Pictures

Just wanna show off some recent photos I have taken.


Snapping turtle laying eggs near home


Autumn meadowhawk


Saffron-winged meadowhawk


Another angle of a Saffron-winged Meadowhawk


Monarch catepiller


I've recently noticed how beautiful milkweed flowers are


A very cool insect on a milkweed plant


Columnbine


Backswimmer

Yet another reason to hate deer...

Yep that's right I'm coming out. My name is Emily and I hate deer. Stupid big eyed, "oh look at me I'm so cute" deer. First as a little kid they ate my favorite flowers in the garden, now they destroy my car.





So my brother looked at all my pics and estimated the damage to be around $3000. Because I got my insurance policy when I was poor and in college, and it didn't dawn on me that I should have changed anything, I have no help coming from insurance. Crap.

This about sums it up:

Found on the internet... a minor adjustment made by me.

"Bring me the horizon

.... and really bad eggs. Drink up me hearties. Yo-ho."
Sorry. Shameless Pirate plug.

Anyway. Just wanna drop a teaser post. I think there are some major changes coming my way. Nothing is official yet so I don't want to go into... well... any details. Just cross your fingers for me that everything will work out.



By the way... I laugh out loud every time I see this pic. hehe

Dodging Storms and Sprinklers

This was an interesting week.

First off, I did not have my computer so I felt pretty disconnected to the world - especially when it came to weather forecasts. On Wednesday I had to cancel a program; the atmosphere was so unstable that all the weatherman said was that people spending time outside needed to have a weather radio- storms could pop up any where, plus he said the heat index was going to be over 100. (Thanks to mom for calling me with a weather report that morning!!) Once I got to the program site, I would have no connection to the outside world. It was damned if you do, damned if you don't situations. I had a gut feeling that if I had the program we would get some severe weather (with no place to go) and if I cancelled the program the sun would shine most of the day. Well bad storms did pop up all over the place but missed where we would have had the program, although we were in a tornado watch the whole day. Oh well. Hopefully parents realized that I did not want to put their kids at risk. The bright side is that I finally got fed up with feeling helpless, so I got myself a NOAA weather radio I can carry with me. I have not been at work without it since.

Thursday I had a migraine. Of course I had a program that morning so I went into work. I had symptoms I've never had before, like motion sickness and light sensitivity. While driving and every time my head changed elevation, I felt like I wanted to hurl. Thankfully, I did not. Normally, my head just hurts... a lot... and I am sensitive to noise. If anyone rustles papers in the next county it sounds like an elephant stampede to me. After my 2 hour program, I went home and slept for over 2 hours. While I did feel a bit better, it still felt like a MAC truck had driven over my head a few times.

Saturday we were dodging more storms. When I got to the office and started setting up for the evening program, my weather radio went off. Severe Thunderstorm Warning and a cell was headed right for us. Needless to say we had over 80 people at the program, it might have been something to do with the interpretive center being a storm shelter... :) Of course not all the campers were polite enough to go down to see our Falconry program, so I spent my time wrangling kids, answering questions about where cities in Minnesota were, refreshing the radar, and scolding kids for running around. I was nice and opened up the entire center, but when the storm and the program were finally over, people would not get the hint and leave. What part of "the upstairs is officially closed" doesn't make sense??

Drew was sick this weekend, we're not sure if it's a cold or horrible allergies. I stopped at one of those veggie country stops and picked up fresh blueberries from Michigan. Fresh and full of healthy antioxidants. WOW were they fantastic! In an attempt to make him feel better, I made vanilla blueberry pancakes on Sunday morning. Nothing beats fresh blueberry pancakes!

Oh best part about this weekend?



I finally got to go back to Belgrade and get my picture taken with the giant crow statue!! It was a fun little stop. When we got there the sprinklers were running, so I got to dodge sprinklers in order to get my photo taken.



Amazingly refreshing summer salad recipe (recreated from a Panera salad)
Lettuce and spinach
Roasted chicken (rotisserie type)- shredded
Sliced Strawberries
Fresh blueberries
croutons
poppy-seed dressing (I like Newmans)


Picture from Panera Bread website

No computer

I had to take my computer in to the Geek Squad yesterday to get some bugs worked out. Either I have a strange virus that attacks my USB ports and my built in web cam or I have some strange hardware issues. The Agent I was working with said it would take 8-24 hours to run diagnostics and I should hear back from him on Thursday.

