Yet Another Call to Action...

"For unnumbered centuries of human history the wilderness has given way. The priority of industry has become dogma. Are we as yet sufficiently enlightened to realize that we must now challenge that dogma, or do without our wilderness? Do we realize that industry, which has been our good servant, might make a poor master?"  ~Aldo Leopold

I know that I have always been conscious of the quiet, but steady destruction of wild places that human consumption necessitates, somewhere in the back of my head there has always been an awareness that natural places that I have known and loved in my life will not always be there.  Its a reality I have been uncomfortable with for a long time, but one that I know I thought, and I think most people think, that they can do nothing about.  How does one person stop the inevitable grind of progress in defense of the wild places they have come to love?  This is an adversary against which the average person cannot possibly compete, right?  But in my more recent work I am beginning to discover the ways in which each of us, in our own way, can make a difference.  I am finding them, and I want to share them, because this is a fight that is truly worth fighting, not just for the environmentalists and the outdoors enthusiasts, but for everyone and let me tell you why.  

I recently listened to an episode of the podcast called "Too Much Information" with Benjamen Walker called "4 Big Ideas From Sept 17th, 2012" and I highly recommend it to everyone, and I mean everyone, not just environmentalists, even though I know that my audience of the 4 people who read this blog is heavily biased on the environmental side, please share this, because this matters.  It's about the book Small is Beautiful by the British economist and author E. F. Schumacher and it talks about economics of scale.  My favorite quote from the episode is by the author Andrew Sims, who says: 

"If a business goes bankrupt you can set up elsewhere, if the biosphere, if the ecosystems upon which we depend are bankrupted through over-exploitation, well, there might be no coming back from that."

I love it because I think it completely explains the sense of urgency I feel about protecting the planet that we depend on, not just because I am a nature-loving tree-hugger, but because I can see that in a very fundamental way this planet sustains us, and if we don't take care to preserve at least some of it, eventually we will bankrupt it.  Consider this statistic:  According to the Pew Environment Group 6000 acres of open land are lost each day...each day!  That is 2.19 million acres of land that are lost each year, every year or alternatively 250 acres per hour...until somebody says that's enough.  I'm saying that's enough now.  We cannot live as though our resources are infinite, we cannot assume that growth is always the answer.  Try to imagine a world with no open spaces, no wild lands, no wilderness.  It should be unimaginable, because it is illogical and unnatural, but I've met people who say they would prefer it.  I think this is a preference borne of a lack of understanding.  

So what can you do to help change this?  

Educate, teach your children about the environment and wildernesses that you love, your parents, your friends.  Talk about it, tell people why you care.  I can't help but be passionate about these things, and it just bubbles out of me all the time.  Ask any one of my friends, I am one of the most annoying hiking buddies ever, because I just spout information about ecosystems, air quality, endangered species, habitat loss, and anything else that pops into my head.  I can't help it, but I like to think that every once in a while I inspire someone else to care, and that is the best outcome that I can think of.  

Support, not everyone wants to do the kind of work that I do, and that is absolutely fine.  Not everyone has to, but if you support the efforts that people in my line of work are making, show it.  I know so many people who agree with what I do, and congratulate my efforts to protect these wild lands, but getting people to lift a pen and share these feelings with others is like pulling teeth!  Writing a letter to the editor, blog post, facebook post, or tweet about a local wilderness area that you love can be so inspiring to someone like me who spends their days making efforts that most people never even notice.  Like the Campaign for America's Wilderness on facebook, find the person closest to your area who is out there inventorying public lands to find eligible wilderness areas and shake their hand, write them a thank you letter, or donate to their organization.  Write to your congress person urging them to give lands near you wilderness protection.  These things can take 5 minutes, but if you don't show anyone that these issues matter to you, no one will ever do anything about it.  

Warning: Shameless plug of my own work to follow...

If you are in Wyoming, have traveled to Wyoming, or want to travel to Wyoming, consider doing me the favor of writing something about your appreciation of the lands that I have inventoried.  If you hunt in Wyoming, consider voicing how crucial winter ranges for big game need better protections so that there will continue to be healthy populations of game for sport hunting.  If you appreciate desert landscapes, consider writing to the to a local paper and expressing how important it is that we realize deserts are not simply wasted space, sitting on top of possible energy reserves, but are instead valuable habitats and ecosystems.  If you like backpacking and back country camping, write to your favorite magazine or publication urging readers to recognize that many of the areas they enjoy are not yet protected, and could in fact be developed at any time.  

