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.