We had our first meeting with our supervisors at the ranch today. Mine is Julie who is Chief of Education and Interpretation - NPS. Larry's is Dawn who is with the Department of Natural Resources. Actually, he will mostly be working with Alan, in charge of irrigation, who was not working today. We enjoyed getting to know them, touring part of the ranch and getting our uniforms and gear. Our previous experience with government involvement proved valuable when Julie and Dawn shared the regulations that all volunteers and employees must follow. At CVNP, the latest new regulations are frequently a time for "rolling of the eyes" by the rangers and volunteers alike. We can easily see that there is "nothing new under the sun" here in Montana. A new mandate this year that everyone must follow is the assignment of certain safety items to daily be carried with each person to their assigned work place in a special, bright, yellow, duffel bag. Those items include: CPR barrier, a small baggie of bandaids, gauze,tweezers for splinters, etc., also work gloves and safety glasses - these mostly make sense. However, in addition, we are required to carry (government supplied) sunscreen, insect repellent, chapstick with sunscreen, and a filled, water bottle. Our first working day will be Thursday. We will start the day with a meeting for all employees/volunteers to learn new procedures for vehicle use on the ranch. According to our supervisors, the "check-list of procedures" for each use includes checking the oil and fan belt before you use a vehicle. (You may now feel free to roll your eyes. Fellow CVNP-TB tuning in may totally LOL!) Seriously, I am so thankful that those who do the "real" work in our parks continue to love protecting and sharing the wonders of our beautiful country with its citizens in spite of the extra time they must spend with these kinds of things.
We will be taking pictures at the ranch and sharing information as we get involved. In the meantime, we thought you might like seeing a bit of our life here in Deer Lodge so far.
We were happy to find a wonderful, river pathway close to our camp. It was created as a part of the Superfund cleanup of the Clark Fork River seen in the background. The wide-spread mining of gold, silver and copper in the area over decades caused not just the river to die, but even wildlife that drank the water and also surrounding plant life. It's wonderful to see the area full of wildlife and fish in the river. The path will be a wonderful place to enjoy running.
The path passes by the back of the old, Montana Prison. Lots of stories there for another time. We will visit there probably this week.
This is "home" for the next five months. It will be great when the weather warms so that we don't feel quite so confined, although the space is really pretty adequate for two people...but not the seven the literature says it can sleep. I can't imagine how "mom, dad, three kids, grandma and grandpa" would survive even one night in the space!
The Bedroom. The door at the left leads to the bathroom, fairly large with adult-sized shower. We have lots of inside storage - two individual closets and one larger one with two, large drawers beneath, a big area under the bed and cabinets above the bed.
Kitchen
This is mostly my "office" space. Larry seems to like the sofa. As I am writing this, he has pillows behind his head, his tootsies covered with a blanket and the computer on his lap.
I am continuing to take on-line courses in Interpretation through the Eppley Institute at Indiana University. I guess my goal is to eventually be certified and have a paying job as a seasonal ranger. Time will tell on that one. In the meantime, I find the courses interesting.
Living Room -
If you decide to go for a short, 2,000-mile drive to visit us, we have a comfy sofa and chair, also HDTV for your entertainment pleasure, in case Larry and I are too boring. Not only do we have the HDTV (drum roll) we get ONE (1) channel (if the wind over the mountains is right....). We are happy that the one channel is NBC since I like Today with my morning coffee and we both like Leno.
The temps have been dropping into the teens and twenties at night, so we can't hook up the water yet. Every couple days, Larry fills up our internal reservoir. The water is not yet turned on in the campground's bath/shower/laundry rooms so we will depend on the pump in the RV for our showers and will be going to the local laundromat.
There has been quite a bit of wind here so far and we hope the coming of warmer weather will calm things down so we can roll out the awning once in a while. It seems that the screen room will not be an option due to what our campground owner calls "five-minute, wind warnings." It has something to do with the position of this valley in relation to the surrounding mountain ranges that creates occasional, short-lived, high winds. In lieu of the screen room which attaches to the awning, I think we are going to invest in a small, inexpensive, free-standing screen room that we can anchor against the windy attack!
Our campground is right on the Clark Fork River. We took time this Easter morning to take a walk in the beautiful, morning sun.
Larry is looking forward to enjoying fly-fishing right from our backyard.
These are some views across the river from the campground.
On our walk along the riverbank, we got acquainted with a few of our "neigh" - bors!
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