Do something!  Do anything.  Express what you care about in your state and why to anyone that you can, because tomorrow's 6000 acres could be the forests and fields of your childhood, and if you stay quiet today you'll forever regret it when that fateful tomorrow comes.  

"The most striking thing about modern industry is that it requires so much and accomplishes so little. Modern industry seems to be inefficient to a degree that surpasses one's ordinary powers of imagination. Its inefficiency therefore remains unnoticed."  -E. F. Schumacher

sunrises and triple chocolate tiramisu

Life moves fast, and i'll be out of here before i know if, so I'm trying to get out of the house a little more and enjoy myself while i'm still in Tahoe.  In that spirit, Matt and I got up and watched the sunrise again today, this time from emerald bay (the same place i went to this summer when i watched the sunrise with Reyna).  Below are some pictures from this morning and it is followed by the photos of the tiramisu that I made for italian night potluck last night with the recipe.  Enjoy!

taken with old reliable - my canon point and shoot

taken with new and exciting - my pentax dslr

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Triple Chocolate Tiramisu

made from the recipe here, except garnished with shave white and dark chocolate instead of unsweetened cocoa powder, I also used chocolate covered coffee beans when I served it, but theres no picture of that.

Start by lining the bottom of an 8x8x2 in pan with lady fingers and then drizzle with coffee or espresso:

Next combine heavy cream, mascarpone, sugar, vanilla, and chocolate liqueur and beat until it forms stiff peaks:

 

then spread half of it over the lady fingers in the dish:

next sprinkle it with white and dark chocolate shavings:

another layer of lady fingers:

more coffee:

Then the rest of the cream mixture followed by some more chocolate, cover and refrigerate for at least 6 hrs:

Then enjoy!  it came out pretty delicious, and was much simpler than i had anticipated to make.  Some tips:  I bought the lady fingers, piping and baking them was too much work for me.  To find lady fingers at the grocery store ask at the bakery counter, they had them in the freezer and had to go back and get them for me.  Also, mascarpone cheese is much harder to find than i had anticipated.  Call around and figure out who has it before you start shopping so you don't have to do what I did and go on a three grocery store long epic grocery voyage to find it.  I eventually found it at a Raley's, not with the other cheeses in the cheese case or near the ricotta, cream cheese, or cottage cheese but by all the fresh salsa's and dips in one of the other refrigerator cases...of course that could just be Raley's because pretty much that whole store makes no sense to anyone who grew up with east coast grocery stores that have logical order.  Also, if you can't find mascarpone then there are a few substitutions that i've heard work.  I stopped at home to look one up on my way to the third grocery store on my epic voyage so that if I could not find it then i could at least buy a viable substitute, this is the one I picked: 8 oz of softened cream cheese, plus 3 tablespoons of sour cream, plus 2 tablespoons of heavy cream (liquid, not whipped)

give it a try, let me know how it goes.

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cookies and big decisions.

I don't know where to start but i'm going to try to spell this all out for whomever still reads this and for myself.  Recently, after a few glasses of wine, I got to thinking about what my life would be if I stayed here in Tahoe for another year, like I have been planning on doing for a few weeks now.  I made the decision to stay but the anxiety about what I am doing with my life didn't go away; it didn't feel like anything was solved or going away, it felt like I might be making a mistake.  Don't get me wrong, I love it here and it is quite possibly the most beautiful place I have ever been in my entire life, but it just doesn't feel quite like the right fit. I love my friends and of course potlucks are amazing, work is going well and I know I would have been content with another year at the conservancy BUT I feel like thats what happens to everyone here...once you get here its easier to stay and barely scrape by money-wise, and make do with the work and social life that you have instead of going in search of better because it is so beautiful here that its intoxicating.  When I go out and look at the mountains and the lake I can't believe I would ever leave this place, its truly an artist's and a photographer's dream!  The only problem is thats its just not me, I just don't fit, and how long am I going to put up with feeling like a square peg in a round hole because its easy and pretty and because so many others feel that same way and have put up with it for years?  I'm a woman of action and when things start to get uncomfortable or less meaningful or no longer ideal I do something about it.  I'm not going to wait for things to become meaningless or even painful before I go, the idea is to leave yourself wanting more, not less.  So its goodbye Tahoe for me, because I do love it here, but thats not enough anymore.  Now when I have a few glasses of wine I feel no anxiety, its sad that I'm going, and I'll miss everyone here terribly, but I know I'm doing what I need to do and I'm blazing a new path and and seeking out new experiences...and it feels right.  This is what I do, I keep looking until I find just what I want and then I go for it, its who I am, young and completely free, following my heart.  It feels right.

