Lots of Work

March 6, 2020

I usually arrive and get myself moved in for a few days.  But Suzanne was waiting with a list of things to be done. The recycling was due to be hauled in from both refuges. Both MonteVista and Alamosa needed to have their hunt areas shut down.

A view along a back road from the hunting area 

I found seventeen eagles along the route - one tree had six in it

A view of the Canada geese and mallards enjoying the Rio Grande River

The view with a few eagles way off in the distance

As part of the hunt areas shutdown, I documented repairs - here a section of fence is down

 I needed to make signs, then haul sign holders and barriers from the BLM office and distribute them on the refuge as needed for the bus and auto tours of Monte Vista.

Our roads are narrow and we try to get visitors to park in the parking lots near the grain fields

This is our main viewing area by one of our barley fields - it is closed to most vehicles for the Festival

While adding barriers and building a rope fence, I took time to enjoy some visitors enjoying the cranes

And I too zoomed in on some of the feeding cranes

And enjoyed them leaving to go loaf a few hours

 And I had to make some sign holders for the Friend's of San Luis Valley Refuges to use at the Festival. This  consisted of retrieving two buckets, two PVC pipes, a bag of Quickcrete, all miles apart, and then mixing the Quickcrete and putting in the PVC pipes. I made it worse by trying to move the 80 lb bags of Quickcrete to the truck and catching the bag on the corner of the truck.  I ended up having to sweep it up and move each half of it to a bucket to haul back to my work site.

The sign bases all ready to haul to the festival - I did that also

 We spent the morning and early afternoon of last Thursday setting up the festival. We hauled in our own tables and chairs as well as tall background sections.  And we set up tables and chairs owned by the festival building. I set up a LOT of tables and chairs. The tables were dirty, and I had my cleaning stuff with me, so I got the job of scrubbing them down.  Then Suzanne called us all for lunch on her.  I had just filled my bucket with rinse water and just set it and my rags down. When I got back from a delicious taco lunch, I went back to discover somebody had turned my nice clean water into mud - and rinsed ALL the food tables. I only had to do all the tables used by the various government agencies and the Friends of the Refuges.  I went home exhausted and went to sleep early so I could be back at 6:00 A.M. to set up for the tours and then help finish setting up the displays inside.

Stay tuned for the tours.

Colorado Homecoming

March 1, 2020

I left Houston around 4:20 A.M  at 65 ° and made it to Amarillo just in time to meet the cold front with a few bands of swirling snow. By the next morning, as I was leaving just before dawn, it was 19°. My trip soon slowed as I had to stop and admire the scenery, and eat breakfast and do other piddling things. I stopped to take a picture of the pass and had two 18 wheelers pass me.  I passed one and was completely blinded as it blew muddy snow on me.  I had to stop in Alamosa for groceries and for a car wash to get the mud and salt off my car.

At the beginning of the pass into San Luis Valley from the east

My car after getting through the pass 

Instead of getting to my house about 1:00 P.M., I got there closer to 3:00P.M. I was shocked to see that my gate was locked and I didn't have a key.  Everyone was in a meeting and I didn't get any answers as to how to proceed. Finally my boss texted me back and told me to go to the Monte Vista office, and pick up all my keys. I also figured out what the code for the coded lock might me. I was able to get in about an hour before dark.

Almost Home, Sweet, Home - View from my driveway gate, a quarter of a mile away

Actually home, only two hours later

I'm used to having a pair of owls in my yard, so didn't pay much attention to the big bird sitting in one of the dead trees. But when I got down my quarter mile driveway, I noticed the white head and tail of an adult bald eagle. This was the first time I've had an eagle as a yard bird. (And I saw it again on Sunday, when I went home for lunch.

"My" yard eagle

I was too tired to do much more than bring in the essentials and wash my sheet I'd left on the bed. I must have forgotten to unset a mouse trap and found a dead mouse which I left out for the grateful yellow billed magpies. I had to stop once more to enjoy my welcoming home sunset over the San Juan Mountains.

