A Break From the Weather

The last couple days have been a nice break from all the precipitation we've been getting, but I guess Friday (my day off) was a mess! We got some help from the Northern Region maintenance crew working on the drainages around the office and the supervisor's house to prepare for the next storms, but one of the guys broke a water line and it was hard to fix and get it to stay fixed! My supervisor said they were outside all day soaking wet and freezing...

I did fee compliance yesterday through the day use areas and equestrian area and most people hadn't paid, but they were really nice about it! One woman was from Texas and just wanted to sit at a table for a few minutes to eat her donut and let her dog walk around. I let her know we have a 15 minute courtesy for that purpose, so she was happy. Another woman in the equestrian area was trying to pay me the $5 but she ended up locking her keys in her truck at the same time, so I gave her an envelope to fill out once her husband brought her a spare key! We were really busy yesterday--I think everyone wanted to get outside while the weather is nice!

I made some friends yesterday. I think they were hoping for treats!

 

I've got a guided hike this afternoon so I'm going to walk the trail ahead of time. I also need more pictures for the 

More Water

We are getting another "atmospheric river" event with more rain in the valleys and up to five more feet of snow up in the mountains. I went around the park this morning and got some pictures of the water! I also walked out from our Maze to the beach for another picture.

Lots of water flowing from the hills (Virginia Range) down our boat ramp and into the lake.

I think this is Deadman's Creek flowing into the lake right now. Normally there isn't much flow at all so this is pretty crazy!

Our day use area is still flooding. This mud flow used to be grass, but not there is a waterfall flowing over the rocks and into the lake.

From the beach looking south.

Campfire Program Planning

Yesterday while I was working on a grant for River Wranglers, I started reading through the organization's previously-funded grants for some inspiration. I came across a nature journaling class for at-risk youth and it got me thinking that I should learn more about nature journaling and maybe I could turn it into a program.

That escalated into planning campfire programs for May, June, July, August, and September. My supervisor had said she would like for us to have some more traditional campfire-type programs, so I decided to start with one a month. The last couple years I've tried a couple here and there and they seemed to work pretty well (except for the wind which stopped us from actually having a fire a couple times).

I like using cottonwood rounds for seats...

May's program is going to be about Nature Journaling. I've watched a couple YouTube videos on why and how, and found a simple, easy way to create a folded journal that we could even make during the program. I like the idea that all you really need is to start with a few minutes a day, sketching or recording your observations...date, weather, plants, or animals nearby, what you hear and experience.

One video pointed out that in the United States alone, people are spending less time in contact with nature and more time with electronic and digital devices. "Ecoliteracy is being lost in developed countries at an alarming rate." More time in front of our digital devices is causing higher rates of depression and obesity. Spending time in nature lowers stress and can increase productivity. Even starting with a few minutes a day can make a huge difference. One college student noticed that when finals started, she was feeling stressed and overwhelmed so she went outside for a few minutes a day, focusing on what was around her, and the stress decreased.

Journaling in the field forces us to look, really look at what is around us. Looking at details and recording them is so much different from what I normally do--snap a picture and move on--that I'm interested in giving this a try. Maybe by May I will have a couple different journals filled out to show people what they can do. You don't even need to be an artist--a few small sketches here and there, and eventually you won't think of it, and your artwork will get better on its own.

Other programs I thought of: Rattlesnakes in June, Wiley Coyotes in July (along with a couple scorpion hunts that month), an astronomy-based program in August, and an owl program in September.

Washoe Lake

I really want to get into the habit of writing again, so I'm going to try blogging every single day, working or on my days off. It's fun writing about the park and it might inspire me to learn something new for every post. We'll see!

Lately I have been really excited about the amount of water in the lake! It is almost full. We had to take the bollards away from the boat ramps because the water was rising so fast that we had to get them now or it would be really difficult later. Unfortunately I was off the day they took them out.

These two pictures were taken about a day apart. I was excited to see water touching the main boat ramp in the first place...the next day was even more exciting!

This is the picture I sent my supervisor when she decided the bollards had to come out very soon! I started this job in 2014 and have never seen the water this high. When I started, kite boarders were still able to launch from the north boat ramp area, but as the summer progressed, they had to walk further and further down the beach. It was March 2015 when the lake was finally completely dry. We found the last remaining mud puddle on the full moon hike that month.

 

I learned how to plow snow! Actually my one and only lesson was last year and I never really had to do it, until mid-January this year! We got a couple atmospheric rivers that came over the Sierra Nevada and loaded the valleys up with snow and rain. I was visiting family in Utah so I missed most of the flooding, but came home to this!

 

There has been a constant flow of water through our day use area for almost a month now. Other places in the park have water flowing that haven't had water in years, I think since the 2005 floods. (The 1997 flood was the worst in a long time, but the 2017 flood was closer in size to the 2005 flood) It's hard to tell from the picture, but this "river" is flowing through what used to be grass, and there is a small waterfall flowing down through the rocks and into the lake. It's a good lesson to see water flowing across the road, parking lot, and grass into the lake, carrying with it anything that crosses its path, whether it is litter or other contaminants like oil from leaking cars.