Sooooooooo with that said I will be peacing out of beautiful South Lake Tahoe come mid-February and hitting the dusty trail on a second epic cross country road trip...to visit friends and new cities and find out just where I want to go next.  Last night I baked cookies and this morning I got up to watch the sunrise, its time to start living up my last days here.  So here are my cookies, Ultimate High Altitude Chocolate Chip Cookies from this recipe, which came out great because I used a high altitude recipe (it'll be pretty sweet to be able to just bake things again, without fear of collapse or oily mess...).  Here are the resulting cookies:

Yayyyy cookies!  I have tons of them now, even though I made them HUGE soooo if you are in South Lake Tahoe and you want a cookie or 2 gimme a call and i'll be happy to share!  

This morning Matt and I got up at 6:30 to go watch the sunrise at the upper truckee marsh, it was so beautiful but not the best viewing spot, so perhaps tomorrow we'll look for a better one.  Anyway here are my favorite shots from this morning, not bad but I'm still getting used to my new camera and I'm pretty sure I can do better...so stay tuned, I'll definitely be taking more photos in my final weeks here because I want to take as much of the beauty with me as i can!  

First rays of dawn

Sunrise behind the trees and mountains

hey...its me!

Epic shot of Mr. Matt

The sun sneaking over Mount Tallac

Sooooo gorgeous!

Sun kissed mountains and lake and protected Tahoe Yellowcress habitat...this is the only place it grows in the WHOLE WORLD!  sweeeeeeeeeeet.

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today, the day before yesterday, and the day before that...

I have been taking photosss, I am just so out of the habit of posting them on here that i forget completely.  I'm getting back into it though, and I'll get to 365!  So here is Wednesdays photo:

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Here is Thursday's photo, from a walk I took along the river:

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And heres one for today, this is the first loaf of yeast bread I have baked at altitude, I was very intimidated at first because I am a little intimidated by yeast breads anyway, but this one came out very well!  I made whole wheat oatmeal bread from a recipe in the Vegetarian Epicure cookbook that my momma gave me.  I'm pretty proud of how well these loaves turned out!  Take a look for yourself, I can share the recipe and more information about the cookbook if anyone is interested!

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"Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul."

Its only appropriate to start this one out with a John Muir quote, as he traveled to and loved all the places in the Sierra that I'm about to show you (and many others that I haven't had the opportunity to visit yet...), but more than that, he is quite possibly the reason many of them still exist today.

Friday:

Spent the morning at work, that afternoon packing, and the evening on the road to Mammoth.  Here's a shot from my morning at work, taken of Lake Tahoe from the Upper Truckee Marsh...if you look closely you can see a raising hot air balloon in the center of the photo:

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Saturday:

My first day in Mammoth!  We spent the morning on the Owens River (me learning to fly fish, everyone else successfully fly-fishing...) after a few hours I got impatient with the wind impeding my learning and read a book instead.  So as not to feel as though I was wasting the $12.50 I had spent on a fishing license for that day I gave it another go before lunch and then threw in the towel after lunch and we took off to check out some local attractions:

The Owens River (aka. our fishin' spot)

Convict Lake (where we went after, so named for a gang of fugitives who escaped Carson City Prison in the 1870's and holed up in the mountains around this lake)

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Sunday:

After getting up early to hit the dusty trail, we hiked into the John Muir Wilderness and out to Sherwin Lakes, then to a pond, followed by Valentine Lake.  We met a couple on the way who warned us that Valentine lake was small and disappointing, all grown in and not that exciting.  We think maybe they made it to the pond and mistook it for Valentine Lake...What do you think?

John Muir Wilderness!

The Pond (still pretty beautiful...)

Valentine Lake (even more gorgeous than this picture in person and, in my opinion, well worth the 10 mile hike)

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Monday:

That brings us to today!  Another morning spent fishing by the Owens but since my fishing License was expired I spent it reading a book and painting in the beautiful river valley.  After we left Mammoth at lunch time we headed off to Lee Vining to see the famous Mono Lake (a Sierra salt lake whose glassy surface and unique "tufa" make it a California favorite) which I found to be incredibly beautiful despite its large fly population and pungent odor.  Next we headed home over Monitor Pass and then it was "back to life" time and I spent the evening unpacking and unwinding and getting ready for work tomorrow.  

