There's the right way, there's the wrong way, and then there's the Dugway

Some of the NRO staff are working on a springs restoration project here on post. Yesterday, I was lucky enough to get out of my office (YAY!) and help chainsaw the shit out of some tamarisk. Quite the vindication to cut them down, given the days I've spent crawling through them (and getting stuck) to estimate biomass (thanks Lex) on the Rez, and all of the times I've floated past the tammiewillows on a river and wished ill will upon them. We didn't get a whole lot of action shots of the Tamarisk beat downs, but had a few good ones from lunch:

DPG Chainsaw Fight 2009

Maggie and I re-enacting cheering Neal on.

We also saw some of "our" eagles showing back up - last week I saw a pair sitting on adjacent telephone poles and yesterday, saw a lone bird near the air strip. We're working on our research plan to determine where these birds are coming from and what resources they are using while on DPG. Hopefully, I'll be getting out and getting some good photos of birds we're seeing in the field.

Happy GIS Day, Nerds!

This makes me a huge geek, but Happy GIS Day to all of y'all out there who (still) wrangle daily with projections and rasters and all that crap. Seems like only yesterday Pete Harrell was tormenting us with knowledge reviews and Falls Lake labs.
It really is GIS day, I promise! www.gisday.com.

ArcMap, this Bud's for you.

Daily Dogger

By my calculations.....there should be one slice of pizza left for me.

Your Daily Murph

OK, maybe not so daily, but Sam sends me pictures of my neph-dog Murphy Man and I can't help but put 'em up here.

Dog torture.

Sam and James' wedding - June 2009

Talk about the most fun wedding EVER! My little sister got married to her handsome Irishman this summer and it was a total blast. Beautiful weather, fun people and just all around great times. The wedding was held on Lake Erie, on the east side of Cleveland. Sam looked amazing, and my niece Mallory did her best to steal the show. We had soooo much fun, wish we could do it all again. Here are some of my favorite photos from the evening - AND proof that Jeremy and I can clean up well!

El Verano del Rio

Since I moved out here in May, I've had the chance to spend some time on some beautiful water. I've uploaded a few photos from those trips below.

Moab Daily Run - May 2009

Green River Daily, May 2009
Mallory and her sister Liz joined us for one of the floats - they're in my IK below. Yay!! Come back and visit soon, Mal!


Green River, below Flaming Gorge, July 2009


And, finally - Deso September 2009.
Such a great trip - my first time through the canyon and can't wait to go again!

Swedish Lessons

Did you know that "Kylan" means "the chill" in Swedish?

Neither did I.

Steelhead widow?

Every year, when the leaves start to turn and the weather gets colder, Jeremy starts getting itchy feet as steelhead are making their way inland from the ocean to their natal streams to spawn. Out comes the fly tying kit, the steelhead books and bits of feathers gather in corners all over the house. Back in North Carolina, it was a common sight to see him flailing about wildly at the park near our house with his 14 ft spey rod. Steelhead season makes men do strange things, and turns their partners into eye-rolling steelhead widows. This year, I decided to meet up with Jeremy and his buddy Rich on the Salmon River in Idaho in the middle of October, to see about this obsession that keeps him awake at night.

The day we fished was a cold day for a float (reference my puckered red face below), but the colors and the canyon were stunning. Rich had an extra spey rod, and Jeremy gave me a couple of lessons on the art of spey casting (see video below about what its supposed to look like). It is kind of awkward, and I felt like I looked like some fake steelhead fisherman/spey ninja while I was flailing about trying to avoid slapping myself in the face with the fly. Jeremy was patient with me and gave some good pointers, but it got to the point where I turned around, gave him a hard look and said that he needed to head up the run to fish himself so I can figure this out. After awhile, I started to get the hang of it, and actually managed to cast my line out into the run and fish, with the help of some warm-ups with Canelazo (see my recipe below).

