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More News From The West

                We’ve settled into a nice rhythm this week. Two people take the ATVs and drag while the third does nest checks. We rotate this so it theoretically means two hard days of dragging and one day “off” to nest check. With the amount of nests we have found, that easy day is not that easy. So far we have nearly 70 nests to check, and that is just counting the northern sites. Add to that our new time restraints and it can make for a stressful day.

Jarrett has been trying to keep us to 8 or fewer hours a day for the past week or so, an impossible task when it normally takes us around 12 hours to do everything. But he has good reason to want to keep our hours smaller. Already, I have over 100 hours of overtime added up, and the money situation for this project is not looking good.

Hustle and Flow: Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Country Music

The weather forecast for the past two weeks predicted rain everyday but those Mondays. Since, we could not do our work in the rain we tried to get a full weeks worth or work done. In one day. Those days were not fun. Both days ended up being over 18 hours each, filled with lots of driving and running. That first Monday, I drove from the North Dakota border all the way down to the Nebraska border, and then back up to the middle of the state. We accomplished all of our goals each day, which turned out not too matter too much as it did not rain at all the rest of either week.
I am beginning to understand how Stockholm syndrome works. Before I came here, I had a strong dislike of country music, but now, after two months of really nothing else to listen too, I find myself enjoying certain songs. It is a terrible feeling.
With birds beginning to hatch, we ran our first trial of trapping. It went horribly. Our trap is a thrown hula hoop with a net attached to it. Try throwing a hula hoop and see how accurate you are. Now trying adding a net and a strong wind. Throw in some delicate and easily broken eggs into the mix and you can see our problem. We had one bird that we were trying to catch the hula-nets, and by the time we tried to use the stationary traps, the bird was so spooked that it would not go near the nest. We spent the drive back to the lodge coming up with new and exotic trapping ideas. It will be an interesting summer if we use any of those.
I really should write these things down sometime when I am not sitting at the gas station. Then maybe I will actually write down the exciting and interesting details of this job. Now though, I think I am going to get something to eat.

-Me

A Guide to South Dakota Cities (For Loose Definitions of “Cities”) 2nd Edition

                The Grand List of South Dakota Cities (For Generous Definitions of Cities) 2^nd Addition

Huron-Out of all the cities in South Dakota, Huron most reminds one of Michigan. Its downtown, as well as housing styles is a near carbon copy of Plymouth.

While Redfield is known as “The Pheasant Capital of The World,” it is Huron that claims to have “The World’s Largest Pheasant.” This fact has led to a bitter rivalry between the two cities. Redfiedlers claim that Huronites stole their Giant Pheasant while Huronites do not pay attention to anything the Redfielders say.

 Groton- Groton South Dakota has the most annoying intersection in the world. Never travel north or south through it if you can avoid it. If you must, bring a good book, or perhaps your lunch as you will be sitting there for a while.

Sioux Falls- Sioux Falls is South Dakota’s First City. As the largest city in the state, it boasts a population just slightly larger than Ann Arbor’s. Seeing that many people around can be quite a shock after spending time in some of the other cities of South Dakota. Do not worry though, SF has many fine attractions to take your mind off them.

If you are a history buff, there is a battleship memorial on the north side of the city. Be warned though, it is not a full battleship, as many of the signs seems to suggest. Rather, it is a large stone plaque with bits of a ship scattered around it.

For the more nature oriented visitor, why not visit the Falls of Sioux Falls? These impressive water works stretch a couple of hundred yards downstream, filled with rocks for climbing and sights for seeing. When surrounded by construction, it can be difficult to get to, but with a little luck, you should find the falls to be a pleasant experience.

After a day of sightseeing, relax at one of Sioux Falls’ many fine night clubs. A popular favorite is Bucks, an automotive themed bar. On a Friday night, you will find the place packed to capacity with people dancing, drinking and enjoying life. Why such a well-loved establishment is virtually empty on Saturday is one of Sioux Falls’ greatest mysteries.

Watertown- The Gateway to West is the fifth biggest city in the state. It runs along the highway, and as such has an elongated design, much like Aberdeen. In fact, Watertown and Aberdeen are twins in regard to their layout. Anything that you could do or find in Aberdeen could just as easily be done in Watertown.

In the middle of Watertown there is a well-used train crossing, going over the main highway, without gates or even lights to warn that a train is coming. There is not much more to say about that. It is just odd.

In Which Everything That Can Go Wrong, Does

Last week went by smoothly. Sure, there was a lot of work, and all of it was tiring, but it was enjoyable and productive. We even managed to get slightly ahead of schedule. 

Jarrett finally brought his P90X DVDs to the lodge so I've been doing those after work. After a week of them, I am not nearly as sore as I thought I would be, which makes me think I am doing them wrong.

The Other Crew is leaving at the end of the week, so for their final weekend we went down to Sioux Falls. The biggest city in South Dakota by nearly double, Sioux Falls is just barely larger than Ann Arbor. It's a pretty nice place. We spent the first night in the Brimark Inn. Well, a better way to put it would be we spent the night in down town Sioux Falls and slept in the Brimark. The breakfast there was amazing. Not because it was really good or anything, but because it was the first time I had a complimentary breakfast whose eggs actually looked like eggs. Marvels on marvels.

Unsure if we were spending another night in the Big City, we checked out once the Other Crew woke up, and then proceeded to get more breakfast at a diner across the street. It was there we decided to spend a day and a second night in Sioux Falls. When we booked the room this time, somehow it was $20 cheaper. Not sure how or why.

The Other Crew, having ingested a few too many beverages the previous night, went back to sleep. I took the keys to the car, and explored the city. After seeing towns like Redfield and Briton for a month, the size and layout of Sioux Falls confused me. It did not follow the grid pattern of the state. That, coupled with a mess load of construction, made my short trip to see the Falls, quite a bit longer. But eventually I found them and they were quite a sight. Water cascaded over red and purple rocks up and down a huge stretch about a quarter mile long. I spent a good hour there, watching the water and enjoying the warm weather.

I arrived back at the Brimark to find the Other Crew still asleep. Eventually they woke up and we went to get some dinner. There was another Hotel next to ours that was supposed to have good food. I wanted to try some unique Sioux Falls/South Dakota fair, and so I was not thrilled by the idea of going to eat in a hotel bar. But let me tell you, the food there was some of the best I have ever eaten. I would try to describe it to you, but words fail to capture how delicious that meal was.

With dinner finished and showers taken, we headed out for one last night on the town. The previous night we went to a place called Bucks. It was a great bar/club/thing.  Good music, good dancing bad service. The crowd loved my moves, and people even took pictures with me. I kid you not. But that’s not the important part of this story. The important part is the next night, where I met a girl who put all my dancing skills to shame. We had a dance off, me and her, near the end of the night. I could not keep up. I was impressed. But sadly, as a fitting begin to this most awful week, when I went to talk to after, she and her friends had already left. Sadness.

We returned to Redfield, our spirits high and our wallets light, and that’s when the storms began.

For four days it rained. Hard rain, light rain, every kind of rain pounded down on us. More importantly, it pounded down on our sites. In order to do our work, we need a dry environment. Birds do not move around much in the rain, and checking eggs when it is even damp out can kill the chicks.

The rain did not care about that though. The storms seemed to follow us around. If we wanted to go north, they would soak Aberdeen. When we decided to swing to the south, so would they. We thought they left once, and had just left the lodge when the rain swung back over, re-soaking everything that had just dried. We’ve been eating up our overtime hours, just sitting around waiting for it to dry.

Finally, the rains stopped today. We loaded up the trucks and headed out to make up for lost time at 4 AM.

Just as we got to the highway, I noticed that the F-150 was making a weird sound as we drove. Thinking that we had lost an ATV or a strap came loose, I checked the bottom of the side mirror in time to see a shower of sparks coming flying up from the trailer tire. Somewhere along the road it, the tire came off and we had been driving on the wheel for over a mile.

Many shenanigans were had as we tried to find the right sort of wrench to take of the bolts, then the right sort of wheel to replace the damaged one, and then the right sort of tire. It was a long day in which we did nothing to advance the project.

In other news, I have a new hobby now: asparagus hunting. The stuff grows wild in the ditches around here, and it’s a major hobby driving out and collecting it. While out there, we’ve found dozens of people combing the ditches, looking for it. Every meal now has an asparagus side dish.

Well, that’s all the news that’s fit to print.  Until next time,

-Me

News From The West

This past week has been the busiest yet, and we’ve only just begun.

On Sunday, the final member of our team (discounting Neal, who will be joining us when the other team is finished with their work) arrived.  With the addition of Korey, I am no longer the youngest at the Lodge.  He’s a pretty cool kid. I’m just sad that I have to give up rolling around on all four beds in my room now.

We went on Monday to see one of Jarrett’s advisers about proper bird handling and banding methods. It was an interesting time to say the least. He caught the birds in mist nets—nearly invisible mesh nests—he had arranged behind his house.  We took them into the house and measured, weighed, and banded them. It was a good thing we did it inside too. One of my birds escaped my hand and flew toward the window to make its escape. It didn’t quite work out as the bird planned though. The window was closed, and when the sparrow hit it at full tilt, it knocked the little sucker clean out. Measuring him was pretty easy after that.

Monday was the only day we worked an 8 hour day. It was our shortest day by far.

Here comes the Sun

Wednesday we had a snow storm. Friday it was 75 degrees. I don't get this state.

The Redfield Library, home to little old ladies and internet, has been without internet all week. That has made it hard to do our work, as we needed to access maps. Without said maps, we could not find the sites we needed, which led to many misadventures.

The project I am working on is a collaboration between two rival groups within SDSU- the wildlife people and the fish heads. I have already mentioned how each group dislikes the other, but I never fully understood how much until this week. In the Ruby/Sapphire Pokemon games, there are two main villainous forces. Team Magma wants to remove all water from the world, while Team Aqua wishes to flood it. When I played those games, I thought they was stupid. No one wants to flood the world or wants to create a desert planet. That's crazy.

Then I came to South Dakota.

Fisheries people want to create as much fish habitat as possible, even the detriment of the land around it, while the wildlife folks seem bent on removing any and all of the attributes that fish need from streams to turn them into simple watering holes. They don't seem to focus or care that both environments can promote a healthy ecosystem. Each side tries to implement studies and land management practices that benefit their own group, regardless of how it affects the other side of the shore.

Of course that is an exaggeration, not everyone hates the other group. There's one fellow who thinks working together is a good idea.