Summer! I am going to reinvigorate this blog, now that my life as a graduate student has ended. However, my life as a teacher has begun and the school semesters prove to be just as busy!

I've got lots of fun planned away from home this summer, which I'll write about another time. For now, I am so enjoying being at home, working in my garden, cleaning out the garage and moving toward the goal of living with less.

My fruit trees are all producing (peach, plum, pluot and cherry). Here is a pic of the cherry tree's first production, but I think the robins will get to eat more than I will.

I'm also filling in the gaps of what I started last year with the backyard, planting flowers and veggies. It's been a late start with the veggies and currently limited to tomatoes and squash and a bush bean plant. The strawberries and raspberries from last year are looking good though.

This summer I am sharing my house with four researchers from UC Davis, doing work on sudden oak death. They, along with my two tenants, my daughter, myself, Jack (the dog), Oliver (the cat), and Chinchie (the chinchilla) make for a busy household. It's great to have so much going on! Life is never boring!!

Argentina

i have not been the blogger this year... maybe it's because it's year 7 and i've written about the same things year after year. maybe i am close to being done and am letting go. either way, things here have been very relaxed. we are catching what we can but not freaking out if we don't get everything. i am collecting poop but it probably won't come home with me but stay in a freezer in bariloche until some other trip.

this year is different in that there we are not finding very many pups this year. many colonies have only one or two and they are big. most systems have two adults but not more. we're not sure what happened... was it a harsh winter or early spring or...? still, we had some and the picture of me holding one is proof. meanwhile, back at berkeley, i have found out that we have 5 or 6 more females pregnant. it is a very prolific year in the lab... and more sample sizes for my sibling study!

next week, we wrap it up in bariloche and head to salta/jujuy/abra pampa... up to the 13,000 foot mountains in north central argentina, where we are studying another social tuco. it's a much different landscape with lightening storms nearly every night. pretty cool! hopefully, i'll get a chance to catch up again when we're in mendoza.

Back to the Field

I can't believe that the year has flown by so fast as I find myself back in Bariloche, Patagonian Argentina, for another field season. This marks my 7th year here and, though I do not really need the data for my dissertation, I have come to assist John and Eileen as we determine the future of this particular study. We will be here for about a month and then head north to the puna, 13,000 feet high elevation, to continue studying the new social tuco.

We just arrived this morning, after two plane rides and a 22 hour bus ride. Our field truck is still in the shop and we hope it is done by tomorrow so that we can get out to our camp. The picture above is a view from where we set up our tents. Many of you know that this has been a crazy year for me. I taught my first biology class at a nearby university and have been hard at work in the lab and writing to finish my dissertation. At the same time, I have been applying for jobs and was hired to teach marine mammals at Santa Rosa Junior College this spring. I interviewed for a couple of other jobs, one which represents my dream job up in the San Juan Islands. We'll see, but for now, it's time to let go of the crazy stress that defines me in Berkeley and enjoy the wild tucos while the Patagonian wind does it's magic on me yet again.

I hope to keep the blog up but don't know how often we will make it to town... follow along if you want and write me whenever you can. I love it. I think myself very lucky to go on these bio-exploring adventures with the hope that it will never end.

Happy Halloween!!

I'm a bad blogger... I left for the San Juans and didn't write a thing after I returned, until now. Life has ramped up. I got a job teaching a biology class. I'm working on the second chapter of my dissertation. But mostly, I am daydreaming about how to make my way north for good. Every trip to the San Juans makes me consider the idea of moving there, but for some reason, after returning from this trip, I can't let the idea go. It may be that I'm just so burned out from 5 am commutes and 12 hour school days that I need a permanent vacation. It most likely has to do with the fact that I turned 50 this year and I keep thinking of how short life is and how I don't want to get near the end of it and regret not giving life on SJI a shot.

This year's vacation was different in that I stayed two weeks. The first week was spent with an eclectic group of friends, from Berkeley and Washington. We had a full camp with a semi-circle of tents, and we saw orcas every day but one! It was the first year we had a baby come... my dear friend, Annaliese, brought her little guy, Ronan... who is quite the charmer, smiling at everyone he sees. Regardless of who accompanies me on these heavenly vacations, we always end up making friends with other campers, particularly those who stay in the hiker/biker camps. This year was no different and we met folks from Holland, Hawaii, and various other places, sharing meals and stories and watching orcas from the bluff.

I said goodbye to everyone after a week and my best paddle buddy from Maine, Erika, joined me for the second week. Erika has become my soulmate in orca watching, orca chasing (by car up and down the coast, lest any of you think I meant by kayak!... not that I'm above that...!) and she often sings while we paddle down the west side toward Limekiln Lighthouse, making the experience a very spiritual one. Though I've only known Erika for 4 years, I can hardly imagine being there without her.

Like the first week, Erika and I made friends with the campers around us. One older man, in particular, Richard, came riding in on his bike alone and pitched his tent across from our tents. We ended up spending time exchanging life stories and opinions, sharing meals and campfires. Richard seemed very happy to hang out with us, content with life and, like us, in awe of the beauty around. Our second day with Richard was Richard's last day on earth. An aortic aneurysm burst and he died being med-evac'd off the island. We later learned that he lived very simply and that most of his gear was all he possessed. He had good friends in Oregon where he worked at a bookstore, and we were fortunate to share with them memories of his last days.

For me, it was a powerful lesson of how important our daily interactions with one another are... whether we are interacting with friends or strangers. We don't know at what point in someone's life we come, but we have the power within us to make the moments we share positive moments. Though I only knew Richard for two days, I will never forget him or what I've learned from him. And I hope that, whether I make my home here in California or up north tucked away on an island, I will cherish each day and each person that comes into my life.

That was my trip this year.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

I thought I'd revisit the garden theme in this post and show off a few pics of my ever-growing garden. The tomatoes are outta control! They aren't ripe yet but coming along with flowers and some fruit. I've also got blueberries on the bush and have now eaten a total of 2 ripe raspberries... very tasty ones, I might say.

I was taking care of John and Eileen's garden and harvesting (and eating) the sugar snap peas and became addicted... so I've got seeds started and am going to build a structure for them to climb so they can give me lots of peas! No fruit on the fruit trees but I am not expecting any this first year. The squash has numerous baby squashes on it and I'm afraid I will miss the first harvest as I leave on a 2 week trip to the San Juans this Tuesday. Hopefully the kids will eat them.

We've enjoyed the lettuces and some spinach but I did have to deal with a nasty little pest, the leaf miner, and I've noticed aphids on my broccoli! Still, I think I am ahead in having a pretty successful first garden. Even the corn is beginning to grow. More in a couple of weeks when I return from kayaking with the orcas, my favorite thing to do each solstice.

birthday presents

the night before my birthday, i was treating my two chinchillas to some craisins, their favorite treat. they've gotten in the habit of reaching out and grabbing my fingers to pull close to them, the better to reach the craisins. while they were happily eating from my hand, i saw out of the corner of my eye little gray things and immediately thought mice had gotten into their cage. but no, we had chinchilla babies!!! okay, i knew it was a possibility being that i was housing a male with a female, but the female is older and has never shown much interest in the male.
apparently, she did at some point.

anyway, they are the cutest things ever. we had 3 but lost one. the two little ones are doing well and, as they get bigger, are hopping all over. there's nothing quite as cute as a baby animal!