Australia

My dad's here visiting and he found his Australia journal in the spare bedroom as well as the corresponding album. If you remember from the summer, I posted his journals from the trip. If not, you can go visit the archives to the right and they're in there some where around August.

Anyway, we went through his travel journal and mapped out everywhere we went along the way. And here it is:


View Larger Map

hope this works.

you're kidding... right?

Excerpt from a rolling stone article titled: 12 politicians and executives blocking progress on global warming


1. Rupert Murdoch: No one does more to spread dangerous disinformation about global warming than Murdoch. In a year of rec­ord heat waves in Africa, freak snowstorms in America and epic flooding in Pakistan, the Fox network continued to dismiss climate change as nothing but a conspiracy by liberal scientists and Big Government. Glenn Beck told viewers the Earth experienced no warming in the past decade — the hottest on record. Sean Hannity declared that “global warming doesn’t exist” and speculated about “the true agenda of global-warming hysterics.” Even Brian Kilmeade, co-host of the chatty Fox & Friends, laughed off the threat of climate change, joking that the real problem was “too many polar bears.”


really? i'm refraining from cursing a lot and being completely demoralized by humanity. If you want to read the whole article, you can go here.

A few days late, but still relevant

My Friend Molly posted this on her blog the other day (she's listed as "life aquatic" if you are so interested).
Somehow it is managing to rain harder today than it has for the last fourteen days, in which it has not stopped raining.

Even though she posted that on Friday the 20th... i find that this comment is relevant for the western part of Washington pretty much for the entire winter season.

Time to go get that Sunlamp i've been thinking about.

New Year Cheer & freezing temperatues

This past New Years I went on my first legitimate winter camping expedition. I'm discounting the one I had in college where they gave us 15 year old 0 degree rated bags that were really 20 degree bags... and the low went down to -10 that night. It was a pretty negative introduction to winter camping. Oh, did I mention we didn't have tents? anyway. I'm moving on from that day in college and choosing this past New Years as my first legitimate trip into snowy winter nights.

We set-out on the trail at about 9:30 am after re-packing bags with the temperature hovering in the low teens. We spent the next 5 or so hours battling alders, washed out trails, downed trees, waterfalls and heavy packs before reaching our destination. A mere 2500 feet above where we parked our cars, but we were probably about 5 or so miles in. We camped on a beautiful outcropping that had views to the North, South & East. The mountains around us glistened with snow as the temperatures dropped below 10 degrees. Night fell at 5pm and we celebrated New Years at 6pm and again at 7pm. We retired before 8pm due to exhaustion and knowing that our sleeping bags would be warmer then sitting around the fire.

Celebrating New Years around the fire. yeah!!!

Our home in the snow for two nights.

The next morning we skinned to the top of this ridge line that overlooked the twin sisters & Whitehorse. It was an amazing blue bird day with beautiful views of puget Sound, the Cascades and the sun (a rare sight in the winter).

We skied from 11 until 3pm and had amazing runs all day long. The snow was perfect and all you could ever do was smile!

Slash!

Views for days!

The next morning we got up and did it all over again. I ended up leaving before everyone else to give myself a head start... which really resulted in me having the ability to stop a lot and take pictures, which was a ton of fun. The snow crystals were beautiful that morning and being able to travel through the winter wilderness solo was such an amazing experience. Everything around you is silent and all you can hear is your own breath and the crunch of the snow beneath you.

The group skinning to a new peak in the distance. Untouched snow for days and days and days.

watching the sun come up through the tree's on my solo skin

We got back to camp that evening, packed up and headed out to the car to meet up with my two favorite people ever: Gary Schillhammer and his sidekick Blaze (the dog). Gary came prepared with 6 beers so all of us could have one. It was a great three days out in the woods in the middle of nowhere with absolutely no sign of anyone else. I can't wait for more camping trips!

Instructor Exchange

This past weekend we had the amazing ability to interact with two other Environmental Education programs in Washington. Graduate Students from Islandwood on Bainbridge Island and Students from Wilderness Awareness School outside of Seattle.

