The Beginning

So, here I am, ready to write my first blog entry. It feels a bit silly but, at the same time, unless you are a regular user of facebook you probably have no idea what I've been up to and might even be wondering if I've been gored by a buffalo. No, I have not been gored by a buffalo nor trampled by a moose, eaten by a bear nor buried in an avalanche. I have, in fact, been super busy studying up on the ecology of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and getting used to the ins and outs of living in a cabin in the woods. After a few requests for regular updates on my life here in the Teton Valley I figured I'd get on with this whole blog writing thing. I guess the great thing about a blog is you can look at it whenever you want to and I can just send an email saying, "Hey, I wrote something new on my blog. Check it out." Plus, I think I can put some pictures on here which should be pretty cool.

OK, let's get on with it then.


WHAT THE HECK AM I DOING LIVING IN WYOMING?

I wound up living in this cabin near Jackson,Wyoming because I decided to attend the Teton Science Schools graduate program. Don't worry if you've not heard of this place before because it is not some big well known school. Instead, the Teton Science Schools is a collection of really cool science based education programs which happens to include a pretty awesome graduate program that focuses on place-based education. The Teton Science Schools also has a private school called Journeys School which is located in Jackson and a tour operator called Wildlife Expeditions which offers wildlife viewing tours for people who want to sit and watch the buffalo and other wildlife from the safety of a van.

So far, in school, I have studied the Ecology of the Greater Yellowstone area which includes geological history (namely, how and when the Tetons showed up) and information about the communities/habitats/biospheres that are in this area. I'm learning a lot of great information about aspens, conifers and sagebrush. I'm also taking a course called Place-Based Education which uses the surrounding environment to teach children science. I LOVE it. Right now, I'm teaching 5th graders from Wyoming about the communities in the area. Next week 5th graders from Utah will visit and then it's back into the classroom for 2 more weeks before I travel to the Reservation to teach in the schools there. The grad program here works like this...2 weeks of class, 2 weeks of residential education (that means students from 5th grade to high school who come here and we teach them on our campus), one week of seminar and planning, 2 weeks of class and then 2 weeks of outreach (we go out and teach students at their schools-I'm going to a reservation in Wyoming and teaching 5th graders). There are 24 people in my program and we are divided into 4 tracks. Each track takes the same classes but their outreach and residential education is different. For example, one group is doing their outreach by teaching fire ecology to students in Montana, another group worked as park rangers in Teton National Park. We will be in our current tracks until Thanksgiving. Then, there will be new options and we will switch tracks. Also, once winter comes our classes will change. I know we will have a class about winter ecology then. Anyway, that's the way it works.

I'm having a great time and am very very excited to be here. I'm meeting amazing people, have incredible views every day and am outside all of the time. I love it! We'll see what happens when the snow starts to pile up.


Now some basic facts:

1. WHERE I LIVE: I live in a cabin in Kelly, Wyoming and it is on Ditch Creek Rd. Hence the blog name "Tales from 1 Ditch Creek Rd."

2. WHERE IN THE WORLD IS KELLY? There is a town of Kelly which is in Teton National Park about 10 miles north of Jackson, Wyoming close to the border of Idaho and about 50 miles south of Yellowstone National Park. It has a coffee shop/cafe/store/place to buy beer and wood AND it has a separate, though quite small-you have to duck to get in the door, post office. The coffee shop/cafe/store/place to buy beer and wood apparently has really good sandwiches, according to a guy I met in Driggs, Idaho but their hours are sketchy. They close when they want to so I'm not exactly sure when I can go and try the awesome sandwiches. There are also some houses and a yurt community in Kelly. There was a great yurt for sale for $8,000 but since I already have a cabin to live in and I don't have $8,000 I figured someone else can buy the yurt for now.
I do not actually live in the town of Kelly. I live about 4 miles on down the road near a ranch called Let 'Er Buck. This is really funny because I met a skier named Sammy who signed a poster for me and he wrote "Let 'Er Buck" on it. I guess this is a phrase that I need to use a lot. I actually do live in a national park so that means if you come and visit me we can't build fires and you can't take anything you find near my cabin home with you. This national park does, however, have an airport which will be loaded with crazy skiers and boarders looking for sweet sweet powder in the wintertime and hunters, fishermen, cowboys and tourists the rest of the year. Yep, you can hunt in this national park and elk season is upon us so you'll see a lot of science school students in bright orange vests.

4. UH, WHAT ABOUT PEEING IN THE WOODS My cabin does not have a bathroom so I do have to walk outside to find a toilet and a shower. Not so bad right now but once the temps drop below zero it should be interesting. The bathroom/showers are located in the Commons which turns into a gathering place around bedtime and on Thursday nights for our Thursday night shindigs. This also means that brushing my teeth at bedtime can turn into an hour long conversation with another grad student about challenging students, crazy wildlife sightings, or just the latest campus gossip.

5. MY 'HOOD: I have some cool neighbors from all over the country. They are all going to school with me and teaching with me and hanging out with me on the weekends. Needless to say we see A LOT of each other. It's pretty good right now. My next door neighbors are Molly, to the right of me, and Frank, to the left. Molly lived in Bellingham, Washington and since FindYourSpot.com told me I should live there I quiz her a lot about Bellingham. Frank is from Georgia and he is Frank Carter IV. Any relation to Jimmy? Who knows but he is a direct descendant of Robert E. Lee. He also lets me pick around on his banjo and is a superfan of the Avett Brothers. So is Molly so I guess the Avetts have a pretty solid hold on my hood.

6. ENERGY: The FOOD IS AMAZING!! Food is included with my stay here and our cooks, Tim and Sarah, are incredible. They cook food that kids will like but we love it too. Each week there is yummy pasta, bison burgers, organic chicken, a delicious soup Sarah concocted, salad and other tasty treats. I'm anxiously awaiting snowboarding season so I can start working off the the food I pack in.

7. COMMUNICATION- It's difficult. Most cell phones don't work on campus. I can get reception if I walk down the road or go to the playfield. Email is really the best way to communicate.

8. WILDLIFE- It's all over. My friend Khale just saw a cow and a bull moose. I saw a black bear one day while studying the riparian area with students. There are bison who roam and block traffic on the roads to Moose, Kelly and Jackson-one was out there licking down her calf the other day (hey lady, don't wash your baby in the middle of the road!) There are also antelope (aka pronghorns), mule deer and then a bunch of little animals like beavers, squirrels, chipmunks and field mice. The other day we went creek walking to try to see the beavers making their dams. It was pretty cool.

WHAT'S NEXT
I think this is enough for now. I'll put some pics up too.
Feel free to email me questions and I'll try to answer them.
I'm going to try to write every 2-3 weeks. No idea if that will happen.
I finished editing this on October 9th which also marked our first snowfall so I'm pretty sure I'll talk a bit about the weather next time.