My Life - 50 miles from people

PEE: I am so remote, I can see a car/truck coming when it is 5 miles away. That means, I can stop the truck and pee whenever and wherever the feeling hits. I see more antelope and deer on the 50 miles to and from 'home' then I see people.

Monday: Twin Falls for supplies: When I got back to camp, a truck with a trailer was set up inside the compound. (I had locked the gate into the compound so someone had the key.) They were in a bunkhouse which was also locked and I went to find out what was up. They were surveyors going to survey Robertson Hole. (Infamous place - you get in but good luck getting out.) They ATV's in and would leave Friday. **They left Thursday because they got beat up so bad getting in and out of The Hole. (I want to hike in to see just how bad this place is.)

Tuesday: I fenced - patching up broken barbed wire and then did my rounds of checking out camp grounds. I get back and there is a big camper set up on the compound. I went to find out who they were and they are a road crew. We had a 70,000 acre fire here last year and they are to work on the roads. They ask me to set up the water so I got to work but got skunked. I call the old caretaker twice before we were able to figure out how to get it going. That was 2 hours. As I am working on that the Archeologist shows up anbd I need to get the two women set up in the bunk house. The archeologists get set up and take off to do their job. I finished getting the water hooked up and working. (That particular pipe had not been on for 6 years or more so it had lots of rust and crap in it.) Tbe water is tested monthly by the way. I had gone to the campgrounds 40 miles away and met some rock hounds who invited me to their 50,000 acre ranch that overlooks the Grand Canyon. (I will make it after this experience - I hope. More later about this,)

Wednesday: I have to fill up the Archeologist with gas and they take off to explore.
By the way, all of the people tell me where the animals are as well as interesting sights for me to check out. I have to stick around the compound during the day but I get to sneak away for an hour or two at the end of the day or in the AM. Got some fencing done.
CATCHING SAGE GROUSE: The bird wild life biologists show up in the afternoon and they prepare to catch and tag Sage Grouse. I ask if I can go and they say yes. ( The sage grouse is decreasing in numbers because we have much less sage now than ever before. With farmers putting in crops and housing developments mowing down sage, there is less habitat. WE HAD THE BIG FIRE LAST YEAR: The biologists want to know about the number of grouse as well as wintering habits. How have they been impacted by the fire? - curious minds want to know.)

I joined them late because I had to run the generator for 2 hours to charge the surveyors batteries for the next day. When I finally got out, I found 1 group and they had just caught a Sage Hen. They needed 2 more and they needed one more person to help - that was what I wanted to hear. I spent from 10:00 PM until 3 AM, driving around on dusty, bumpy road looking for sage hens. We would to a place walk around with a huge spot light, with 2 people with nets and a cassette with chain saw noise.
At 1 AM - we found a sage hen and I helped to catch him and band him - interesting stuff. The weather was great 45 degrees, stars everywhere - beautiful. We went and found the other grousers and they had not caught any. They saw some but the high sage made them difficult to catch.

I saw a couple of deer and the other group saw deer and a couple of elk. The other group even heard an elk bugle. (Dang, I wish that was me. It is an awesome (and scary) sound.)

Both groups then got together and went to various places to find the last sage hen.
No luck until 2:30 AM. The other group got 2 sage hens, a male and a female. The put a radio collar on the female and banded both of them. By the way, a radioed sage hen went from Northern Nevada to Canada a couple of years ago.


Thursday: Archeologists have a flat tire in the AM. I change a tire and fill them up with gas. They have 2 spares to they go out for the day. They have a Jeep Cherokee which is kind of a light duty vehicle for this country. I am driving a big Ford F250 with enormous tires and it is dragging ground in places. I have had to go low 4 Wheel Drive in a couple of places.

Everyone was off the compound, I went to fence but piled brush and chopped wood instead. I got tired and took a nap to awaken to someone kncoking on the door. It was the archeologists. They were driving on the roads and got another leak in a tire. We fixed their time, we called dispatch and they were told to get back to Wells to get new tires. They load up and leave.

The road crew pulls in and they had 2 flat tires so they had been in Wells but could not get 4 tires for the truck. They get a pickup and came back to the compound. I had to fill them up with diesel. They need 4 tires on the road truck and they only had 2 tires in Wells.

I spent the night, loaded up and left for Twin, where I am writing this. It is 85 degrees outside. I have to wash clothes and get a tire puncture kit.

That is my week in a nutshell. I have to get back this evening to start the generator and greet campers/hunters that come up on the weekend.