Sunday, August 7, 2016

Meet the Bridgers

Friends,

I hardly know where to start it has been so long since the last post. I suppose I'll start with what has been most significant to me, which would be how my uncle started coming back to church. It is actually an incredibly long story that involves a lot of addiction recovery, willpower and faith in the Savior. But I will say this. It has certainly been a privilege to be here this summer and watch him make some extraordinary decisions and choose to not only believe in God but try to actively follow him and do his will. Blinn is an amazing example to me and I'm very grateful to have been a small participant in his coming back to the fold.

This picture is with my brother and I on his first Sunday back. He has now been about 4 weeks in a row (well minus one week where he had a heart attack...another story entirely) and just today smoked his last cigarette. So if you're the praying type, some prayers for my uncle would be appreciated. 

And here's a little buck Amadeus and I saw a few weeks back. Just last week up Avintaquin canyon we saw two very decent sized bucks. And on the ranch we saw four MONSTERS, which I couldn't get any pictures of, but they were certainly incredible to watch. Especially since Blinn spotted them on the ridgeline at over 2,000 yards with his bare eyes. 

BEAVER!

In other exciting news we have caught two beaver, and the toenail of a third. Now before you start thinking I'm trapping out of season or killing innocent animals, these beaver eat big swaths of alfalfa in one night and can dam up the creek which causes some major problems around here. Regardless, Mindy and I feel like we have been adopted into the Jim Bridger family. I even skinned both these beaver and plan on having their hides tanned. 

In the wild on the other hand, Amadeus and I have seen quite a few beaver dams and lodges. This particular set, from the above picture, had four different dams and ponds. Pretty cool little creatures. 

Did I mention that our skunk count has increased to 16?! 16 skunks. Below is a picture of Marcy and I on a day we caught two skunks in traps and were practically chased by a third. But that day we had the correct amount of fire power. Besides that Marcy had some wicked cornrows going on. 

Hopefully that will hold you until the next installment. Thanks again for reading!

Sunday, July 10, 2016

Dams, skunks and Syd's Memorial Mud hole

Hello again,

So we'll start with the dam story. This was quite a while ago, but still a pretty good one. I get home from work one day and Blinn says we need to build a dam.........well I know nothing about dam building but I told him I would help. As you can see in the picture below, we were actually just building a diversion dam to send some of the water from the creek (pronounced crick) down the irrigation ditch so we could water the lower fields. Without tipping the tractor into the creek I helped him guide that long telephone pole in and then my job came in. The water was too deep for Mindy and I to stand in, in only muck boots so we slid across multiple times on our rear ends (without getting any slivers) to wedge those boards in and send some of the water down the ditch. You would have thought we were olympic gymnasts with our awesome balancing skills. 

Look at this awesome bull moose we saw one day: 


Just a little guy but he still looks cool.

He distracted me so much that not too soon after that I buried the truck in a mud hole. Of course I think I can make it if I punch the gas real hard, instead I just rammed the front of the truck into a mud bar and sent the front tires spinning in water. In the end my boss came and towed us out cause we weren't too far from the office. And luckily I was with my awesome coworker and not some of my relatives, and I didn't even get teased or yelled at. 


After we got the truck unstuck and were casually eating lunch we turned and saw these clouds coming over the mountains as the thunder started to roll. We jumped in the truck and Amadeus took off hell bent for election as the road started to turn into a river and the rain started to come down as hail and literally lightening was striking on both sides. I was totally calm as I death gripped the door handle and waited for our backend to slide into some unsuspecting tree. 


Then, of course, our skunk count has increased to 5! This one somehow found itself in a foot trap meant for rock chucks. By the time I got there it had died of stress but it had made sure to leave it's mark in the air. It takes a lot to make me gag, but trying to get that guy out of the foot trap sure was disgusting. 

