Oh the humanity (and the irony)!

Oh the Humanity...

So I've been up in Nebraska with my crew for the last week to assist with some burning that needs to happen on TNC property up here. Yesterday we got just a little bit of fire on the ground, barely getting stuff to burn and for the rest of the trip we've been completely weathered out with either crazy high winds or crazy high or low humidities. We've had a little bit of everything. This morning, however, we woke up with 3 inches of snow on the ground. Eye opening to say the least. I haven't seen snow for 4 years and I don't own a winter coat. Another guy on my crew (from Texas, mind you) has only seen snow once before in his life, back in the mid-80s as a kid. Oy veh! is all I have to say. With the weather no good for burning we have two choices, either hang out and don't get paid or find work to do, so we've been out cutting trail, cleaning up old trail, fixing and constructing fence and as of today, freezing our asses off working (completely unprepared) out in the snow.

Oh the Irony...

Today we spent the day out on the preserve, snow freakin' everywhere, working on cutting down juniper trees. The juniper is a tree formerly planted to provide wind breaks for old homesteads but is now encroaching and taking over the prairie that is one of the most endangered ecosystems that the country has to offer. So the irony...today is Arbor Day and we, The Nature Conservancy, were out cutting down trees. It just brought a smile to my face when someone mentioned it this morning. One of the guys we work with in Texas always just laughs and talks about how insane it is that the home of the Arbor Day Foundation up here in Nebraska is located in an area surrounded by endangered prairie yet they continuously take pride in planting trees all over the darn place, exacerbating the problem of declining habitat. Anyway, just thought I'd throw that out there. It's odd to be out in the middle of nowhere, with no phone service, etc. but have access to satellite internet.

The preserve has two herds of buffalo grazing on 61,000 acres. They are beautiful to look at and awfully darn tasty too.







And the snow...WTF!