Dispatches from Auntie Tini

Root-bound: Musings for a New Year

noreply@blogger.com (auntie tini) — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 00:25:00 +0000

For eight months now, I’ve had three keys on my keychain: my car keys and two keys to my storage locker in the Bronx. Last week, I added a P.O. Box key and as of this very morning, I have a key to my apartment. “My” is a slight exaggeration. I have my own room, but I’m sharing the flat with two others, one of whom goes by the nickname “da saluki cutie.” Have I mentioned I feel old?

I’m ever so slightly unnerved at having a semi-permanent address again. And I don’t think it’s just because that base is in Illinois. Actually that reminds me of a game I played over the summer, called “states that would be worse to live in than Kansas.” It was my lame attempt at making my Cambridge, MA-raised friend feel better about moving to podunk Kansas for grad school.

Illinois really isn’t half bad. And I can live almost anyway for a field season (even Kansas!), but Illinois for maybe 18 months, even with a summer break?

A friend recently said in passing that my anxiety about staying in one place for very long reflected perhaps a fear of commitment. Now that’s something I’ve heard often enough, though never leveled at me. And I have to admit, I’m more than a little bothered that it might be true.

There is a certain … danger? opportunity? … in finding yourself growing attached enough to a place and its people that you might start searching out reasons to stay just a little longer. And if that were to happen, does that mean I am losing focus on my goals and what I hope to achieve in the crucial couple of years coming up?

Of course, all it takes is a black panther conversation to remind myself that yep, this is most definitely temporary. Even if the temporal aspect of life in one place stretches and constricts in unexpected, rarely anticipated and efficiently chaotic ways.

For the time being, I’ll nurse my fleetingly adopted root-bound potted plant, and play it by ear.

I’m Baackk…

noreply@blogger.com (auntie tini) — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 14:51:00 +0000

Southern Illinois…hmmm, I always knew there was a chance I’d be back, but still, it’s a bit surreal to be back in Carbondale. It’s been seven months but feels like a year. At least.

People, friends and many, many familiar faces. And a fair number of new connections. I’ve made a fast friend with the French volunteer on the project, who’s become a cohort and a partner in crime for many a practical joke. If I hadn’t been painfully shy as a kid, I think I might have discovered the prankster in me a little earlier in life. So, I’m making up for loss time, while I have time to indulge.

The first week-and-a-half has gone remarkably well. We had about six days of furious landowner contacts to fix us up for January (session #9), in our third and final season of the study. And of course, many sardines cans have been spray painted, hair snares made and clipped, cameras inventoried, etc. There’s a still a fair amount of prep to do, but a whole week to spare before the field season officially kicks off, January 4th.

While work is going better than hoped, everything else is teetering on mildly stressful to incredibly so. My housing situation fixed itself up. I’ll be moving in with two undergrads, which I keep reminding myself is no different than any other field season I’ve had. I’ve lived in much closer quarters to undergrads, recent graduates and folks of varying backgrounds. And yet, this feels like a regression back to my college days.

And then there’s the seven-pound dead weight of textbooks I picked up the other day (oh yes, I did weigh it!) I even dutifully checked out my classrooms so I won’t be blindly trying to find them my first day of class, January 19, which I anticipate being late to, as I’ll be struggling all semester to try and finish work and get to class on time. Walking the corridors, I felt, well, a little old. A little out of my league. And more than a little afraid. Part of it is knowing that I’m not going back to school to fail, or for that matter, to be a mediocre student.

Not all is woe though. Now when I think about that third week in January, when a full-time job and night classes 4x a week will inevitably and painfully meet, my heart palpitates for just a minute or two and then, I shrug it off.

I’ll adjust. I always do.

Time Well Spent

noreply@blogger.com (auntie tini) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 18:31:00 +0000

The good thing about long roadtrips is that you have plenty of time to think. The bad thing about long roadtrips is that you have plenty of time to think.

Driving from Kadoka, SD to Carbondale, IL yesterday, I had about 14+ hours to reflect on the past month, and what a brilliant month it’s been. When it comes down to it, 30 days is not a long time but these last four weeks have been jam packed with uniquely enriching experiences. I had not anticipated the wealth of access and opportunity that would be dropped on my lap.