Then one day Marcy and I saw one running through an alfalfa field we were checking and started shooting at it, from about 60 yards with my little .22 pistol. We thought we might have hit it after it raised it's tail at us a few times so we decided to go in after it. Cause we are geniuses, obviously. Marcy says to me she won't go if she doesn't have a gun, and we had only brought the one so I took that C-clamp for protection...you know... to throw at it if need be. Luckily we didn't find it. Mindy let us back into the house to sleep for the night. 

 Pretty much have to check my pockets for bullets every time I wash my pants.

One day we were walking up over a little hill after checking on some nestlings and a mother ruffed grouse started attacking us! Why, you ask? Because we had stumbled upon her recently hatched chicks. You couldn't really see them through the tall grass, but we did count 8 broken egg shells in the little nest under a small pine tree.


Well, there is the attempt at catching up. Our next adventures involve a broken underground pipe, some awesome bucks and going to church with my uncle for his first time in 15+ years. Families are awesome!

We'll end with another cute nestling photo:

Tuesday, July 5, 2016

Sneak Peek

Fellow adventurers,

I know that it has been a week and two days since the last post. For a handful of you, who have anxiously been awaiting the next post, I apologize. I literally had the whole thing written up on Sunday night and it wouldn't post. So I hit save and then closed the tab, thinking it would just save and load right back up...wrong. The whole thing got deleted. I'll throw in a couple sneak peek pictures in here until I have a minute to sit down and write all the crazy stories.

Serious cuteness right? It was actually a twin but I couldn't get them to hold still together.

The skunk hunters. You think I'm joking.

See? Nastiest moment of my entire life, but no I didn't get sprayed.

Baby goshawk!

Red-tailed hawk squawking at us from a ponderosa.

Ok, there are your sneak peek pictures. Enjoy. I'll be back soon...ish.

Sunday, June 19, 2016

Moosen!

I don't know if you remember but a couple of posts ago I talked about buying a gadget that allowed me to take pictures through my binoculars, well it finally came. And check out the very first picture I ever took with it:

Only the second time in my life that I had seen a moose and it was a cow and calf! It was a super exciting moment: we were driving around a bend in the road and something super dark was diving off the east side of the road. Amadeus skidded to a stop and I hurried and shot these pictures. 

Other exciting things happening in my life: on Thursday a couple of Amadeus' friends, Mike and Betsy, came with us to experience a day in the life of the goshawk crew. And let me tell you they were awesome hikers. I'll be honest and say I was a little worried, cause it definitely wasn't the easiest day we've ever had but they both kept up super well. A couple times I stopped to see how far behind they were and Betsy almost ran right over me. But because I am an awesome photographer I totally forgot to take a picture. Either way it was super fun. While we didn't find any live goshawk we did find this little fledgling that probably died last year (you are reading this, so I'm assuming that pictures of dead things don't bother you too much):


This also happened this week:
Yep that's right, if you can't tell I caught my first skunk. Luckily it was just a little guy. But getting rid of him was quite the adventure. A few of my sources (one being the Buenos Nachos Wildlife Biology hotline, staffed by Jim Lamb) told me to sneak up on it with a blanket and cover the cage, then I could carry it wherever I wanted to get rid of it without getting sprayed. Well, first of all that required a little more bravery than I was feeling and second I had the trap staked down and so didn't think I could move it without causing a ruckus. I was happy that the wind was blowing pretty good that day and I just got upwind and shot it in the trap, watching a nice plume of greenish/yellowish mist rise off it after the shot. You're welcome for the details. 

I also caught some ring neck doves in a trap I was trying to catch a squirrel in:
 And I basically caught a rock chuck by the finger nail:

On Saturday Mindy and Marcy were gone so Blinn and I took a drive up Diamond mountain and went to the fish hatchery. I got a lot of good stories out of the deal, especially some crazy hunting ones, and free lunch. An afternoon well spent.

While they were gone I also got to try my hand at keeping up with the chores by myself...it was quite the adventure. A lot of work for a two person crew. Here is a picture of the pigs after the ripped their feeder off the wall so they could both eat at the same time. It's interesting to watch how they fight to get the most food. Bacon may be good and all but I don't think I will ever raise any pigs.

