Bonfire 1999

we will always remember.

ski swap!

We went to the ski swap this morning and bought skis, boots, and poles! The ski swap was so cool with so much equipment of varying conditions for sale. I bought my skis with the bindings for $59. Now, I am ready to go - it just needs to snow! :)

While we are waiting for snow, we can mountain bike! We finally went for the first time today on the Lake Bonneville Shoreline Trail in Dry Canyon. It was really fun but also really hard - I really need to get in shape and there were some really steep uphill sections (that is a lot of reallys/reallies).

nablopomo

I feel that November is not the best month for nablopomo for me as a student. November always seems to be a hectic month! Perhaps, I will try a myblopomo (my blog posting month rather than the national blog posting month) some other month that works a little better for me. :)

morning kisses

When Lucy finally gets out of bed and comes downstairs (she likes to sleep in a little), Chico (an early riser) gets so excited and gives Lucy numerous kisses on the face. He licks her nose, eyes, and ears. It's so funny and cute...and a little gross.

yikes

I am blowing goats with this nablopomo thing. I forgot to post again yesterday. This weekend has mostly been uneventful - mostly lots of reading and paper writing. But we did take a small break to watch the first half of the Boise State/Utah State game (we 2-percented out after halftime when we were losing 31-0)....I'm not sure if Utah State will end up winning a game this year - I think we have one more chance against Idaho State, who has won only one game.

Then today we used our free Bee Movie tickets. I thought it was cute - and it reminds you of the importance of bees in our world. I read a quote by Albert Einstein that said without bees, humans would only live for 4 years. Also, in the movie The Eleventh Hour (one cool thing about Logan is even though it is pretty small, it has an arts cinema that shows documentaries and independent films), it was said that if humans had to do what bees do, it would cost 15 trillion dollars. So, I'll try to think about that the next time a bee flies in my face...

ugh

long day...

HDESM

The name of my degree is really long and weird: Human Dimensions in Ecosystem Science and Management. The goal of the degree (this is what I think so far...) is to really study and consider the interactions of humans and the environment. I am interested in water issues, both water quantity and water quality (but I haven't really defined my dissertation project yet...).

This degree is pretty different from my geology degrees, which consisted of straight-up biophysical science. Sometimes I feel a little out of place in the more social science aspect of my new degree, but I have noticed (at the GSA conference, for example) that I am most attracted to research projects that have a human element to it - projects that work to solve human problems with the environment.

I was reminded today of a conversation I had at GSA with a very interesting, dynamic woman geologist. We were talking about climate change and somehow we got on the topic of New Orleans. In her opinion, we should not be spending so much money to "rebuild" New Orleans, because the city is below sea-level (our doing since we do not allow the Mississippi River to be connected to its floodplain and resupply the land with sediment) and it's in a hurricane prone area (climate change or no climate change). Instead, she believes that we should be spending our money to help the people of New Orleans adapt and move away from this poorly planned city.

To a group of geologists, this makes total sense. But then I started thinking about New Orleans and its uniqueness. To the people who are from there, their identity is embedded in New Orleans - this weird, crazy place that probably only natives can really understand. Take away New Orleans and we take away who these people are. It's a difficult problem. I can see and understand both the physical science and social science views. I really don't have much of an idea on how to resolve it, but I like that my long-named, un-understandable degree focuses on these kinds of issues...

sad dog

Nate left to go to a conference in Arkansas until Sunday, so we are babysitting Chico while he's away. Poor Chico - he's such a sad pup without his dad. Adrian said that Lucy was mopey and sad when I was away in Denver. It's so sad and nice at the same time to see how much dogs miss you when you're gone.