I wanted telemetry experience, so after a quick lesson on how to use the receiver, I was handed the sole receiver that was available at the time and given free reign to track badgers that were out and about each night.

I wanted to trap badgers, so after a demo on how to set a leghold trap, I was let loose to trap any unmarked badger I found, as well as two marked badgers that needed replacement radio collars.

I wanted more experience handling carnivores – and mammals other than my disease-ridden beloved prairie dogs, and so I assisted in the processing of about two dozen black-footed ferrets and five American badgers.

It’s remarkable just how many chance encounters, casual introductions and referrals have led to jobs, grad school leads, collaboration on side projects and many a fascinating conversation. And of course there’s the people, who continue to amaze me with their generosity of time, expertise and advice that is so freely given. The world of conservation biology gets smaller and smaller with each passing field season. I look forward to the day when I truly enter this world and cease being an outsider peeking in.

A Weekend of Rest

noreply@blogger.com (auntie tini) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 19:08:00 +0000

“A hunting cabin at the study site” – that was all I knew about my new home. I kept my fingers crossed for heat, grabbed what I thought might be my last shower in a good while in Interior, and dug out my no-rinse soap from my backpack and headed to Lower Brule, fully expecting a shed with a porter john out back.

And here I am writing this blog post on the kitchen table in my cabin on the plains, with a pitched roof, a loft, a wood stove, central heating, a washer/dryer, a clawfoot tub, views of the Missouri River, and a basement lab for pit tagging and processing ferrets. Mule deer and wild turkey mill around the cabin, and there’s a dog town no more than a 100 meters away.

I also seemed to have adopted two kittens and discovered that my slight allergy to cats has gotten much, much worse in the last year. There’s even a television that took me two days to figure how to use it … kinda. DVD (check), regular television news and programming (not so much). And after three days of puzzlement, I’ve confirmed that I’m back on central time even though I'm technically west of the Missouri.

I spent the last 2+ days eating when I was hungry and sleeping when I was tired. I hiked out to the river and checked out the PD towns looking for surface plugging, indicative of ferret presence. I cooked and froze food, setting myself up for the next 10 days. I read a book. I found wi-fi access. I made my first cell phone call from my place of residence for the first time in months.

I rested. I feel whole again. Good thing work’s started.

Goodbye P. Dogs

noreply@blogger.com (auntie tini) — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 18:23:00 +0000

The summer of 2009 is possibly the hardest I have worked in my life. At last count, we trapped some 1,270 individual black-tailed prairie dogs in four months and three trapping sessions. And then there were the nights spent spotlighting, initially for fun, then to help out, and then because two people were needed to hand spotlight out both sides of the truck.

I was entrusted with a research project to call my own. I stuck a leaf blower down 238 burrows, and hiked across PD colonies all over Buffalo Gap National Grasslands and Badlands National Park, with northern harriers, ferruginous hawks and bighorn sheep for company, plus the occasional perplexed tourist or cranky PD hunter.

I learned to make naan and bake two desserts. I played mini golf on National Talk Like A Pirate Day, and hosted a Malaysian makan in my trailer. I dye marked a ferret and trapped a badger, a handful of burrowing owls, a 13-lined ground squirrel, a rattlesnake, and several cottontails. I only mildly molested a large male PD weighing in at a 1490g(!), and scraped road kill off Highway 44 to get hair samples for a flea study. I drove from Wall to Interior with five gallons of gasoline in water jugs the night we found out that our one gas station in “town” started closing early for the Fall. I memorably got cozy with the crew on our second to last night – five in a trailer barely built for three – because both trailers ran out of propane 24-48 hours before the end of the season.

And in my free time, I’ve delved dangerously into André Gide, Joan Didion, David Quammen, David Eddings and Ayn Rand.

I’ve lived a lifetime this summer.

Down to the Wire

noreply@blogger.com (auntie tini) — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 21:14:00 +0000

I have data coming out of my ears. We blew through 1200 data sheets a week ago, and even though at least two crew members are entering data every day, we’re still behind. I was caught up on data checking on Monday. Today I have 22 sheets pending, and that’s just my half of it.

