Mander & Johnny

It occurs to me that I have been greatly negligent in posting any sort of update. Sorry 'bout that. It's not that I haven't had the time, but that I just haven't felt the need to post any sort of update. Maybe I'm just being lazy...well...yeah, I'm being lazy.

Anyway, life here hasn't really been all that exciting. The temporary, full-time job I had with the USDA was just that....temporary. They didn't have the funding, so I'm back out on the street and looking for another job. Again. And I've realized that I'm getting seriously sick and tired of doing temporary work for a few months, then moving on to something else. I've done the travelling. I've done the various jobs. I've acquired the experience (and then some!). I'm ready for a solid step in my career...I'm ready for an actual job. I'm prepared to have a position where I don't have to keep perusing the job boards day after day to have that backup plan, if necessary.

With that said, I have to admit that working for the USDA wasn't all I thought it was going to be. True, I was working for a government-funded agency. What could be wrong with that? Well...for starters, I wasn't open to benefits (contrary to what everyone seems to think comes with a government job). It wasn't as plush as everyone makes the government positions out to be, either. It was a LOT of long, long, long days and many hours. Just for facts, my last two weeks of employment with the USDA are basically a paid vacation due to the fact that I worked up that much compensation time. Granted, I'm used to the long hours, but it wears on you after a while. On the other hand, it's nice to have two-weeks paid "vacation" to get all the personal things done that I didn't have time to do when I was working.

I believe I'm just waiting for the right job to come along....that perfect fit. The sad thing is that I'm beginning to think that job doesn't exist. I think I have a bit of an edge knowing the things I do and having done the things I've done. I've had countless peers and supervisors tell me that I could do most anything with the combination of education and field experience I have. But, I'm getting more and more discouraged when I see someone fresh out of college with no idea how to gut a deer or perform field work beat me out of a job. What is going on?! I find it sad when a biologist has no idea how to do his/her job...they went to school, for God's sake! They have master's degrees! Why, then, can they not figure out how to pull an animal from a trap without getting themselves maimed? I don't know...that's why I'm asking you. ;)

And while I'm on the topic, may I just state how disappointed I am with the options for master's application? I have spent a great deal of time and written quite a few application checks to various colleges in hopes of getting into the programs. I have kept an eagle-eye on the job boards in search of that master's assistantship (hell, even those WITHOUT assistantships!). I have been tapping all my references, connections, and networks. When the hell is something going to flower from all this hard work?!

Alright...enough bitching. I'm realizing I'm sounding pathetic. ;)

On the homefront, things are going quite well. Two weekends ago, John's employer decided to thank their employees with tickets to Kennywood. So, John picked up enough for us, my parents, and my brother, Devon, to go. It was a BLAST!!! I had forgotten how much I love to ride rollercoasters!! It was fantastic to get to spend time with my family after not having seen them for a few months straight (yes, I MISS my familiy...does that make me crazy?). We rode nearly every ride there, excepting the kiddie rides. Although....I had offered to sacrifice my pride to conqure Kidde Land. LOL Anyway, we had tons of fun....got EXCEPTIONALLY drenched (thank you, Pittsburgh Plunge!)...got to hear that Devon can, in fact, still sing falsetto when being dropped from dizzying heights....and had a great day overall! Thanks, Sweets, for the great family time!

This past weekend, we attended the wedding of one of the girls I used to work with at Bath & Body Works. It's funny how you always compare your wedding to every wedding you attend thereafter...and realize just how damned cool yours was! LOL I don't mean to toot my own horn, but I just haven't quite found a wedding yet that was like ours. I'm sure every woman has this feeling...your wedding was something special to you and your husband. I suppose, to the outsider, a wedding looks like every other wedding. But for the bride and groom, I'm sure that most of you would agree your wedding was like no other.

Anyway, Melissa and Tim's wedding was beautiful and offered a great atmosphere! And, Melissa....I LOVED the pastries table!!! I think I gained two or three pounds just from that! LOL Oh..and John loved the meatballs! :) John and I did a lot of showcasing how white boys, in fact, can NOT dance. Although, I have to give John credit...he usually doesn't like to dance to hip-hop, but he gave it his best shot. Now, had there been swing music, we would have kicked ass!

I have officially begun Christmas shopping. I know, I know...you're thinking it's too early. But tell me that in another two months when YOU'RE freaking out because you haven't finished YOUR shopping. I'll be bumming on the couch, all my presents wrapped and ready to go. LOL I AM running into some problems, though. I can't seem to recall just what all I have already bought my dad for Christmases past...and I haven't a clue about what to get John's parents (the people who see something they want and buy it then and there). LOL So, if any of you have any ideas for a) the tools/gadget/manly-man-toys nut, b) a lawyer/florist, or c) an accountant with a flair for the interesting and obscure, let me know! Oh God...and I just realized I have no ideas for John's present......awww, man!