Mono Lake

View from the top of the Eastern Slope of Monitor Pass

View down of the Western Slope. if you click and enlarge you can see smoke in the middle of the mountains from what we can only assume is a small forest fire...apparently they are commonplace to these parts but I'll never find then anything short of arresting and unnerving..)

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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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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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heavenly

(this is for yesterday, today's will be posted later today)

Last night was the 20th anniversary gala fundraiser for the Tahoe Baikal Institute and I was invited to rub elbows with donors.  There was a silent Auction, signature drinks, and the best part, it was held at the top of the tram at the lodge at Heavenly ski resort; so we spent the evening out on the balcony enjoying the fabulous band and watch the sun set over Lake Tahoe. Heres my favorite shot of the night:

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top 10 reasons to visit me in Tahoe!

Got up for sunrise this morning (after a nearly sleepless night thanks to the two large dogs outside my bedroom door barking their little hearts out at the howling coyotes outside...all night long...) and my roomy and i hit the road for Emerald Bay to watch the sunrise...here are some of my favorite shots from the morning:

Ten:

moonshine and waterfall

Nine:

Emerald Bay

Eight:

all of Emerald Bay

Seven:

little lighter now...

Six:

Sunshine!

Five:

professional photogs sell pictures that look like this in tourist traps all over Tahoe for like $100 a pop, and i'm giving you this one for free....you're welcome :o)

Four:

sometimes i have to pinch myself to make sure i'm not imagining how gorgeous this place is

Three:

a stop at the beach on the way home...6 am is the time to go, we had the whole place to ourselves!

Two:

footprints in the sand

One:

LT baby!  

Obviously those are only ten, and they may not even be the top ten exactly, there are definitely more...but anyway theres a taste!  I love weekends!  Back to work tomorrow, but today, I am free!

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i'm baaaack!

I know that it has been simply AGES since I updated this thing, and seriously, apologies all around!  I have been working roughly 50 million hours a week and for my first month and a half here I had no internet at home.  I do now though, and as promised, I will continue my challenge!  it may be a little tough to get back in the swing of things but i'll do my best not to let you down again!  First things first, here is some of what you missed:

Early morning fog at our spring training down in Coloma, CA.  All of the pictures of flowers below are ones that I took at our campsite during our week of training:

Sunrise on our second or third to last day in Coloma.

The weekend after spending an 80 degree week in sunny Coloma, we were back in South Lake where we got snowed on some more.  On the way back from a trip down to Carson City, NV to do some shopping   I grabbed this shot of snow clouds over Lake Tahoe from highway 50.  

 I spent the snowy Friday before memorial day painting at Fredericks Cabin on fallen leaf lake.  I couldn't resist snapping a shot of a rather white Mount Tallac sticking its head up into the clouds.

A short hike up to a sweet waterfall and my favorite picture of the day is this little guy, who must have had good luck begging from tourists before since he was not afraid to show off his round little belly to us.  No, i did not feed him, in case you're curious.

The sunset at Fred's after our memorial day BBQ...still quite a bit of snow out there...

Nevada Beach in Stateline, NV.  No place like Tahoe to lay in 80 degree sunshine and stare at snow covered mountains!

This is how I get to work in the morning, or at least its how I had to go when high spring flows flooded the bike trail I usually use.  This is probably one of my favorite commutes ever.

Amazing waders for amazing ladies...somedays i quite enjoy this job.

Upper Truckee Marsh...just another day at work...

Last weekend I got to hang with TBI and go with them on their small plane trip around Tahoe.  I rode shot-gun in a 4 person plane and snapped a few shots of the mountains and Emerald Bay while I was up there.  

This one is the Tahoe Keys, the most unnatural creation I have ever laid eyes one.  Its a neighborhood in which every house has their own boat slip.  Interesting, but unfortunately not great for the environment.  

And finally this one, the beautiful Bear River at my friend Lucy's house, where we camped last night and swam this morning, so yes, as this photo was taken today, it can be considered my first "photo of the day" since I quit sooo soooo long ago.  that means its time for one of these:

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wow...its been so long since i've done that!  how very exciting!  Thats all i've got in me for now, I really should have been in bed HOURS ago.  I have a very very busy week ahead of me, but i'll do my best to keep on top of my photos!