 

 

Fire Extinguishers and a Busy Day

My supervisor had asked me if I would gather all the fire extinguishers for the park and have the volunteer at Dayton bring his so they could be re-charged and inspected. Dave, our maintenance specialist, offered to gather most of them since he had to go around the park anyway. I grabbed mine from the residence this morning, and texted him at 7:45 to see if he had gone to Little Washoe yesterday to get that one, because I didn't remember him mentioning it. He had forgotten that one, so I got ready and went out there to get it. The fire extinguisher company was set to arrive at 8 a.m., so I asked Dave if he would keep an eye out for him, and a woman who was going to come in early to buy a pass. I got there shortly after 8 a.m. and dropped off the fire extinguishers, then went in the office to wait.

While I was waiting at the office, a woman came in and asked about a funny noise she had heard a few nights ago. Her daughter thought it was a fox and definitely not a coyote. I thought it could be a Western Screech Owl, but when I played the sound for her, that wasn't it. I said I would have to hear it, and that I was sorry I couldn't help her out. She took some brochures and went on her way. 

I got a phone call from some duck hunters out around Belleview, on the west side of the lake. They reported they had seen a hurt swan, and it later died. They said they contacted NDOW (Nevada Department of Wildlife) and they had said to call a ranger to come pick it up. Normally, we don't handle wildlife (dead or alive), so I got their name and phone number, called the NDOW dispatch number and passed the information along. Swan hunting is not allowed in that area, so we thought the game warden might want to check it out.

The woman I was waiting for never came in, so by noon I was thinking I better go eat lunch and get out into the park to finish rounds. I usually try to do the whole park in a day--normally in the winter it doesn't take more than half a day to check and clean all restrooms, empty garbage, and pick up litter. There is sometimes fee compliance and I check the fee tubes. Yesterday I did the main part of the park and the southernmost areas, and today all I had was the north side, Belleview, and the campground. It rained and then got really cold, so I had to move some garbage cans into the sun so I would be able to empty them later!

Our water level is rising...but we need a lot more snow if we're going to have a lake this summer!

This is our bulletin board at the Scripps parking lot. It's part of Washoe Lake, but the rest of Scripps is a Wildlife Management Area, managed by NDOW. It looks like I need to get the locks back up on the bulletin board so people stop stealing the fliers and maps!

Scripps bathroom. Not long after I started this job, I rescued a Northern Flicker from the vault of this toilet. I couldn't figure out how to get it out, so I called my supervisor. There is a hatch to open on the back side, which I opened, and the poor bird flew right out.

Sunset tonight behind Slide Mountain.

I'm at the office after dark, so I try to go through and add to my "to-do" list. I forgot I found out we were out of gas today so I need to call tomorrow morning to get the tank filled.

Our Winter Solstice night hike is tomorrow at 6 p.m. so I need to get ready for that. I also have a Christmas-themed slide show coming up at Sand Harbor (Lake Tahoe) on Saturday so I should go over it a few times to make sure I remember it. I usually take candy canes and gingerbread cookies and talk about the history of our Christmas traditions, and show Christmas scenes from around Northern Nevada (Reno, Washoe Valley, Tonopah, Virginia City).

I got home after work, heated up leftovers, put dishes away, fed the cat, and went through some pictures. I'm going in later tomorrow because of the hike, so I'm going into town in the morning for the library and post office (that will be "fun")...

Dead Skunk (Not in the Middle of the Road)

In my last post I said there hasn't been much going on. I can't say that anymore, and I won't complain about nothing going on anymore (I don't really think I was complaining, but still...).

I went home for lunch last Monday, heated up some soup, and went back to work. I didn't notice anything strange. When I got home Monday night, I could smell something outside the mud room, but it wasn't until I went in the house that the smell almost knocked me over! I couldn't identify it at first, it was so strong. My eyes were watering, and my first thought was that I had left the burner on the stove when I heated up my soup! I realized that wasn't the problem, walked through the whole house, and narrowed it down to the front bedroom and living room that were the worst.

I started to get a sinking feeling...I bent down to smell a couple of the heater vents (more on those later) and gagged. I immediately closed the offending vents--three, all on one side of the house. I lit a candle, opened a few windows and turned on a couple fans (kitchen, bathrooms).

My cat kind of liked having the window open.

I texted my supervisor, "I'm 99.9% sure that a skunk died under my house!" That night I slept with the window open.

The next morning, I texted our maintenance specialist (Dave). He said, "uh oh!" and came right over. He walked in the one room I had sealed off (it was horrible) and confirmed that my house did indeed smell really, really bad. We walked around the rest of the house, out to the street, around the house. He thought maybe the skunk had sprayed under the house and then left. Nope. We opened up some of the siding on each side of the house to air it out and made a plan for Wednesday. He was going to crawl under the house and start cutting through the insulation blanket to see if the skunk was on top of the insulation or possibly in the heater duct.

