cloudless sky week

if you ever consider what it is like to be in an oven, where there's no place to hide and it's so hot, that's kind of what it's like sometimes working in the desert in august. this week at spruce mountain (week 2) we had 2 cloudless sky days. these were, incidentally, the days of the full moon, so maybe that had something to do with it, though i doubt it.

the moonrise was amazing, but the sunsets weren't nearly as interesting since there were no clouds. the drive home, on the other hand, had great cloudy skies.

jane, robert, and i decided it would be OK to stop a few times and snap some photos of the sky that was happening all around us. one thing is for sure, nevada does have some big sky (as does montana, i've heard). it was a really special drive home, spending it with those 2, taking photos out the window over the top of the truck, dukes of hazzard style. or knight rider style. the kind where you don't open the door. :)

i'm sure i could say something more - interesting - about work, like this week we lose erik and robert, so who is going to take over fuels and gap and herbaceous fuel clipping? the rest of us standing will have to take turns i guess, and i seem to remember the first few plots tomorrow having a bunch of trees which always ends up taking us a long time to do. namely because we do height and 2 diameters to get the tree volume, but more importantly, it gives the guys a chance to really give me a hard time. i think this means they like me but it's hard to know. i'm on a crew of 5 with 2 girls (including me, so just one other who leaves at the end of this week!) and 3 guys. the guys just like to give me a hard time, and one thing i learned from my brother is, if you play into it, they keep at it, and if you don't play into it, they find something else to pick on you about! so it's a lose-lose situation for me, so i play along just to keep my sanity, although i've now been deemed "sorority girl" even though if you knew me, you'd know i probably wouldn't join a sorority. my name is "ashley" just for added humor. the guys also like to just yell out random numbers to throw off my taking of the data. they just think it's the most hilarious thing. *sigh* boys!!

i'll catch you on the flipside of this week.

spruce mountain

ok, it's pretty late but i wanted to update and just let everyone know i'm alive and all that stuff. this week we were at spruce mountain, which turned out to be a great place to camp and work and all that. the weather was marvelous, much better than last week at the ruby mountains where we basically just sweated for 4 straight days, aside from one brilliant rain storm.

this week, micah had to leave the team, and so we're down another person. at the end of this week, king bob and eric will be leaving us as well. soon after that, jane will be leaving. then it will just be me, travis (aka trixie), ted, and nathan (aka duke).

here's a photo of what i like to think of as the core group...robert, jane, travis, and ted. these people are the ones i work with every day, and i live with robert, jane, and ted. it has been a really worthwhile learning experience, this summer in the desert...

another week in the desert

well it's late friday night/early saturday morning, and i of course left my notebook with all my great thoughts in it back in the trailer, so it will have to wait till tomorrow. how's everyone doing? my week was a really long one. we usually work mon-thurs, and get back late on thurs, but this week we had too much to do and decided to come back on friday. it made for a long week and a short weekend. we don't get overtime pay, we get comp time which doesn't seem as good although it means i can take more time off, if i ever get a chance to take time off, but if i don't, all the comp time i earn gets paid as regular time, which *isn't* as good as overtime pay. plus this week was physically (hot) and emotionally (stress) taxing. i'm tired but want to get a few things done before bed. the days off are definitely not long enough!

i'm dinking around, uploading my photos to yahoo photos so my folks can see what i've been up to the last 2 months. and anyone else, really. i am creating about 3 new albums, including:

nevada and beyond - which covers my departure from reno and a bunch of other photos of my new environment and my coworkers

great basin national park - self explanatory

south ruby mountains - i took a bunch of really cool photos of the sunset(s) up there

so that's that, more posting tomorrow, hopefully. please comment and let me know if you'd like the link to the photos, since i can't possibly post them all here!

xoxo
me '99 :)

just another day in the desert

you know, i had a lot of things i wanted to write in here, but got sidetracked through the day. did get around to grocery shopping and playing in the rain. i'm now packed and ready for another week in the desert, and much to everyone's dismay, i have no new photos for this week, since i was so stressed out last week. last week we participated in what is playfully known as the dog and pony show, which basically meant my crew was on display one day for a whole bunch of other researchers to observe what we do. situation being what it was didn't turn out to be ideal for most of us on the crew, one person in particular was really messing with the attitude of the entire group. hopefully that's all resolved now and we can get back to work.

we should have our full crew of 8 people back tomorrow, for our second adventure in the south ruby mountains. hopefully we won't get anymore flat tires. everyone cross their fingers we don't get stranded somewhere.

let me pose a question:

what's the biggest adventure you've ever been on? where did you go and why was it an adventure? looking forward to hearing from y'all! (no i'm not southern, just influenced by one of my roommates who is from texas originally).

