So instead of being in Nevada (which a report I got from a buddy who is on the project said that it is cold, windy, and other things I should not say) I am spending my summer here:
I'm back in the Sierra Mountains. It seems to be my home away from home. I have noticed that just like everywhere else, the towns here are suffering the recession, just like the rest of us. There are more for sale signs here than I have ever seen here before. The winter season was bad, and the summer season looks to be just as bad. Many of the restaurants in town are for sale, and lots of cabins. The towns up here survive on the tourists and us workers. The reservoirs are at the lowest I have ever seen them, and the fish populations are down as well. It is sad to see. It is such a beautiful place... but maybe the lack of people will be a good thing (for nature anyway).I'm going back up on Monday (June 9th). I will most likely be up there the rest of June and July. I hope to be able to finish the field work for at least one of my projects... I have two other Sierra Mountain projects waiting for me.
To update you on what I've been doing since the desert experience... let me see... i went to southern San Benito County for a day to survey a creek bed, went back to the Sierra's a few times, did some survey and recording in the Kettleman Hills (cow country) in the oil fields. Had to take an 8 hour class on the thousands of ways I can die in the oil fields. (it wasn't called that of course but that is basically the gist of it) And when I wasn't out, I was in the office typing away and making maps and generally trying to stay out of trouble.
