A Hunting We Will Go

It's been a few years since I have been able to enjoy the chaos that is the Spring Snow Goose Conservation Season. If you've never experienced a snow goose hunt then I can't describe it to, you just have to get out and try it sometime. We didn't have a lot of luck this weekend, but we did have a lot of fun and that's what it's all about. The four of us, Rylan, Chris, Darrin, and I had a nice sneak right at sundown. We started our approach from a mile away and slowly worked our way into the geese. The great thing about the spring season is we can shoot up to 30 minutes after sundown and that's usually be best time to sneak. After we had manged to get about a half of a mile away from the geese we split up into twos and took advantage of the weak spots in the groups - namely the flanks. We took about an hour to get into the geese and with five minutes to go Rylan and Chris opened fire and sent the birds our way. There were quite a few geese around, but not nearly as many as we have seen. In that last few days I have been seeing a few more geese as I go to work and return home.Here's a pretty good picture of Rylan and Chris as they were sneaking the geese. What's that you say? Just a cow? No no, that's a cow decoy! That's one of the strategies we use to sneak up on the geese - they don't seem to mind the cattle in the field and pretending to be a cow seems to work pretty well if you do it correctly.

The real excitement comes when all the geese get up into the air and start making all sorts of noise! We were just hanging out watching the geese land when they came buzzing over us and definitely close enough to take a few shots, but we were not on legal land to shoot so we, being the ethical characters we are, just enjoyed the view and took a few shots with the camera before chasing after them for a more sporting chance.

The one thing about hunting that can really wear a person down are the long hours that are required. Between the four of us we probably had about twelve hours of sleep total. Darrin didn't sleep a wink after his overnight shift and came straight from Lincoln to meet us, Chris' shift ends at 4:00 a.m. and he and Rylan were shooting by 7:00 a.m. I didn't get to sleep until sometime around 3:00 a.m. and met up with Darrin just a few minutes before 8:00. Yet, we still had a good time and a little sleep deprivation here and there isn't so bad.

I'll wrap it up tonight with a video I shot while Darrin and I were working our way towards the geese and sundown. There really isn't much to see, the geese were still over half a mile way, but listen to how much noise they are making already! Give a listen and imagine what we found 20 minutes later.


Until again

-=Nolan=-

I Have Returned

Some of you probably think I dropped off the face of the planet in the past three weeks. Others have probably seen me too often to care - either way, I've returned for an update. The problem was getting some internet access for my computer so I could actually get some pictures uploaded and spend some time writing up a blog.

So what has been happing that has kept me so busy you ask? Well, for starters I am working the 8-5 office hours at the Tri-Basin Natural Resources District. Check out the staff page - I certainly look like an office worker don't I? A collared shirt is quite a change from landscaping and taking down lumber mills. My official job title is Water Resources Technician - which means I am going to be doing a lot of work with groundwater. I also am the map maker and GIS specialist for the district as well. I've already put a few maps together and done a few small GIS projects. GIS stands for Geographical Information Systems and it's basically a way of using maps on a computer in layers. Instead of one map with all the roads, rivers, towns, ect. on it, there are many maps that can be stacked on top of each other and compared and analyzed.

The office is terrific. It's located in Holdrege and I drive about 35 miles one way to get to work in the mornings - but that's only temporary until Laura gets here. I'll explain more of that later. My office has a nice large desk and big comfy chair. My main laptop is loaded - it has 3 gigs of RAM and is hooked up to a docking station so I can use the 22" widescreen high-definition monitor to do my map work on. I've got a wireless keyboard and mouse, along with a PDA to use as well. It's basically a handheld computer! I have a plotter printer - it's about six feet wide and makes very large print outs of the maps I generate. Here's a shot of my first map printing out. I also have a GPS for work and a work truck that I take out in the field. Yesterday I went out to check some wells and needed the four wheel drive - I plowed through a drift and came to a quick stop in a big mud puddle.. YUCK! So, as you can see, I am really struggling to adjust to my new job!

The real struggle has been being here without Laura. She will be finishing her degree in April and then she will be able to move back and start her new job - but until then I am living the 'bachelor' lifestyle. Hopefully we will find a place to rent in the next few months and then my commute to work will change a little, but I doubt we find anything closer to Holdrege - likely we will be staying right around Kearney.

I better share these pictures as well. Laura was pretty excited to have them. These are the first pictures taken from the ultrasound from a few or two ago.I also wanted to share some photos I took on our way back to Montana. We were headed into Lusk, Wyoming and along the highway there was a train derailment. WOW! I've never actually seen the results of a derailment. Makes a person think twice about pulling up to the rail crossing so close.That's all I have for pictures. Laura has our good camera, and I am using my old digital camera to take pictures - which has been few at the most. On top of that, I haven't been doing too much other than driving to and from work every day. I suspect things are going to start becoming a little more lively on the weekends now that it is starting to warm up just a little and the snow is disappearing. Until again

-=Nolan=-