Wow it really has been forever....I mean I know that Holly was harassing me about it last time I saw her but wow, when I do the math it is really bad.
So what have I been up to in the last 656 days?
So last thing I wrote about I was in PG that summer was awesome, met new people, did new things, did some of the same old things which were also good. Applied for a job in Vernon, didn’t get the job in Vernon, got offered a temporary position in Smithers, didn’t take that so I could go back to school, went back to school in Saskatoon at the end of the summer and really never left.
That second (first and a half?) year in Saskatoon was really good. I took all kinds of practical classes about things that really interested me. I was all together too busy most of the time since I was on our student association council. I am sure that all of you that know me are so surprised that I am super involved in clubs. I went on a Society for Range Management tour my second summer with Ag and Lands, and I found that really interesting, so I enrolled in the range management class and joined the range team. The range team went to Louisville, KY that year and we competed in the Undergraduate Range Management Exam competition. The team placed 4th out of 23 teams from all over North America (I pulled off an 8th out of 153 in the individual, I may not have got a plaque but I was stoked). We toured around all kinds of cool places, including a native seed breeding operation, the Louisville Slugger factory and my personal favourite Churchill Downs.
I moved into my Government Issue trailer at the Elbow Community Pasture in early May 2008. I had all the luxuries of life: power that came from an extension cord, water from a garden hose, a PVC camp shower and and true Saskatchewan biffy. Most people cringe when they hear me describe it, but it wasn't that bad actually. I spent the summer working with my 42 heifers, bombing around on my quad, building fences and taking vegetation and fecal samples. I know it sounds oh so glamorous, but it was probably the best summer job I have ever had. I had a blast ever though it was work. I met a lot of people that live in the area, went to a couple brandings and helped move cow with them. They even convinced me to try Prairie Oysters (really not THAT bad if they are shake’n’baked and you don’t think about what they are). They are really a great group of people that live down there. I went to some rodeos, went down to a friend’s families place in the south east, rode some, learned to rope (still working on it, no rodeos in my future).
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I was home a couple of times in all this, bought a car at the beginning of the summer. I was back again at the end of May for Shannon’s wedding. At the end of the summer I came home for a week before classes started up again. Since then it has been mostly school and lab work. I am again too busy for my own good: involved with coaching range team, on council for our Stockman’s club, campus rec sports, homework, labwork, proposals to write...and yet I still do find time for a social life so I don’t turn into a complete hermit. There has been some stressful moments, the biggest being my supervisor leaving in December to work for the BC Ministry of Forest and Range. I say he copied me, since he knew that was one of the places where I was thinking of ending up. He told me as soon as he applied for the job, but it was quite the role reversal when I was a reference for my supervisor.
Range team just got back from the meetings in Albuquerque, NM. We had real Mexican food, danced with the Mexican team at the dance, hung out with students from Texas, Montana and Nebraska.