As the day got colder, we headed back to the RV park for some late lunch, and decided to try the run behind the camp as it had fished well for Jeremy the day before. As the light started to fade, Jeremy hooked a beautiful fish (the one I'm tailing below) that came out of nowhere right next to the spot I was wading in. After hootin and hollerin for Jer, I got back down to business, and not ten minutes later, felt an intoxicating tug at the end of the line. Used to dry-fly trout fishing, I raised the rod to set the hook, forgetting all of the tips about NOT setting the hook like when trout fishing that Jeremy had given me earlier in the day. My line went slack, the unseen fish swam away and I was left stamping my feet in frustration and exhilaration. I think I finally get it, Jer!

It was a fun weekend, and I'm excited to try it again. Especially when we head back to Cleveland for Christmas, where last year, Jeremy and I landed two nice Lake Erie steelies. According to The Drake magazine, Ohio is one of the most underrated of the steelhead states. So, with all due respect, a hearty SUCK IT to those snobby steelhead fishermen in the NW! O-H! I-O!

Photos from (top to bottom) Jeremy Christensen (1 and 4) , Ky Frye (2 and 3) and Rich Hemingway (5).

Go here to see what spey casting is supposed to look like ... it takes awhile to load, but its worth it:

http://theflyshop.com/Mikes_Folder/kindofabigdeal.mov

And my Canelazo recipe. (Canelazo is a drink we had when I lived in Ecuador - down South it is cinnamon-y and tart with passion fruit or taxa fruit. For lack of Zhumir and exotic fruits here in Utah, I substituted rum and lime. It is still delicious!)

Canelazo

~4 C water
1 C Sugar
1 C Dark Brown Sugar
4-5 cinnamon sticks
Orange slices
Lime slices
White Rum

Add sugars to water and boil over medium heat. Add lime, orange and cinnamon sticks and boil for 10-15 minutes or until the mixture has a cinnamon flavor. Add rum (I usually add about two cups) and reduce heat, so that the drink is merely staying warm and no longer simmering or bubbling (you will reduce the amount of alcohol if it is). Serve in shot glasses or, if you're like me, in a thermos strapped into a drift boat.

Day in the life of Dogger

Everett joined Jeremy and I for a day of fishing up at the Weber River. He's got a pretty rough life for a dog. As you can see here, he's pretty much miserable.

The fishing was slow (OK, nonexistent) so Jeremy and I motored up to some fishier waters. Being the considerate guy that he is Jeremy gave me first shot at the run. I had made three or four casts when I heard some commotion behind me....

(Re-enactment)

Only to find a very sad Jeremy, and a very broken fly rod. Everett, deep in stick-munching had accidentally bitten through Jeremy's fly rod, breaking off the tip of his Scott which has been sent back about four times already.

We tried to tell Everett what a BAD DOG he'd been:


But I don't think he really believed us.


And we really didn't mean it either. He's suchagoodboy. We fished a few minutes more on the rod that I was using, but nothin seemed to be interested. We ended up heading back to Salt Lake and playing some tennis - something I haven't done in many years, and thankfully, something that there are no pictures of.

Thoughts on a couch

Take a look here, folks, at this COMFY FREAKING COUCH! One that I've heard called a "NAP ENGINE". Don't you just want to lie back on it and take a little snooze? I know I do. MMMMM, boy! I know all you flat-landers out there CAN'T WAIT to come and visit the Salty City and sink your buns into this delightful, overstuffed monstrosity!

Seriously folks, come and visit! Its getting to be that time of year when us snow bunnies start getting excited for some powder days and it'll still be warm enough in the desert for some biking. Any takers??

OK, I promise my next post won't be how excited I am about some new inanimate object that I bought. Maybe some pretty photos of what I've been up to over the past couple of months...All to entice you to come check out my new corner of the world.

Mug Fail

Sad to say this is my first post, but I felt like I should share with you my new coffee mug. For those of you who don't know, I work at US Army Dugway Proving Ground as a raptor biologist. The US Army trains and tests "stuff" here, and my job is to make sure that raptors aren't harmed in the process. This mug might be considered a metaphor for my place of employment. At the very least, its kind of funny.