This Montanan Life
Per my dad's request, I am reviving this blog once again in order to write about my experiences in my new state- Montana. If you're new here and curious about the title of this blog, the first first post describes what "exploring jai" means.
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"Those are some real mountains." "The views are incredible." "There is so much climbing out there."
These were all things I heard before I moved to Montana from my home state of North Carolina. My goal here is to earn a Master's degree from the university in Missoula. It's a work in progress. I moved here without a residence or a job. I felt adamant about applying for jobs in the field I wanted to be in, not what I have been in. I applied for just one job that wasn't within 2 hours of Missoula, way up in the north country of prairies and a truly big sky. This is the job that I took, as a wildlife technician for the Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks.
I had about a week of witnessing the types of descriptions about this state listed above. Out here, in a town literally dubbed as THE town most in the middle of nowhere in the United States, the nearest climbing is listed as 3 hours north- in Canada. The views still are incredible but they are not the towering mountains and sharp peaks that you find in the western portion of the state. They are rolling, sometimes flat, and sometimes we sit on the edge of a hill with a sharp drop-off and look over the valley.
I live in an RV Park with the other two techs and each day we drive up to 3 hours to get to some fairly remote landscapes and ranches. We set up trail cameras for 3 nights then return to upload the photos. There's mostly cows and dancing grasses or sages, but we do see quite a bit of wildlife as well. There is a team just north of the border doing the same thing for this project looking at the populations of house cat-sized swift foxes (Vulpes velox). My very first day on the job the crew leader took me into the field and we saw one of these very foxes roaming a hillside, and it sat watching us, as we watched it watching us, watching it and so on. We also saw a badger that day too.
Wildlife is everywhere, though admittedly I miss salamanders. I still roll over some old barn wood or debris thinking perhaps an amphibian will be hiding out. Reptiles are more my reality now and I search for the assortment of beautiful snakes found here. Still none.
The county fair was in town last week, which brought rodeos, a demolition derby, and an outdoors John Michael Montgomery concert. Although JMM played a handful of the slow song classics, the after party band had everyone on the dance floor swing dancing; or at least trying to. My crew lead, a Montana native, taught me the very basics of roping. I rescued a very unappreciative cat (no worries family and friends, I didn't keep her). The RV neighbors' 4 year-old boy made friends with me. They have worked and lived in South Carolina and North Carolina, so we immediately bonded. And Matt and I (really, mostly Matt) changed a flat tire on our government rig several miles from the nearest paved road and even further from the nearest town.
It gets hot. It's very dry. It's a bit wild. And it is heaps of fun so far. So many portions of this place remind me of South Africa. That's a very good thing. As always, traveling and exploring a new place has rejuvenated my spirit.
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"Those are some real mountains." "The views are incredible." "There is so much climbing out there."
These were all things I heard before I moved to Montana from my home state of North Carolina. My goal here is to earn a Master's degree from the university in Missoula. It's a work in progress. I moved here without a residence or a job. I felt adamant about applying for jobs in the field I wanted to be in, not what I have been in. I applied for just one job that wasn't within 2 hours of Missoula, way up in the north country of prairies and a truly big sky. This is the job that I took, as a wildlife technician for the Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks.
I had about a week of witnessing the types of descriptions about this state listed above. Out here, in a town literally dubbed as THE town most in the middle of nowhere in the United States, the nearest climbing is listed as 3 hours north- in Canada. The views still are incredible but they are not the towering mountains and sharp peaks that you find in the western portion of the state. They are rolling, sometimes flat, and sometimes we sit on the edge of a hill with a sharp drop-off and look over the valley.
I live in an RV Park with the other two techs and each day we drive up to 3 hours to get to some fairly remote landscapes and ranches. We set up trail cameras for 3 nights then return to upload the photos. There's mostly cows and dancing grasses or sages, but we do see quite a bit of wildlife as well. There is a team just north of the border doing the same thing for this project looking at the populations of house cat-sized swift foxes (Vulpes velox). My very first day on the job the crew leader took me into the field and we saw one of these very foxes roaming a hillside, and it sat watching us, as we watched it watching us, watching it and so on. We also saw a badger that day too.
Wildlife is everywhere, though admittedly I miss salamanders. I still roll over some old barn wood or debris thinking perhaps an amphibian will be hiding out. Reptiles are more my reality now and I search for the assortment of beautiful snakes found here. Still none.
The county fair was in town last week, which brought rodeos, a demolition derby, and an outdoors John Michael Montgomery concert. Although JMM played a handful of the slow song classics, the after party band had everyone on the dance floor swing dancing; or at least trying to. My crew lead, a Montana native, taught me the very basics of roping. I rescued a very unappreciative cat (no worries family and friends, I didn't keep her). The RV neighbors' 4 year-old boy made friends with me. They have worked and lived in South Carolina and North Carolina, so we immediately bonded. And Matt and I (really, mostly Matt) changed a flat tire on our government rig several miles from the nearest paved road and even further from the nearest town.
It gets hot. It's very dry. It's a bit wild. And it is heaps of fun so far. So many portions of this place remind me of South Africa. That's a very good thing. As always, traveling and exploring a new place has rejuvenated my spirit.
