fail.

I took a picture yesterday, but I forgot to post.  I forgot to take a picture today, but I remembered to post.  I'm in the midst of an existential crisis, so you'll have to forgive me if I get a little scatter-brained.  Here is my dilemma:  I was thinking of doing a second year here, in AmeriCorps but I just found out that the job I have this year didn't get approved for a second year (not all that surprising since they wrote it for me when my first job fell through, but a let-down none the less).  That leaves me a few options:  I could aim for a different AmeriCorps position and stay in Cali (and be poor but probably pretty happy) for another year, I could go home and job hunt from Vermont while living with my (hopefully happy to have me again...) parents and hope for the best, I could stay here in Tahoe and put in my dues as a waitress or cashier or something until some job comes up here, or I could do something totally off the wall and move to Tampa or Austin or Ireland (for a job if there is one, or grad school, if I can decide what to study and justify the new loans).  So many options!  I keep telling myself that these options are something I should appreciate while I have them but all the uncertainty certainly takes its toll.

At times like this I start to feel a little less at home where I am every day, until I figure out where i'll be next and can finally relax again.  I paid nearly $200,000 for my degree and yet I can't seem to find something to do with it that would make me happy.  Is life about learning to settle?  Am I supposed to be learning that an office and a cubicle and several 400 page documents about wastewater and erosion control BMPs is the best I can do?  I hope not.  I won't settle for money and the mundane!  I want something that makes me feel good, I want to be proud of what I do, I want to be broke and happy...not financially sound and mentally miserable!  I hate that I live in a time and an economy when that is almost too much to ask for.  Perhaps another round of AmeriCorps is the best I can do right now...but i guess thats not so bad...

Photo for thought:

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day of rest

today was my whole weekend, and man did i need it!  I slept in (all the way until 8:30!) and then I took a little walk to see if I could see the snow (rumors told me that it should be not far up in the mountains).  This is what I saw:

But then later, when I went back out I saw the snowww!  Yep, thats right, snow.  In August.  Ick.  And here it is below, up on the mountain!

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Crazy week(end)!

I just might have missed a few days in the daily photo thing recently, but its so hard to tell because I have just been so busy that all my days are running together!  This week I started my macroinvertebrate monitoring (only the thing I have been planning for since I moved up to Tahoe in May) and we are working SO much faster than I had planned, getting 8 entire 250 meter reaches done in 3 days (not to mention closing up day three early to go pull invasive weeds in the Upper Truckee Marsh to support another AmeriCorps volunteer in his event)!  Sounds impressive right?  Well it kind of is, but it also involved 2 twelve hour days and one 11 hour day, but thats okay.  That was Monday through Wednesday, and then on Thursday our AmeriCorps training starting with trail building on the Tahoe Rim Trail which involved an early morning and some hard work (fortunately I was able to leave early for that work picnic I made the pie for and the pie was a pretty big hit!)  Then we headed off to the beach to meet up with the rest of our AmeriCorps group to have some dinner.

That brings us to Friday, a full day of training on like after AmeriCorps (job hunting, resume building, interviewing, etc).  The most important lesson I took away from that was to keep in touch with everyone you meet ever because you never know who might prove to be a great contact later on (plus you know, having friends is pretty cool...).  That was a rewarding but very long day that ended with a reception for the Sierra Nevada Alliance Conference attendees and AmeriCorps volunteers which was very cool.  I met and spoke to a science teacher who is also a GLOBE trainer and was utterly fascinated by his stories!  It brought back wonderful memories of some of my science teachers that really inspired me back in the day (shout out to Mr. Grotto and Mr. Mitchell!)

Anyway that was yesterday and that brings us to today, when all of us AmeriCorps folks got to be conference attendees for the day which was a very cool experience!  I learned a lot, met some VERY interesting and amazing people, and learned that my Mom isn't the only one who reads this blog!  (which gave me all sorts of guilt about having not updated for a few days...) I handed out all sorts of business cards that I knew I had printed for a reason, and felt very inspired at the end of the day, after hearing about all the wonderful things all these organizations are doing!  The conference officially ended for me at 4:30 pm and now I'm home, and it really feels like weekend, which I needed after this week because its back to monitoring on Monday and while it is amazing and fun work (can't complain about playing in rivers all day), it is thoroughly exhausting and we are getting reports that it will be cold enough to snow here tonight as low as 7000 feet (that is unconfirmed rumors of course, my favorite information source!) and that could make Monday extra frigid!

