Bear Tracks

I went on a "Bioblitz" the week before finals for my Conservation Biology class.  Basically, we were volunteering to do butterfly surverys.  It was very windy that day so we didn't catch a whole lot but we did see some fresh wolf tracks and these bear tracks.  I wish I would have put my foot in the picture for comparison, they were bigger than my foot!

On a different note:

Our strawberry patch is looking amazing so far!  I am so excited

 -I love fresh strawberries!

We got great blooms on our rhodies, despite a late frost.  Last year they didn't bloom too well even though I fertilized the hell out of them.  This year it paid off!

bleeding heart

I have the coolest bleeding heart plant ever.  It was already planted at the house when we moved in.  I honestly don't remember how big it got that first summer (I was interning in Oregon the ENTIRE summer).  But last summer it was huge.  At the end of the summer I even divided the root ball and gave half to Sherry and Dad.

I thought it might be fun this year to document how fast it actually grows.  The first six pictures are of the first seven days (I only missed one day of pics).  A weekend passed between the sixth and seventh photo.  The last photo is it about two weeks after the very first picture.

Crazy huh?

Remember?

Remember jelly shoes?

When I was visiting in Boise this past January, I spotted these clear Converse shoes and had to get them.  They are definitely in the "so ugly I love them" category!

I have a thing about socks.  The funkier the better!  So these shoes are PERFECT for showing off my collection of socks.

and I don't ever have to worry about rocks getting stuck in the heels of these "jelly shoes"

wearing a pair of purple checked socks

Let there be light!

We finally put in a new back door.  The one that was on the house when we bought it was old and drafty and had the crap beat out of it by a hail storm.  If we had of known how much of a difference a new door would make, we would have done it sooner!  It is amazing!

A big THANK YOU to my Dad for coming over and helping!!!!  We truly couldn't have done it without you!!!!

We were able to put in a slightly bigger door, which was nice.  But the best part of it all is:

The insane amount of light it lets it!

New internship

Last fall I was offered a supervisor position back at Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve where I interned last summer.  I originally accepted the offer.  But as the school year moved along I realized that this is possibly my last summer to intern.  I am graduating in December 2010.  I then realized that I have never spent a summer at home since returning to school!  Skott and I had many talks about the pros and cons of this supervisor position and being gone yet again.  It wasn't an easy decision but I decided to turn down the supervisor job and search for something local.  Internships are RARE in the Eau Claire area but I was willing to take that chance.

A strange series of random "right place at right time" incidents happened that led to me applying for an internship with the DNR (Department of Natural Resources).... and I found out Friday that I got it!

This internship encompasses a variety of things including field work, education, public speaking, and networking.  I am really excited that it is pretty flexible and (for the most part) local.  This will allow me to continue research with my plants professor that I worked with last summer up at Cedar Creek.  But most importantly, this means I actually get to spend a summer with my wonderful husband and family!  We are looking forward to growing a small veggie garden, camping, sitting in the swing, fires in the fire pit, bicycle rides, farmers markets, yard sales, disc golf, ........ and our list keeps growing!

I will be working with the endangered species of Karner blue butterfly.  I will admit, I dont know much about them yet.  I have training the first week of June.  Luckily, my advisor has been working on Karners for about 15 years so she is a wealth of knowledge.

Here is a link if you are curious:
 http://www.fws.gov/midwest/endangered/insects/kbb/kbb_fact.html