Sunset over the San Juan Mountains

Reflected sunset on the Sangre de Christi mountains to the east

I spent most of Thursday getting moved in and making some soup. I did a little cleaning on the local vault toilets, and hauled a truck load of trash to recycling in Alamosa. And I did have to stop by to check out the sandhill cranes. All the crane pictures are within a mile of my house.

Evening experiences of Colorado geese - they are flying in from other fields to roost with the cranes

Many cranes were still feeding in our overview site

Flying in 

Friday my boss was back at the office so I went over to meet here and get a few assignments.  I also got back on federal e-mail. I was really excited that she had activated my security card and I didn't have to make an appointment and drive to get it. (Some years, that is an all day job. ) Then I spent a few hours at the library to use their Wi-Fi to start to clean up my drives and start new folders for this year. I also found the folder of signs I had made from last year and forwarded them to her for printing for festival use. I left her with a whole list of jobs, including more hauling, shutting down the hunting areas of both refuges, and doing some chores for our Crane Festival which happens next weekend.

Saturday I left home at 6:30 A.M.  so I could be out at the magic hours for photography while shutting down the hunt areas, collecting signs, picking up trash, and cleaning bathrooms.  I attempted to clean a bathroom in the hunt area and found my spray was FROZEN.  I put it inside the truck to thaw and then stopped at the Alalmosa Visitor Center a few hours later to clean the two vault toilets.  They were filthy,  so I made a strong mix of Simple Green inside the Visitor Center. I found the spray from the bottle was freezing to the toilet unless I worked really fast. The mixture I made to scrub the toilets worked a little better.  But when I I attempted to scrub the floors, it froze into a muddy mush that I had to sweep.out.  I found I had made a skating rink, so had to put on more water on and swept  it out really fast, then scrubbed  with the broom and swept out more mush.  Then I had to repeat a few more times until I was pretty sure no one would die. So a ten minute job turned into a half hour one. And I thought I had learned everything about cleaning bathrooms in my decades of cleaning them. I was wrong.

Gotta shut this gate and drive through the back roads. The signs were not as described, so
I'll have to bring back tools and do this all over again.  Yea. 

After cleaning the vault toilet, I took the long way home along the Rio Grand River which delineates the eastern side of the refuge. That took forever because of all my forced stops to take pictures. This  is our prettiest area.

The Rio Grande with Mt. Blanca in the background

The river had interesting ice forms from breakup in some places

I found lots of Canada geese - there were two bufflehead here but they dived and disappeared

I had to stop and take pictures of the beauty at every bend

Eagles are moving through here now- - there is one juvenile here  - one tree held six

This was the way I usually saw eagles - can you find three?

I saw a few sparrows to far to identify them - this looks like a Savanah

I was surprised to find a singing western meadowlark

I finished the work at Alamosa and came back to Monte Vista to look for some buckets and signs for the Festival.  I stopped to haul some barriers from Alamosa to  the Monte Vista shop, which is the staging area for the festival. Then I decided I was hungry and needed to roast the chicken that had been patiently waiting for two days. After a delicious lunch, I absolutely needed a nap.  I slept so hard, that the Friend's President came and left me money to go shopping for her without me ever noticing until I found her message last night.

This morning, I continued shutting down the Monte Vista hunt areas. I had four separate areas. On the map I thought I could drive from one to the next inside the refuge. But after two slightly hairy failed, attempts, I had to go around by the highway. There I found several problems, including some broken gates hat kept me from actually securing the sites. At the final site, I found, instead of two hunt signs to remove, there were thirty.  I finally got finished at nearly noon and went home to cook a cauliflower and eat leftover roast chicken and sweet potato.

Then I drove back to Alamosa to edit pictures and write this blog. Its's a hard job, but somebody has to do it. .  It's a hard job, but somebody has to do it.  We'll all be working like crazy to get everything ready for the festival.  I'll be supervising the loudspeaker equipment on several bus tours and having lots of fun. Next week's blog will be late since I'll work through mid afternoon on Sunday and the last few hours will involve hauling boxes, chairs, and tables.  I'll probably work eleven days straight and then take off a couple of days to catch up.