I was on the planning team (fitting) for the weekend, and so we spent a lot of time creating activities and programs for a group of people we had not even met yet. The idea for the weekend was to showcase our own graduate program as well as the place we live in. Thankfully, it's pretty easy to showcase the North Cascades even when the cloud ceiling is at 20 feet and it's pouring rain. However, I co-led a class on nature journaling and if you know anything about me, you know that i do not journal. I actually submit this blog to my professor for my journal requirements for school. I also led yoga in the morning, which is a fantastic way to wake up. Anyway, i'll stop rambling and get to the details.

it was an amazing experience. We had about 50 total people at the instructor exchange and it was a phenomenal experience. I wish I had more pictures, but I only have one of us singing a song about eating oreo cookies and us attempting to watch eagles while the Skagit was near flood stage. Both groups brought a refreshing viewpoint to environmental education and their own studies. The weekend gave us all a chance to learn from each other and to recharge ourselves as we head into the winter quarter. I took a lot of points away in how to improve my journal techniques, how to listen better, how to dance in the morning (even if i haven't had my tea/coffee) or how to love being outside. It was a great way to come back from break after being a month away and re-focusing on how to be outside.

I can't wait to get back to the learning center to go explore our trails, or take a canoe out and watch the color of Diablo Lake change from dark blue to the deep turquoise blue it is known for.

Singing about Oreo Cookies. Can life get any better?!

Appeal to the Masses

And by masses, i mean the three of you that might read my blog on a non-regular basis.

My college friend Andy has been traveling in Asia for the past year. He has his own blog (listed as Andy's not Here, man on the side of my blog). His funds are running a tad on the low side, and I would really appreciate it if you took a few minutes out of your day, read some of his blog posts and then consider contributing to the continuation of his trip. Andy's a great guy, and I'm sure he has something amazing planned if he's even considering asking for money.

You can follow the link here to go to his site directly.

The life (and dissection) of an otter

I need to place a disclaimer on this post. If seeing dead animals get cut open is gross to you... i suggest you do not scroll down. Thanks!


So, Dave (grad student) was driving home from Sedro-Woolley one day and saw a dead otter on the side of the road. He kept on driving, yet was very intrigued by said otter. He decided later on that day to return to the side of the road, collect the otter, bring it back to the ELC and dissect it. Somehow, if you're in my program, this train of thought seems slightly normal. slightly.

So, the Otter remained in the ELC freezer for a few months as Dave filled out the necessary paperwork with the Fish & Wildlife Department so he could open up the Otter. Daves original priority was to use the pelt for future education with the kids. Clint (another grad student) wanted to get involved and have someone take photos of the process, and then he wanted to draw various parts of the otter. Clint is an AMAZING artist, and his work is similar to those you see in science journals or flower identification guides, so this all kinda made sense. kinda.

On Thursday afternoon, the word is out that at 2pm, the otter dissection would begin... so, due to pure human curiosity I had to go. Usually, I do not have a stomach for any of this, but somehow I was able to watch part of it, or duck behind people when I wasn't willing to watch. Seeing the skin get pulled off an animal was just a little too much for me. So, I present you with photos and a slight dialogue with each. Once again, there is blood and dead otter involved, so you might not want to scroll down.

The otter. Somehow at this stage, it just seemed like a frozen stuffed animal, so I could hang out and joke around. no big deal... right?

Okay... this is where it starts getting questionable. Dave begins cutting in with the equivalent of a pumpkin carving knife. A waft of death & musk enters the room once the body is opened up. Previously someone mentioned that Otters do not have musk glands... we found that they were incorrect.

More of the skin being removed from the otter and the internal cavity being shown. You could see where the trauma occurred from the car hitting the otter.

Shelby & Dave begin peeling the skin off of the otter. Everything on the pelt was intact since they were able to pull it off like the casing on sausage. EW

this is where I checked out and started taking photos of other things in the room... like the green of Codi's beanie, or the floor. I left promptly after this photo since they had just taken out the heart, liver & kidney.

I was only there for the first 1.5 hours, but I believe the full dissection continued for another 4 hours. I know this whole thing might seem incredibly bizarre, but it is interesting having this kind of opportunity to look at an animal so closely and try to understand its life more clearly. We were able to make observations you might not take the time to make if you see something like this in the museum such as: Wow, its paws are webbed and his claws are quite long. Hmm, it's really difficult to figure out its gender, I wonder why that is? or The tail is incredibly muscular, i didn't realize otters relied on their tails so much.

I do know that Clint & Dave are planning on writing a blog for the institute to include Clints drawings and I will put up a link once that is posted. You can also keep your eye out since it will be on the right hand panel of my blog under "Chattermarks"

blowing it

Sorry, i really am. I PROMISE I will write something tonight and then post it tomorrow. A few topics for the upcoming week are:

- dissecting an otter
- dancing on chairs
- being a park ranger (yeah!)
- life in general

Sorry to have fallen off the wagon, im working on getting back on right now.