Another Lesson Imparted by the Desert...

In my last BCA newsletter article (Lessons from the Desert, Summer 2013) I wrote about some of the things I have learned from the desert and the experiences that I have had out there.  Looking back though, I know I left out one key lesson, and this very week I learned that lesson many times over, so it's only appropriate that I follow that article up with the story of the final lesson: patience.

Patience has a tendency to wax and wane with moods and circumstances, but thanks to the desert I have learned to keep a liberal supply on hand at all times, because you just never know what is going to pop up.  This week I headed out to the desert on Tuesday, just after 9:00 am.  I checked and double checked that I had everything I needed in the truck, since I had unloaded everything the week before due to an unfortunate incident with leaking water on and around my sleeping materials that also helped cultivate some patience.  I also checked the weather, as I always do, and noted a 20% chance of thunderstorms; but decided that was not enough to cancel my trip and off I went.  It takes me just over three hours of driving to get to the site where I am working, and thanks to the enormous Wyoming sky, I knew I was going to have trouble for probably the last 40 minutes of the trip.  As I approached the massive steely grey clouds perched happily directly over the entire proposed wilderness, with no obvious plans to go anywhere, I began to glance nervously at the clay surface of the road.  If I can just make it below the checkerboard, I thought to myself as sticky conglomerations of clay began attaching themselves to my tire tread, if I can just get to public land, I'll make camp beside the road and wait for things to dry out.

Probably about 50 yards from the end of the private property mine field known as the checkerboard I began to fishtail...badly.  Going no more than five miles per hour, I maneuvered my way perhaps another 20 yards down the road before slow-motion sliding off the road and into a ditch, one tire perched unhappily on the lip of a culvert.  Now this was a pickle I had never been in before, and as I said in my last article, attitude is everything, so I skidded and slipped out of the truck in my flip-flops (as I had not even reached my destination yet my hiking boots were stowed in the truck bed), felt the mud squish between my toes, and set about locking in the hubs.  Once in four-wheel drive I was able to rock the truck back enough to slide my tire off the culvert (causing no harm to the tire or the culvert, thank goodness!) and slosh through the mucky ditch, up the other side, and along beside the road to a nice flat place where I could wait for things to dry out.  I laid in the truck bed reading a book for over an hour waiting for the lightning to subside and the road to dry out.  After tentative testing of the road surface (this time in hiking boots!) I felt okay about continuing and even got a few hours of work in before the sun went down.

In the dusky evening twilight I made my dinner and enjoyed some momentary peace, eating ramen noodles and fruit snacks.  I hopped out of the truck around 8:00 pm to check on the charging I-pad in the cab, and to my dismay found one mostly flat tire deflating slowly under the rear passenger side of my truck.  Patience don't fail me now!  I changed the tire in the soft soil and fading light - digging through all of the storage compartments of the truck to find a board to put under the jack and then having to jump up and down on the tire iron to loosen air-wrench tightened lug nuts.  I finished with only moments of fading grey left in the sky, and went to bed feeling pretty okay about how everything had worked out and how fast I had gotten at changing a tire.

In the morning new dilemmas presented themselves: if the sidewall of the tire is torn then it will need to be replaced, and if that is the case it will take a few days to get the new tire in and I should return to Laramie.  If, however, the tire is merely punctured it can be patched in a matter of minutes and I should drive the considerably shorter distance to Rock Springs.  The problem though, is that the tire was still caked completely in the sticky, gluey mud from the day before.  All attempts to rinse it off would have completely depleted my water supply in short order, and in the desert I kind of need my water.  I decided to hike the road I was on to finish that portion of my inventory, and face this dilemma upon my return after I'd had a good while to think about it.  In the end I opted to drive to the nearest gas station, fill the tire with air, and use their water to hopefully locate it's flaw.  I was in luck of course, as Point of Rocks lay conveniently on the way to Rock Springs without taking me much further from Laramie, and they provide both compressed air and water and to my delight I determined that there was a nail embedded in my tire and Rock Springs was the clear choice.

Because I have had several bad experiences with every Walmart tire center, every time I have had to go to one, (but I had to go to them, as the tire was covered by a warrantee purchased there) I tried to make this transaction as simple as possible, and left them only the tire with instructions to patch it.  I was instructed that they were very busy that day and that it would take at least an hour and possiblly an hour and a half for them to complete the job.  Patience.  "No problem", I said, "just call me when it's done."  I grabbed a sandwich and a coffee and headed for the dog park with my pup.  Three and a half hours later I decided it was time to go check and see how things were getting along, and I headed back to Walmart where I pulled up just in time to see the tech finish up with my tire.  I walked right in the door and waited in line behind one other gentleman purchasing a single battery, thinking that I could just get my tire and go.  Of course this was not the case, there was only one man working the tire counter, and he had, for some reason beyond my understanding, agreed to ring up the purchases of a woman who was attempting to skip the lines at the front register.  Two full carts worth.  The battery man and I stood in line and watched him take each item out of the carts, one at a time, and scan it by hand, for over an hour.  In the end he rang up nearly $500 in purchases and I rang up at least that much in patience points.  Naturally, the woman chose to pay with a check, and the process dragged on and on.

When I finally did reach the counter I was informed that even though I had seen the tech finish with my tire, the paperwork was not ready and I therefor could not be helped yet.  I informed him that I would be waiting in the parking lot, and that he should come get me when the paperwork is ready.  I took the tire on my way by and debated putting it back on right there in the parking lot, but decided to wait for the paperwork, just in case there were any further complications.  My patience paid off in this case, because the tech came over and explained the situation, and feeling badly, put the tire back on my truck for me, in a matter of minutes.  The tech and I headed inside, where he explained to the counter person that the reason my tire had taken so long was that it had been put in as the truck, not as a carry in, and when my turn came up in line they couldn't find my truck so they just moved on.  Hours later the tech noticed that my tire was sitting by the door and investigated, he found a key tag stuck to the tire matching the key tag for the missing truck and put it all together, at which point he promptly fixed my tire.  Since the original paperwork was incorrect (and presumably still lost somewhere in the abyss...) we went through the whole rigmarole of checking me in again, and then immediately back out, at which point I was allowed to sign the paper and leave.

