazing experiences.FOUND: HOUSING. First and foremost, my housemate, Janice, is super sweet and I have to send kudos to her for being so accomodating to us three girls. She just lost her yellow lab, Cosmos, unexpectedly, and so she has reached out to Shabbi and Kika surprisingly well. I am very grateful. She has a gorgeous house on a hill out in the country; it's full of windy roads and scary embankments, but once you get there, the view is breathtaking. We have our own bedroom and bathroom, and Janice made space in the kitchen for me to put groceries. I think she's afraid we won't be staying because the drive to the field house is longer than I thought (30 minutes) and there are lots of steps for me to carry Shabbi up and down. But, I know I'll never get such a gracious host/landlady anywhere else so we are definitely staying. She and her boyfriend, Art, are awesome folks, and fellow biologists, so I think they will be friends in addition to housemates.FOUND: SPOTTED OWLS. I've had the fortune of being invited to participate in an on-going spotted owl study here in Oregon. They have several pairs and singles located and radio-tagged so we've been doing some radio telemetry to find them each day. We're replacing the radios on some of them and doing general checks for health and presence in others. This intro to Oregon really takes the cake, I tell ya. If anyone had told me I'd be holding a Spottie this week, I would have laughed in their face.LOST: CELL PHONE. *sigh* Slim, upright (not flip) silver Samsung phone with black leather case. Lost somewhere near Winston, Oregon. Valuable pics and phone numbers stored on phone. Please contact if found.

Spotting spotties

Some of you might know that slugs and I don't exactly get along, but I couldn't resist taking a pic of this Banana slug that was crawling around my first night out with the spotties

Here's a pair of spotties that were not exactly happy to see us! We had to entice the female (larger one) down with a mouse in order to change her radio tag.

Here Melanie and Dennis are processing the owl--getting measurements, point locations and replacing the shoulder radio tag with a tail feather tag. This is the final year of the study so this last year of movement data is particularly important.

The highlight...getting to hold a spottie before releasing her back into the forest. Notice the Michigan State U. sweatshirt--I was representin'!

And away she goes!

Westward Bound

Rather than sending e-mail updates all the time (and overloading your accounts with pictures), I thought I'd take a hint from my friend Heather, and create a blog of my summer travels. The title, "Travels with Charley", is an homage to Steinbeck's account of his voyages out west with his dog, Charley. I suppose I have two Charleys, Charley #1 (Shabbi) and Charley #2 (Kika). They have been troopers as we've driven cross-country the last four days. I'm really proud of my girls.More than anything, I think I just have to say how beautiful our country is. This last week has reminded me of a book I once read, "A Walk Across America," about a guy named Peter who, in the early 1970s, decided to walk from Maine to Georgia with his dog to see the United States. Like him, I've realized how much I DON'T know about this nation and the many different people who live here. Heck, I don't even know about my friends and family members who grew up in some of these states that I passed through. I had no idea my brother-in-law grew up in such a rural countryside of Iowa, and that my friends from Nebraska really are country gals at heart. Being out here gives me insight into the people who mean most to me, as well as to what really does make up America. I realize I'm sounding cliched and overly nostalgic, but I really do feel the thoughts that I'm writing. I'll keep this short for now, but I'll be posting updates, thoughts (and best of all) pictures of what's going on out here this summer. Feel free to browse, comment, or ignore this all together. I hope you get some enjoyment out of it, as well as a sense of the beauty that I'm experiencing. It's breathtaking. Below are some pics I took in the various states I passed through during my travels...




WYOMING

I believe it was in Wyoming, where I first started seeing llamas (or were they alpacas?) running around on the range. I also saw my first real cowboy pumping gas at a gas station in Wyoming. This state really said, "west" to me and I absolutely fell in love. I stayed in Cheyenne (the capitol) overnight. I had a heck of a time getting a motel room that night because there was a massive construction project on I-80, so all the highway workers had filled up the motels. Finally got a room and listened to the sounds of trains loading and unloading and chugging along all night.

Who'da thunk Wyoming would be so green in their energy production? There were more than 50 wind turbines along this high ridge. I got so excited about it I almost swerved off the road. I saw some more in Idaho, too, but Wyoming really took the cake in its use of wind power. Just hope not too many birds were killed in the making of this energy.

A little something for everyone...Wyoming has mountains, scrub-shrub, rangelands, you name it. It was by far my favorite state in my travels (well, maybe it ties with Oregon...). I'm trying to convince Adam that we need to get a little house there to retreat to during the summers...


Rock-climbing, anyone?


Had a bite to eat in Green River, Wyoming. One of the nicest, most down-to-earth little towns I've ever been. There's a fabulous Mexican restaurant there, so the girls and I ate lunch out on a sidewalk bench. The ladies from the local hair dresser came out and pet the girls and helped me find my way to post cards, stamps and the town drug store. They were VERY concerned about my safety as I was travelling alone on the road, and asked that I stop on through again when Adam and I come back east in the fall. I really found the hospitality and kind-heartedness of folks on the road to be just as inspiring as the scenery. This shot is just after leaving Green River.


UTAH

Those Mormons were hardy travellers...


We came to this rest stop with tons of prairie dogs running around. I kept Kika from chasing them, but one woman encouraged me to let my little Rat Terrier harass them; she sounded disappointed that her Pomeranian was too slow to catch them. She said she grew up trying to get rid of the "muck mucks" from her land because they were so annoying. The biologist in me wanted to lecture her about native habitat vs. ownership boundaries, but Kika and I just packed up and left.


IDAHO

Believe it or not, just minutes after I took this picture, "Spirit of New Orleans" came on the radio. It was just too perfect.


There are more than potatoes in Idaho...

The Snake River in Idaho really does slither; I think I crossed over it about 5-6 times in my travels through Idaho

Bridge over the River Snake

OREGON

Oregon welcomes us

Their mountains are bigger than ours...

Travelling on I-84 in Oregon, you drive alongside the Columbia River for a stretch of several miles. It is a perfect drive.

Columbia River at dusk