In other news...it's hard to think that John and I have been married for nearly a year now! It doesn't feel as though its been that long, but we'll be celebrating our first year anniversary this Sunday. I have to say....after having been in a relationship (be it dating, engaged, or married) with him for seven and a half years, I can't see myself with anyone other than him. This is a good thing, no? :)

Having recently purchased a house, John and I have found the pleasure in having our friends over for barbeques! Now that we have a grill and a fire ring (thank you, Molly!), we've gotten ourselves into the swing of the laid-back entertaining. Since I've been home, we've had Kris and Tara over for BBQ and s'mores (mmmmmmmmm!), we've had my parents and grandparents over numerous times, and we've also had my brother in just as often (he live on the other side of Pittsburgh...not that far away). We just recently had the opportunity for John's parents to come visit us for a week, as well. It was a blast! We're definitely loving this country abode of ours!

Over my birthday weekend, John and I travelled to Charlotte, NC to meet up with his parents and their RV. We also met up with Josh and Mel (a couple who are both friends of ours...we MISS YUNS GUYS!). Along with a few family members of theirs, we all went with Josh and Mel to the Nascar race for the weekend. Since John's parents were new to the whole idea of Nascar racing, this was an especially interesting trip for them. They seemed to excitedly embrace the sport, though, and wound up being just as redneck as the rest of us by the end of the weekend! LOL We all had a great time....stuffing ourselves silly with good food and good company. Can't get any better than that! :)

Come the first weekend of June, John, his parents and I travelled across the Canadian border and into Toronto to attend John's aunt's memorial service (his dad's only sister). She had passed back in May, but the fact didn't make it any easier to deal with the service. John's uncle seems to be doing well, though. He was very adamant about seeing that everyone from out of town had a place to stay and was comfortable. John and I had the opportunity to stay with a close friend of his aunt and uncle, Mary Jo. She was a great host and an even better person to interact with! Although the reason for our visit was rather somber, John and I felt quite at home at Mary Jo's...I can only hope that we will be able to see her again some time in the near future!

Once we returned home, I had the security of knowing that I had a job lined up very soon. A few weeks back, right after I came home from NJ, I had dropped my resume with the Ligonier chapter of the USDA. I had worked with the USDA while interning for the Game Commission and had a good understanding of just what they were all about. Dropping my resume with them proved a good move as in they called me the week before we left for Toronto to offer my a job as a rabies technician! I will be basically processing captured/nuisance critters for rabies testing...and, yes, the animals DO have to be put down. I had the opportunity to go out on "the beat" with one of the guys working there already (and, who lives nearby where John and I just moved) to get my hands dirty and understand just what all the job entailed. Needless to say, cutting raccoon heads off to harvest their brainstems is nothing new to me...therefore, I'm officially full-time until Sept (when they do evaluations). But, I've been told that the large majority of technicians hired for the summer field work are taken on full-time/permanent after their trial period is up. And, seeing as I've already worked with these guys before, I think I stand a greater chance of getting in with the USDA! YAY!

First off, Happy Easter, everyone! I hope your holidays are going well, and you're stuffing yourselves silly with candy! I opted not to go home this weekend, unlike my housemates, since I'll be heading home come the end of this week (and, frankly, can't really afford to be paying for the fuel for two trips to home and back in one week). So, finding myself in the volunteer house by myself and with the computer at-hand, I figured it was a good time to post the last installment of my "New Jersey Adventure".

I've created a slide show on my Myspace page and also posted it to the blog on John's and mine's website. The slideshow is of a few of the pictures of this study I pulled from my laptop. I know a lot of you like to see what it is that I do, exactly, so I hope you enjoy these!

Some of you have already heard the tales of the different kinds of wildlife that I've been seeing out here now that we're starting into spring weather. But, for those of you who haven't, bear with the excited wildlife biologist! Mostly, the new species have been birds, but Dane and I had the chance to see something that I, personally, have never seen. I know...you're thinking "what in the world hasn't she seen?" Let me remind you that Amanda doesn't really care for the saltwater habitats, and, therefore, doesn't have many species that live there on her "I've seen that!" list. So, you can imagine my excitement when I get the opportunity to view said species.
Part of Dane's study is concentrated on what the black ducks are using as food sources while they overwinter here. As I'm pretty sure I've told you, we therefore have to do habitat sampling. And, since I'm also pretty sure I've told you the specifics of doing the sampling in another post, I'll spare you the details.