By now it was nearly 6:00 pm and I still had an hour drive back to my field site, so I filled my tank, grabbed a cold drink, and hit the highway.  I managed to put in about 45 minutes worth of work when I got back and then made camp for the night.  I still had a day and a half in the field left to get some work done before I planned to head home for a break, so I figured I would at least get something worthwhile done this week.  The next day, of course, was listed as having a 20% chance of rain, so I don't know why I was surprised when a massive storm rolled in, stopping me in my tracks for nearly two hours of truck-shaking winds and bone-rattling thunder.  Peachy.

In the end, I was able to get nearly two and a half days of work out of the four that I spent out in the desert, but that is just how things go sometimes.  In this line of work there is literally nothing more important than patience, well, except maybe the perseverance (or in my case maybe stubbornness) that keeps me going back for more.  Patience though, can only take this process so far.  It is critical for me, during data collection, because of the inevitable difficulties that crop up; that being said though, to you I would still like to convey a sense of urgency.  The Red Desert has given me some of the greatest adventures of my life and taught me some of the most important lessons, but it is under attack.  Most of these areas are already heavily impacted long before I even get to them.  So far I have visited five protected wilderness study areas, areas enjoying the full protections offered by wilderness designation without formal congressional designation, and there was not a single one that did not already contain abandoned oil and gas infrastructure.  I have also been to eight citizen’s proposed wilderness areas, areas suggested by citizens and conservation groups as possessing wilderness characteristics, and in all of those I can name only one that was not bordered by, or containing, active oil and gas development.

I have come to love the very places that present these daily challenges, and it pains me to see the destruction left behind by the constant push of development.  This is not just my battle though, the BLM needs to hear from concerned citizens like you.  So please, if you love the desert, spread the word, because the best way to ensure it's protection is to show the BLM that people like you care.  This is public land, and you have a say.  For more information about the areas BCA hopes to protect or for ways that you can help, please contact me at shelby@voiceforthewild.org.

I'm on a Roll...

Evidently I am really hard on trucks.  I mean, I think it might have something to do with my job and the terrain on which I travel, but I can't help but feel partially responsible.  As you have probably guessed, I am back in Laramie, with a (once again) malfunctioning truck.  But let me back up, because last week I did go to the desert and was somehow able to stay out for the full 5 days as I had intended (despite the desert's best effort to break me down), and this week I did get a whole 2.5 worthwhile work days in...so at least I'm making progress, albeit in short and frustrating bursts.

So last week I left for the desert on Monday, got there late afternoon, and managed to put in several productive hours of happy and distraction-less inventorying.  I was feeling good, I was remembering everything I love about the desert, and I was really enjoying it.  It felt great, I had my positive energy back!  By day two my positivity was flagging, as I wrestled with a pounding headache in the 95 degree heat of the desert, shadeless and unforgiving.  I drank roughly 3,596 gallons of water, took a 10 minute power nap mid-day, and powered through, still somehow putting in a 12 hour day, but feeling decidedly less happy about the whole thing.

Day 3 proved a tad frustrating when a swiftly deteriorating supply of gas sent me out to town and then, because I was already down that way I tried to access the southern part of the unit and found first that an oil/gas road had been built on top of a portion of one route that I had hoped to use for access, causing the latter half to be difficult to access and therefor abandoned.  Then, a second effort landed me on the path of an old two-track that had also since been buried by a large constructed oil/gas route, but one that had been abandoned, and if you have ever done any traveling in the desert you know that these constructed roads do NOT age well.  After the first washed out and rocky hill I felt hesitant, but continued.  The second had me paying attention, and the third washout left me concerned that I might somehow get myself into a place that I would find I could not get out of.  Frustrated I paced around the truck, mulling over my options: Waste half a day driving back to the part of the unit I knew I could easily access, waste half a day hiking the remainder of this route to decide if traversing this washout would simply land me in the thick of several more, or wing it and risk getting stuck.  Just as I was stomping around proclaiming to the heavens that "this s#!t only happens to me", a wild horse happened by and my puppy exited the truck via a flying leap out the window and took off running through cacti and sage brush to see if it would be her friend.  Fortunately she's a smart dog, and she quickly realized that the retreating horse was not interested in her friendship, so she turned around and returned to the vehicle, not the least bit sorry for having ignored my angry screams for her to come back.  That was it, I loaded her into the truck, buckled her harness into the seat belt (she did not like this), and turned this whole mess around for territory that I knew would present far fewer challenges.

Day 4, opened with a long quiet walk, cool and pleasant just after sunrise.  On a winding road alternating through sand dunes and clay flats, I strolled along happily with my puppy.  A small threatening exchange took place with an offended wild horse, much to the confusion of non-horse-savvy puppy, but other than that the walk was pleasant and uneventful.  And so I naively thought perhaps the entire day would follow suit.  By 2:00 pm the wind had picked up to such an extent that attempting to take a photo with the I-pad became akin to resistance strength training and large, Audrey Hepburn style sunglasses were required just to keep my contacts from blowing out of my eyeballs.  I have no way of knowing, but I'm confident that these winds were in excess of 50 to 60 mph, as they were consistently rocking the entire pickup truck and opening the windward door became exceedingly challenging.  By the end of the day a great deal of dust had blown into and around everything that composed my entire view of the world, my teeth were gritty, my ears had small beaches in them, my hair was an absurd rat's nest of sand and dust, and my normally black dog was an awkward shade of khaki.  It was 5:00 pm; when in the field I usually try to work 6:30 to 6:30 and so I had an hour and a half to kill but had found myself at the mouth of a road leading into the WSA (Wilderness Study Area) where mechanized transport is forbidden, and I knew I had a walk of several hours to capture the entire road.  Rather than quit early I decided to inventory the road as far as the first spur route to a reservoir, and capture all of that so that tomorrow I would be able to race through the first part and start just beyond that spur.  After quickly stuffing water and maps, snacks and a compass into my pack I set out, puppy by my side, onto this two-track, and straight towards an ominous looking cloud.  Experience told me that this giant cloud would, despite it's best effort, drop only 10 or 12 raindrops on the desert floor, the rest evaporating in the insanely dry air before ever reaching the ground, so I felt confident in my choice to continue on.

Unfortunately experiences breeds confidence that some might describe as "false", and in this case that would be an accurate assessment.  Although I was correct in assuming that very little of the rain would reach the ground, I was incorrect in assuming that this would cause no problems for me.  You see, immediately preceding those 12 drops of rain was a wall of wind the likes of which I daresay I have never experienced on foot before, and carried along by that wall of wind were millions upon millions of grains of sand.  So literally the instant I reached the spur route that I had intended to hike I turned to see a dust storm reminiscent of those I encountered in Mauritania, headed my way.  I quickly turned and quite literally ran, full backpack on and dog leash in hand with a confused, frolicking, and tug-of-warring puppy on the other end, back the way I had come, hoping beyond hope that I would reach the truck before the sand reached me.  I didn't.  10 breathless, awkward, lumbering minutes later I dropped to my knees and wrapped myself over my doggies eyes as the stinging sand blasted the outer layers of skin off the backs of my legs.  To make matters worse, the winds barely slowed throughout the entire evening and picked up with a vengeance sometime after 11:00 pm, shaking the truck of side to side and generally destroying any hope I had of getting a good nights sleep.

The final day of this trip was uneventful, ended early, and I was back in Laramie by nightfall.  Thunderstorm warnings kept me from returning to Adobe Town this Monday morning, and my return Tuesday went well; I was even able to get in two full, uneventful days before disaster struck again.  This time I was camping somewhere near the center of the entire unit, but at the southern end of the WSA, generally speaking in the middle of nowhere, on a little eroded two-track route that was frequently buried in sand dunes.  In the morning I got up, fed my pup, and cooked my oatmeal all while still cocooned in my sleeping bag in the 40 degree desert morning.  When I finally felt ready to emerge and take on the day, I stalled out the truck.  Odd, I thought, I've been driving a standard since I was 17, shouldn't I be able to get the truck moving without stalling it out at this point in my life?  A second effort yielded the same result, and on the third I stamped the gas and completely let off the clutch immediately and rolled away without incident.  Now that I was moving I decided to investigate the clutch pedal, because that's apparently how my priorities worked out in my head: 1) get truck moving, and 2) now determine whats wrong with it.  Seems wise.

I found I had no tension in the clutch pedal anymore until the very last instant, and sometimes even with the clutch to the floor it continued to move.  If you knew me when I lived in Saint Thomas, then you know that I have experienced such issues before, only that time with our old jeep, aptly named the adventuremobile, and stuck in bumper to bumper cruise-ship-day-traffic.  So this time at least I didn't have seven safari trucks full of tourists on all sides to watch me shove the darn truck into gear with all I'm worth and quietly pray my way through every stop sign, at least there was that.  At any rate I was so far in, on a road I had already inventoried the far end of, and I really didn't want to have to drive it again.  So I parked the truck and went for what I thought would be a two hour but turned out to be more like a four hour long hike, to finish that road, all the roads coming off of it, and a reservoir smack dab in the middle of nowhere.  When I got back to the truck I locked in the hubs, and wrestled it around, and slow and steady, picked my way all the way back to a county road.  There I called my pops to talk me through adding some clutch (brake) fluid and carefully headed for the highway, and eventually home.

So here I am again, back earlier than I intended, heading back out later than intended, but Grimace the purple truck needs his R&R time too...so that's that.  And hey, at least it wasn't a tire, so I didn't have to go back to Walmart, which I don't think my delicate psyche could have taken at this point.

If you are reading this and thinking "man, somebody should get that girl a better truck!" then I urge you to go to BCA's website and make a small, one-time donation, and feel free to send us an email requesting that the money be spent on fixing up poor old Grimace.  Alternatively, you may call any wealthy friends that you may have and ask them nicely if they'd like to buy me a new truck.  You also might be thinking, "man, that girl kills trucks, I would never hire her to do anything ever because she just destroys everything she touches" but I assure you that I asked a reputable source and I am under the understanding that there is no way the slave cylinder could have been caused to leak by my driving, and it's more likely that it was a re-manufactured part that was faulty and failed well before it should have, regardless of how it was driven.  So if you feel that way you should still go to BCA's website and make a small, one-time donation and let them know that you know I'm not a truck killer, at least not on purpose...

Here, I'll even give you the link!  Because I'm so thoughtful!  http://www.voiceforthewild.org/page.php?id=donate#.UcTlQ_ksmys

Wild Horses

Wilderness Doggy

That's some strong dirt!

Adobe Town

Adobe Town

Sunset Road

DUST STORM!

Ominous cloud...

Adobe Town

My Faithful friends

Sunset

DUST STORM!

Adobe Town Valley

Field Season 2013: Off to a Great Start!

Oh. My. Gosh.  Where do I begin?  I feel as though I have not provided an update in CENTURIES!  So here's a quick run through of some goings-on since I last wrote a post:

First, that last post, begging you to vote...yeah, we didn't get that grant.  BUT we did make it into the top 6 votes-wise, which is pretty impressive for an organization as small as ours, not to mention that we are located in the least populated state of them all, so kudos to you!  Our voting and adoring fans, we really appreciate the support you showed us and it meant a lot to have your support through that process.  So even though we didn't win, we still did in a way, because it feels wonderful to know that so many people are supporting us and the work that we pour our hearts into every day.

