Sterlings head injury

Well shoot! I tried updating my blog earlier and I had all these pictures and in detail stories and then when I went to publish all I got was a stupid page cannot be dispayed screen and it was all lost! Why do I still blog? I don't know. I think it's just because all my friends are so far away and I feel like it's the most consistant way to keep in touch. I guess I'll recap the last little while: I went to an awesome bluegrass festival with Sven, and other than that I really have no idea what I've been doing. I think I may be sick or something because I've been sleeping for like 12 hours a night and still feeling tired. Maybe I have west nile. A horse out at market lake died of west nile not to long ago. I've been working, climbing, riding horses, painting houses and learning mason jenning songs on the guitar.

The prodigal Camera

My camera has returned. Do I know how? No, all I know is that I saw one sitting on Scott Gamo's desk that looked just like mine and I checked it and sure enough it's chuck full of my volunteer project pictures. I'm not making any accusations, I'm just taking it back.
I wish I had my camera with me these past few days. I fell like a lot of stuff has happened. Let's start with Saturday. I found out how to float down the river by my house for like an hour or two and only have a 4 mile shuttle. Short enough for me to set up myself with my bike. So I called pretty much everyone I know who is in Idaho right now and ended up with a small but fun group. Afterwards we had a bar-b-que at my house. Sunday I went to church and then headed out to the Blakely's house for Sunday dinner. We had BLT's and then Brian, Jon, Bro. Blakely, and these 2 elderly people went up Kelly Canyon to look for their 2 bulls that escaped. Brian, Jon and I were on horses and we rounded up the bulls and herded them a little ways back to where they were supposed to be. It was pretty fun. I wore my cowboy boots I got from D.I. Then we ended up riding all the way down Little Kelly's in the dark. It was a long cold ride, but I enjoyed it. We crossed the creek a few times and there were parts that were so dark you had to just completely trust the horse to follow the trail. I didn't get to bed until around 12 which would have been ok if I didn't have to wake up at 4am the next day. Monday we hiked some beautiful country trying to push the wildlife out before the shooter operation put up their fences. It's kind of lame but for those of you who don't know, this is what a shooter operation does. They buy land, put up these huge fences they call elk fence and then stock it with prize elk. Then city slickers come in to hunt and have a guide with them the whole time. When they find one of these farm grown elk the guide tells them how much it will cost to shoot that one. Of course the bigger the antlers, the more $$$. Any where from $7,000 to $20,000. So our job was to get the native wildlife out before they put up the rest of the fence. So that was my monday. Yesterday I spent the morning looking for pygmy rabbits and shooting at soda cans. Then I went to check on an eagle scout project, watched Rudy and rode this horse Paco that lives a mile or so away from my house. It took me about an hour to catch the stupid thing, so I got a really short ride.
Oh yeah, also my little brother Sterling had a huge beam fall on his head and he had to get 6 staples in his head. He wanted me to tell every one that gifts and money are being accepted. j/k Well, I'd better get to work.

Well, I keep trying to post the rest of the pictures but they are not showing up. So since I am getting them all from brian's web page anyways I suggest you go to www.cobbman.com to see the rest. There are also pictures of the ward activity we went to where we got to ride on combines in a grain field. When we were young my dad used to always tell us farmers walked around with their thumbs in their armpits so that is why brian and I are posed that way in some of those pictures.
Oh and yesterday I got to ride in and drive an air boat all around the marshes by my house. It was pretty crazy. The only time I've really seen an air boat was on The Waterboy.

Here are pictures from the climbing trip wednesday. We went to castle rock and I did my first multi pitch climb. I really like multi pitches. It keeps you on the rock for a lot longer instead of having to wait for so long. It was 4 pitches. Toleman led the first one, I did the second, he did the third and then brian belayed me when I did the 4th. Brian and Craig climbed the same rock but a slightly different route.

Busy days...and I still haven't found my camera :( I haven't told my boss yet. I've decided that work goes by a lot faster and I feel a lot more productive if I plan too much to do instead of not enough. I know it would be great to get a balance some where in the middle, but until then this will have to do.

Hati hoo ha

Here are some pictures from the Volunteer Coordinator retreat I went on Monday/Tuesday. I like retreats. We see beautiful country and get to log hours 24/7. A few interesting things about the meeting were that every one was fighting the whole time! Yeah, we look like a cheerful bunch but everyone was so passionate about everything that it took hours to come to conclusions. I have to admit though, I was right there in the middle of it. How could I not be though. I've never been one to sit back and watch people get attacked for opinions that I agree with. Plus if I just sat there the whole time I would get really bored. There were a few times though that I think I actually helped solve some problems. I'd explain them more in detail, but it would just be boring to most people. I did find out though that if I were getting paid for this job I would be in the salary range of $15 to $25 per hour depending on experience. Plus I would get mad government benefits. It would be nice. In fact they're hiring a Volunteer Coordinator in Lewiston, but I have decided not to because I'm not ready for a permanent job. Starting in January I am going to travel anywhere I want and get temporary field technician jobs. It' s what I want to do and after talking to several biologist I have found that it's exactly what most of them did before they were married. Then they settled down and could get a good permanent job because of all the experience they had.

Well, work is frustrating these past couple of weeks. Hopefully it will get better. Sometimes I wish I weren't so people oriented. I talk to some people and I'm in a bad mood forever. Then I talk to others and I feel like I can rule the world. Then there are others who make me feel like slacking off and not ruling the world, but sliding by. Or those who make me feel like a competent, hard working, deserving adult and others who make me feel like an immature, inexperienced kid who caught a break and got a job they didn't deserve. I guess I just wish I could be more of my own person and not so caught up in how other people see and treat me. Why does it make such a big difference? Why do I care so much about what people think of me? And now in some weird twist of irony I put this up on my blog. So people can comment and I get excited to see what they write and what they think of me.