~hugs kisses and mushy stuff~

a few random thoughts from a random place

of course now that i sit down to write i can't think of any of my good thoughts i had last week and of course i don't have my little notebook that i write the thoughts in. so maybe next week's thoughts will be better.

anyway there is a fire burning in the hills just beyond the town of ely NV, and the smoke is rising up in such a way to make the sunset look very beautiful.

went hiking over the weekend with my coworkers and we had a nice time at great basin national park. even got some more post cards so i can't blame no media on my lack of letter writing to everyone! and, my posting got moved to sunday because, well, i'm sure i was busy on friday.

last night a few of us went out to get a drink to celebrate jane's birthday. the bars in ely on saturday night were deader than dead (approx 6 people at 1130pm). i wanted to dance. instead, we watched the eagles "hell freezes over" tour on the big screen (played on a dvd i guess). so much for a high energy party night. but i did learn a bit more about the eagles, things like i didn't know don henley was the drummer! how had i gone all these years not noticing this? after the drinks we came home and sat on the porch and looked up at the stars. i got out my star charts and started naming off constellations. we also talked about scottish vs irish and i did a little jigging, and ted asked me where i learned to do all these dances. you know, i guess i just picked them up randomly, wherever i've been. i've lived in a bunch of places so i've had the opportunity to be exposed to lots of kinds of dancing, not just bumping and grinding...but what i would really like to do here in ely is dance a bit and there just isn't those kinds of opportunities. *shrug*

anyway here's a few photos from the week.

the one on the left is when we just started out hiking for the day, the one on the right is a fallen tree upon the entrance to lake teresa.


some pretty flowers along the trail. the one on the left actually kind of smelled like skunk.


some of the rocks we climbed over were really interesting. then we reached the bristlecone pine area where we saw bristlecone pine, limber pine (not pictured), and englemann spruce.




then we trekked on up to the glacier (that's right i said glacier) where there was still snow in the middle of july on a hot day. we didn't believe it till we stood in/on it ourselves.



more tree photos and another view of the lake



looking forward to the next week...we head out to a place called the south ruby mountains, which is supposed to be very beautiful and very dense with plants. oh goodie! catch you next week.

easter in oregon

well i spent my first easter out of state (meaning the one i was living in at any given time) . and it was a good time. i met up with my friend mike from corvallis, and we met up with stan from blogger world. went hiking at angel's rest just east of portland, and had a very nice day - it didn't rain till we were descending from the 'peak'. we didn't see any angel's resting per se, but there was speculation on that...

...now it's months later than the actual original write date of this entry. i'd meant to post some photos, but can't seem to find the ones i took with my digital camera currently. instead, i'll just write that since we met, stan decided he doesn't want to talk to me anymore, which i don't fully understand, unless i did or said something completely offensive. in which case, i humbly apologize because i didn't know i did it.

anyway if i do ever find those photos they will be posted! till then, back to the desert. catch you all on friday...

it's ely time

first, the photos it took me forever to upload:

interesting sunset shots from the drive back after the first week of camping:

some trees and flowers we've seen either from our plots or in our plots
(ok and one fun cloud photo):

went for a train ride on the historic ely train that makes regular trips to and fro, but not actually dropping people off anywhere but ely, as well as me cutting trail on national trails day sponsored by the USFS (all the tools you can use in a day!), and some other flower photos (oh yeah, ps, i cut my hair off and donated it to locks of love before i moved here, so now i have what i like to refer to as a bowl cut :D ):





the high desert is really a beautiful place. i've been at 6500 feet or higher for the past 6 weeks (aside from my july 4th trip to corvallis oregon) and have been working for the US Forest Service doing research on the sagebrush ecosystem and invasive species such as pinyon pine and cheatgrass. every day for work we drive (the first set of plots was 1/2 hour from ely, the second set is about 3 hours away) or hike out (sometimes a mile) to our field plots, where after a flurry of gps'ing, pulling measuring tapes, hammering in stakes and unloading gear, we're ready for another exciting adventure. every day - or at least every week - we see some new plant we didn't see at a previous plot. many times these new plants are grasses which doesn't totally thrill me because one grass can look like another if it's in the shade or different if it's in the sun, or on a north or south facing slope, or, or, or...that's my biggest challenge. but the plants are new and interesting and i think i've learned around 50 new plants in the past month and a half.

