The crazy amounts of work is related to my thesis. As time has gone on, I have realized again and again how different what I am studying is from what I thought it would be. This is not good, because it means that everything is taking me far more time to do than I had originally planned for. The good thing is, the findings are important and can indicate new ways to go about researching this type of system. That is enough about that, I get tired of thinking about and talking about my thesis.
Now on to the whole lot of awesomeness...
The picture above is when I went to Hardware Ranch with Andrew Shields and his friends Justin and Kaylinn (I probably spelled her name wrong). Hardware Ranch is a National Park in Cache Valley that puts out hay for a herd of elk in the winter time. Then they take people on sleigh rides through the herd and and tell you a bit about elk. The sleigh was fairly full, so they let Andrew and I ride up front with the driver.
It was amazing! I have never been so close to so many elk. I realized, that female elk look an awful lot like camels! Well, I think they do. You can judge for yourself. Unfortunately, the picture above, is mostly bulls, not cows. I guess that is because no one really wants to take pictures of an elk that looks like a camel...
In addition to getting so close to elk with Andrew, there are a lot of other things I have done with him over the past month and a half: snow shoeing, cross country skiing, tubing, curling, bear denning, and shooting. I don't have any pictures from snow shoeing, tubing, or cross country skiing, but they were amazing.
Curling is an Olympic sport, and as such is taught at the Utah Olympic Oval in Kerns. I had heard about their curling lessons from Reed, one of the other grad students in Food Science at BYU. I just had to try it, and then I convinced my roommates to get dates and Andrew to go with me. It was so much fun!
First you learn to sweep the ice.
Then you learn how to slide.
Then at the end of the night, you have to make sure that you get group pictures!
Our Curling group! Dan, Elissa McCullough, Evan, Jessica Vandermark, Bethany Carr, Dillon Fallon, Me, and Andrew Shields.
As amazing as curling was, the next day topped it. Andrew took me Bear Denning. Lest you think we were hunting down bear caves, putting our lives in danger, and climbing down into bear dens, I am afraid I have disillusion you. One of Andrew's professors has been studying mama bears for about 20 years. they have radio collars on the mamas they are studying. Right before the bears are going to be leaving their dens they go out, tranquillize the mamas and babies, pull them from their dens and weigh them. On the week they do this, they find the bear closest to the road and do that one on Saturday. The Saturday of they invite lots of people to come see the bears. Thus the reason, that I, knowing nothing about wildlife/wildlands conservation was able to go.
Evan and Samantha (Andrew's awesome cousins) with the sleeping mama bear. And again, with one of the babies.
Then Andrew and I got to pet the mama and baby. The baby was starting to wake and growled while we were there. I loved it, but was a bit nervous about the growling. When I turned into such a fraidy cat, I couldn't say.
After seeing the bears and hiking back down to the road, we found a nice place to have lunch, and to go shooting. After all, no trip is complete without guns. Actually, it was the first time I have ever shot anything.
The site of the picnic and my first time shooting. It was a beautiful, clear day. Actually, it couldn't have been any better.
Sammy is an excellent shot, the only time I hit anything was when I was aiming for the thing next to it. I didn't disillusion anyone when they thought I had been aiming the thing I hit.
All in all, the last few months have been so great. I guess the truth is, that the more adversity you feel the more joy you can also feel. Thank goodness for the adversity, so I could experience days like these!
As amazing as curling was, the next day topped it. Andrew took me Bear Denning. Lest you think we were hunting down bear caves, putting our lives in danger, and climbing down into bear dens, I am afraid I have disillusion you. One of Andrew's professors has been studying mama bears for about 20 years. they have radio collars on the mamas they are studying. Right before the bears are going to be leaving their dens they go out, tranquillize the mamas and babies, pull them from their dens and weigh them. On the week they do this, they find the bear closest to the road and do that one on Saturday. The Saturday of they invite lots of people to come see the bears. Thus the reason, that I, knowing nothing about wildlife/wildlands conservation was able to go.
Evan and Samantha (Andrew's awesome cousins) with the sleeping mama bear. And again, with one of the babies.
Then Andrew and I got to pet the mama and baby. The baby was starting to wake and growled while we were there. I loved it, but was a bit nervous about the growling. When I turned into such a fraidy cat, I couldn't say.
After seeing the bears and hiking back down to the road, we found a nice place to have lunch, and to go shooting. After all, no trip is complete without guns. Actually, it was the first time I have ever shot anything.
The site of the picnic and my first time shooting. It was a beautiful, clear day. Actually, it couldn't have been any better.
Sammy is an excellent shot, the only time I hit anything was when I was aiming for the thing next to it. I didn't disillusion anyone when they thought I had been aiming the thing I hit.
All in all, the last few months have been so great. I guess the truth is, that the more adversity you feel the more joy you can also feel. Thank goodness for the adversity, so I could experience days like these!
No comments:
Post a Comment