Well, we also use this time out on the boat to find the black ducks that have died so that we can retrieve the transmitters (they're NOT cheap...I've known them to get up to $500 a piece, depending on what you want included in the package). So, here I was, standing up in the boat with the antenna to search for a dead bird while Dane tried to anchor us to the island drop-off with his "supreme upper body strength". I had the headphones on, listening intently since the signal was, for some reason, skewed and MUCH quieter than usual. Just as I thought I had a bead on the transmitter, Dane looks up and me and motions off to the starboard side. I, being the antisocial person I am, expected to see a boat pulling up to us to ask us another dumb question from the public. "What? They can't even let us alone while we're on the water?!"
So, I look around, annoyed that I had to re-locate the signal, to find absolutely nothing around us. I went back to listening for the signal, deciding to ignore Dane as he sat at the bow of the boat and kept pointing off into the water like a crazed man with Parkinsons disease.

Finally, his muted grunts got my attention, and I looked off the side of the boat again. This time, I DID actually see something, but I thought it looked a lot like a bouy that may have floated off from one of the many crabbing cages deployed in the area. That is, until it turned around and I saw the eyes! I nearly crapped myself when I realized that Dane and I were looking at what we believed to have been a Harbor seal! It was so freakin' CUTE! And it didn't seem too terribly impressed by us...just merely kept looking at us in the "what the hell are you doing in my hunting grounds?" look. Then it dove and we didn't see it again.

For the remainder of the day, we would randomly turn to each other and say "We saw a freakin' SEAL, man!"

And, now since spring is finally settling in, we've been seeing more and more avian species coming in through their spring migration. Nothing as cool as a seal, though, but we've been seeing glossy ibis, shovellers, osprey, bald eagles, wood ducks, green-wing teal, oyster catchers, and all kinds of small shorebirds.

Update on the house hunting front: John and I were accepted on our offer for the A-frame house I had mentioned in the previous posting! We did the paperwork a week ago, and we are now moved in to our new abode! Thanks to family who helped John move since I couldn't be there! It was definitely a great help! We can't wait to have all of you over for BBQ when I get back home!

Here are a few pictures I've uploaded from the immense file of New Jersey pictures! Hopefully these will help all of you to get an insight into what I've been spending my last four months doing. I've included a few pictures of my co-workers, Dane and Brooke, and I've put a picture or two of Molly in there. Enjoy!

Note: Blogger apparently can't handle having text copied from Word and pasted into the Blogger format, so I am apologizing beforehand for some of the weird characters that are showing up in the blog entry. Regrettably, I don't have time to go through each and every inserted character to correct it. Hopefully, Blogger hasn't mutilated the entry to the point of incredible annoyance or caused it to be difficult to read. Again, I'm sorry for the annoyance!

Well, it seems as though it's time for that monthly update! Contrary to my intentions, I have become increasingly negligent regarding the updates to the Blogger and Myspace pages. I had originally intended to post something, albeit something small, around once a week...some short blurb about our careers, newlywed responsibilities, etc. But, due to a lack of time and a severe lack of anything interesting happening, it has now come down to about once a month. Some of you are probably quite relieved…others perhaps not so much so.

My field job in New Jersey is still same-ol'-same-ol'. No matter how much time I've spent on our schedules, I just can't seem to get adjusted to the 12 – 14 hour days. And working weeks on end without a day off probably isn't helping much. I still feel like I've been hit by a Mac truck when that alarm goes off at 0300. Although I could swear I grumble something under my breath about getting up so early, I have found a few good things about such an early start. For one, I am able to get out there and onto the Parkway in the morning with little irritation from traffic since no one else seems to be willing to start their day that early. Secondly, I can get to where I need to go an average of half an hour earlier than "usual" start times for the masses. And, since the majority of my time is spent driving and listening to the radio, I can actually catch the stations at a time when they're playing music.

The downside to running such a schedule is that I feel as though I'm constantly on the verge of coming down with some kind of sickness. It's like running that thin line that can break at any second. Molly has been running a slightly lighter schedule for her study, but she still had the misfortune of getting mono (which, in turn, came with strep throat and the flu). So, she was out of commission for a few weeks, and her return to New Jersey brought lighter days for her schedule. Still, she wasn't feeling all that great…sleeping in later and later in an attempt to shake the last symptoms of her sickness. She seems to be getting better, but the rest of us are just counting the days until we pick up what she had. Strangely enough, it would come as a bit of a relief to get mono/flu/strep throat. At least that would mean I would have the opportunity to give in to what my body is telling me and stay in bed for the entire day.

As another consequence to getting up early and going to bed around 2200, I have had very little time to do any more research for grad positions other than making a list of more schools to apply to. Also, having only one computer with internet access for an entire household of field techs doesn't help. I'm getting more and more frustrated with the lack of time to do much else than anything related to work. I have a personal life to see to…and, frankly, this field job is just something to bring in a small paycheck while keeping me out of the dreaded retail scene. I have been trying to give internet priority to Molly and Dane, seeing as they're the only ones in the household that need the computer for work-related issues. But it's hard to juggle their needs as well as the needs of the rest of the household. And, although I understand I shouldn't let it get to me, I am finding myself getting more and more peeved at those moments when someone is on the internet to merely watch videos and play games instead of doing something constructive with their time. Do they not realize there are other people in the house that have a life to plan? If you want to play games and unwind, do it using your own computer! We all have our own…I don't see why there's a need to waste time on a communal computer when it's quite obvious there are others who need it for important matters. Like applying for grad schools or negotiating a house!