Next, obviously I finished my 2012 inventories and submitted them.  The PDFs of these documents are now up on BCA's website, and I have to say I'm darn proud of the final result so I'll give you a link here, to see them.  Check them out, read through a bit of the narrative (don't go crazy, a paragraph or two will give you the right idea) and then if you are in Wyoming, please by all means, VISIT these places!  Visit them, love them, and advocate for them.  Because as of this month the BLM has only found wilderness character in ONE of them, and it's not clear if they even intend to protect it just yet (I'll try to keep posted on this, I'm sure I'll forget to update, but if you have questions then please contact me!).

Now it is just the beginning of field season 2013, and this year I have a full plate, with a ton of units (14 to be exact) to get through, including the amazing and impressive, and evidently very hard on truck tires, Adobe Town!  So I headed out this past Tuesday, the 4th.  I left in the late afternoon, reaching the bounds of Adobe Town in time to make camp, enjoy a beautiful desert sunset, and snooze before starting the inventory work itself the next morning.  In traditional Shelby fashion I merely lucked out in a lot of ways: I have been to Adobe Town once, almost a year ago, and I followed my boss out, missing most landmarks in the cloud of dust kicked up by his car.  This time I grabbed some maps, but obviously missed the one that I really needed, because that's how I roll, and had only the map just east of where I needed to end up.  I got out there and drove west, knowing eventually I would bump into the 130,000 acre proposed wilderness area at some point.  I should clarify that I had all the right 1:24,000 maps and the wrong 1:100,000 map, so I could navigate to the edge of where I needed to be and then drove blindly west until I just happened to show up on one of my 1:24,000 maps.  Magically, and with the luck that seems to follow me around out there (thank the stars!) I bumped right into the most pertinent map fairly quickly and with no back-tracking or getting lost.

So there I am, in the "Crown Jewel" of the Red Desert, maps and snazzy new I-Pad in hand, early on the morning of Wednesday the 5th of June.  The desert looks different in June, it is green and birds chirp, wild flowers dot the hill sides.  This was just what I needed, to be back in action, in the relaxing setting of the silent desert, my new puppy Mia by my side, just inventorying the day away.  This is what I live for.  Of course things never go that well, and I discovered a confusing maze of new oil and gas roads covering, shadowing, and crisscrossing the original two-tracks that I was hoping to travel.  Covered with recently crushed sharp gravel and laying huge swaths of ugly destruction across the desert.  In my line of work though you not only have to roll with such things you have to completely document them with photos and GPS points.  So this is what I did, for a tedious 12 hours, jumping in and out of the truck, enduring the yelled suggestions of passers-by (assumed in general to be oil and gas industry employees, all very nice, all very confuddled as to why I should be out there with my dog, just hanging out in an active gas field) regarding being aware of rattlesnakes and mud, deep sand, and gravel, and such.  Sometimes I wonder if they don't talk to me just to make sure they aren't imagining me, because after all this country isn't exactly beautiful anymore, with gas wells dotting the countryside, so why would a girl and her dog, all dressed up in hiking gear, be traipsing around the place anyway?

So at the close of my day, as the sun is setting and the silence of the desert is closing in (my favorite time of day out there) I prepared my truck for sleeping in and promptly passed out at 8:15 in the evening, the sky still lit with rays from the setting sun, and don't wake up for an instant for a solid 9 hours.  I guess I should have worked back up to this...

Day two of field season 2013 started great, warm breakfast, happy puppy company, and a beautiful sunrise accompanied by singing birds, what could possibly go wrong?  Well see here is where I run into trouble, because as soon as things start to seem idyllic I should always know trouble is on the horizon.  So on this beautiful Thursday morning I start by hiking a long some bits and pieces of an old two-track route that has been mostly covered by a brand spanking new gravel super highway to a not-yet-been-drilled wellpad and the camera on my I-Pad app starts malfunctioning.  It can't focus and sits on a white screen and no matter what I do I can't seem to fix it (here I guess any remotely tech-savvy person would probably tell me to try rebooting the I-Pad, but on this I claim ignorance, I had no idea that was even possible) so after frantic text messaging with our business manager it is decided that I should head back to town and get on the phone/internet and figure this out.

So, after one successful day and two nights in the desert, I hea back towards civilization to try to find a solution to this problem.  It takes nearly an hour to get from where I was to the nearest gas station and I was feeling irrationally confident about my gas situation when I reached the paved road so I decided to not go 20 minutes out of my way to get gas and instead continue on the additional hour to the nearest gas station on my way.  This proved to be possible, but more than a little nerve-wracking as I rolled into the gas station with the arrow on the far side of E a little over an hour later.  Perhaps it was the low-on-gas related anxiety, or just general disappointment at heading back so soon, but for whatever reason I was able to roll right up to the pump, fill my tank, and head inside to grab my receipt without noticing that somewhere along the way one of my tires had become completely flat.  On my way back from the receipt collecting mission I did happen to notice a disturbing tilt to my truck, and the deflated tire soon claimed the spot on the very tippy top of my to-do list.  I slowly drove it away from the pump (there was a line forming behind) and begin the tedious procedure of dragging out all the bits and pieces required to change the tire.  Happily I was at this point in the parking lot of a truck stop, and it only took about 20 seconds of me jumping up and down on the tire iron in an attempt to loosen air-wrench tightened lug nuts for a kind soul with bigger muscles than mine to offer some assistance.

Another set of hands made the whole process so much easier, and so with many thanks to my kind stranger at the Rawlins' Loves, I was on my way again soon at the breakneck speed of 55 MPH required by the donut I had just torqued onto my truck.  The kind stranger's last words to me were "you might want to check out that front one too, looks a little low," and he was off toward the truck that he likely currently calls home.  There are 100 miles of highway between Rawlins and the nearest Walmart Tire Center (where I had a warrantee on my tires) in both directions, I chose the eastern route, as Laramie is where I could sleep in my own bed that night.  Upon my arrival I checked the truck all in, called a coworker to pick me up, and left Grimace the Purple truck in the (assumed) capable hands of the Walmart Tire Center staff.  A few hours later they called to say my truck was done, but a conversation needed to be had about my tires when I return.  Ominous, I thought, so I headed back up there with my coworker only to find my truck still in the bays with no tires, no wheels even, on it at all.  Uh-oh.

