Life of a systematist, nomad, and double Ph.D (or a look into the mind of someone who is questionably sane).

06 July 2006

Birds and rain came today. It rained in van horn all day long so when the birds finally got here late this afternoon getting them to the site was questionable. After running back to the motel to pick up the quail we had forgotten we set out through the mud. We made it part way to down the road without to much trouble. Then we got to the lower spots where we had water a foot or so deep on the road. At first no big deal the spots were pretty small. But then we got to one where the foot of water was a good 100yrds long or so. Both trucks made it though but we got to the dryish part only to see a longer strech of deep water. After looking at it for a bit Paul and Angel decided we wouldnt be making it to the site today. So it was back to van horn. Going back through the water was a bit of an adventure, I though the engine was going to die a couple times but my truck fought through it and we made it ok. I love that truck, ive done some crazy things to it and so far so good. Back in town it was decided wed meet at 8am tomorrow and put the birds in the box then. Lauren and i went back to the hotel and tried to think of something to do. By now we had an hour or so of light left so going anywhere far would be pointless and finding something to do in van horn was unlikly. I realized Sierra blanca was only 30 miles away so we were getting online to see what was out there when I got a call from Angel saying there was a possibiliy of getting to the site a different way. This time we took Laurens truck. This other was in was alot dryer although there were still some muddy spots. No major trouble until we got to the gate. While driving through the gate Paul managed to get his truck stuck in the mud. After trying to get the wheel out for a while he managed to bury the truck pretty good, so Lauren turned her truck around and tried to pull him out with no luck. After a couple of attempts it became apparent that this tactic wasnt going to be successful either so it was onto the next plan of putting enough rocks down to get some traction under the stuck wheels which was now both front ones. Paul worked on digging out the passenger tire which was now burried up to the bumper while me lauren and angel went looking for rocks. After putting rocks down they tried pulling it out again. Shockingly enough this too was unsucessful. It was decided to put the birds in our truck and Lauren, Paul, and I would go to the site and place the birds while Angel went to find the shooters that we could hear. We made it to the site with only a few bad spots and took the boxes to the tower. The birds were pretty wild in the boxes. On the tower paul pulled a couple birds and handed them to Lauren and me so we could take pictures. My 1st one was a tiercel that was pretty active and my second was a nice looking falcon. Got the birds in the box and fed for the night. Made it back to the truck where we found the truck still stuck. Guess the shooters never acknowleged him and kept shooting so he decided not to risk meeting a stray bullet on his approach. This time they decided to have us pull them forward out of the holes. This time we managed to get them out of the mud and we all headed back to town. On our way through the gate we saw a train approaching our crossing so we all jumped into the trucks and hauled it to the tracks. We made it across although Lauren got confused about which way to go when we got to the tracks and slammed on the breaks. We were some deeper water and mud so I though we were going to get stuck and have to wait for the train to pass but we got lucky and made it out and across without trouble. On the way to van horn Angel called to see if we wanted to get pizzia. We got to pizza hut and they told us itd be an hour wait pretty impressive since there were only a couple other people there. We decided to stay so talked about birds, hunting, and that sort of thing as usual. Its always fun hanging out with those guys, we have some good times. Around 2230 we decided to call it a night and head for home. All in all a good day, never a dull moment with the p-fund. Tommorow ill have to talk about the day before since im already a day behind. Typical

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