Field Season is OVER :(

So, as the title says- my field season is indeed over. This is not a happy thought for me because my favorite part of my job is getting outside. The good part of this news is that I do not have to work odd hours which consisted sometimes of 10-12 hour days. Dixie and the other horse I was using, Andy, were put out to pasture yesterday. They get a nice 6 month break which will be filled with grazing and wandering around on the hilly pasture with 8 other buddies. Yesterday as the two FS packers and I were getting the horses ready to turn out, they both were teaching me to take off horse shoes and to file the hooves. They said that next spring I would get to learn how to shoe as well. I am pretty excited about this new skill!

I did volunteer myself at work to do some snow surveys during the winter. These take place in Jan-April and I would be going out on snowmobiles and then snow shoeing into the snow fields to take core samples. I am really excited to be a part of this so I can get out in the winter time and not have to be in the office all the time. Plus, everyone likes to play in the snow, right?

Speaking of snow, my last hike was this past Monday and I ended up hiking in about 4" of snow and which was neat but cold and windy. All around Fort Jones, the hills over 4,000' have a good amount of snow on them which means that all of my allotments are now under snow. We even got sticking snow on the valley floor one day this week. I started my field season in snow and now I am ending because of snow.


Here is a picture of my hike on Monday. As you can see it was kind of snowy..










This is Dixie (gray mare) and Andy (paint gelding). They get to graze during our lunch time and while I am doing my monitoring. You can see Mount Shasta in the background.