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.

A Guide to South Dakota Cities (For Loose Definitions of “Cities”) 1st Edition

Aberdeen-

Aberdeen is one of the five largest cities in the state.  Looking at from Google Maps in Ann Arbor, you would not think it. But after visiting the other cities in this state, it is by far the largest that I have seen. As previously stated, most of the Aberdeen is comprised of one giant strip mall. For several miles, you drive down 6^th Avenue and pass store after store after store, with very little off to the north or south. Occasionally there will be a stretch of north-south streets that have more of a “Down Town” feel to them (i.e. the streets with the bars near Northern State University) but for the most part they are either residential neighborhoods or smaller, less exciting shops.

Casinos and auto part stores seem to dominate the landscape. Why those two are the most common, I am not sure, but if you are low on cash and need to repair your car, Aberdeen is the place to be.

Aberdeen is large enough to have multiple branches of its public library. Though each is larger, has a better selection of books, and greater resources than the Redfield equivalent, the Redfield Library is still the better choice (see Redfield).

Lakewood Mall, one of the premiere shopping destinations in Aberdeen is not terribly exciting. There are about a dozen or so of the usual mall stores; J.C. Penny, Sears, fashionably clothing stores, and a few others. And that’s about it. The selection pales in comparison to both Briarwood and Westland Malls, while the Mall of America (a mere five hours away)  makes Lakewood look like a dime store. The best part of the Lakewood mall, is the fact that is houses a 3D movie theater, one of about five in the state.

In Which I Start Working

I’m writing this from the parking lot of an OfficeMax. It’s a sunny day and the temperature is in the 40’s. It’s practically summer here. Too bad we’re getting another 10 inches of snow tonight.

Things at the lodge have gotten interesting. We went out to Aberdeen several times in one weekend. It was crazy. After sitting in Redfield and Brookings for so long, Aberdeen is starting to look like the Big City. It is one giant strip mall, much like Canton-The Best City Ever ™ but much longer. They even have a 3D movie theater. One of about 3 in the state so it seems. And a Taco Johns.

I thought Taco Johns was a joke or a one off place when I saw it in Brookings. Turns out it is the western version of Taco Bell.  

The first trip to Aberdeen was for the other crew. They needed to drop off some equipment, and I was bored of Redfield so I went with. Not much of note happened.

Noteworthy things  did happen that night though. We went out to some of the Aberdeen bars, having spent enough time in Terry’s to become part owners. Though we were near a college, the bars there were not very filled. I was to be the Designated Driver, which either made the following events better or worse, not quite sure.

The first bar we went to was some sort of goat place. I do not remember what it was called, and it was not terribly exciting. We quickly voted to go somewhere else.

That led us to the Silver Dollar, which was a much more, interesting, venue the goat bar. I won’t recount what happened there, but suffice to say that I learned exactly what the minimum amount of clothing South Dakota requires you to wear.

We stayed there for an hour or so. I’m not, the place had no clocks, like a casino. There probably was a casino there. South Dakota has more of them than Las Vegas. Every gas station seems to have in the back. They’re very small, sad looking affairs.

We went back to the goat bar, at which time I was greatly amused watching my now rather inebriated companions try to engage some of the lady-folk in conversation.

Saturday, I procured a truck from Brian and drove an hour to see Jurassic Park. In theaters. It was beautiful. Except for the 3D. I have seen that movie so many times, that now I’m looking at the background figures, trying to understand more of it. 3D makes it hard to do, as everything that is not the focus of the shot is very blurred.

The next day Jarrett returned and we began working. And by working, I mean shopping. We spent 2 days in three towns buying equipment and looking up equipment for the project. We found everything but an Atlas. Apparently, no one in South Dakota wants to know where they are. Which is understandable.

While searching for poles, we bought every one of those orange drive way markers in the city of Aberdeen. Every one. We need a lot of bright poles.

Went running. Remembered exactly why I hated running in the cold.

Last night, it did storm, though not the ten inches, but enough to make driving miserable.

Now we’re at the Library, waiting for emails. And getting kicked out of the Library now So that’s it

-Me

The (Hemming)Way of Life

It has been snowing for three days

The first day it was not so bad. We were supposed to get pounded by snow, something like 10 inches. Business closed, work was canceled. Even the library shut its doors. What we actually got was far less than the projected 10 inches.
The second day was much worse. It snowed so much that the door out of the lodge was stuck. We had to throw our bodies against it force it open, the snow had piled up so much. We spent the day cleaning up the lodge, cause really at that point what else was there to do?
This storm is only the biggest marker in this second winter over here in South Dakota. Ponds have frozen over, roads are icy and whole mess of other winter problems have come together to mean no work. My boss has been stuck in his apartment, unable to unite me with the tasks that I need to do. The other crew cant go out and sample because everything is frozen.
Moral is low at the lodge.
Everyday is the same. We wake up, eat, and hunt until the library is open. Then they try to contact land owners for permission to be on their property and I write. Then we head back to the lodge, hunt so more, then head to Terry's for dollar pints. It's a really great deal for very bad beer. Then back to the lodge for more drinks and talk.
Needless to say, we all really want the weather to improve.