2019 in Review

I began 2019 at Warm Springs National Wildlife Refuge during the government shutdown. I already had had much less to do because two new staff had been hired as well as another volunteer couple. So my duties were pretty much to clear away leaves, using a back pack blower.  I couldn't even do  that job or any other during the shutdown, except to finish a spread sheet of native butterflies and their host plants,  so soon was talking to my new boss, Suzanne Beauchaine, about arriving earlier than planned.  I also added in some more playtime since I had to pass through Louisiana and Texas.  I took one break and went to visit my friend, Laurel in South Carolina.  After a few weeks of not getting to work, I gave my boss notice of my leaving, then packed up and cleaned up the house.

A gopher tortoise enjoying his salad

On my trip home,  I anticipated a stop in Montgomery, Alabama to visit the Justice Museum and the Lynching Memorial. before stopping to visit Louisiana friends.  Alas, when I was about a half hour out of Montgomery,  I was rear-ended, which destroyed my boat, boat trailer, bike, bike carrier, car, and other processions.  I also injured my neck and am still getting treatment for it while trying to regain some of my previous life. The driver of the big work van who hit me, was too busy watching the muscovy ducks along the road - and still around for the picture - to brake.

Pieces of my trailer, canoe, and bike

The back of my car

The front of my car after I crashed through a cement-lined ditch

So, in addition to planned visits, to friends and relatives, and visits to  the doctors and therapists, I had to shop for a new vehicle. I'm loving my Toyota Rave which holds roughly one and a half times what the Honda Fit did. (Trying NOT to fill this one up.)

My new (used) Toyota Rave and my salesman

I finally got to the San Luis Valley in early March and immediately started helping to prepare for our Sandhill Crane Festival. Besides gathering everything we needed  together, and checking out our equipment, my main job was riding around on the tour buses and taking care of the amplification equipment.  (It was a TOUGH job but somebody had to do it.) Suzanne even went so far as to make a third volunteer job on the bus going to the archeological site, which turned out to be next to my house, so I could experience the tour, so I could enjoy that one also.

I had more snow than this when I arrived -  about fourteen inches and had to store my car until my driveway dried up

The sandhill cranes made it in time for the festival

This mastodon tooth was found near my house

The next big thing was our safety checkup.  I did some of the work getting ready for it.  I updated all the vehicle and building first aid kits for three refuges, inventoried the chemicals on two refuges, and inspected all the fire extinguishers on three refuges, pulling the ones which needed professional tests, as well as making a spread sheet for them so we can find them all easily next year.


In late May we had another catastrophe. We had some kind of a payment glitch and didn't get our expected adult supervisor for the YCC kids which work across the San Luis Valley for all the refuges, as well as BLM and the Forest Service. Without a supervisor, we could not have the program. I volunteered to take over the program until they found a permanent solution. I ended up working with them for two weeks, repairing fences and removing two strands in five strand fences so our elk can navigate across the refuge easier.  Then a summer intern took them over for the rest of the summer. I accidentally met up with them  at Bacca NWR,  when they had their finishing party and got to join them for supper and a wonderful hike to a male Mexican free-tailed bat cave. It was a tremendously fun experience and I was blessed to be in their presence. They were all awesome workers and people.

One of our two fence repairing teams - if we didn't nave enough work for all, we also picked up trash 

Loading up wire we pulled

We stopped near the end of the trail to the bat cave for this group picture. 

My personal main objective was to kill as much perennial pepperweed as possible. I also sprayed for kochia, mainly to keep it from overtaking the road and maintenance area. I'm expecting to have job security for as long as I can hobble.

