Ok, I am not going to lie to you, it has been BUSY!  Once the 9 was out of school I shipped her and Tyfanie to Utah to visit their extended family, while Ryan came down to Oregon so we could go on a road trip to Canada.  Needless to say Canada was AMAZING!!  We went sea kayaking, which I love, I was mesmerized by the waves going over the bow of the yak, and the view reminded you of why we are alive.  We also stayed with an old friend from the U of U, and Ryan’s current boss, they have a beautiful place in Salt Springs which has a fantastic view of the bay, and lots of land.  We chopped wood and I even was able to cut down my first tree.   I drank coffee in the morning while watching deer walk along the property and ate the most delicious vegetarian food that his wife made daily, and before you ask, NO I still love tasty meat, but I can appreciate any style of good food.

I saw Oraca pods and even saw them jump out of the water as well as hunt salmon right next to our boat.  We also visited a couple islands and took numerous ferry’s.  By the time 5 days had went by we were exhausted and ready to go back.

When Ryan went home and Star returned we did things that we have been wanting to do but couldn’t.  Which included a 4 mile hike to see a very pretty body of water, watched a lot of horror movies as well as played numerous horror games, spent a lot of time with Bob and Angie, went horseback riding on the beach, visited the coast a fair amount and took a midnight stroll on the river walkway.

The 9 will be home in a little over a week, and we are out almost every night looking at houses and hoping that our house closes the first week of august in Utah so that we can purchase and close on a house in Eugene by the end of August.

*sigh*  So I think I missed a lot of what we did, but I have tons of pictures, have updated all my little social networks and randomly speak to most of you.  What an awesome month this has been.

So my volunteering with ODFW is coming along, it gives me some good real world experience for what I would love to do as well as gets me outside doing the things I love to do, see and study animals!!

I went and did some fish sampling, which consisted of walking up a stream with a backpack electrical charger, where the biologist would shock the water and as the fish float up or try to swim away I would net them and put them in a bucket, once we had enough we would count and measure them.  We did this at Ceder Creek which is a run off of the Mckenzie.  Took about 4 hours to do all the sampling but it was amazing!

This is a male shiner in his breeding colors, beauitful fish

and this is a 16 inch cutthroat trout

Fish sampling is really important as it gives us an idea of how well the native fish population is doing compared with farm raised fish.  In Oregon we only have about 20 percent of Native Trout and Salmon in our rivers (according to the biologist I worked with).  That’s pretty bleak.

Doing these types of things really enforces my desire to get into this field so I can help….but thats where the bad news comes in.  The biologist I worked with gave me some grim details about the workforce, there are no new jobs being created, but lots of people trying to get in the field, so its very difficult.  With that knowledge I am not going to really pursue getting a job with ODFW on a permenant basis, however I do plan on making volunteering for them a hobbie of mine, something I can do to assist our enviorment even if it’s not full time.

I was a little sad about this decision, but volunteering is so much fun and teaches me a lot and I am helping as much as they allow.

Ohh also, I GOT A BOAT!! Granted it’s just an 11′ inflatable with a small electric motor, but its perfect for what we need right now, and allows us to really enjoy the water and fishing.

So there is my update for this month…and I want to say Thank you to my friends and family who always encourage me to do the things I love, without you I wouldn’t ever think I could!

Thanks!!!

Ok, first I need to admit something….I suck at blogging, I do.  I know it, you know it and anyone who reads this knows it.  So now that we have that out in the open, let me say I rarely talk about my hobbies and things that interest me at my core, you rarely hear me talk about my wife and daughter, yet they are the most important things to me, and you never hear me talk about Carnivorous plants or Marine life, yet those are my two favorite past times, both growing, filming and learning.  

So, now you know why I am posting this, mostly for me to come back and enjoy randomly and to reference when I am researching it.  Who knows, maybe I will post more about my hobbies..we will see.