A short week

 25 Jun 2009 05:15:44 pm

For the first time in a month and a half or maybe longer, we stayed around the Bemidji area for the week. Even though our week was shortened due to some accumulated overtime that required us to have an extra day off (today ). Monday and Tuesday were spent working with a nongame biologist on some lakescaping projects around Beltrami County. This was very technical work that involved locating and extracting thistles from old shoreline restoration projects. It was neat because we got to see what a shoreline restoration project looked like 4 or 5 years down the line...if you will recall a couple weeks ago we preformed shoreline restorations on some properties in central Minnesota. The work, however, was very boring and we spent much of our time just standing around. Most of the properties were small and didn't take much time at all to weed. It was hard going into work on Monday, ready to work, and have to stand around. We did get done early both days though, which was a plus. On Tuesday we got to clear a trail on an island in the middle of Lake Blackduck. That was the first real boat ride I have been on in too long! It was nice, especially after working for a couple hours and breaking a sweat to take a ride in the Evinrude powered Lund.

Wednesday we headed up to big bog which is next to upper red lake about an hour and a half north of here to cage some trees that we planted in early spring. It was interesting to see everything now that it had greened up. This was some pretty tuff work. We had to carry in the fencing and re-bar down the trail. I must have walked a total of 300 miles with 429 back and forth trips. Another thing that made this job particularly fun was the fact that there were at anytime no less than 2,345,678 mosquitoes buzzing around and on you. We had head nets to keep them off of our face, but they were biting through my shirt and tearing the crap out of my neck. I have seen some pretty bad skeeters in my day, but my gosh...I ended up putting on my rain jacket and sweating it out instead of dealing with the freaking bugs. It really is mentally challenging when you are out in the bugs not to let them get to you.

But hey what do you know I survived and am now enjoying myself on my first day of a long weekend. Next week is our midyear retreat...holy crap my term is half done! What am I going to do after this??? Time will tell I guess. It will be fun to see all of my MCC friends one last time, we get together as districts at the end of the year, but this will be the last time we get together as a whole before the end of our term. Oh yeah it is held at a location on the St. Croix River...So I'll be able to do a little fishing on my off time...Speaking of which I am planning a trip on Saturday, so hopefully I can get some good pictures, looks to be a neat lake to fish.

Well that's that......... take care all

Category : General | Posted By : paul | Comments [4] | Trackbacks [0]