Friday, December 29, 2006

Happy New Year

There have been a lot of changes around here lately. First and most noticeably is the weather. It is nearly always around freezing here and just last week we got a good four inches of snow in a town that is not supposed to get much at all. In fact because of this the city of Twin Falls sold their snow plows two years ago so when we got the four inches I had to learn how to drive on snow, slush and ice. However, most of the snow is melted from a good 24 hours of nice weather. From what I've heard we are supposed to get more snow this weekend again.
At work I am now more focused on two GIS projects. The first one is creating 1, 2 and 2+ mile buffers around all the watertroughs in the field office and cutting them to only go as far as the pasture and allotment boundaries. This will show my supervisor where the good habitat for wildlife is and how much of it is out there. The second is to digitize the powerlines in the field office from maps to the computer. Most of the powerlines here need to be converted to wildlife friendly powerlines. That means the lines need to be staggered (one up and two down) so the birds that land on them won't get electrocuted if they spread their wings. Every so often when the snow is fresh we get to go out and look for pygmy rabbit track to find their burrows.
Yes, Gramma my snail mail address is still the same, and thank you for the pictures Toni.