Wapiti herding is all the rage

The pups are great adjusting to the new rules. We've hiked near the house in both directions and I've made it clear it is a "not to far" location, 100 m at most. No disappearing at your own will REENA. And it has worked very well. I can let them out to potty and go brush my teeth or do something for five minutes and go out on the porch and yell and there they come. How great. This will be tested one day I'm sure. One morning at 6 am in the dark I open the back door and let them loose and they pop right into the middle of a herd of elk in my back yard (those tracks and scat ALL OVER my yard are hardly old). And the chase is on. My plan is to start yelling come bye till Reena understands I want her to herd them. I have confidence :) I'll just have her herd them to me standing in the sliding doors on the back porch, that's fine. She'll be real handy when the population biologists do winter herd counts. They'll all want one. You'll all want to practice for our next GSH Wapiti trial held here in the north. The porch can be an obstacle if Reena can get them used to it. Instead of ducks we can do Caribou...awh, or Goldeneyes I guess if we must.

Here's a few pictures from our hike on Sunday. We explored a little beyond our backyard...just a few miles down the road. I didn't get any scenery pictures on my cell phone that did any justice so I won't bother with those. I can't wait till summer and we can explore forever in any direction. Bryan and I took a tour of the Kootenai Valley all day Monday, again no pictures but I can't wait to share it with friends.



This picture just cracks me up, looks like two totally different photos. I was trying to catch a rare photo of Reena by pretending I was getting me. She knew but pretended that she idn't know. She sat still enough to let me get the photo anyway. But refused to look my way of coarse. Stubborn brat that she is. Stared off in that direction for the full five minutes I tried. Totally ignoring me, not even a glance. She was gracely obliging me, I should be so thankful!

What's under those northern skies....

Ahhhh! I had a great first day on the job.




When I first made it up here on Monday night, my new boss said I shouldn't try to find the place in the dark and offered for me to stay the night at his house with he and his wife. Uh.... nerve racking. Great way to meet the new boss I guess. He was on the interview panel, but still. He's a good guy; says he likes to be personal with his employees, unless it becomes uncomfortable for either side. I took them up on it and they were very gracious and inviting. We had a drink and chatted, met each other's dogs (dogs have such a wonderful skill of brining people together), and then I dragged my cat and 2 dogs into their guest room (so clean and finely decorated - fit for a queen. Add on 2 dogs and a cat) and went to bed.



The next morining I left the same time as my new boss; I went to find my new house and he went to the office to pick up a posse of employees to meet me at my new house and help me unpack. A whole bunch of people showed up, about 15. Met them all, including my two technicians. They all got to see my collection of junk (at least my underwear were taped tightly in a box thanks to Katy :), got comments on my shotgun and skull collection, and had lots of help deciding were to put my 'armoir' (they didn't want to move it more than once :), and help putting my bed back together. A bunch of great people. Another biologist that lives in Bonners Ferry followed me to the U-haul rental return and gave me a lift home after giving me the 5 minute tour of Bonners Ferry - grocery store, gas station, library, grocery store, court house.



I'm a bit nervous about this position in terms of my now being a public figure. Practically a politician. Truly. People will know who I am. I'll be required to participate in several citizens management committees, local resource mng commissions, local hunting group meetings, etc., (was invited to attend a Pheasants Forever meeting held my first night here, before I even got to sleep in my new bed, or even start my job!). People will know where I live, know my emblemed truck, etc. And I've been told lots of stories about people in Bonners Ferry causing trouble and elected officials fighting and bad mouthing the IDFG. Although relations have improved immensley over the past couple of years, alot due to the previous guy in my position. Those are big shoes. Hope I can do this well.


But the sun shone today. My first day went off very well. A more indepth description of my job duties, work set-up for the first week and first month, expectations, people to meet and contacts to make. Next weekend I guess I will be going to the Bonners Ferry gun and knife show to meet many of the local 'players'. Seriuosly. Many of the same people are on the local committees and members of local hunting groups. Those that are invested in natural resource management....or who want things done their way. Anyway, I actually feel very capable of meeting my duties, as challenging as they all are. Like I said, the scariest is the public relations, and that I guess only time will tell.


And I can't wait till some of you can come visit. My boss, Bryan, said my house is mine and I can live like it is. If I want to have a family reunion and have tents and trailers all over my yard...that's fine. Here that ya'all! A GSH Reunion! Or open house for the "Northern Satelite Office" :) How bout Selkirk Mts. Satelite Office....sounds nice. Jodi, aren't the Selkirks another wonder of Idaho.... a must see?

P.S. Did I mention that I saw two shooting stars on my drive out here. One during daylight hours even! And one at night. I'm personally taking it as a sign from that in the heavens that I can expect good things.