Which brings me to a rather interesting event as of late. After my last visit home, and listening to each other vent about what we feel is missing in our lives and where we want them to go, John and I have decided to plunge back into the waters of house-hunting.

First off, I have to give much credit where credit is due. Since I am currently working seven hours away, John has gladly taken on the brunt of the house search. He has been sending me links of houses he has found online and calling to discuss preference and pricing issues. He has taken this job in stride, for which I am forever grateful for! Thanks, honey!
John has been sorting through the hoards of potential houses, meeting with real estate agents to view them, and taking on all the responsibilities that come with a time such as this. He has been handling it well, especially since our renter's lease runs out at the beginning of April. Talk about a short deadline. And with so many properties to look into? Ugh….

But, last week, our agent sent us a link to a house that had just come onto the market once again. It had been on the market for an entire year, but had no bidders, and therefore expired. Our agent, interestingly enough, is acquainted with the sellers in that she and the sellers both barrel race horses. So, we had the advantage of an "inside" negotiation. I had wondered why the house had expired on the market, but I quickly found out that a $173,000 price tag probably had a lot to do with it. I perused the link and the pictures (which we very nice…enough so that I had that nagging feeling that something was being overlooked) and discussed it over with John on the phone that night. Feeling the defeat of three houses bid out from under us over the past few attempts, I told John to just get his butt out there and look at the house! What could it hurt? We could always decide against it.

Well! Had I known how fantastic the place was, I would have probably told him to bid on it ASAP! If you have been keeping abreast of the situation, you would know that John's primary question is "Does it have a garage?" When he went to view this house, he totally forgot to even ask the question! And, knowing that he was so impressed by the house to have forgotten such an important inquiry, I was pretty certain that this place would fit the bill.

And then I came home to see it for myself. All I can say is…oh my God!

I couldn't have asked for more! The house is absolutely gorgeous! It's a quaint A-frame house out in the middle of the country (and yet only a 20-minute drive to the store) with a spectacular view of the countryside! The entirety of the inside has been remodeled, has two bedrooms and two complete baths, a beautiful hardwood living room, and a very spacious kitchen with a walk-in pantry. The basement is ready for a mere drywall project, and then it would be suitable to turn into another room entirely. And the windows….my God, the windows! There are very few places in this house that aren't lit by natural sunlight! A definite plus in my book! In a nutshell, it has the majority of the qualities we are looking for…and those that it doesn't have, we can add-on ourselves.

So, yesterday, we put our negotiated bid in to the sellers…and we were accepted! The dream of owning our own house now has the great potential of becoming reality!

Greetings, all! I figured it's been a while since the last "installment", so I'll write up a little something.

Things here in New Jersey are pretty much the same as what they were the last time I wrote...at least concerning the job itself. Not much changes from day to day with this study, so I apologize for the monotony. The only new, interesting thing that happens anymore is usually the weather. It changes here so suddenly...one day, it's in the low 30's and you think spring is here. The next day, it's back into the low teens (even colder with the wind chill), and you're wishing you didn't have to be outside that day. But, I suppose I can't complain as much as some people who work outside. At least I have a field truck to dive in and out of. I honestly don't know how the housing construction guys do it...especially those that are building houses on the shore! That ocean wind is nasty!!

Last weekend, I took the opportunity to go home (and by home, I mean the entire countryside between Pittsburgh and Bedford) and take care of doctors' appointments. I worked an early morning (0300 to about 1130) doing telemetry and then packed my car up and headed out for the six-hour drive to Pittsburgh. The drive itself wasn't all that bad, especially when I finally made it through Philadelphia. Dane and I kid about Philly...saying it's like a gauntlet. Once you dodge the inevitable traffic jam (no matter what time of day it is) and navigate the highways correctly, it's smooth sailing the rest of the way home. I keep waiting to get stopped by a couple of knights and asked to bring them a shrubbery before I can pass through....

It's rather interesting to see just what a simple change in elevation and scenery can do for you! I hadn't really thought much about it, but it became apparent to me that I really, REALLY missed the mountains. As soon as I passed into Pennsylvania, I kind of had to smile to myself. It was then that I realized I would never be happier than when living in a state that has mountains of any sort. Yeah, Jersey has beautiful sunsets and neat pine barrens, but there's nothing really inspiring to me to see nothing but flat marshland for miles and miles. I guess I really am a mountain girl. I suppose I should start shading out a few front teeth and wearing my hair in pigtails....

By the way, John...we need to go camping this summer when I get back. Maybe we can invite Josh and Mel along to play?