My spray vehicle

In actual work mode - I drive with my right hand and spray with my  left

Another great project was a survey of the bees of San Luis Valley. I'm going to continue it this coming year, since I'm not sure I have found them all.  I was lucky in finding a sponsor in the Museum of Natural History, Colorado University of Boulder. They provided my equipment and will identify our bees for free. I ended up surveying throughout the valley, on private lands, BLM lands, and Forest Service Lands. One Forest Service guy even collected bees for me.

A box of bees ready to go to the Museum of Natural History 

Another personal project I started was to replace the almost pure monoculture of Kochia, an invasive, with native plants around my house.  It is one of the reasons, I plan to go back for several years. The refuge also let me have a thirty by thirty foot vegetable garden, another way to keep me coming back.

Yard improvements

I had spectacular sunrises over the Sangre de Christi mountains and sunsets over the San Juan Mountains. I spent a lot of time chasing them.

Sunrises were often spectacular over the Sangre de Christo Mountains

Sunset over the San Juan Mountains

Several friends provided play relief. My first visitors were Winnie and Wayne. We all did a lovely train ride, across southern Colorado and northern New Mexico. We also did car touring and Winnie and I enjoyed the Great Sand Dunes and a hike to Zapata falls.

Starting on the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad trip with Wayne and Winnie

Winnie's picture of me navigating the white water creek formed by Zapata falls

My best friend, Natalie,  kept telling me she wasn't going to visit, then the Houston heat got to her and she and daughter Ellen and two dogs came to visit. We enjoyed a car tour around Creed, Colorado and she and Ellen repeated the railroad trip.






Julie, one of my good friends I've met while volunteering, has been to visit me several times. This time I collected both her and her husband from the airport in Denver and then spent a week with them in Rocky Mountain National Park.

Julie and Jerry in Rocky Mountain National Park

Julie came back to meet me in Albuquerque, NM to play our way to most of the National Parks and Monuments. in New Mexico. We spent six days together trying to fit in another six before I dropped her off at the San Antonio airport.

Me visiting a pueblo at Bandelier National Monument with Julie

Julie at a sunset white sands hike

I came home for the winter to get my cataracts removed. I've just had my final checkup and barely need glasses. I have no more astigmatism.

My temporary look after both surgeries

I've been visiting friends across Texas  before and after staying with my daughter for my surgery.  Then I was expecting to go back to Alabama for my deposition on my accident case before staying with Natalie and also doing a birding/camping trip over Christmas. I got no takers to go with me  on my birding tour until my friend, Laurel asked if it was possible to go on a birding tour across Texas over Christmas. I replied that I already had one in place and I would refine the details and meet her in Mobile, Alabama, immediately after my deposition.

We met and drove to Natalie's house in Houston. When I introduced her to Natalie, I mentioned they were both Pennsylvania Dutch. They started chatting and realized they had attended the same middle and high schools and knew of each other. Then Laurel realized that Natalie had the same antique dining table she owned. I was entertained by their chat about mutual friends. Laurel also knew Natalie's cousins because they always sat behind her in home room, due to sitting in alphabetical order. We were with each other through the first eight days of January, coming back to finish our tour on the upper Texas Coast in case Natalie had leave to be with her  daughter for the birth of her first grandchild.

Laurel, Natalie and Willie - Laurel also had a beloved golden retriever

Laurel was happy with our tour and took pictures of many birds that were lifers for her. But I was dismayed to find up to a tenth  or less of the numbers of birds I expected and missed several species I expected to find.

Laurel editing her pictures at Goose Island State Park

The common pauraque of Estero Llano Grande State Park - we can always find it in the same tiny patch of land

Laurel photographing black-bellied whistling ducks at Anahuac NWR

This year has been a wonderful year with new friends and new adventures plus reconnecting with old friends. I'm hopeful that next year will be even better. I plan to make more connections with people in that area next year through joining some clubs.  I'm also hoping to get to start riding a bike again and get back more paddling moves. I spent WAY too much time getting treatments this year and  was not able to hold my camera for seven months.  So I'm sure this year will automatically  be better.