November.. its here already?

I realize its been two months since I last updated the blog. I hope that everyone had a nice September and October. Life is pretty hectic right now with school and research and homework and homework and teaching yoga, going to yoga etc. etc. and you know, the typical Graduate student life.

Scott's in Kansas this weekend for opening weekend of pheasant hunting. I really wish that I was along with him, its such a great weekend to be out there, but I'll be sending Scott, Daniel and Amber some good hunting vibes and hopefully they'll bring home enough pheasant to cook up for dinner on Sunday :)

Some updates:
Scott and I have a wedding venue and date! We'll be getting married next October 5th (a Saturday)... only 11 months to go! :-) http://HallyAndScott.ourwedding.com check out our wedding website for details about when/where/who/what/how/why etc. etc.

Scott just got offered and accepted a new job as a manager at JC Billion (a car dealership here in MT). I am hoping that it will be a good move for him! JC Billion is (from what I can tell) 'the' car dealership in Montana, and seems like a good company to work for. It should give him some great experience and the chance to advance his career.

I'm still busy with school and I don't think that's something that is really going to change here any time soon. Also I am teaching yoga once a week on Friday mornings (about all I can handle for now, but I am SO glad that I got the opportunity to do it!)

Scott and I will be coming home for Thanksgiving and Christmas (however, I'll be home for quite a bit longer around Christmas time). It will be so nice to see all of our family and friends ... I can't believe how quick the time goes by. Scott and I moved here in June and its already November.. what!?? Either way I am so excited for the holidays. What a great time of the year. I am already feeling in the Christmas spirit tonight with almost 2 feet of snow on the ground here in Bozeman. Forecast of 0 degrees tonight, and I'm not complaining!

 With November upon us, I have challenged myself to have an "attitude of gratitude" this month. There is (and always has been) so much to be grateful for this year. I am so excited to come home soon and see everyone.

Live in the Sunshine
Swim the Sea
Drink in the wild air....

Hally


I'll leave you all with some photos..

A picture my dad took up at our cabin last fall...

My lab-mates and I on a chilly winters night in Bozeman

Eddy swimming through the snow this morning 

I may be a tad evil, but this halloween costume was totally worth his facial expression. He wasn't very happy, but it sure was funny.

Back to the Grind

Once again, things have been crazy. Since my last update Scott and I have been extremely busy! My parents, sister and Grandma came out mid-August and we spend a few days with them in Yellowstone National Park. It was really nice to have them all out here, and to go to Yellowstone with my family. I finally got to see wolves, so that was a pretty exciting moment for me. As I told Scott "my life is now complete" haha. I would share some pictures of them, but my memory card filled up at the worst time. Luckily, my dad was able to get some photos.  We did other awesome things like: the boiling river( probably the most amazing natural hot spring experience you will EVER have); went to the seedy Chico Hot Springs; hiking; got up at "dark thirty" to see wolves... It was a really fun few days. Here are a few pictures.

Great sunset in Yellowstone

Dad fishing 

Norris Hot Springs

Beautiful fog in the valley

Eddy

Amazing view 

Wolf watching

Grandma Donna and Eddy were best friends

More wolf watching

At the boiling river

Since their visit, Scott and I got to go on a one day backpacking trip the weekend before school.. and where did we go?
Yellowstone of course. We had a campsite right on the Lamar River. It would have been nice to spend a few nights in the backcountry, but we'll take what we can get.

Now school has begun...and its back to the grind! Although things aren't too crazy yet.. I know its about to get insane! I'm taking 9 credits, and I am a teaching assistant, and I have to spend at least 20 hours a week on my research project. Needless to say, soon I'm not going to have much of a social life ;)

Our good friends Katie and John came and visited us last weekend for Labor Day. It was so great to have them under our roof for a few days. We took them to the Norris Hot Springs, hiking, we drank some Montana beer with them, and we brought them  where?? To Yellowstone for their first time!! I think we've definitely done a good job taking advantage of Yellowstone this summer. It was also a great, relaxing weekend, and we can't wait until the next time they venture out to Big Sky country.

I'm going home this week for a few days to try to find a venue for Scott and I's wedding next fall! Hopefully I'm able to make a decision. It'll be nice to be home for a few days, and to meet the newest member of our family, Tule. He's a red lab, and I can't wait to meet him!


I'll leave you all with a few more photos

at our campsite 

Our tasty red beans and rice dinner

View from the tent

Katie and I

Katie and John

Crazy month of July

I realize it's been quite a while since I've updated the blog! I am sure you have all been waiting with baited breath waiting for my next entry ;-) The month of July was a bit crazy to say the least, and it really flew by! I can't believe that its already August.

I spent most of July collecting data for my graduate project. 3 weeks of 12-15 hour days sitting out in a hot, humid, buggy field. I seriously don't know if I've ever used that much bug spray in my life! Some cool things about my sites though: sandhill cranes, whitetail deer, moose, osprey, red-tailed hawks, pelicans, cow dogs, and the Kings Motel.  Luckily, I also had a great field crew helping me. I definitely could not have done all of that work without their help! For anyone interested, the data I collected consists of cover and biomass. So for each of my treatments we randomly tossed 3 frames in to the plots, and estimated cover (of every species in the frame) and then clipped the plants (biomass) and sorted them out by functional group into paper bags (this means either Perennial grass, grass-like species, exotic forbs, native forbs, and tall buttercup). I also had 2 other sites where I ran three 100 meter transects running from low density of tall buttercup to high density of tall buttercup. We sampled every 5 meters along the transect, estimated cover, and collected biomass by species (this is even more difficult because you have to pick out every little piece of grass and put it in its respective bag).  Every time I look at a piece of grass now I have a strange urge to clip it and identify it.. not sure if this is a good thing or not.