Since I was making a long weekend out of coming home, and since I wouldn't be there for Valentine's Day, John was nice enough to surprise me with a pre-Valentine's Day dinner. He made me one of my most favorite foods...crab cakes! He also made up deep-fried red and green bell peppers and mushrooms. A little bit of a really tasty wine (OK...actually a lot of it), and dinner was spectacular!

Saturday morning, we packed up Melvin (I really missed the little fuzzball) and headed out to Bedford to visit family. My brother had the weekend off, so he also drove from Pittsburgh into Bedford so we could hang out for a bit. It was great to get to see family again! The weekend ended way too soon, though, and, come Monday morning, I was headed back to New Jersey. The drive back to New Jersey always seems to take longer than the drive out of the state.

I'm still organizing things for grad school opportunities. Not much has been happening on that front due to the fact that I frankly have little time to put towards it. I know, I know...I should make time. But when I come off of working our usual 10- to 12-hour day, I'm in no mood to do anything more than take a shower, eat, and head to bed. Sometimes I don't even bother to make anything for dinner. I'm getting old...I remember when I could spend an entire night doing lab reports and schoolwork and never give it a second thought. Now, if I don't get at least six hours of sleep, I'm useless the next day. Excuse me while I fetch my cane....

Anyhow, back to grad school...I have decided against applying for a woodrat study with IUP after doing some background research on the program and its professors. Frankly, I haven't heard too many good things about the program. The cons are severely outweighing the pros in this matter. Yes, it would have been nice to work on a masters that had a campus and a field area close to home and John. Yes, I would finally be making some headway toward a goal I've wanted for a long, long time.

But, the majority of the people I've talked to about it (including past and present students of IUP) tell me that the wildlife program there is in the process of evolving into something more. I would be taking more classes related to molecular biology than to wildlife. The fact that one current student told me that, if I would enroll, I would be bringing a lot of knowledge to the program has me shying away from it.

I would prefer a program where I start out as the "new guy" and let my knowledge expand by interacting with the faculty and other students there. Isn't that the basis of a masters program? Couple that with the fact that I would be interacting with a professor who has a very bad reputation of being totally unorganized and promising the world to students when he only has a grain of sand to give them, and you can probably see my point. Granted, the overall look of the program shouldn't be based on one professor, but, unfortunately, this professor would be teaching the majority of my core classes were I to enroll. I don't believe I could deal with such a person...especially a professor. I've already tried that once before, and the outcome wasn't pretty.

So, I thank all of you reading this who helped me acquire information on the program and its faculty. You helped me make a crucial decision on the program and whether it would be a good fit or not for me. Unfortunately, I don't believe it would work as well as I had hoped, but there are thousands of other graduate programs out there! It's just a matter of finding it and judging if it would fit well or not. I am currently setting up to delve into Penn State, Virginia Tech (yes, AGAIN), WVU, Frostburg, and possibly U Del. So, please be aware that I may need to call on you once again for a few letters of recommendation!

Along the same line, I have been putting more effort into looking for jobs closer to Pittsburgh and the surrounding areas. At the beginning of the year, John was given a promotion within his company, and he's been loving it ever since. So much so that I'm getting the vibe he would like to make a career out of it. So, since we're now "joined at the hip" (when have we never been?), I need to focus more on putting myself into a job that wouldn't take me away from home every month or so. Field jobs were great when we were dating...I was getting experience without feeling too guilty about leaving for months on end. But now, I have more responsibilities and another person to weigh in on situations. I can't be selfish anymore. So, if some of you reading this know of openings in a wildlife-related field around the Pittsburgh/Greensburg/Somerset area, please let me know. I would greatly appreciate any heads-up on a potential career. Plus, if this whole masters thing doesn't work out for me, at least I will have been able to build something of a life off of a job.

Having said that, John and I are now beginning to look for houses again. The last house-hunt didn't go as well as planned seeing as our realtor seemed to think we were looking for what we didn't want. Our prerequisites for a home are that:

a) it have a garage (or at least area to build one...per John)
b) it have off-street parking (again, per John)
c) it not give the vibe that it desperately needs to be bulldozed on the spot (per me)
d) it not be too lavish (since we believe buying a house that needs a little work would be a good thing...price-wise and value-wise)
e) it have, at the most, three bedrooms of decent size (NO closet-bedrooms)
f) it have, at most, one and a half bathrooms
g) it have a kitchen that doesn't require acrobatics to cook in (although, that could lead to a career with the circus)
h) it does NOT come with a pool (why does everyone think you need a pool?)
i) it be far enough away from neighbors so as not to get a bad morning peep-show (you don't want to know...)
j) it doesn't require buying stock in a coal company to heat
k) it has property taxes that aren't going to put us into bankruptcy (in other words, preferably out of Allegheny county)
l) it not be so insanely priced that buying it would immediately open a black hole in our savings account
m) it be located in an area that doesn't require a vehicle that travels at the speed of light to get anywhere within a reasonable amount of time (mainly for John since I don't currently have a steady job)

John has been doing online research into a few houses on the market over the past few weeks. He's found quite a few that are pretty close to what we want. Understandably, we don't expect to find a house that has everything...there'll have to be some compromises. But, we're looking for a house that's as close to our list as possible while still offering a good, sound opportunity to add-on things we want or take away those we don't want. Within reason....

