It's been a few days. Things are a little crazy right now. I'm moving in 3 days. I'm busy packing and taking small loads to my new place. I'm also still trying to place the family of cats I'm fostering. It's just a bad time of year for this. There's cats and kittens everywhere. I'm a little overwhelmed.

This past week has been good so far. I've found several more monarch caterpillars and eggs. Today, I let a young girl hold a caterpillar. She'd never held one before. She was beaming. :)

I got to go out on the boat for patrol with my boss. We were doing PFD checks. He also showed me all the "spots" around the lake like where the road used to be and the fens and the osprey platform. I felt a little bad, not only was I tired but a part of me still associates being on a boat with fishing with dad. He would take me trolling for muskie and I'd set up my pole and kick back and take a nap while Dad drove. LOL Just recently here I've been not getting to bed on time and the kittens have been eating eachother throught the night and we had Comfest this past weekend which entailed visitors at odd, late hours. (Not my visitors, BTW. I didn't go to Comfest.) Anyway, I was trying desperately to hide my dozing off and working very hard to keep myself awake by peppering Manager C with questions. At some point, I'll have to learn to pull a trailer. Oy!

I am getting things together for Jr. Rangers. I have an order out for 60 TP tubes and cardboard. I'm hoping that folks will remember. I really need those TP tubes. Ooh, I just thought of something I can use instead of cardboard. I tried to dig up a mulberry tree (it was small) for the program but I waaaaay misjudged the size of the root ball. I was totally thinking in burlaped tree size. Well, I did grow up in the city. Eh, that's no excuse, I should have known. Now I have a dead mulberry. Whatta waste. :-/

Tomorrow, I'm blessed with a sleep-in. I don't have to get up till 6:30! 2 more hours! Woo! Due to my current proximity to ODNR, I get to go over and get some geology kits (half of which I get to keep) plus I'm going to see if I can get some of their neat ID guides. I hope to get some Owl call and frog call CD's.

Anyway, I'm off to bed. It's after 9 and I'm beat. Let's hope the kitties don't wrestle night.

You know you want one. Look how cute this guy is....his brother's are just as adorable too.

Yay Caterpillars!

If you look at that leaf, you'll see two things. There's the exoskeleton in the upper left corner....ignore that. Over to the right hand side of the leaf, you should see a tiny, tiny caterpillar. That is a newly hatched monarch 'pillar. I'm not even sure if he/she registers on a ruler. I've started looking for more caterpillars. Ranger B has set up a really nice butterfly garden that has all sorts of host plants. He was quizzing my on what hosts what and I had to confess that I didn't know. I'm still working on ID-ing adult butterflies. I'm not yet at the point where I can look at a species and know what their host plant is.

Anyway, I'm going to keep looking for caterpillars. We have host plants for the bigger swallowtails which make great display caterpillars. I visited a friend who's working for Franklin County Metro Parks and she gave me some good pointers on finding eggs. I'm not great at finding eggs. I used her tips a little later to find 3 eggs and 2 caterpillars. I'll take them in on Saturday when I work next. I'll have to comb the plants when I get in that day too. There should be caterpillars for everyone by now.

At work, I've been putting together the Junior Ranger program. I have a program laid out and now I just have to type it up so it's clear and understandable. I realize that not everyone knows what a tree cookie is and that I have slang and acronyms that no one else uses. (If I ever give you directions, TL = turn left and TR = turn right.) Now all I need is access to a computer at work. Sigh....soon.

I also went through training on what is called Verbal Judo. And online book can be found here on the topic. It's very interesting. I had heard about this verbal judo thing from my friend Ranger J at school. Some of it is very common sense, really. Don't call the person "Toots" or "Moron." Don't say "shut up" or "it doesn't matter why, just do it." Don't take anything personally. This is stuff I learned through the years in retail. However, I can see where I can become a better communicator, and ranger, if I get good at this.

In other news, I have found a place to stay near work. It's like 10 minutes from the park. There's a drive in movie theater too that's within a bike's ride. The house is beautiful and I'm getting an upstairs bedroom that is essentially the same size as a large studio for the same price as I'm paying in rent now. The might give me an additional bedroom too. Maybe. I'm just working on getting the first two months rent for them. I'll ask later. I'm okay with whatever they give me. I'll be moving in about a week to a week and a half. Anyway, this house is pre-civil war and the owners have been restoring and fixing it up. There's beautiful antiques all over the place (not cluttered, it's just right). The wife is a master gardener and she has landscaped the yard in the most outstanding color display. They have 3 cats and 3 dogs. I've met 2 of each so far. Which leads me to the kitties I've been fostering.....