The staff calmly informed me that they had thought it was done because they had tested the Firestone (read: donut, that clearly features the words "temporary tire, max speed 55 mph" on its side) and found no issue but later realized that (as I had mentioned at check in) the flat was in the truck bed.  Upon further inspection, they had apparently also found that I had also, somewhere along the way, punctured a second tire as well.  Finally they informed me that these particular tires were not in stock at the moment, and one to seven days would be required for them to come in on order.  Super.

A lengthy discussion about tires ensued, somewhere in the middle of which we decided a slightly higher quality tire might be more appropriate for my line of work and an order was begun, at which point it became clear that the wrong tire size had somehow been taken initially and in fact the tires currently on the truck were actually in stock at this very moment, but it was too late.  We had already decided on better tires, and better tires we would get!  So, order placed, approval received, receipt in hand, we parted ways with Walmart once again under the understanding that I would be getting a phone call when the new tires came in, sometime in the next one to sseven days.  The very next day though, I came to realize that among the gear I had left in the bed of the truck, I had also left behind a few essentials that I now needed to go pick up, so I popped back by Walmart to grab a few things and learned, to my surprise, that at some point during the day my new tires had come in, though they still were not on my truck, and that they were "just about to call me," but had "misplaced my number."  Okay, I said, put them on please.  We again completed a redundancy of the checking-in process of the day before and I was told I would be back on the road the very next day, they took my phone number again (this time even entering it into the computer) and we parted ways on promises that I would receive a call as soon as my truck was ready.  This was two days ago now, and yet somehow I am clearly still in range of internet access, so if my having returned to the desert seems unlikely to you, you'd be correct.

In other, more splendid news, the app problem that I was having with the I-Pad turned out to be easily solved and the solution does not require internet access, and so can be preformed in the field.  So I am thrilled about that!  I am packed and ready to head back out, as soon as I have a truck again, and when that day comes I will be sure to share the trials and tribulations that are sure to occur on my next trip; because if these first few days are setting the tone for the entire summer than it is sure to be interesting to say the least!

Tomorrow morning, first thing, the Walmart Tire Center will be hearing from me, but for now I am enjoying my weekend and having a glass of wine.  Wilderness Inventory Specialist: The impatient and easily discouraged need not apply.

Adobe Town Proposed Wilderness:

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

Time flies when you're unemployed...

It is almost July...did you know that?  Why didn't anyone tell me?  Once again I haven't written anything in weeks, but this time I have a series of perfectly valid excuses for my lack of updates....for one, my brother got married again to his beautiful wife, Hsiao-Han, this time in VT (where our family is) because last time it was in Taiwan (where her family is) and then there was a small one in NC (where they met and live) so they owed us a wedding, since everyone else got one.
I was in the bridal party, and I had a blast welcoming my sister-in-law to the family once again.  It was a beautiful ceremony up at Trapp Family Lodge in Stowe on a beautiful spring day with lots of friends and family and I don't think the day could have been more perfect!

Excuse number 2:  I PASSED THE FE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  (And I was so excited when I got my little "You are now officially an engineer-in-training" certificate in the mail that I couldn't do anything but smile and jump up and down for days, and the jumping made typing difficult.)  I got myself a bottle of classy bubbly and toasted my new title (Shelby A. Perry, E.I.T.) with some good friends and had a "Shelabration!"  So hey, that's awesome....and makes me feel like I didn't just waste the last couple months of extensive studying....

Excuse number 3: I was unemployed.  I know typically that means that you have more time, but in my case it meant that I did more hiking than I have done in ages, volunteered a whole bunch with the Conservation Commission in Johnson, applied to the 2 or 3 jobs per week that I found interesting (I have the patience to be picky in my job hunt and I have decided that my happiness is worth it), and found new and interesting things to cook, bake, and create.  I put all that free time to good use until it wasn't all that free anymore, which is the way it should be.  Annnyyyywayyyy, all that being said, somewhere along the way all of that job applicating paid off, which brings me to excuse number 4:

I.  GOT.  A.  JOB.  About a week ago I got a call from one of the positions that I interviewed for and really really wanted, and guess what!?!?!  They wanted me too!  So now I'm hitting the road, actually in 3 days, for the mystical and exciting land of Wyoming!  That's right, I'm moving from the second least populated state in the country to the very least populated state in the country...raise your hand if you didn't see that coming...yeah...that's what I thought.  

Sooooooooooooooo as you can see my life has been quite busy lately, and is only going to get busier, as I pack up my life and move back into my Honda Civic for the 2000 mile trek out to Wyoming.  I am so incredibly excited (although I am quite sad to leave Johnson, which has grown on me lately) to start my new adventure!  Wish me luck and get excited!  As usual I have been baking up a storm, because packing is boring and I would rather feed my friends that pack my bags.  I have made a few repeats (these cookies and cream cheesecake cupcakes went over well with my friends here, I (of course) made truffles, and for my brother's stag party I repeated these Irish car bomb cake balls) and a few new ones, like a blueberry knotweed crumble for the conservation commission meeting and a (and this one is an original, wrote the recipe myself....) Maple Bacon Cheesecake that came out pretty okay if I do say so myself...the recipe is to follow.  Wish me luck on my new adventures, pictures from the road to come...  

Maple Bacon Cheesecake:

Crust:

about 4 cups graham cracker crumbs

bacon grease from half the bacon

a few tablespoons of butter (until you reach the right consistency)

Dash of maple syrup

about 2 pieces of maple bacon

Filling:

4 8oz packs plain cream cheese

1/2 c sour cream

4 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 c grade B maple syrup

Topping:

4-5 pieces maple bacon, cooked crispy

1-2 tbsp brown sugar

Combine crust ingredients in food processor and press in bottom of greased 9 in spring for pan.  Beat filling ingredients together until smooth, pour over crust and bake for 50 minutes at 350 degrees.  Remove baked cake from oven and let cool/set 10 minutes on a wire rack, filling will settle down into the pan.  Chop topping ingredients together in food processor until small bacon bits are evenly coated with sugar, sprinkle over cheesecake after it has cooled for 10 minutes.  Let the cake with topping cool in the hot (but off) oven for 1 hour, transfer to a wire rack until it is room temp, then cool in fridge over night if possible, but at least 4 hours.  

