Ten Years!

I made it through the reunion in one piece! The experience was weird, but fun. It was similar to high school, only we're all ten year older. I've heard this is how reunions commonly go, but I guess I'd hoped it would be a little different. Some people have changed quite a bit, while others are stuck in their bizarre snooty rut. Around 10:30 the BBQ "portion" of the event started. It was nice to see everyone out with their families, there averaged almost one kid per person (though only about half of the people there had kids)! Julie and I watched an osprey feeding its young (which surprised me quite a bit) while at the BBQ. Their nest is on a lamp post in one of the baseball fields. After the BBQ we took the dogs for a walk. An irrigation ditch runs through the park so the dogs and I climbed in and waded around, trying to beat the heat. Later in the evening we attended the "formal" dinner. Everyone avoided Julie and I so we had a large table to ourselves until my "friends" came in. The majority of them were drunk most of the night. This weekend made me realize that I really am not like other people. I don't "need" alcohol, I've only been drunk once (and then not nearly as bad as most people I saw this weekend) and I quite frankly prefer my interactions to be sober. Anyway, the highlight of my night, other than meeting up with old friends, is discovering that Julie will dance if we are at a Reggae concert, therefore I will be trying to get use out to listen to Reggae more often!

My father helped me get some maps, with 10m grids, printed up for my vegetation surveys. He also loaned me a GPS, so that I can figure out exactly where I'm at when I'm looking at these maps! He and I have always had a rather tumultuous relationship and it always surprises me when he does nice things for me.

In the course of three days the black-capped chickadees and red-breasted nuthatches have consumed mass quantities of seed. They've slowed down on the suet, which seems counter intuitive. I'm always amazed by the number of birds I see at my parents' house. There was a brown creeper singing one morning while we were picking vegetables, I spotted him and pointed him out to my mother. Later in the evening a flycatcher was calling in the top of one of the ponderosa pines. A great-blue heron has been hanging out in their garden, probably eating the proliferation of pacific tree frogs. Mom's bird feeder is always busy, birds are almost always singing all around the house. The brown-headed cowbirds seem to have left, they usually spend the day riding around on Huka's back. After a short trip to Seattle I'll be back in the field for one more round of surveys and then vegetation surveys. I'm going to make every effort to do more bird watching this winter, because I like being outside, I like watching birds and working on my ID is never a bad idea!

Finally, we went huckleberry picking yesterday. There aren't very many ripe in Southern Oregon yet, but I know where to go to pick them. After cleaning them we have about 5.5 cups, enough for both pancakes and a pie! Next time we're in GP there'll be even more, we'll probably go picking again (then we can send some to Annie). I LOVE huckleberries and it brought me great joy to not only be out picking again but to be picking with my two closest friends.