I still have the kitties. However, they just went to the vet 2 days ago and got a clean bill of health and some shots and worming. I am in the process of trying to find them homes. I have a flier that I'm taking today to post in a few places. That is part of my plans for today. I'm going to pack but I'm going to kinda take it easy today and tomorrow. (I slept in till 6:30AM today! Wooo!) Mom's coming over to help me pack and have lunch with me tomorrow.

You know, as much as I don't like the WWE Smackdowns at 3AM on my bed, I'm gonna miss this kitties. My apartment feels like a home for the first time.

Later.

Opps

I got Fidget and Fierce mixed up. I corrected the links in the previous entry. Tomorrow is their vet visit. I hope they're all healthy so I can find them homes.

I have found a place to live in Springfield. It's 10 minutes from work, the house was built in 1832, and I essentially get a floor to myself. How cool is that??? The place is beautiful.

Today involved checking on the picnic areas in the morning and putting up reserved signs, adding an "upcoming programs" and "What can I see?" category on the wipe board in the visitor center, and passing out water safety coloring books to kids. Oh, and filling my boss's ear with ideas. I need to write down his responses before I forget. He liked my water safety kid's corn hole idea.

Anyway, it's 8PM and I need dinner. Later! :D

Glimpse of the past

Today I helped with a massive organization mission down in the "basement." We have a ton of slides and slide carousels. I sorted the empty carousels and the ones with slides in them. There were a set of slide shows that weren't used often and they still had the boxes so I put those back in order to save space. While I grew up with slides in school and 16mm films, it amuses me somehow that agencies still have them around. I'm going to ask later if we or someone else has a slide scanner so we can make them into PowerPoints. My poor boss is slammed with things right now. Don't know how he can remember to walk.

Another task I was set upon was to look through old pictures of the site. I dare say I've never seen so many pictures of dirt in my life. However, scattered through there were some neat pictures of people doing programs and recreating. A lot of them were damaged though. There was a great pic of all the rangers but it was so damaged that you couldn't see much. I was looking for pictures of two sites in particular: Prairie View rec area and the maintenance shop. I found pictures of the former being built but I forgot to look for the maintenance shop. I think I saw a few and I'll nab those on Sunday.

So....good news. I have finally installed the camera software and can now post pictures! Yay! Here we go (in list form, I promise to be more creative with this from now on):

The visitor center
Low head dam
The path along the dam
(I have more but you'll get them as time goes on.)

The Cats:
Molly
Fidget
Fierce
Soul

The kitties are here now. Molly is lounging on the floor while her children are occupied with playing (with things other than her tail for once). They're all such dolls. I have a vet appointment for the lot of them (please finance gods, be with me?) next Thursday. I'm hoping that they're all quite healthy and I can get them adopted soon. Not sure why I picked Molly to be Mom Cat's name. It just popped into my head and it stuck. Soul is named for his soul patch. He's the biggest of his brother's (for now). Fierce grabbed a fuzzy mouse and started to beat it up and growl and hiss. It was too dang adorable. Fidget is unimaginative but he was fidgety while I was trimming nails. I'll see if I can't think of something better.

I am calling someone tonight about renting a room. Their house is right up the road, 10 minutes away max, from the park. They live in an awesome 170 year old house. It would be great if this might work out. I'll call and see.

Anyway, off to make the phone call and go get some dinner.

Still working on that picture thing....

But I'll show you a pic from El Google of a Rose Breasted Grosbeak because one has been visiting our feeders lately.

Hello again. Yesterday was kinda cool. I got to see the inner workings of the dam. (Sorry, won't post pics of that. Don't need Homeland Security coming after me.) What a surprise it was too. I'd always seen those towers at various lakes but I had no idea what they were there for. Now I do. I also got a tour of the ODNR State Park side. I feel like we drove forever just to get to where we wanted to go. It's a beautiful park and I have to confess I'm a little jealous of their prairie grasslands on that side. Ours are a little messy but I guess we're hoping to do a burn this fall.