So, that's about it. Most other things that are going on in life are probably those that wouldn't interest you (not that this update is anything more) or things that are a little too personal (at least at this point) to be publicly talked about. Now, I am going to start my day off by lounging around in my pjs and probably eating lots of fattening foods. Like pizza for breakfast...or a Snickers bar for lunch. Oh...and reacquainting myself with what it's like to not have to work an entire weekend after plugging through the week. I hope things are going well for the rest of you! Don't be shy to drop me an e-mail...let me know what's going on! Take care!

First off, I'm pasting this in from Word, so hopefully it'll keep the content and whatnot. If it doesn't, and it's difficult to read, I apologize.

Nothing exciting or life-changing has happened since I last put in an entry. We did have a bit of a change-up in the monotony…Dane has started his habitat sampling for the month of January. Basically, he used a computer GPS program to randomly plot points around the whole of southern New Jersey. From those points that he got out of the program, he selected ones that weren't a) in the middle of a lake/pond/bay and b) that were accessible to us (i.e. no problems with landowners, etc.). The plots were also situated in what is thought to be habitat for black ducks…basically just any marshland estuarine area. Some of the plots he made can be accessed on foot not far from the road. Others require a boat to get to them. Dane has been taking Brooke and me out on the boat, trading out days so that neither of us gets stuck with only doing habitat sampling.

I suppose I should kind of explain the habitat sampling thing. Basically, we go out to this GPS location that Dane has already determined and flagged with orange flagging attached to rebar. We have a core sampler (looks something like a simple lead pipe with a twist-off handle on the top) that we push down into the ground/mud/marsh/whatever until the ground level reaches a certain point on the core sampler. Then, the suction cap is attached to the top of the sampler and the pipe is pulled out of the ground, suctioning the sample along out with it. You'd think it would be complicated, but it's really nothing more than just playing in the dirt. Anyhoo, we do this once at 2 meters from the rebar pole, and then again at 20 meters from the pole. If the site has had an exclosure cage installed, we also remove the top of the cage and take a sample from the area within the cage's confines.

Once we extract the core sample, it is placed in a zipper plastic bag that states the date, the location, and the distance away from the pole that the sample was taken at. All-in-all, not very scientific or difficult in itself. Actually, it's kind of fun to get to play in the mud. But, there are a few sampling areas that are on what we have dubbed "Non-Manda-friendly" ground. In other words, they're found in an area that has a tendency to suck you in up to your waist instead of actually giving you a solid step. In case you're wondering, I don't appreciate these sort of areas. Don't get me wrong…if it's part of the job, I suck it up and go at it. But, I prefer to avoid such areas as much as humanly possible. If there's a hole there to get insanely stuck in, I'll find it. No matter that two other people have crossed the same area…I'll still fall in and require assistance to get out of it.

With that said, I do have to admit that the ride in the boat in between each site did bring my spirits up a bit. It was fun to be able to just sit there for a few moments while Dane drove the boat (a 13-foot Boston whaler, I think they're called) through the channels. We got to see some really cool waterfowl…I actually saw a Loon for the first time in my life!! Granted, it was only a juvie, but it was still cool to be able to see one up close.

So, you're probably wondering why we'd be randomly pulling dirt out of the marshes. Well, come this summer, Dane will be taking each sample (I believe we have 85 sites, two to three samples per site…LOTS of samples) and dissecting it to determine if there is any food in the strata that may interest black ducks. In a round-about way, it's supposed to all calculate out to taking that one sample and magnifying it across the entire sample area it came from. With this, Dane hopes to be able to give a rough estimate of just how much winter feeding is available to the black ducks here in southern New Jersey.

Other than that, we've just been concentrating on telemetry and observations. Now that we have time for it, we're able to do MUCH more scouting of areas for the observations. It's kind of creepy, but at least I have an atlas/gazetteer for the entire state, so I can't get too terribly lost without being able to find my way back home. I have to admit…I've found some of the best and most interesting spots for observations while I was just randomly driving around. The most recent one is down towards Port Norris on the Delaware Bay. There's a wildlife viewing trail down there that you can see the bay from. I called it the "Sunken Barges observation area", due to the fact that there are two barges that appear to have been stranded out on a sandbar coming into the marshes. From the spot I observed from, I was also able to see the East Point Lighthouse just south of my sitting area. After I was done with the observation, I drove over to get a closer look, but it was either never opened to the public, or it was closed for the season.