I wouldn't say I am addicted to my computer. I just never realized how much I rely on it for pretty important things. Out here in the Boonies getting my weather report from WCCO in the Twin Cities doesn't help me much. I already got some emails (both work and personal) which I would have really liked to receive before I got to work today. Also losing my computer for a few days made me realize how much work I do from home. Perhaps it's a good thing to take a break for awhile... maybe I'll read a bit more of The World Without Us...

Wanderings

It's been a busy couple of days. Yesterday evening, I was up around Glacial Lakes doing an I Can Fish program. I had about 15 kids and 5 parents. Of course they were all about 15-20 minutes late, so I had to improvise my schedule. I guess the fish did not get our invitation to show up, since we only caught 3 fish and one painted turtle in an hour.



This morning I was assisting a Take A Kid Fishing program. Thanks to an early morning Severe Thunderstorm Warning, only one family showed up. We tried to work through the storm, but the lightning would not give up. After an hour of stalling, we called it quits. It's a good thing too, because I drove back to Drew's in hail.



After the storm, Drew and I went for a drive. We probably put on over 100 miles wandering our way across the county. Taking back roads, looking at houses, gardens, and beautiful sceneries. The best part was when he decided to go down a road he's never been on and we found an Osprey nest platform with 2 ospreys hanging out! Pictures are on his camera so they'll come later. You think with all the driving I do for work, the last thing I would want to do is go for a drive, but I love these afternoons.



Now I'm back home, hanging out with the dogs, while yet ANOTHER severe storm is getting ready to slam us. My car is in the shed; I'm in the basement with the radio on, candles on standby, and the curtains wide open. I love storms!! Too bad the dogs don't seem to be too keen on it, since Barney is currently hiding under my bed. It's days like this that make me wish I was storm chaser. There were some spectacular clouds showing an extremely unstable atmosphere. Too bad my camera died so I couldn't get pictures.

I went outside to move my car and 3 raccoon kits were crossing the lawn. Being the naturalist I am, I ran to get my camera and tried to get as close as I could. Too cute!! Unfortunately my battery was too low to get solid pictures so this pic is a little blurry.

Books

I'm sure most of you who know me well enough, know of my love of books and about my awesome collection of (and slight obsession with) field guides. One day I was bored so I made a list of my "professional library" (meaning nature/outdoor based). I am up to 73 books. :)

I just finished Sugartime by Susan Carol Hauser. After working at the Audubon Center and participating in Maple Syruping, I hope to one day bottle my own! This was a quick fun read.


image from www.ontariomaplesyrup.com

Now I am working my way through The World Without Us by Alan Weisman. This is a really interesting book! It talks about if humans disappeared tomorrow, what would happen to everything we created. I just finished the sections on plastics and oil. It was kinda fitting reading the oil chapter during the oil spill.


image from bookcoverarchive.com

Up next: Beekeeping: Self-sufficiency by Joanna Ryde. Okay I know some of you are thinking what is up with this one. Well Drew and I are hoping to some day own a small hobby farm. I want to have a small bee colony for a few reasons. One because who doesn't love fresh honey?! The other reason is because I think it would be a smart plan to have a colony of pollinators right there on our property. I figure I should learn as much about this project before we are even close to starting it.


image from www.cathtatedirect.com

Here we go!

Hello friends and family. A friend and former co-worker of mine introduced me to blogging. I really appreciate being able to read about the random things going on in her life. Besides, I feel like I should try to keep in better contact with all of you.

So here we go with some randomness!

My New Year's resolution was to learn a new life skill every year, and attempt to really learn 2 bird songs. Thanks to Amanda, I started my new life skill right away. I have learned how to knit! I have scarves mastered, and now I am playing with dishcloths. I am hoping to one day learn how to knit blankets! As far as bird songs... it's a long process.




I started the New Year out in Sandstone and moved near Willmar in May. If I move again before November, I will have moved more times than I am years old. Is it going to happen? If I had a magic eight ball this is where it would say "Signs point to yes." My current job ends beginning of September and I don't know where I am going to go next.

Keep your fingers crossed that I can find something else when this job is over.


Kid quote of the day: This is after my fishing class.
Little girls (very shyly) What's your last name?
Me Why?
Their dad They were hoping your last name was Elizabeth and that you had a big, red dog.... named Clifford.
Me I have a big brown dog named Memphis, does that count??
Little girls (looking disappointed) smiled and walked away