I made a short list of things I'd like to work on program and display wise. Today I got to take a good look around at what's in what cabinet and what supplies are there. I'm thinking they've not had too many females working there before. LOL I want to yank everything out of the cabinets and reorganize. Honestly, though, at the moment I'm having a hard time figuring out what supplies we have and don't have. That's kinda crucial when you're figuring out possible programming. I also don't have a lot of storage to work with here. That will be a significant influence on what I do or don't do.

Also, last night, we had a mom cat and 3 kittens dumped. We were going to take them to the humane society but, being spring, I know they don't have room and there is a high likelihood that they'll be euthanized. (The no-kill shelters are not accepting more cats either.) Mom is sooo sweet and her 3 boys are soooo adorable. Soooo, I'm guessing you've figured out that they're coming home with me. Yep. Tonight I stopped at the store and got a litter box, litter, kitten food (mom's gonna be eating that too for a while, she skinny and nursing), bowls, and a few toys. Oh, and a carrier. My goal is to take them in to be tested for diseases, basic health, and worms, I'm going to take photos and post them. I spoke with a woman who works at a local restaurant who says she's had people asking for cats and kittens. I'll admit, I'm tempted to keep Mom. She's all lovey dovey and chirpy. There's also one kitten who has a soul patch. It makes me laugh. He's the biggest boy of the bunch. His brother's are gonna be eating separately so they can catch up.

Anyway, I think I'm gonna like it here. Everyone is cool so far and, once I have full access and training on things, I'll be able to bust a move on the education thing. And soon, I'll have time to go fishing too.

To bed, to bed. It may only be 8 but I promised myself a few night's of early to bed, slightly later to rise. I've been very tired after finals week and graduation mayhem. I'm beginning to feel better though. I'll return to a regular sleep schedule soon.

Peace out!

How may I serve you?

I apologize in advance about the shortness of this entry. I wanted to be in bed an hour ago. We lost power for some unknown reason and I had a ton of stuff to do online. Just got it back around 9.

Today was my first "real" day I guess. I was at my "real" park. The 1 hour drive seemed like a breeze compared to the 1.5 hours yesterday. Still got up at 4:30 even. Today I did the training I needed to do to drive the trucks. I got a tour of our side of the park and got a good look at our territory. I'll get a tour of the dam in a few days as well as the other side of the lake. I'm seeing the kind of things I need to look for when I'm out on patrol: trash, safety issues, clean restrooms. I ordered my uniform stuff. I won't feel official till I have my badge. I hope as a seasonal temp, I get one. ;)

I've decided that I'm a terribly weird person because I'm lamenting that they're going to be rid of the vault toilets and replace them with a flushing facility. After growing up in parks and camps and rest stops that did not have flush toilets, the ones that do don't quite feel like real parks to me somehow.

I'm starting a list of ideas for programs and displays. Let's hope I can bust a few of them out before my term is up. I'm picking my boss's brain on the reservoir and the area. I'll need to pick other's brains too.

That's it for now. It's bed time. Oh, I wasn't able to upload pics due to the power outage foiling my attempt at installing my new camera's software. I'll get a few snap shots up soon.

A New Day, A New Life

Yesterday a chapter of my life closed and today a new one begins. I graduated yesterday after 15 years of plugging away at college. I flitted from one major to another, nothing really lighting my fire, until the day I found the Environmental Education and Communication track, at the School of Environment and Natural Resources, at The Ohio State University. I stopped an took attention and put any comfortable life on hold until yesterday. I have a For Real diploma. Not the fake little photo shopped jobbie that has been my wallpaper reminder of my goal, but the REAL THING.

This morning, at 4:30AM, my alarm went off and my new life began. I am now a park ranger for the Army Corps of Engineers, working at a recreation area. While my actual park is an hour west of town, I drove an hour and a half south today to do paperwork and get my temp uniform. This was an 8 hour process. I don't think I've ever had paperwork take 8 hours before. LOL It is the federal government though.

It is amazing to think that I no longer have to do homework if I don't want to. I don't have to do homework tonight or tomorrow night or never. I confess that a master's degree is somewhere in the future but one step at a time. For now, I'm going to tell you a little about my days to come. I feel as if I've been handed a big blank book with millions of blank pages so that I can write a new story. So, I think I shall do just that.....

I'm gonna wear one of those classic ranger hats. Tee hee!