The heater vents: the person who had lived in this house before me told me that when the two sides of this mobile home were put together, "married," the heater ducts on the west side of the house were never connected, so they were just dead. I knew this when I moved in, but I didn't fully understand what that could mean, until the skunk died! It died, it's muscles tensed into rigor mortis, and a few days later, those muscles relaxed. Its scent gland also relaxed, releasing all of that skunk scent under the house and into the heater vents, which brought it right up into the house. (The heater vents are now connected!) All of my clothes, including my work uniform, smelled like skunk, so I went to the store and work smelling. I bought a lot of Febreze candles and a can of spray. I got back in my car, and my car smelled because I had been in it.

I had to do some paperwork and go into town on Wednesday, so I did the paperwork as fast as I could then went to the house to help Dave. I had to go into the bedroom to get my coveralls so I could go under the house and help him find this skunk.

Opening up the skirting. We could see where the skunk had dug under the mudroom and accessed the rest of the underside of the house. The mudroom was added on later, and whoever built it did not add a concrete pad; they built it over dirt. When Dave put the skirting back up, he put it under the mudroom, up against the concrete pad so nothing else can dig under to access the house!

No one truly believed me that there was an actual dead skunk under my house, but Dave was willing to look, and he had a good idea of where to look. Pretty soon I hear, "I see a tail!" I told him he was awesome and ran for some garbage bags. I helped him bag up the skunk (I was probably just in the way), and then took out two more bags of contaminated insulation from under the house. After we stopped at the park dumpster, I took him out to Starbucks for coffee as a thank you.

Thursday I was off, but I spent a couple hours driving around Carson City looking for skunk neutralizing soap while Dave attached the heater ducts. Both of us forgot that we stuffed garbage inside the duct to stop more smell from coming up into the house, so we didn't remember until the next day why there was still no hot air coming up....by the time my husband came home from work Thursday night the smell was so much better! We still spent the weekend washing clothes and renting a carpet shampooer from Home Depot to try to get rid of the remaining smell. There are stiff whiffs here and there but the house is live-able again!

I'm thankful for co-workers willing to help out with such a crazy and not fun situation! He was so impressed that I was there under the house willing to help him out, but he was really doing me a huge favor by finding that skunk!

Winter Has Begun...

I haven't posted anything in almost a month! Except for the past couple weeks, we've managed to stay pretty busy with campers and day-users. I haven't really been inspired much to post anything because there hasn't been anything different going on. There have been a couple bad messes in the restrooms...my supervisor and I have both cleaned up equally bad "accidents" in the campground restrooms (I did NOT take pictures....) but lately people have been behaving themselves!

This was sunset last Tuesday night. Saying "night" is weird though, because right now sunset happens just after 4 p.m.!

 

It rained most of the day on Saturday and I was off work, so my husband and I drove around the valley looking at the creeks that flow into the lake. There is a lot more water in the lake than there was even a few days ago! Unfortunately that means the rain melted some snow, but hopefully that is a good sign that there will be more snow and precipitation coming this winter.

 

This is Ophir Creek, one of the major water sources coming into Washoe Lake. It was flowing pretty good after all that rain! Parts of Carson City and Reno were flooding and people could go various places to fill their own sandbags to take home.

Davis Creek, on the west side of the valley.

 

This morning I'm heading out to do rounds throughout the park, then I have some filing to do to make our year-end paperwork easier (I try to avoid filing, but this time I can't). I sent an e-mail about scheduling an interpretive meeting with other park interpreters around the state, and took care of our "office cats." Yesterday we had a program at the office--I did a slide presentation about Washoe Lake with a brief history of Washoe Valley and a "tour" of the park. There were three visitors.

 

Jack loves the pellet stove.

 

I've also been writing down new program ideas for the coming year. I'm trying to not schedule so many because we will have several new park aids coming on this year and they will need training and probably closer supervision than I've had to do in the past.

 

I do want to keep the full moon hikes going, and do some bird watching, sunrise and sunset hikes, wildflower hikes, campfire programs, Junior Ranger programs, and a couple slide shows. That doesn't sound like I'm trying to do less, does it? haha--we are also planning to have the astronomers back twice this summer, a Dutch oven cooking class, carp fishing derby, hike to Virginia City (12+ miles), and the normal outreach activities we do every year. We also have field trips that come to the park and both group use areas are reserved most weekends and sometimes during the week.

 

I've got a full moon hike scheduled for tomorrow night. The weather is supposed to be bad (snow and/or rain) so we'll see if it really happens. I only have a few people signed up but I have done a full moon hike with one person before, on Christmas Eve last year!

 

The Winter Solstice Hike is scheduled for Wednesday, Dec. 21 at 6 p.m. The low is supposed to be around 15 that night so we really will have to bundle up! I do have 14 people signed up for that one though. I was thinking it would be a true night hike, with red flashlights so we can keep our night vision to look at the stars and maybe come across some wildlife--here that means we *might* see deer or a coyote and maybe an owl.