we measure 9+ parameters at each site. they include:

1. fuel load - how much and what size dead wood is laying across our transects
2. line point - what plants are present at this site along the transects
3. gaps - how much space is there between live plants along the transects
4. herbaceous density - how many of each short grass, tall grass, forb, or other short non-woody plant is present along the transects
5. shrubs - how many small and how many big shrubs are located along the transects, and how big are they anyway?
6. herbaceous fuel load - for this one we cut one transect line of grasses and forbs (read: we sit on the ground and use clippers to give the desert a little hair cut), and collect all herbaceous litter, leaving all woody species and woody litter. sometimes we collect soil.
7. tree litter and duff - how much litter is present under the trees in this plot? we literally get "into" the trees to find out. we also collect soil.
8. tree size and density - what trees are present in this plot, and just how big are they?
9. overall species list - there may be plants we missed along the transects, so the crew leader walks around the plot taking an overall list of what species are present at each plot.

sounds like a cake walk right? it takes us about 2-3 hours to do a given plot, including set up and take down, and sometimes longer if there are a ton of trees to measure. overall i really like the work. my crew is split into 2 teams. i work with 3 other people and the other team has 4 people, and the crew leader splits his time between both groups to help out. in a given day, between our 2 teams, we generally get 4-5 plots done, and get 1-2 more set up for the next day. each site we go to has between 15-20 plots, and there are 3 types of plots at each site...well it's a lot of sampling, i'll leave it at that!

the living situation is a little interesting. i live on the ely ranger district headquarters property, in a double wide trailer with 3 bedrooms. i have a roommate, her name is jane. we are very compatible as roommates. the other 2 rooms have 4 guys: robert, james, ted, and micah. although we found out today that james is quitting and taking another job in montana in his field of study so good for him. the other people that work with us but don't live with us are nathan and eric. travis is the crew leader and lives with his wife here in ely. robin is the project supervisor and actually lives in reno, but comes out to help us as often as he can.

when we're not living in the quarters, we spend our time camping. which amounts to about 4 nights a week. so i spend monday, tuesday, wednesday, and thursday working and camping. sometimes we come home thursday night, but it seems like we're probably going to start coming home friday morning soon. it's hard to say just yet because we've been working so hard that we've gotten to come home thursday nights. we generally work 4 ten hour days, although usually we work more like 12 hour days. let me tell you, coming home friday and taking a hot shower, and going to the post office are two of the most looked forward to events of the week! so, if anyone feels like sending me some mail, i think i put the address on the previous post but just in case, here it is again:

kristen falk
general delivery
ely NV 89301

i'm here until at least the end of september so i can always use a smile in the mail box.

i think that's about it for now, i tried to post some more photos but the computer is acting weird. we'll see what i can do. till then, miss you all and hope all is well. please write, it's the highlight of my week, hands down.

peace, love, and turtles!!

i'm in nevada and i'm OK

hi everyone who actually reads this! just wanted to touch base and let everyone know i took a job with the united states forest service doing research over the summer, and i'm working out of ely nevada. starting next week we'll be doing a bunch of fun camping and traveling while doing research, so if i get a chance somehow i'll try to post some photos. however the library computers don't have the right setup for me to download my photos so we'll have to wait till next time.

please send mail to
kristen falk
general delivery
ely nv 89301

there you go! hope to hear from someone soon. i know no one will check this anymore however because i haven't written in ages.

the altitude here is pretty interesting - i've been used to living around 50 feet, and now i'm at about 6500. tried going running and ended up winded and with a bad headache. it will just take some time. otherwise, what i have been doing is working, working, sleeping, and working. although i was sick last week and had to go to the hospital for awhile. that wasn't much fun at all. but i'm back and alive and well it would seem now. anyway internet time is really limited here at the ely library so i gotta run but hope people have a nice 4th of july.

the hardest goodbye

last days are weird, i've decided. it seems strange to me that i'm the only one working, and it's me that's leaving. everyone else has gone off to some meeting or to do some other work. so it's just me. by myself. kinda lonely.

i think if he could have helped it, my boss wouldn't have said goodbye to me at all. he was lucky i was in the lab for the 2 seconds he passed through.

this other woman in the lab, who has never gotten a single joke or wise crack i've ever told, said goodbye and was off to work on a grant proposal. i gave her a hug and turned away. i got choked up because she was supportive of me, even though it always seemed fake. people think i misread other people. but they're wrong.

-----------------

the last person i said goodbye to was shelley. she was procrastinating leaving to drive back to SF, and procrastinating saying goodbye because she knew it would be hard for both of us (i'm tearing up as i write this right now).

and it's not like we're never going to see each other again - i still plan to keep in touch with her, go on crazy outdoor adventures, have snacks, talk about guys, etc. it's just the change of environment. i won't be here every day to chat with, to share stories with, to laugh with. i won't be here to go run get coffee real quick with, or to go get lunch with on a whim, or to help out with a project she could really use an extra hand with. she and i have gotten to be good, maybe even very good friends in the last year. and saying goodbye (choking up) was just so hard.

she gave me a hug and hugged me the hardest anyone that small has ever hugged me (she is a rock climber with a very high metabolism, and she's super strong). she has been there for me a lot these past few months and has listened to all my drama as i have listened to hers (wiping away tears)(sniffle) anyhow, we hugged for a good 5-10 minutes. the tears were flowing down my face and into her hair. hers were flowing onto my shoulder. we stood there embraced in the lab not wanting to let go.

i know i need to leave because it will be good for me to move onto something new, but to leave her behind in this lab where people don't understand her like i do, don't care about her like i do, well, that's the hardest part of this goodbye.

--------------

i didn't turn in my keys today so i will have to come back and do it tomorrow. but by now it's 135am and i'm just too tired to write anything else (stayed up till 430am last night/this morning working on stuff here at work. i'm finally done.)

good bye leaves. good bye lesions. good bye lab.

peace out. i'll see you on the flip side.

i love this, i need this

i needed something to cheer me up and this was just the thing. went to visit an old teammate of mine who lives on a ranch and they just had a litter of puppies. i have never seen anything so small or cute in my entire life.

a heads up to my fellow blog readers: as of tuesday evening, i will be unemployed. so i likely won't be blogging much due to my lack of computer at home. but please still write me. i need the positive encouragement. the last day and a half have been bad. i'm all emotional because of this job thing. if you come upon any job opportunities, let me know. i'll blog you soon.

terrible horrible no good very bad day

it isn't even that bad. just feel like i've got the pedal to the metal and my brain is tired and i'm crabby. i think my back hurts, my wrist hurts, and i'm hungry, thirsty, maybe i have low blood sugar (learned about mood changes in first aid class) so who knows what is wrong with me but i'm not very much fun right now. kinda screwed up a couple of things at work, nothing bad, and i'm feeling warm. and i know it's not pms, that was 2 weeks ago or something.

calgon take me away!

wait, i don't have a bathtub. dang.

things i like, version 1.0

well stan has this whole likes dislikes list going, and it got me thinking about how there are so many things in this life that i like. so i started with today, just going about my business, finding things i liked. so here you go, in case you were interested.

1. toast with butter and honey
2. milk
3. chai tea
4. snacks
5. potatoes
6. buffalo wings
7. spicy sauces
8. craft projects
9. check lists
10. accomplishing tasks
11. sleeping in
12. turtles
13. friends
14. backrubs
15. emails/letters from long lost pals
16. writing down my thoughts
17. cold water
18. hot showers
19. cheese
20. making cds
21. listening to music
22. organizing / sorting / cataloging things
23. teammates
24. rugby
    
25. typing fast
26. using shortcut keys on the computer
27. photography
28. colors
29. different colored writing utensils
30. music
31. dancing
32. fonts
33. crazy hair
34. nice smelling bath and body products
35. sincerity and openness
36. road trips / traveling
37. camping
    
38. spontaneity!