"Dogs have given us their absolute all. We are the center of their universe. We are the focus of their love and faith and trust. They serve us in return for scraps. It is without a doubt the best deal man has ever made." ~Roger Caras

Christmas Mountains update, skiing!, and Bee movie

The Texas School Land Board voted to delay the sale of the Christmas Mountains for three months, which gives the National Park Service time to buy the land. It's still not clear, though, if Commissioner Patterson will still require hunting and firearms to be allowed on the land. If that is the case, the NPS probably won't buy it, so we shall see what happens...

on a different note, we got our ski passes today before the special student rate expired! I'm so excited to ski the Beav...

also, (this shows how eventful my day has been) we went to Albertson's and bought 10 boxes of cereal for $2/each to get 2 free tickets to the Bee movie...plus, we've been eating a lot of cereal and regularly go through boxes. However, only a few cereals were part of the deal, so we will be eating Golden Grahams, Cocoa Puffs, and French Toast Crunch for awhile...probably not the healthiest...

october wrap-up

I'm going to post today before I forget. I thought I could do a brief October wrap-up now that November is officially here, time change and all.

Some time in the middle of October we had a pumpkin carving party and invited people over to carve pumpkins, eat some food, and play some games. It was pretty fun, and people's pumpkins turned out so good. Also, when people left, clean-up was so much faster and easier than in our College Station house since we have a dishwasher! incredible!

Adrian and I also went to this event called Pumpkin Walk. It's in a park in North Logan, and it's kind of like a Christmas tree walk, where different groups had exhibits of painted and carved pumpkins. They had Sesame Street, Garfield, and many more in the form of pumpkins and squash. It was kind of cute, and apparently a very popular event, as there were tons of people there!

I forgot to add, we also went to a corn maze with our friends, Seth and Emily. I had never been to one before, and it was really fun. Each season here seems to have some fun, festive activity to participate in. :)

Then at the end of October, I went to Denver for the GSA conference. I presented a poster on my masters thesis and went to a lot of other talks and presentations. It was a nice break from school and I got to see A&M people. I didn't really have a Halloween though, since I flew in at 11 pm on Halloween night, but maybe next year I'll have time to think of a clever costume. Adrian said that we did not get very many trick or treaters - only about 6 groups....

That was pretty much the 2nd half of my October... :)

oops

I've already failed at NaBloPoMo. Yesterday, I went to some hot springs in Idaho with some girls and then we went to dinner. We dropped off one of the girls first and noticed that Adrian was over at her place (Adrian and her husband, Seth had been working on building a shed at our house all day and then insulating their windows) so we stayed and talked to them for awhile. It was late when we came back home, but we started to watch the A&M -OU game that we had taped and I fell asleep at some point in the game...hence, no post yesterday...

Christmas Mountains

Next Tuesday, Nov. 6th, the Texas School Land Board will vote whether or not to sell the Christmas Mountains to private interests. The Christmas Mountains property contains most of the Christmas Mountains and is adjacent to Big Bend National Park. When the property was sold to the Texas General Land Office, the owner made an agreement with the then GLO land commissioner that the land be kept public and if the land was transferred, it could only be to the National Park Service or the Texas Parks and Wildlife Dept, or else the owner would have to be consulted.

The National Park Service has recently expressed interest in obtaining the property to add to Big Bend National Park, but the current land commissioner does not want the property to go to the NPS, due to the Park Service's prohibitions on hunting and firearms. In addition, the current commissioner is not interested in checking with the previous owners to make sure that they approve of the sale - disregarding the owners agreement with the previous land commissioner.

I suppose the land commissioner is hoping that the land will go to private hands that will responsibly manage the lands and allow hunting, but I think that can be a gamble, plus I feel it's a shame that the land commissioner is not interested in adding more public land to Texas. According to some stats that I have looked up, less than 5% of land in Texas is public (I've found as little as 2%). In contrast, approximately 60% of land in Utah is public land! And honestly, this is one big reason why I really enjoy it in Utah. You can easily drive 20 minutes in every direction from our house and hike and camp! :) Also, I am biased, but Big Bend is really an incredible, special place and one of my most favorite national parks so far.

