Time to tell

This has been one of the most stressful weeks of my life... And that is saying A LOT!

First off I'd like to finally tell you my big secret. Drew and I are looking at buying a house in Hutch!!! The plan was that I would go back and work at the restaurant during the winters and work on getting the necessary experience I needed to finally get a full-time job with the state during the summers (which would probably take another 3-4 years).

Then last Sunday on the way to breakfast at Perkins, he tells me that his Dad's farming partner may be retiring in the next few years and he'd like Drew to come back and farm. WOAH!! Talk about dropping a bomb! We did not have many details, so I spent a very long week thinking about it. I don't know how easy this will be to explain without talking to you, but I went from pretty much having the next few years roughly planned out to having my world turned up-side down. We had a really long talk (after my freak-out was over) and decided that while the location of the farm is not ideal for a lively social life, we both really want to end up in the country on a farm in the future. There is just one MAJOR problem with this decision.... there are no naturalist jobs available in that part of the state! I decided that if we want to do this, I need to stop focusing on being a naturalist and start working towards finding a career that will have a better probability of finding a job. I would much rather make a career change now rather than in 5-10 years after I spent so much time and energy working my way up to a full time position.

So here I am. 5 years of college, 1 BS degree, 1 Environmental Ed. Teaching Certificate, and 1.5 years of naturalist positions and I am changing gears. This is incredibly scary and super exciting at the same time! Talk about closing a door and opening a window!! After meeting the parents for a dinner and long discussion, we are thinking that we might have another 2-3 years before things are ready for us to make the move. So the plan, keep looking for a house in Hutch, I'll work at the restaurant this winter, possibly take some classes at the local Tech college, and work towards finding a job that pays decent and has benefits.

Don't worry, I love being a naturalist too much to stop. I will hopefully be starting my own free-lance naturalist business. More about that later.

So in the last week or so, I have:
1) Been looking for a house - which we need to find fairly soon otherwise I will be driving an hour each way to work every day.
2) Working like crazy to finish the work for this position
3) Trying to find the next job that counts as "professional" experience
4) Found out we might be "going back to the farm" - who knows when
5) Looking for a house
6) Buying a brand new bed
7) Meet with the parent to find out it's 89% sure we're "going back to the farm in 2-3 years"
8) Looking for a house and researching costs of appliances
9) Trying to find out how to start my own business
10) Trying to figure out a brand new career!

Keep your fingers crossed that we'll close on a place soon! Once that gets off my plate I think I'll be able to breathe a little more and concentrate on some of these other things.

Thank you so much to my friends and family who are helping me get through these stressful times.

One last thing... what should I be when I grow up???!!!!! HELP!

Oops It's been awhile

Last post was on July 25th, oops. Well here are some things that have happened in the last 2 weeks.

My poor car was fixed! $375 and an hour spent by 3 great guys and it was drivable again. Not bad since my brother estimated the damage at around $3000. But I have some bad news. The "Silver Bullet" is no more. This repair brought on a name change. I'd like to introduce you to...(insert drum roll)... the "Calico Car."




Drew has been working 12-14 hour days battling aphids. We've tried to see each other when possible. Last Sunday we went and had a fantastic dinner at Antone's in St. Cloud. It was a great atmosphere and the food was amazing. I think it is our new place to go when we want a special meal.

http://www.antonsrestaurant.com/

On Thursday, we were able to spend a little time together (gotta love windy days). It was a good day, since we both left work early, and being in a good mood we decided to go try the local Mexican restaurant in Litchfield. Carlitos! What a great time. When you walk in, the place kinda looks like a dive, but man is the food amazing! I had a chimichanga and the crust was... wow... words cannot describe! Drew had a Texas Fajita and the meat had amazing flavor and was perfectly cooked! The other fun thing is that it is a self-serve bar. Want another beer? Walk behind the bar and grab it out of the cooler. Need a margarita? Grab a glass and pour it from a dispenser. Too cool. If you are ever in Litchfield - you really need to stop!!

This past week has been a stressful yet productive one. I've been spending A LOT of time working on my new secret project. I can't wait to tell you all what I'm doing, but I think it is better to wait just a bit longer. hehe

The Regional Naturalist came to watch me give both of my programs yesterday. He is the big wig and has given me some great advice over the past couple of months. Even though it was stressful having him watch, and at times join in on the fun, I got great feedback at the end of the day. Whew!

I cannot believe it is already August 7th! Unbelievable! I have one month exactly until my season is over. This summer has gone by so fast!

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...