Anyway today I have taken several photos to make up for my few days of silence, and I figured it has been a long time since I gave my Mom a garden update so here are my little kiddos:

Basil Flowers

Yellow Tomato Babies, even though I bring him in out of the cold every night he's still having a very hard time figuring out how to redden up his tomaters!

My Snap Dragons, now so tall that they are bent over and flowering upside down!

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peach pie!

So today I made a pie from this recipe but I don't get any until tomorrow because I made it for my work picnic...so I'll let you know how it goes, but I can tell you that it looks pretty delicious!  Here it is, my photo of the day:

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Happy Birthday Mom!

Gotta start with a Happy Birthday to my Momma!  I wish I was home so I could bake her a big fancy-schmancy cake!  Another Happy Birthday goes out to my former co-worker, Miss Sara!  Hope it was wonderful!

I have been working so much lately with my bug sampling finally in full swing I hardly have time to take a photo of the day, so heres a work photo because thats my whole life these days.  This is the river I spent 9 hours playing in today...not so bad when you consider most alternatives (cubicles don't hold a candle to this!):

 Next I have a semi-recipe for you...well its a whole recipe really, but I just used it to jazz up left-overs.  So a few days ago I made that big bowl of pasta (recipe posted here) which I was hoping would last me through the week so I wouldn't have to worry about any more cooking.  Well it has, but I'm getting a little tired of the same thing for one to two meals a day and I had some left over ingredients I needed to use up to this is what I did:  I sliced and sautéed the remainder on the onion in olive oil, when it was translucent I added a splash of wine and some of the left over veggie broth from the pasta.  I tossed in the other bag of sun dried tomatoes I had bought and let it simmer for a few minutes to soften the tomatoes.  After that I added another can of chopped olives and one of sliced mushrooms, and a fresh farmers market eggplant sliced and then quartered. I poured it all into a wok and added the rest of the chicken broth, cooking it down until there was very little left.  This was good on its own, and would probably make a good side dish, but instead I tossed mine into the leftover cold pasta and tadaaa!  Same flavors, so it all fits, but just different enough to be new.  Also, I dusted it with some crumbled goat cheese just like before and yumm...it did not disappoint.

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feather

Found this at work today, when we were bug sampling in the Upper Truckee River.  

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a photo and a recipe

I started my day off by getting caught up on some things i was supposed to do for work...sounds worse than it is, mostly I just walked around this meadow (below) and wrote down ground water depths at monitoring wells.  It was more like a morning walk than work really...

Anyway after I finished up at work I stopped into the grocery store and picked up what I needed to make this pasta dish I remembered making (and loving) a long long time ago with Miss Merry.  I found this recipe, which was close to what we followed, but not quite so naturally I edited it to my liking.  This is the recipe I used:
Boil water for the pasta and while you're waiting heat a bit of olive oil and butter in a saucepan and add a few cloves of chopped garlic.  Sauté until it smells great but don't let it burn.  Add about half of a medium sweet onion and sauté until translucent.  At this point I also tossed in a few chopped mushrooms too.  When the onion is done add a splash of dry white wine, chopped sundried tomatoes, and some vegetable broth and cook on medium heat until it reduces to about half the amount of liquid.  Then toss in drained artichoke hearts, capers, and a small can of chopped olives.  Cook until all ingredients are heated through and add directly to cooked pasta and toss.  Serve immediately, the recipe calls for fresh grated Parmesan, which I'm sure would be delicious, but I used fresh crumbled goat cheese instead, amazing!  Below is the result: warning, its strong stuff and requires no extra seasoning, but if you are a fan of capers and sundried tomatoes then you will love this dish!

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minor setback

I inadvertently left my camera in a friends bag for a few days...but now its catch up time...and yes, I did actually take a photo each day for the ones that i've missed.

Thursday:

The meadow by my house, on my evening walk

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Friday:

Mt. Tallac as soon from a sailboat in the middle of the lake!

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Today:

Motley...(too hot for his socks)

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the most beautiful day at work

A few of the sites i saw at work today....

This flower i can't ID...hard to find because its so average looking...

These ones are a little more interesting....these are called Pine Drop - Pterospora andromedea

And these are called Columbian Monkshood - Aconitum columbianum

This is the view from the rock we climbed to eat lunch.

And this is the view from the road/trail we walked back to the car.  What a beautiful day!

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Tahoe Summit

Today I spent the morning at the Tahoe Summit in Sand Harbor on the East shore of Lake Tahoe.  I was going to write about the speeches made by Senators Reid and Feinstein, or the opening prayer led by an ageing Washoe Elder whose family members have roamed these shores since long before there even were senators, or the way the lunches we made in compostable containers with compostable plastic cups, but the syran-wrapped cookies were made in Texas (how sustainable), or even the disappointment I felt when I heard the prosperity plan for the coming years here in Tahoe involves trying to stimulate a feeling of community because well, tourists like a feeling of community when they come to visit places.  I was going to talk about all those things, to address what they referred to as a "lack of young environmental professionals in the area" (A lack?  Environmental professionals are everywhere up here.  Nearly everyone on the CTC crews, building their fencing, seeding their soil, cleaning up their urban lots, all of then have at least 2 year degrees in environmental fields.  Forest Service crews are filled with experienced environmental degree holders just trying to make ends meet.  The AmeriCorps program in the Sierra Nevada and here in Tahoe has become so competitive that people with masters degrees and doctorates are competing to volunteer up here.  There are plenty of young environmental professionals here, more than I've known anywhere else in my travels, so whats the matter?  There are no jobs.  These people are all working their butts off for 10 hour days doing little more than labor just to make ends meet and only to get laid-off every fall and hope to god they get their job back every spring.  The tourism industry up here has created an extremely variable and seasonal economy, I know so many people up here that spend their summers working long hours on a crew and their winters living off of unemployment and skiing, thats not a recipe for success.  Theres only so many years someone can comfortably do that before they have to find something year-round, before they need to get out of the tourist clogged streets of beautiful lake Tahoe, before they can't handle being asked by some other idiot stopped in the middle of highway 50 on a busy day where the lake is.  Tourism has created a transient town here, a group of people who come and stay for a few years, can't find real work, and move on to another place that offers them more opportunities, thats why you don't have a community.  Tourism is not the answer to Tahoe's economic woes, it is part of the cause.  Thats just my opinion though, and maybe thats because I am a young environmental professional with a decent resume and a respectable degree here in Tahoe looking for a full time job and being offered a second full time volunteer year, haven't I volunteered enough already?  Haven't I paid my dues?  2 full years of living at the poverty line for the experience has been worth every minute, but how long do I keep working for free before I recognize that I have $35,000 in student loans hanging over my head that I will someday need to pay off.   You want to hang onto people like me Tahoe?  Give us jobs that pay real money to do real work, don't demean us by making us work for free for years or laying us off every fall.  But thats just me...)

Anyway, I was going to say all of that but when I got out my computer to start writing my roommates cat came into my room and peed on my brand new comforter and just-washed sheets while I was actually in my bed and I got too angry to want to do any writing at all.  Heres a promise I need to make to myself and actually keep: when I move out of this house I will NEVER live ANYWHERE with a cat again.  Period.  End of story.

So heres my photo of the day, not a good one, but acceptable.  The Senators up on Stage in front of the Shakespeare on the Beach backdrop at Sand Harbor:

But mostly, the backs of the guys in front of me's heads.  Okay I'm done whining.  Thanks for putting up with me!

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native or non-native

Ever since my work sent me to an invasive weeds training a few months back I have been constantly checking out the plants I find in the field and on the lookout for invasives.  Sometimes they are easy, like thistles (there are 2 that are native here, both of which are very distinct), sometimes they are harder (like the native daisy, shasta daisy, and the invasive daisy, oxeye daisy, which differ mostly in proportions of petals to flower center), and sometimes they leave me downright lost (like the one described below).  I just might have finally figured it out.

Sulfer Cinquefoil is a non-native invasive plant to the Tahoe Basin.  It has leaves that resemble pot leaves and light  yellow butter-cup like flowers.  Slender Cinquefoil is a native plant to the Tahoe Basin.  It has the same leaves and the same flowers, except the flowers are a much brighter yellow.  But wait...theres more!  There is another similar flower, whose name I'm not familiar with, native to these parts, pale yellow flowers, leaves like strawberry leaves.  This is not bad either.  IDing any of these plants before they flower is damn near impossible for me, but today, invaisve weed book in tow, while out at some property doing monitoring for work, I found this guy:

A beautiful example of Slender Cinquefoil.  I think I might have it down now...but we'll see....

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watercolors

A friend and fellow SNAP volunteer recently asked me would I be interested in possibly doing some watercolor illustrations for some interpretive signage their organization is creating.  They want 10 in total, of invasive and native species of the foothills where the signs will be placed.  They want some samples of my work so that they can decide if they like it enough to put it on their signs and so I decided to try to practice with a few of the species this weekend to see if I think I can really handle it.  Well I can certainly draw/paint what they are looking for, but I'm not all that impressed with my final products.  I made these in only a few hours, so if I put a great deal more time into it maybe I could, but I'm not sure I have that kinda time right now.  Anyway, these are what I created, the first is English Ivy (Hedera helix) and the second is Himalayan Blackberry (Rubus armeniacus), both of which are invasive to those parts.  I'm not overly impressed with my blackberry painting skills, but I guess i can do leaves okay...

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Rubicon Trail

I forgot to post a photo yesterday, but I hiked a hike today that was so sooo beautiful that I think two from today is better then some old stinky yesterday picture anyway.

We hiked the Rubicon Trail today, which extends from Rubicon Point in D. L. Bliss State Park all the way into Emerald Bay, to Vikingsholm, and then back out the other side to Eagle Point Camp Ground.  It was about a 6.5 mile hike, of mostly flat and easy terrain.  We took a looong lunch down by the water in an area that was sandy for about 15 feet and then abruptly drops off about 1000 more after a certain point, which was very neat. We called it the abyss and were absolutely terrified of what lay beyond it...all the treasures and terrors floating around in the bottom of Lake Tahoe.

Then last view of the lake on the hike, right before we hit Eagle Point Campground.  

A crooked, self-timer shot of Reyna and I at the beginning of the 

hike, at one of the first look out points.  

A lighthouse at the very beginning of the trail, built in 1919, this was once upon

 a time the highest elevation lighthouse on a navigable body of water in the entire world!

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snowballs?

These are called Ranger Buttons....but I call them snowball flowers!  Aren't they fun?

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botany!

Today I helped my coworker finish up some vegetation monitoring and learned some more plants.  I'm making myself a sheet with common names, descriptions, Latin names, and photos of all the plants that I have been IDing, here are a few of the new ones from todays plots:

Common Horsetail

Mule's Ear

Brewers Daisy (Surrounded by Green Stipule Lupine) 

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just another day at work...

I have reached 200!!! YAY!  Only 165 more photos to post until I'm done!  So anyway todays photo was taken at the top of eagle rock, a CTC parcel where we were working most of the day. So again...just to reiterate...this is my job.  I climb mountains, through streams, around forests, and I love it.  Teeter-tottering at the moment as to whether I would like to serve another year or not.  Another year here, at this great job, doing work i love?  Awesome.  Another year spent completely broke on the opposite side of the country from 80% of my friends and family?  not awesome.  grrr.

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pinecone

pine cone is code for i spent all day in the office and didn't get to take a picture until my evening walk around the neighborhood...so i took a picture of a pine cone.  I know, its a long and obscure code, but it is what it is...what can ya do about it?

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pillows!

So i know, i haven't posted a recipe in a whileeeee and i'll tell you why...because my last 2 attempts at baking at altitude have been epic failures, first with collapsing cookies and then a collapsing zucchini cake...very disappointing for me.  I made cookies and cream cheesecake cupcakes again for my roommate for her birthday, but since i had already posted the recipe I didn't feel the need to put that one up again.  So today, for a friends birthday, a friend who recently gave up eating dairy, i finally got to make a recipe I have been looking for an excuse to make for AGES....andddd it worked perfectly, even at altitude!  I'm so happy!  So without further ado, this is the recipe and these are the cookies:

Yummmmmm!

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doggy beach day!

i know i know...i forgot to post one yesterday...but mister wilson here is so cute he makes up for it i think.  

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California...land of lupines!

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beachhhh

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"I always fall in love with an open door"

half way.  what next?  

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bluesplosion!

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Wanderlust

I spent the weekend on hiatus at wanderlust, a music and yoga festival up in Squaw.  I volunteered and worked all day on friday and a half day on saturday.  I had a great time and spent friday up at high camp at the top of the cable car on the tippy top of squaw mountain checking people in for their yoga classes.  I had sunday off for yoga etc, but I was so very tired from the other two nights of music that I left a bit early and took a nap.  Sorry for missing a few days, but in return for your patience, you get the view from the top of Squaw:

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