We're beginning to tap into the late-night/early morning telemetry, now. I'm not too terribly happy about it, but it's part of the job that Dane wants done. So, it gets done. We went out on the refuge yesterday to do the birds out there at about 0400. The morning didn't start off well…on the drive out there, I was following Dane. He scared up a Canada goose out of the reeds off the side of the road, and the damned thing flew right into my windshield. Now, what do you think the odds were that there would be a Canada goose standing nearly on top of the road at just the same moment we passed by? Granted, we weren't going all that fast due to the speed restrictions on the wildlife drive, but it was enough to make the stupid bird roll off the passenger side of the truck and knock the mirror out of my passenger-side mirror case. To be honest, hitting the goose woke me up out of my little driving-stupor and scared the bejeezus out of me. I didn't realize what had happened until I saw Canada goose feathers flying back over top of my truck.

And for those of you who are wondering what happened to the goose…it's absolutely fine. Fine enough to get back up on the road behind me and start honking like crazy at me and then fly off in a tiff! Fine enough to leave nasty goose-poo on my passenger door and smeared all over my windshield. I guess that's what I get for hitting a "pedestrian", huh?

So, I got to my telemetry spot and realized that my passenger-side mirror was looking a bit dark. After a few puzzled, groggy glances, I realized that my goose-collision had knocked the mirror out of its holdings. So, with a few curses under my breath, I just climbed out of the truck and proceeded with my morning. It was quite early in the morning…the sun hadn't even risen, yet…so I wasn't too worried about a refuge visitor running my mirror over. I'd just swing by that way on the drive back to the house (sans the stupid goose) and pick it up…just had to make sure Dane didn't drive over it.

Once we were done with the telemetry, and I prepared myself for the drive back to fetch my mirror, I realized that my door had locked itself. I remember standing there, just staring through the window at the key sitting in full sight on the dashboard. I know there were probably a few choice words that slipped out under my breath, but all I remember thinking was "My granola bar is in there! I'm hungry, dammit!" You know…my wallet and cellphone were expendable…..

So, I was locked out of my truck. The door, somehow, hadn't closed all the way, and the latch (which needs to manually be locked) was down JUST ENOUGH to lock the door. It almost seemed to be mocking me in the way that the latch was up just enough to appear as though it was unlocked. Thankfully, Dane hadn't left his position yet, so he came to pick me up. After going back to the house to get a wire hanger, he fashioned a tool out of the hanger and was able to pop the latch on the inside of my door open. Crisis averted.

The rest of the day went relatively well…no big problems, no huge worries. I was able to snap the mirror back on my passenger-side door (it hadn't broken, thank God) after a few annoyed punches and whatnot. We all spent the rest of the day in our respective corners of southern New Jersey, doing observations.

I have to say, I rather like doing the observations. Everyone else thinks they're insanely boring, but I kind of like the alone-time. It gives me an excuse to do some wildlife watching while getting paid for it! I'll explain…..

For our observations, we drive around aimlessly until we just so happen to come upon a group of black ducks (normally two or three, but I've had observations consisting of 100+). Once we find black ducks, we sit there for an hour and record what they're doing. That's it. Simple. Mind-numbing. Easy. The hour we observe the black ducks' behavior is broken into 15-minute intervals. So, I watch the group for fifteen minutes, then wait until the next 15-minute interval rolls around. Since most of the groups tend to be quite small, the observation time doesn't come close to taking up the entire 15 minutes. That's why we bring books, a newspaper, playing cards, etc. to entertain ourselves with while we're sitting there. I spend some of my time writing letters to people, but I spend the majority taking advantage of the expensive observation equipment to do some wildlife watching. Needless to say, I think I'm going to buy myself one of these spotting scopes when I win the lottery…..

So, I suppose things have died down since trapping is now over. As things are going right now, I'm going to be here until the end of April…or so they say now. As with most anything, the ending date can change as we get closer. So, for the next three months, I'm going to be doing little more than driving around, doing telemetry and observations. Makes me happy that I got a new, kick-ass digital camera for Christmas! Since we'll have so much driving time on our hands and will be exploring the area further, I'll have time to take some more pictures!

John will be coming back out to Brick at the end of this week…so I'm looking forward to that! I warned him that we may be doing some late nights or insanely early mornings, but he said he was up for it. I guess we'll see...

Hey! How is everyone doing? First off, I'm sorry that I haven't been able to stay in better touch with everyone. Secondly, I'm also sorry for the mass e-mail thing...but you know that's how things go when I'm on field studies.

Anyhoo, my first month here hasn't gone too badly. There have been times when we bust butt all day and into the night, and then there have been times when we get done at 2 in the afternoon. I still can't get myself acclimated to getting sleep whenever the opportunity arises. As a result, I'm dead tired more often than not and wishing for my warm bed! This morning, though, we all decided to sleep in and get caught up on some much-needed rest. And still, my biological alarm made me get up at 7am. Dammit....