The oat field we planted earlier is coming up pretty good:
It is incredible how satisfying it is to see those little green things sprout up out of the ground. 

Here is a shot of some of the amazing views I get to experience everyday down here in our little patch of heaven. The moon just starting to peek up over the hills.

A couple more pictures to end the post:
I'm sorry I didn't get any selfies in this week but this picture of a cookie will have to do. All I can say is that Mindy makes some of the most divine chocolate chip cookies I have ever eaten (I still love yours too mom) and there is nothing like coming back to the truck after a long day only to have one waiting for you. 

A nice wildflower I need to look up:

And can you find the butterfly?

Until next week, keep adventuring!

Sunday, June 12, 2016

"Nothing Gold Can Stay"

Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

By: Robert Frost

I thought A LOT about this poem this week. I even recited it to my coworker during one of our long hikes. Some people think it is kinda crazy, but like I wrote last time, SO MANY of my childhood dreams are coming true right now and I am just having so much fun everyday. When you are in one of those moments you sometimes start to dread the ending, you can just feel how sad you'll be when the adventure of a lifetime is over. But like this poem teaches we just have to cherish the golden moments, enjoy them, live in the moment and be grateful for the awesome, beautiful, wonderful, fulfilling life that God blesses us with.

I'm sorry it has taken me so long to write another post. I literally think about it daily, but between hiking 8-12 miles a day and learning all about farm life, I run out of time and energy by the end of the day. Which unfortunately also means some of the awesome stories slip through the cracks but I will do my best to fill you in.

The Elk that Stalked Me

This is not a joke. I was sitting on a log in the middle of all these lodgepoles, keeping an eye on a nest, when all the sudden I hear some big crashing noises in a thicket to my left. Of course it is pretty loud and I have no idea what is going to come popping out of there, but I just hold my position on the log. When all of a sudden out comes this little calf elk and just starts walking toward me, like he doesn't know I'm even there. He gets within about 20 feet before I decide to move so that neither of us gets too jumpy. But it was a pretty cool experience that isn't even done justice by this photo.

On another day Amadeus and I start out on what we think will be a two hour hike to a nest (which we started at 2pm, thinking we could be done before quitting time)...well 5 hours, 3 big boulder fields, an incredibly thick stand of lodgepole, some scratches and two goshawk NESTLINGS later we finally make it back to the truck. BUT. The two baby goshawks and an awesome shed I found literally made it all worth it. And Amadeus and I learned a thing or two about not just blindly trusting the detailed Forest Service directions we receive. Sometimes you've got to follow the elk instead, they actually know what is up in the forest. And sometimes you have to be willing to think a little more like Darwin, or really any other great scientist. Good science takes time and sometimes what seem like wasted efforts, but if you don't put the effort into good observation...you'll never get anywhere.
Thus Amadeus' first selfie after the long hike!
On another note I caught a magpie by the beak in one of my traps this week. I guess he thought that rock chuck guts sounded like a good afternoon snack. I also caught a mink and another feral cat, but I didn't get a good picture of them.

I'm sorry that those are all the stories I can think of for now. I played the violin in church, Mindy and I played detective as to how and why a rabbit had been dismembered and left in our shed, and I got a fitbit so now I'm kinda crazy about getting ten thousand steps a day...although let's be real that is only very hard for me on the weekends. The first day I had it I hiked 11 miles and had some 27,000 steps...
Here are some pictures for your enjoyment:

One of our crazy chickens, I was just trying to get a good picture of his beard.

We did get this cool view from our crazy 5 hour hike. 

View from the Red Canyon Visitors center.

I also tied some flies this week, if you can even see that little guy. Although I haven't been fishing out here yet.

A great view of Moon Lake, the Ashley seriously has some beautiful country.

Ok seriously, I want to know: who has ever drank from a glass Gatorade bottle?

The Gold. An awesome sunset that my phone camera did not do justice to. 
Well, thank you to my three faithful readers who have made it this far. Hope you are enjoying the journey vicariously, because I am seriously having THE BEST time.

Thursday, June 2, 2016

Fine Tuning the Machine

Welcome back to Syd's wonderland.

