Pick-up sticks 25 May 2001 I guess I should clear a few things up. For those of you who've taken a look at my pictures, it is not still snowing up here. It was very cold for the first month or so, but we haven't had any flurries in quite some time. Actually, it gets into the 70s lately...it's beautiful up here. My next set of pictures should represent more current conditions. That being said, things are good out here. More and more cows decide to come through camp, which is always interesting. I never thought I'd wake up to the sound of mooing outside my tent. I'm becoming fairly good at chasing them out of camp though. :) We had a visit the other night by some of the Hot Shots, the guys from the fire crew that work over at the Negrito Fire Base just down the road. They have a decidedly more posh set-up than we do out here (not that I'm complaining, our set-up is not nearly rugged) including satellite TV and a hot tub. I've been doing surveys occasionally too. About one to two a week, sometimes more. The other night we heard an owl who basically followed us all along our route giving a 5-note hoot (the standard is a 4-note hoot). He even managed to find us at about 2:30 that morning as we were camping out in the field and started hooting right over our heads. I think he was hearing the mouse that we had with us. Of course, he was nowhere to be seen when morning came. Camping out overnight was fun. You'd think I'd be sick of camping at this point, but no way. Instead of lugging tent et al into the field, we usually just use sleeping bags and bivy sacks. Bivy sacks, for those who don't know, are basically glorified body bags. You just crawl inside with sleeping pad, sleeping bag and pull it over your head with a mesh closing over your face to keep the bugs out. It's been a while since I've packed that much stuff to go hiking, and boy can I feel it in my knees and ankles. Especially since the terrain that we're hiking over has so many fallen trees and branches that it looks like a giant game of pick-up sticks. And walking around at night with headlamps is always fun, even more so now that Spring has sprung and the bugs like to fly towards the light that is centered on your forehead. :) I was able to take some time off of camp work and head to Oklahoma for Tom and Melissa's wedding. It was so great to see everyone. The wedding was beautiful and I had 4 fun-filled days in Norman, OK (with about 15 hours of sleep total, 10 in one night). Later today, I'll be heading out to Albuquerque to meet Clarke for the long weekend. The nice thing about being administrative is that I can set my own schedule and don't have to worry about 10 days on--4 days off like the rest of the field people. Speaking of vacation, it's time for me to pack up the car. I hope the long weekend is fun for everyone. Congrats to those graduating soon!! I will be home in SD from June 12th through June 19th. Take a look at my pictures, there will be more up in a few weeks Love and sunshine, Stef ;) top of page letters from camp