My second to last work week started off with a bang. We have three plots open for 2nd trapping and another three plots open for 3rd trapping. That’s 535 traps in play every morning – probably the most ambitious push to date. Thankfully, after three long days, we’ll be back to a more reasonable workload of four plots tomorrow.

With temps in the 90s and little to no wind, it’s been a strange September but trapping’s been grand.

Things that make me go … grrrr

noreply@blogger.com (auntie tini) — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 20:50:00 +0000

1. Unsolicited remarks about prairie dogs being bad for the environment and that plague is nature’s way of thinning them out.

2. I knew exactly three things about leaf blowers, and am absolutely hopeless at troubleshooting in the field when machinery breaks down because I don’t actually understand how these darn things work. Today, I know exactly four things about leaf blowers.

3. That I kinda bounce off a shovel when I jump on it, trying to dig into dry, compacted dirt.

4. My strategy for dealing with stress by working harder so I’m too exhausted to think, doesn’t work as well as I’d like it to.

5. Data checking.

6. I have to unscrew eight things just to replace a headlight in an old Jeep.

7. Dropping a screw after I’ve unscrewed eight things to replace a headlight in an old Jeep, for the second time, because each headlight decided to go defunct one week apart.

8. Old maps that don’t correspond to the lay of the land.

9. That I’m not more excited about going back to school.

10. Summer’s almost over.

Trap Happiest: American Badgers

noreply@blogger.com (auntie tini) — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 02:21:00 +0000

I’ve found my true love. These are such amazing beasts; cantankerous characters deserving of utmost respect. And if you get a chance, some pretty serious manhandling is certainly called for.

noreply@blogger.com (auntie tini) — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 02:17:00 +0000

noreply@blogger.com (auntie tini) — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 02:16:00 +0000

But seriously, how could anyone possibly resist?!

noreply@blogger.com (auntie tini) — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 02:15:00 +0000

Yeah, I should get out of the habit of chasing things down across the prairie ...

Trap Happier: Short-Eared Owl Fledgling

noreply@blogger.com (auntie tini) — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 02:13:00 +0000

Fledgling sighted on one fine day

noreply@blogger.com (auntie tini) — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 02:09:00 +0000

noreply@blogger.com (auntie tini) — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 02:08:00 +0000

Trap Happy: Burrowing Owls

noreply@blogger.com (auntie tini) — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 02:05:00 +0000

It’s Time.

noreply@blogger.com (auntie tini) — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 01:43:00 +0000

The exodus has begun. Dave left this morning, and over the course of the next week, both Annie and Amanda bid adieu. Then on August 3, two newbies arrive, just in time for Sturgis. The turnover – and the inundation of bikers – marks the midway point of the field season, a remarkable one at that.

Our first trapping session has been the most productive in this three-year study. I’ve managed to dabble, experiment and take a stab in spotlighting, trapping all manner of avian and terrestrial critters, and collaborate on designing and implementing a number of studies, some successful and some less so.

What will the second trapping session bring? I can’t wait to find out.

A Night to Remember

noreply@blogger.com (auntie tini) — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 01:33:00 +0000

I hit and killed a deer last night. A mule deer … not very large but very quick. It leaped out of nowhere. I saw it on the road and then it was one stride away from the front of my truck. And then it was gone. The hood flew up and all I saw was white. The deer must have flown some 15 feet when I found it a minute later. Dead … thank goodness! I don’t know what I would have done if the impact hadn’t killed it and it lay there suffering. Or if it landed on the other side of the road, and posed a danger to oncoming traffic.

The aftermath was a blur. A flurry of phone calls. Occasionally, I stepped into the road to direct vehicles away from the truck. All too often, I was rewarded with a shower of gravel and truck bits by cursed speeding motorists.

A woman from a road construction crew stopped to help, and help she did. She provided a warm, bug-free environment in her SUV. She offered a place to stay in Rapid City. She offered a ride back to Interior that very night with her teenage son. She gave me a hug and wished me luck when the police came and she hurried home to her family.

It was the first time I’ve sat in a cop car, though I didn’t get to sit in the cage; just the passenger seat. The senior state trooper was teaching the junior trooper how to file an accident report, so I sat through the “scroll down on your right” and “click on the second icon” lesson, and spelled out my name twice.