We'll get back to the title in a minute, first I want to tell you about how some of my earliest dreams are coming true. As a small child I roamed the backyard in Wranglers, red cowboy boots (I don't know how the red clothing fixation started) and a battered old straw cowboy hat handed down to me by my cousin Cody. Oh, and let's not forget the wooden Colt revolver replica that was always tucked into my belt, sometimes with a wooden 30-30 stuffed down the back of my shirt. That little half acre of grass that we lived on was all the wild west one could ask for. A little later a few books lovingly recommended to me changed up the backyard scene. The "Storm Testament" series by Lee Nelson and "The Francis Tuckett Adventure Series" by Gary Paulsen threw me into a love of mountain men, trapping, muzzleloaders, and my dads old leather breeches (that required a loin cloth to be worn properly). How does this apply to my current situation? Well, when I was about to move out here to Vernal my uncle called me up to tell me what rent would be: 2 rock chucks and 4 prairie dogs a week. And as I later found out, the whole of that could be payed with one raccoon. And thus began the real life of Syd the trapper. A week, 4 rock chucks and 1 coon later...let's just say I'm still looking to hone my skills.
Ok, I know you probably can't see it, but that's my first coon in there. 
Here are a couple other firsts from the week:
I saw my first moose trot across a remote mountain road this week. With thick lodgepole pines on either side it disappeared rather quickly, but still pretty cool.

I also got the crap scared out of me by a ruffed grouse I almost stepped on:


And I got to watch a woodpecker making holes through my binoculars for a while. You'd think that after learning how to study raptors so I could tell Goshawks apart from the other hawks in the Ashley, I would also pay close attention to other birds. As I looked at the woodpecker all I thought was, "Oh, it has some red on it's head, should be easy to look up in my bird guide in the truck..." turns out that there were 13 different woodpeckers in my book with red on their heads. My boss told me it was most likely a Red-naped sapsucker, but I'll be sure to pay closer attention next time.
Look CLOSELY and you can catch a glimpse of my woodpecker
On a random side note, imagine how big your head would have to be if this was your jaw:
And no, Dad, I'm not holding it as far away from my face as possible to make it look bigger.
Ok. Finally. The title.
Tuesday's log: 12 miles, Wednesday's log: 7 miles, Thursday's log: 3 miles
Ok so I asked if we could do an easy day today. Why? Because I realized that when you do work like I'm doing, your most important asset is your body. If it's not working...you can't work...you don't get paid...etc. Sometimes the hiking we do is rather easy, so 12 miles would be nothing, but when a good quarter of those miles is through downed timber...it gets tiring quick. While I can boast that there have been no blisters this week, the balls of my feet have never been more sore, and my right leg likes to remind me that I pulled my hammy last summer. Not to complain. It has just helped me realize that, just like any of my dad's old cars, we've got to keep premium oil in the engine, change the tires out when the tread gets worn and pour a 5 gallon cooler of water on the Powerwagon engine when climbing steep hills pulling the fifth wheel...Or for those of you who don't speak fluent "Rich" that means eating food that is actually nutritious (not just chocolate and PB&Js), stretch those tired muscles, WEAR GOOD SOCKS, and pay close attention when the check engine light comes on. It's been a good week and my body is finally getting used to it. I'll race any of you to the top of a mountain covered in fallen lodgepole pines when I'm done.

Here are some other random pictures you might enjoy:
A sneaky picture I snapped of my hiking buddy.
Old school tree stand
There are lovely wildflowers everywhere
When looked at from the right angle: an ent holding a war staff, guarding a beautiful mountain meadow
In closing all of this is made worth it for the beautiful mountain meadows I hike in and the large number of elk I both see and smell that always cause my heart rate to increase.
If you had the eyes of a goshawk you could see a tiny elk escaping in this picture.
Image result for image: hookupz iphone
Also I'm thinking about buying something like you see above, so that you don't have to squint so much to try and see what's in my pictures.

Keep adventuring! Feel free to leave comments if you so desire.