I don't have a picture of it being enjoyed because it was so delicious I literally could not stop to take one.  Sorry, maybe I'll make it again so you can see the end result.

April?!?!

Wow...where does the time go?  How is it April already?  I haven't updated this in a while...and not for lack of trying.  I have like 7 drafts started, I just really don't have much to say these days.  I'm at home, I've pretty much been laid off from work, I'm studying for the FE (which is in 5 days!  eeeeek!).  On a more interesting note, I have been playing with photography a bit, in some new fun ways.  Cory suggested the possibility of pursuing photography as a business, and so I have been playing with the kind of photography people might pay for.  There are, of course, some of the usual puppy portraits and landscapes to share:

 My nosey Josey...

Bella-butt

Sparkling mountain streams...

And beautiful secluded meadows.

But then I have also been playing with portraits and editing...and for now, the only model I have to play with is me.  Sooooo as much as I HATE self portraits, I came up with a couple today to edit and share for practice...soon I will be taking some of some other, more interesting people.  Until then, there's me.  

 Me, in color.

More me, less color.  

These would be better if I had Photoshop, but of course I don't at the moment.  Anyway, that is what I have been up to...cooking, eating, studying, sleeping, and always, taking pictures.  Soon I'll remove studying from the equation and add MOVING!  Not sure where, or even how, but I'm outta here!  Thanks for your patience with my lack of posts...more to come soon, just as soon as my test's overrrr and done!  <3 

Taiwan and belated thanks givings...

Here I am, home again, after a whirlwind of adventure in Taiwan to celebrate the engagement of my brother, Cory, and his girlfriend (who is now his fiance!), Hsaio-Han.  I had a great time on my trip and I learned a lot about Taiwanese and Chinese culture, which I have had limited experience with in my adventures thus far.  We had many family meals with Hsiao-Han and her extended family, including lots of authentic Taiwanese food, Japanese food, Thai food, and more.  I continue to be blown away by the hospitality and generosity of each new culture that I experience.  I had a wonderful time getting to know everyone and was very glad for our gracious hosts who translated for us, showed us around, and right from day one, treated us like family.  We'll have some big shoes to fill this spring when it is our family's turn to host them.  It is customary in their culture for members of the family, such as uncles, aunts, and cousins, to want to treat the guests of their family members to a meal during their stay.  We were spoiled, truly spoiled, during this trip and when it was time to leave I had no words that were worthy of the thank you I wish that I had been able to articulate.

In my travels and adventures through life thus far I have seen families in Africa host friends and family members to the point that they could barely afford to feed themselves, go miles out of their way to walk me to work when they had only to walk half that distance to get to their own, give up their own plans to help keep me safe in mine.  In Taiwan I watched family help family by loaning an apartment for us to stay in, loaning our hosting family a van for our transportation, treating us to dinner, helping cart us all around, and most of all never making us feel like an imposition.  In Saint Thomas friends brought me fresh fruit and veggies while I was working the desk, gave me rides or allowed me to borrow a car to get anywhere I needed to go, treated me to many meals and drinks when money became tight for me, and generally appreciated and treated me like family, all by people I had known for all of a month (and also by Nicole, whom I have known and loved since we were assigned to be roommates freshman year in college...love you apple-bottom-whiskers!)  In California I was offered several different home-stays while searching for a place to live, I was picked up and put up by friends when my car broke down in the middle of the road, I was given rides and places to stay, taught the area and shown around by almost strangers just because I was new and had no one else to rely on.

Traveling never fails to remind me how lucky I am in all ways - I have fantastic parents who will take me in whenever I run low on money and want to live without rent for a bit.  I have fantastic family members who will get up at 4 am to drive us to the airport without batting an eye.  I have fantastic friends who have taken care of me so many times and in so many ways I don't even begin to know how to list them all.  I have had the opportunity and the freedom to go to college, get an education, find what I am good at and find what makes me happy.  I have the freedom to live at home and bar tend on the weekends for a few months in order to be able to turn down high paying jobs that bring in to question my moral values.  I have created a life for myself that allows me to move and travel and try new things whenever I want to, that has allowed me to find my passion, and to work my way towards it.  Sometimes I take that for granted, I try to reach beyond my means because I am so used to being caught before I fall, so its important that every once in a while I stop and take a look around and realize how much I have been given, and how much I should be thankful for.  This Thanksgiving I was on the opposite side of the world, so far removed from all the "normal" Thanksgiving traditions, and yet the day still managed to remind me to give thanks for all that I have.  So thank you, to my hosts, my family, my friends, and to everyone who has helped me along my way.  I know that I never hesitate to ask for help from friends and family when I need it and I hope none of you will ever hesitate to ask me for anything either.

Some pictures of my fabulous trip to Taiwan:

Onward and Upward

I have officially departed St. Thomas.  Bittersweet as always, I look forward to moving on but if I wasn't sad about leaving than I would have done it a long time ago.  I had a great time with a lot of great people whom I will miss intensely.  I learned a lot about hotels and hotel management and island living, and so much more.  I get a little misty every time I think about the fact that I can't just pop over to St. John on my day off anymore, every time I think about what I'm going to miss this winter (Gremlin's Birthday first and foremost, but also the beginnings of my friend's new business, all the boat trips, discovery days, and local events), whenever I think about all the fantastic friendships that I made there, and every time I consider how freaking cold it's going to be at home!

So here I am, unemployed and adventuring once again...first big question I need to tackle: to go abroad again or stay in the US...or maybe another US territory...Guam anyone?  Next:  to grad school or not to grad school?  And finally, if yes on grad school, what exactly do I want to study?  I know I already have plenty of options open with just a bachelor's in engineering and if I study something different but similar it would open up new doors without closing existing ones - so for me that would be ideal, the more doors the merrier!  I love doors!  Options are my favorite, except for times like now, when I am paralyzed with indecision at all the options that I do have.  I think the most important thing I need to remember right now is that all of my options are not going to pan out, that's life, so perhaps I should just apply for every single thing I am considering and see what I get before I get too caught up in making up my mind.  For that I will need a list of everything I want to do (or what I want to do the most right now because I'm pretty sure making a list of everything I want to do is impossible...because I would like to do everything eventually...) So here goes:

Grad School - either here or abroad, in an environmentally or developmentally relevant field either in the state or abroad....if I go abroad I would like to go to either England, Ireland, Australia, or perhaps Poland or Belgium or somewhere else entirely....

Job - entry level environmental engineering job...sounds tempting but also very scary because that had the ring of career to it, and if I'm finding something career worthy I damn well better love it.  So in this area I have every right to be, and definitely will be picky.

Volunteer - You all know my Peace Corps term got cut short...it was pretty devastating in the moment, but now that I've had a few years to work and travel and generally work towards recovering from that, I think I might be up for another go...I also adored AmeriCorps and would be just plum thrilled to do that again for the right opportunity as well.

Short Term Job - temporary solution, all about having money in the here and now.  Tempting, as something to hold me over in the moment, but also tough to commit to because it can make things so easy in the moment that its hard to move on to the bigger future-making and goal-relevant type ventures.  I have done this a bunch of times (ie. Seasonal trail guide, UPS holiday helper, sales person at pet store, grocery store sale tag changer, etc) and every time it gets me through the moment but also slows down the real hunt for my next adventure (with the exception of the grocery store one, I hated that job so much it made the hunt for a new adventure more furious and I put in my notice 3 weeks early because I just couldn't wait).

And those are just the broad categories of options, within those categories there are a million possibilities!  I love potential, it's like all the things you are capable of being and doing quietly waiting for you to reach out and pick one thing to strive for.  The important thing is that whatever I do next I give it all I've got, and learn everything I can from it, because that is what life is all about!

Wondering what I'm doing now?  Hanging out at my friends place in Tampa, FL, dreading my return to the great frozen north, and playing with her puppy dog while she's at work.  Got a few excellent shots of little Gizmo yesterday...included below.  Taking pictures is my favorite.  Someday I'll make that my job, when I win the lottery.  For now - Gizmo glamour shots are still a hobby!

New Adventures!

As usual, my enthusiasm is building for new adventures and the possibility of more fulfilling work.  I always start a job hunt with such optimism!  Of course there is no other way, optimism is essential to surviving the semi-employed life.  I took (and totally owned) the GREs on Thursday and while I don't get my official scores until November, I'm (as usual) pretty optimistic.  I'm hoping to meet with professors at a number of different grad schools until I find a program that will (1) let me work outdoors for the rest of my days, I just can't bear to be a full time desk jockey for any kind of long term assignment, (2) inspire me and encourage me, I just want to do good, rewarding work.  Is that so much to ask? And (3) not double my student loans, ideally I'd like to get rid of those suckers some day, and unless I stop adding to them that may never happen.  So, onwards I go, to work or grad school, or to study and take the FE in the spring and then get an engineering job, or to do or go wherever else the wind might take me.  I can't wait. 

I'm leaving this beautiful little rock in the middle of the ocean known as St. Thomas in just under 2 very short weeks to go celebrate a friends birthday with her in Florida and then on home a week later.  I'm looking for work in Vermont so I can put some money away while I am living at home and keep working on my student loans.  Money down here has gotten quite tight and it was certainly time to throw the towel in.  So now, during my final 2 weeks, I am trying to get as much last minute  adventuring in for as little cost as possible, all the while also trying to work as many hours as possible to put away a bit of cash for Florida.  My life is a fabulous give and take resting on a delicate balance of funds and possibilities that I just adore.  I have never once gotten in over my head, I have learned my limits and limited my spending and worked hard to become as financially independent as possible and loved every minute of it. 

So now, back to the old job hunt and back home to bake some bread and walk my doggies, and to try to work my butt off, if I can find a job that will let me.  See you soon Vermont, in all your below freezing glory.  Goodbye beautiful Caribbean, white sand beaches and shiny sunshine...you're amazing, but just not for me.  I can't wait to have seasons back! 

An Airplane over Charlotte Amalie Harbor

Furthering my career!

Hello friends and family and other friendly folks who happen to read this!

Boy do I ever have a special offer to make to you today!  As you all know I have been looking for jobs and considering different options for furthering my career.  Currently I have $250 left in my AmeriCorps training budget given to me by the Conservancy that has to be used by the end of my term in December.  I have been looking for training opportunities that might be interesting and look good on a resume, and today I think I found the one that I want to do (EPA Campus Certified Environemntal Specialist Online Training)...the problem?  Its $500, meaning that I have to dig $250 out of my own pocket to match the conservancy's contribution.  This would be no problem if I weren't a full time volunteer...but since I am, things are a little bit tight.  Here is my proposal to you:  If anyone would like to make a $25 donation to my class (not tax deductible, sorry, I am not 501-3c...although I am practically a non-profit since I have not made any money in 2 years) I will send you an 8 x 10 print of any photo of your choice from this blog or any other one that you know I have (feel free to ask to see others) as a thank you gift.  If just 10 people do this then I will only have to cover the cost of printing the photos, which would be excellent, but even if only 5 people do, I could probably scrape together the rest of the money if I needed too as well and that would also be great.  I'm not looking for someone to pay for the whole thing, nor do I want anyone to contribute thats as hard up for cash as I am, and I hate to ask for my friends and family to bail me out since you have all already done so much for me, but just a little leg-up would be awesome. 

Heres how it would work:  If you are interested in a one of a kind, shelby original photo print with a personally signed thank you note from the artist herself then please send an email to shelby.perry@gmail.com or post a comment on this post and let me know that you are interested, what your mailing address is (unless I already have it), and which photo you would like - or if you don't know, what kinds of things you like and I'll find one for you.  Then I will send your photo and you can mail me a check (made out to TRCD - The Tahoe Resource Conservation District, who manage my contract) when you have recieved the photo in the mail and are happy with it!  Thats it!  How easy! 

Think about it, let me know, in the mean time, here are some photos you COULD be the luck owner of if you so chose :-)

And sooooo many more!

New Adventures!

Well helllllo there...did you miss me?  I have been doing a terrrrrrrible job lately of keeping my blog updated...things have been just plain crazy busy!  Between Halloween celebrations, pub crawls in Reno, NV, work, and potluck Tuesdays (a weekly themed potluck dinner that I started having in my old house before I moved and am happy to say has grown into a regular weekly gathering of fantastic people and tasty food!) I have barely had time to settle into my new place, let alone update all of you on my comings and goings!  So here comes a long winded one, certain to have some priceless kodak moments captured for your enjoyment out there on the other coast...gosh I miss being even in the same timezone as my family!

Anywho, as you all know, my AmeriCorps service year is coming to a close this December (oh soooo soon!  I'm not ready!) So I jumped right back up onto that job application bandwagon that includes roughly 10% of all Americans these days...my heart goes out to those who have not been as lucky as I have.  I have met plenty of college graduates with impressive resumes waiting tables and working seasonal temporary jobs only to spent the other 6 months of the year unemployed to know that I have been plenty lucky to end up where I have getting the experiences that I am.  I have not ruled out the possibility of finding a "real job" as my pops and brother put it ("Shelby...don't you think its time for you to get a real job?" - the easy answer is no...) as I know that a steady income and comfortable home cannot be discounted, and believe me, I'll get there, as soon as I'm good and ready and find what I'm looking for.  I have applied to several federal jobs, dozens of private jobs, and a few temporary placeholder type jobs, and I'm in a somewhat similar position to the one I was in last year at this time.  I'm running out of time to make a decision though because this time I have bills to pay, I'm 3000 miles from all the people that would put me up for free until I do find something, and my health insurance is expiring (a terrifying thought in America today).  So, because I know you are all curious as to what may come next, I will tell you.  I am considering, quite seriously, completeing a second term of AmeriCorps out here with the Conservancy.  Now before you go jumping to any conclusion about me taking the easy road, shirking responsibility, and staying so damn far away from everyone, keep in mind that I am a responsible and rational person and I have never done ANYTHING that I didn't know was the right decision, and while I am not completely settled on this yet (so yes, please keep sending me jobs if you see them, and thank you so much to those of you that already have!) I do know that if I go for it, it is because it is absolutely what I want to do.

For you doubting-thomases out there, here is why I believe that I will have made the right choice.  First and foremost, this job has been the luckiest result of my first job falling through that I could have asked for, I have learned a whole new skill set in environmental monitoring, I have learned of a whole new possible career path in restoration (where environmental engineering tends to clean up after and/or regulate the damage irresponsible (and really all) humans do to the environment, restoration aims at returning the natural environment to its pre-influenced state, a subtle but significant difference), and I have met a group of incredibly smart and kind and interesting people, full of knowledge and happy to share; you cant ask for a better work environment!  More than that, with AmeriCorps I have the flexibility of making my own schedule, running my own days, and coming and going as I please, which I love, but has not once slowed me down...still working the occasional 60 hour week mostly because I enjoy what I do and don't mind putting in the time it takes to do a good job.  Today, with the economy the way it is, so many people have been forced to work jobs that they can't even stand going to just to pay the bills.  I'm young, I have no major obligations, I can afford to live in the low income manor of the perpetual volunteer, and for now, I don't mind.  This seems a small price to pay for a job I enjoy, meaningful experience, and incredible learning opportunities.  All that seems like enough, and it is, but theres more!  I live in what might be one of the most beautiful places in the entire country, Lake Tahoe.  There are tons of recreation opportunities and I have already fallen in love with backpacking and hiking in the Sierra Nevada, and these are mostly free once you collect the gear you need!  Plus I get a $5,000 education award for each year of service...meaning that after 2 years of AmeriCorps plus my brief one year in Peace Corps I will have knocked out $13,500 worth of my student loans.  Now I'm not an accountant, but I think thats probably significantly more than I would have paid off had I just taken one of those job offers at graduation and started with regular payments.

So there you have it, my justification for my life that no one has asked me to justify, but sometimes you just need to explain these things to someone else as a way to explain them to yourself.  Anyway, its been quite a ride thus far and I'm not quite ready to give up the possibility of finding a job that actually pays AND makes me happy...but until then I will settle for ones that I love that don't pay, because happiness is more important than money, and I truly believe that.  Here are some images of my adventures, a recap of some of my favorite old ones and some new ones, a celebration of all I've done since college:

Dusty evening in Mauritania

Ramadan Fete with my Host Family...I miss them so!  Plus I was good friend with that sheep, so sad that he ended up in my tummy, vegetarian no more!

Epic battles with insanely large spiders

Back to Vermont winters with my wonderful parents and adorable doggies!

A road trip across the entire country with my Papa Bear

A few months spent learning to live alone and finding new friends in Placerville

Exciting new adventures in a beautiful new home in South Lake Tahoe

And more recently: Watching the Kokanee swim upstream only to lay their eggs and die, while the mallards stand by to eat those eggs that the fish gave their lives for as soon as they are left in the gravel

My first trip to the biggest little city in the world, and my first pub crawl dressed as a zombie too!

So this is what I think I would look like if I were among the walking dead...

Hope you all had a fantastic Halloween weekend and a wonderful week, and I promise I will start to update more often again (sorry for the delay Momma!).  Sorry for my long-winded explanations but I can't expect you all to continue to support me in my adventures without explaining to you why they mean so much to me.  So I hope you are looking forward to more stories to come, because I'm not done living yet!  More pictures and adventures to come, I promise!

Much love and happy thoughts to all who read this!

~Shelby