When the tow truck arrived, the ride was quick and easy, and a member of my crew was not too far behind, ready to whisk me back to my trailer home. Once back at camp, I sent photos and relevant information/contacts to Dean, before catching a little over two hours of sleep. Then 4 AM rolled along, and it was time for work.

It’s been hard to come to terms with the fact that this is my first accident. I haven’t had time to mull it over. To think about how lucky I am to escape unhurt. That I didn’t cause any injury (or worse) to my friend, colleague, and cohort, sitting next to me in the truck. On how things might have turned out differently if I was driving my own car. Still, now I have to contend with damages to the work vehicle and the possibility that it might impact our already too tight budget. And live with the possibility that I may single-handedly send my crew home early, all because I had the ill-fortune of hitting an ungulate.

There was a brief moment last night, while emailing photos of the damaged truck, when I almost lost it. A boo-hoo moment of feeling sorry for myself. Now I’m just exhausted. Spent. Lack of sleep, a full workday, and an afternoon spent filing reports and paperwork has tapped me out. And still, on every level, there’s that hoping, waiting, and wanting things to work out okay.

Maybe a good cry will help. Maybe sleep is all the healing I need.

Trapping Ferrets

noreply@blogger.com (auntie tini) — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 23:40:00 +0000

I trapped ferrets for the first time recently, dye marking this female in the chest for future ID. Next up...burrowing owls, and ... fingers crossed, badgers!

Poop Detail

noreply@blogger.com (auntie tini) — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 02:22:00 +0000

Every day after work, I stuff PD poop into vials and freeze them in a large ziplock bag labeled “Fresh Turds.”

Like a lot of rodents, PDs are major poopers. For this stress study, I have to homogenize each sample by mixing and squeezing the entire deposit together, which I then carry around my plot in little ziplocks. I collect up to eight bags of poop a day and keep a cooler in the truck to store them.

Once back in the trailer, the gloves come on, and I busy myself with compressing hefty loads into small petite plastic containers, which are then labeled and squirreled away in the freezer, next to the serving size portions of rendang, beef stew and lentil soup.

And then the fun begins. The soiled gloves are carefully placed in the filthy ziplocks and re-sealed. As long as the mess stays inside the bag, it’s fair game. Because here in Trailer #2, it’s the PD crew (of 2) vs. the ferret crew (of 1).

The game is simple: how many bags of poop can you hide within a very small living space? We each have about 30 square feet of semi-personal space, so the hiding places become more and more creative as the days go by. Pillows, boots, sleeping bag, field pack … almost anything goes. There are just two basic rules: nothing gets hidden with food items and laundry bags are strictly off limits (bummer!)

Being the poop collector though means having an endless cache that is restocked daily. So for now, I do have a slight edge and regular gleeful guffaws.

Cast of Characters

noreply@blogger.com (auntie tini) — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 16:54:00 +0000

South Dakota in June can be a little frustrating. Rain, rain and more rain, followed by periods of moderate heat (75- 85 degrees) and strong wind. Then the occasional flash flood and tornado warnings, and lightning storms. In short, we haven’t gotten to our upper plots since last Monday.

The crew’s been valiantly keeping themselves busy. Lots of reading; trips to Wall, Rapid City, even Kadoka; surfing the net; walks, runs and hikes; crossword and Sudoku puzzles; cooking and freezing meals in anticipation (and earnest hope!) of long work days ahead; and movies, lots and lots of movies.

The motley crew beckons from all over:

- Two from Massachusetts, with one hoping to move to Kansas this fall (in her defense, it’s for grad school)
- One originally from Ohio, but moved from Portland to Interior
- One from Indiana, who’s moving to Fort Collins in August
- Two from Missouri and one from DC, who know not where the road will lead come October

We have two psychology majors, one of whom is also a physics major, and a former pastry chef; two worked as deckhands on tall ships, and another as a farmhand; two vegetarians – one just gave up cheese and the other smokes; one jogs an effortless eight miles a day; one has bad knees, two have bum ankles, and another can’t arch her back. And we have a pastor’s daughter, who is an atheist.

Not a bad bunch of people so far … far from boring at least.

The Sun is Out in the Badlands

noreply@blogger.com (auntie tini) — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 21:40:00 +0000

I must be an awesome tap dancer.