-Me

Having Internet Isn't Hard When You Have A Library Card

Outside it is cold, windy and rainy.
Good thing I'm sitting in the rather nice and comfortable Redfield Library. There's a fire burning in a stone fireplace at my feet and some really pleasant old ladies who just love country music and watching birds. I think I just had my longest conversation ever about country music that did not involve Taylor Swift.
The Redfield Library, though very tiny, looks amazing. The small brick building is filled with wooden pillars and columns grand father clocks and graceful curves. And VHS tapes. Lots of VHS tapes. It's like a 90's Blockbuster in here.

ATV training on Saturday went really well. Met Kory, the other Tech for the job. He's a pretty nice guy, Junior at SDSU and fully ingrained in the Wildlife vs Fishes battle at that school.  It's odd, at Michigan there seemed to be contention between the animal and plant biologists, but out here nobody cares about plants it seems. The two camps are fishes vs game animals. Sadly, the fisheries people have the greater numbers, which was why moving the ATVs was such a pain. All them boats in my way. But yeah, the training went smoothly, save fore one minor incident.
We had permission to hold the training course on SDSU property, near some of the animal pens, as that was the only place that had enough space to do the maneuvers required. We were by some big horn sheep, keeping far enough of from them not to disturb them, when a white truck came roaring down the road. It skidded to a stop not far from us, dusting billowing around it, and a rather large bearded man jumped out and stormed over to us. He was yelling something, but over the noise of the ATVs I couldn't hear what.
The ATV instructor walked overt to the man and I joined in after shutting down the ATV. The man, apparently a professor at SDSU, was yelling, threatening to call the cops on us for disturbing his sheep. He claimed that using the ATVs near them could kill his sheep, each worth more that $60,000, and that he would sue us for any harm we did them.
Throughout his tirade, both the instructor and I tried to tell him that he had permission to be here, and that this was an SDSU approved activity. It wasn't until I gave him the name of the professor that was overseeing project I am working on that he calmed down at all. He turned back to his car and made a quick phone call. While he was doing that, we were packing up the ATV course. It was not worth the effort trying to argue with that man, and it would be sad if a sheep died. Eventually he came back, much quieter now, and apologized for his earlier behavior. It seems that Dr. W carries a bit of weight at SDSU.
The man was still worried about his sheep, and asked if we could relocate, even though we could be there. He told us about the chicken pens, just to the north and said that they were empty now. And so we decided to head out and bother that area.
Well, almost. The chicken area was separated by a large muddy field. We drove the ATVs over it, but some of them could not make it and got stuck. Mine almost did, but luckily, I had enough grip in 4-Wheel-Drive to make it through. Even better, we got an extra lesson in our course--How to deal with a stuck ATV.

Arriving in South Dakota or Planes Pheasants Problems and Parties

I always like Airports. Something about them just makes you feel more connected with the world. Maybe it’s the eclectic group of people you meet there. Or maybe it’s the way they tell you to keep tracking of your bags in seven different languages.

The flights were mostly routine, the only thing of note was a conversation with a Crown University Baseball player. Short summary of that conversation follows.

“Don’t go to Crown.”

Aberdeen Airport looks identical to the Powel International Airport. Besides servicing only one plane at a time, Aberdeen has the same interior design style.  All wood paneling and hunting ads dominated the walls. Met Jarrett at the gate and headed out. It took two hours to drive from Aberdeen to the hunting lodge in Zell. Two hours of cornfields and frozen ponds.

 We arrived at the Lodge a little past midnight. After a short talk with some of the other techs there, I went to bed. Woke up again at 5 to head out to Brookings, home of the South Dakota State Jackrabbits and two hours away, which by South Dakota standards, is just down the road. This state is vast and empty.  Internet is thirty minutes away.

On the drive over we saw geese tornados. If you have never seen one, they are an amazing site.  The geese circle around a landing spot and slowly descend down to the ground forming a black funnel or tornado like shape. I have never seen that many birds in one place as once. Sometimes, the migrating flocks are large enough to cover the sky.

We rolled up to Brookings around 8/830 and headed into the SDSU campus. The drive went by a lot faster than it would have in Michigan. South Dakota has speed limits 10 mph faster than back home. It’s kind of great to cruise down streets at 70. I had to redo some paperwork and take some tests. Turns out that I am still working for the USGS with this job, and as such I have already done most of the paperwork. Yay.

Off to Adventure!

And so it begins.
Today I'm off to work in South Dakota. Hopefully I shall be able to update this regularly, but I'm not sure. The lodge I will be staying at is supposed to have internet, but I wonder if that is just during pheasant hunting season. As it is a pheasant hunting lodge. And this is not pheasant hunting season. Who knows though? Well, I guess I will in about twelve hours.
There are not many flights to Aberdeen.
Well, that's about it for now. I mean, I haven't really done anything to write about yet. Soon I will though, so keep checking on this space for the exciting adventures of Michigan Lind!
Now though, I think I'll grab some food. I'm thinking something in Chicago.

-Me