If you oppose the sale of the Christmas Mountains to private interests, here's a link to the petition: https://www.environmenttexas.org/action/preserving-texas/perry
For more info, here are some articles:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/03/us/03mountains.html?ref=environment
http://www.statesman.com/search/content/news/stories/local/10/13/1013bigbend.html
http://www.bigbendgazette.com/blog/_archives/2005/12/2/1441607.html

nablopomo

November is NaBloPoMo, or National Blog Posting Month, where the goal is to post in your blog everyday for the month of November. We'll see if I can do it, although I imagine the posts could become boring. I've just gotten back from Denver so I could post about that. But I have quite a bit to catch up on right now (including a scary 3-hour fluvial geomorph test that I need to get to in a bit), so I will write more later.

mid-October update

I haven't updated in awhile. We have been somewhat busy with school. Here's what's happened so far:

1. Dinosaur National Monument with my fluvial geomorphology class. A fun trip - beautiful scenary. We hiked along and across the Yampa River, and it rained one night for the whole night, leaving me with a wet tent and wet sleeping bag.

This was one of our crossings, where the water came up to our chests!

2. Adrian's parents came to visit for a long weekend. We took them around to see the beautiful fall colors and it even snowed one day!

One of my favorite pictures of Lucy in a bed of colorful leaves.

Adrian's parents in the Logan Canyon.

Fall colors, while snowing!

A real pumpkin patch, where we picked two pumpkins, that still need faces.

Adrian's dad in front of the capitol in Salt Lake.

On the drive back from Salt Lake, snow on the mountain tops with fall colors on the slopes.

That is actually pretty much it. Last night, we went to a pig roast that the College of Natural Sciences holds every year in October. It was pretty fun with a huge bonfire that kept us warm through the drizzling night. Other than that, we have spent a lot of time reading (both of us), playing soccer (Adrian), and going on numerous fluvial trips and labs (me).

seasons!

We have seasons here! The leaves in the canyon have started changing color and it has been getting a little cooler in the mornings and evenings.

We have started getting into somewhat of a schedule and settling into school life. For the most part, I like it - I really like my fluvial geomorphology class where we go out every week to different rivers. We have to go into them and since I don't have waders, I wore the wetsuit that I bought at a thrift shop in San Diego today. I looked a little odd, walking to class in a wetsuit, as if I was going to school in California instead of the mountain west. But it kept me warm. :)

Other times, when I spend hours just reading, I start wondering why I am still in school, but I can't really complain.

Last week, Adrian and I volunteered with the Water Quality program, teaching 4th graders about macroinvertebrates in the Logan River at a campground in the canyon. While there, we noticed how the leaves have already started changing! We hope the colors will still be around when Adrian's parents visit us in the first week of October.

We also went to a USU soccer game on Sunday. It was pretty fun. It made me a little homesick for Aggieland with the rowdy, huge crowd, but the game at Utah State had a different kind of charm. Soccer games are free for everyone, and you can bring in coolers with food and drinks. We also saw several dogs there, and little kids would spend the time rolling down the hill, where people could sit in lawn chairs and blankets rather than the bleachers.

This weekend is actually homecoming week at Utah State, but I will have to miss the festivities since I have a weekend field trip with my geomorphology class...and I am not sure how to end my post, so it will just be an abrupt ending.

school has begun!

We are just about to finish week 2, and I feel like I have really started hitting the ground running. Overall, I am enjoying school (though I have a lot of reading to do), and I like working with my advisor. This will sound silly, but I feel more idealistic here (hopefully, this is not a temporary thing...) - I've been more exposed to stories of change and community-wide activism. There's a lot about A&M that I miss, but I'm glad that I chose to go elsewhere for my attempt at more schooling. Experiencing a different landscape, a different kind of people, and a different way of doing things has widened my perspective.

Lucy and Chico have been doing well. We discovered that there is more than just the beautiful Logan Canyon to hike in, but canyons all over the area that are a 15 minute drive away. We took the two dogs for a short hike in one of them the other day, and they had a good time. also, we found this little trail that runs parallel to the irrigation canal (which I am slowly learning more about) that is just a short walk from our house. It's a nice jogging trail, because it's away from the cars (and it's fairly flat as well. Maybe someday, I will get in shape and not huff as I walk up the hill to go to campus...).

I will end with some pictures of the pups: