Busy, Busy, Busy

This week we are at a riparian plot with lots of pokey bushes. The area is really pretty and right next to the Jarbidge River but along with that also comes wild rose bushes and current bushes and such. Needless to say, my arms are covered in scratches and everyday I do an obstacle course but I will have to say I am still glad to be on the wildlife team and not any of the others. Scratches and all I would rather be measuring Deer Mice over looking for one particular plant or measuring the abundance of all the different plants. We were expecting to get some wood rats or water shrews in this habitat but nothing yet just a ton of deer mice, one canyon mouse (they look like a deer mouse but have really long tails, the guy in the picture is my mentor J. Klott) and a spotted skunk.
In other parts of my life there is complete chaos right now. I am packing, not only for my trip to So. Cal. but I am packing everything. My roommates decided it might be a good idea to move into the smaller house a little earlier so we can save some money before Alaska goes home. The most logical date to move would be the first and I totally agreed with their plan, however, I won't be getting back to Twin until the second. They agreed to move my stuff if I can pack it up before I leave. I have pretty much accomplished this, my pictures are down my clothes are packed and everything is stacked nicely in the corner. They said they would pack everything downstairs including the kitchen stuff. I don't think this will be such a bad thing, I'm just nervous about not moving some of my more delicate things. On second thought I think I will just put some of those things in my car and bring them with me and unload them when I get back.

Rafting the Snake River

So sorry but I have no pictures for this post. It involves water and therefore does not involve a camera. Last Thursday about 18 of us went on a rafting trip down the Snake River. It was a three hour trip and I must say quite fun. We only had to maneuver about 5 white water areas but the in between times were the most fun. Between the white water areas we spend most of our time soaking each other with water shooters, throwing each other off the rafts or boarding the other raft and throwing them off into the river. There were parts when we just floated down stream along side the raft but needless to say we were wet more than we were dry for those three hours. At the end we got shuttled back to the start point and enjoyed an afternoon bbq while playing games of cards and stick ball. The game of stick ball was played with a dog toy ball and a broken off shovel handle, both of which were duct taped together but never the less completely destroyed by the end of the day. To top it all off we all got paid for the day. I may be able to get a picture of the last white water rapids and the end point sometime in the future since it is near a couple of our reptile traps.

Nothing much new here

This past week was pretty much the same stuff as before except for a few new interesting things. In two of the traps we had newborn baby Deer Mice since they all seem to be breeding right now. They look really ugly too but it was fun and out of the ordinary 50 Deer Mice a day. We also caught a Desert Horned Lizard and some baby lizards. The last couple days we have had a bunch of dry lightning and 15 fires all around today. The plot we set up today should be interesting as well. Half of it is inside an enclosure so the cows can't get to it and the other half outside all trampled by the cows. More on the comparison results later.