Over the past few weeks, we've been concentrating on trapping our female black ducks. Dane requires 40 for his study, and we currently have tagged 31. Only nine more to go!!! Woo hooo! I'm especially excited that we caught the limit of black ducks out of the Edwin B. Forsythe NWR...mainly for the fact that I don't particularly like wading out into waist-high silt on a pair of mudders when the tide is changing. I've figured out that I can't seem to get my bearings when I'm walking out to the traps when the tide is coming in or out...it screws up my balance when I see the waves rippling around and whatnot. I'm sure some of you understand what I'm saying...others are probably just thinking I'm insane. That very well may be. I am out here in 40 - 30 degree weather just to chase ducks.

Now, we're currently trapping an area in Cape May that doesn't require us to wade out into before-mentioned environments. That area is bascially grasses and a small pond. The furthest you sink in that mud is only up to your knees, so we forego the mudders in favor of not getting worn out within the first few minutes of walking.

I suppose I should kind of explain the two types of traps that we've been using to catch these girls...1) confusion traps and 2) clover-leaf traps. The confusion traps do just that...confuse the ducks. Think of a wire box about eight feet by four feet that has a holding compartment at each end. In the middle, there are two funnels that come in from outside the trap. We bait the middle of the trap and the compartments with corn, then the ducks funnel into the trap and eventually end up in the holding compartments. Seeing as they view the funnel they came in through as being too small for them to fit back out of, they remain in the trap. BAM! You've got tons of ducks! We pulled nearly 40 out of one last week...it composed more than half of our required female black duck count.

The other trap, the clover-leaf trap, is a knock-off of the confusion trap, only this one isn't set up as a box. It's made out of about 25 feet of cross-fence wire, kind of like the kind you see around the PA municipal buildings. This trap is basically formed into a half-circle and baited in the middle to draw the ducks in. Every time the trap is checked and deemed to have been eaten out of, the half-circle is adjusted smaller and smaller until there is a funnel for the entrance. Then, we attach mist netting (kind of like the netting used to protect berry bushes from birds and whatnot) to the top of the trap and let it do its work. The ducks get in there and, once again, believe they can't get back out through the opening.

So, as I said, we only have nine more transmitters to put out. Technically, we're only tracking 30 birds instead of 31...one of our girls was taken out by a bald eagle. Yes, you heard me right. A bald eagle. I was always under the impression than they preferred fish, but I suppose a nice, juicy duck isn't too far out of the way sometimes. There is a bald eagle pair out here at the refuge that we get to see scanning the lake in front of the house. Anyway, we had picked up the dead duck's frequency somewhere in front of the house. So, yesterday, Dane went on a scavenger hunt and found our dead duck directly beneath the roost the bald eagles use to eat here. Needless to say, I'm sure you all see the irony in this. One of our transmittered birds, taken out by a bald eagle (that can't be touched), in front of the very house that the people who were tracking said duck live. Kind of a kick in the face, but remotely and morbidly funny. It's a field tech's sense of humor, I suppose....

This past weekend, John came out to visit. It definitely made my weekend! He stayed up in Brick, only an hour north of where I'm staying. His brother, Paul (otherwise known as Bubba) drove up from Florida to have a bit of a vacation with us. So, I did a lot of driving back and forth from Friday to Sunday night.

John's great uncle Harvey has a house in Brick that he's no longer living in but still owns. So, John's mom offered the idea of John staying in Brick instead of spending mucho dinero to stay in a hotel close to Atlantic City. Even in the off-season, the rates are INSANE here. So, John and I met up in Brick on Friday night. Paul came in on Saturday morning. And, since I Dane had given me Saturday off to spend time with the boys, we busted into cleaning up the house. All-in-all, I suppose it wasn't too bad for having no one living in it for three years. I took over the kitchen and the bathroom while the guys vacuumed and fixed the little things that needed attention. After we were done, the place wasn't looking too shabby. It was nice to be able to have somewhere to stay that didn't require a huge fee. Even better that I got to hang out with John and Bubba...had tons of fun, guys! Thanks for bringing me back to the "normal" world! LOL Love ya both!

This Friday (I suppose it IS tomorrow, huh?) Molly and I are working the morning doing harvest checks on brant and black ducks, and then we're heading back to PA for Christmas. I'm actually getting four days off for Christmas...I'm excited! Molly's going to drop me off in Bedford and then head on to Johnstown. I can't wait to get to go back home for a bit. I haven't really been home much since the wedding. Things have been a roller coaster ride what with all the paperwork and errands to get done before I headed out here. I'm looking forward to spending down-time with family and not having to worry about the stupid ducks for a few days! :-)

So, I hope all of you have a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year! Stay in touch...mail and e-mail from friends is always welcome! If you need my address, either e-mail me or message me on MySpace. Take care!!!