There were, of course, some adventures (it is grad school after all). Some of my favorites were the sweet giant spiders in the hayfields, attempting to use the outdoor facilities in mosquito infested willows, and my personal favorite; the giant wind gust that blew away all of my samples across the field. Some went into the irrigation canal, and Daniel, one of  our field crew members, sacrificed his shoes and pants to save them for me. I can only imagine how hilarious I looked running across a field screaming "NOOOOOOOOO." As we all kept saying "it got pretty real in the tall buttercup field."

For any of you that would like to read a little more about what I'm doing check out this link: http://www.msuextension.org/invasiveplantsMangold/extensionsub.html
Click on July 2012 Tall buttercup.
Its a small article I put together about tall buttercup and my project

Its very tedious work, but luckily it is interesting to me! I don't think I would have ever found vegetation work appealing if I did not spend a whole summer working for the Restoration Ecology Lab at CSU the summer before my senior year.

Now I have literally hundreds (maybe even over a thousand) bags of biomass that will need to be weighed... and after that's done... on to the task of beginning to analyze all of that data. This is also a daunting task that I am choosing not to think about at this time.

School starts for me August 27th. I'll be taking 9 credits, I'm going to be a TA for freshmen level course, and I'll be working on my graduate project. Hopefully I won't be too busy that I won't have time for important things like eating and showering ;-)

Scott has been busy with work as well. He recently traded in his road bike for a mountain bike. This is pretty cool with me because I now have someone to ride my mountain bike with! We've been busy on the weekends, biking, hiking, floating rivers, and kayaking on some reservoirs just outside of Bozeman. We are also hoping to go on at least one backpacking trip before the summer is over, and we really want to make it to Glacier National Park before the snow starts to fall.

My parents, sister, and Grandma are coming out next week. They are staying in a condo right next to Yellowstone. I'm going to take a few days off next week to hang out with them, and Scott and I will spend next weekend up there. Hopefully I'll finally be able to see some wolves!

Sadly, all of my work pictures are on the work camera. I will post them on my next blog post though, because I'm sure you all want to see my amazing field sites and field crew. For now, here are a few others pictures from the past month.

We hope everyone is doing well!

At the Legion. One of the guys that works for our lab is in an AMAZING bluegrass band, the Kitchen Dwellers-- check em out!

Mountain Biking Bozeman Creek Trail 

Bridger Range

Hyalite Lake (it was totally worth the extreme water crossings)

Amazing waterfall on the way up to Hyalite Lake

Welcome to Grad School!

These last 2 weeks have been some busy ones for me! Two weeks ago I set up my research plots and applied the treatments, which consisted of mowing, fertilizing and spraying herbicide (yuck!). My research sites are on 2 different landowners properties in a small town called Twin Bridges. Both the landowners are hoping that I can find a good way to control tall buttercup. These landowners hate tall buttercup and want to see it gone, but others don't really seem to think it causes any problems. It will be interesting because there is really no research out there on tall buttercup (a good and bad thing-- easier to get my research published, but less resources for me to write my thesis!), so hopefully by the end I'll have a better handle on how to manage it, and if its really a noxious weed that we should be concerned about. 

The set-up of my plots definitely took a lot longer than we were expecting, and my plots are huge! I have 8 total replications.. each plot is 160 feet by 40 feet.. and within each whole plot are 4 different treatments, 3 different herbicides and then one with no herbicide, and within each treatment are 'sub treatments' mowing, fertilizing, mowing and fertilizing, and no treatment (if that makes any sense!) it all gets a bit complicated!

We got attacked by swarms of mosquitoes the whole time, had the wrong herbicide and no way to measure it out, one of my plots got flooded by 2 feet of irrigation water so we had to move it (and now I am just hoping that the other ones haven't been flooded since I left). Somehow it all got done, and I think I had some nice learning experiences and an excellent introduction to the many things that can (and will) go wrong while doing research!

Now the plots are sitting and waiting for me to come back in a few weeks and collect tons of data.

Last week I went with the other new graduate student in my lab to help her set up her research plots in Missoula and the Bitterroot National Forest. It was great to see more of Montana! We also had some adventures and learning experiences on her trip (like loosing the key to the car around 5pm and we were 15 miles from anything). After an hour of searching and packing up our bags to walk out, we just happened to check the glove box and waalaaa a spare key! (another learning experience, ALWAYS bring a spare key!)

Scott and I have been enjoying Bozeman. The past 2 weeks they have held "Shakespeare in the Parks" on campus. Its been going on for 40 years now, and they just travel throughout Montana performing Shakespeare plays. Cheap, and fun entertainment! We brought picnic dinners and wine and enjoyed modern takes on Shakespeare plays. Bozeman also has an event every Thursday through August called Music on Main where they shut down part of Main Street. One band plays for about 2 hours and the bars are open for you to come in and grab a drink and walk around, and enjoy good food.

Annnd finally, for those of you that don't know, Scott and I decided that we don't want to wait until I'm done with school to get married (cause that could be 3 years from now)! We are thinking we'd like to get married either next August or the first weekend in October. As soon as we get more figured out I'll let everyone know! But in the mean time, feel free to check out the beginnings of our wedding website: http://hallyandscott.ourwedding.com/

I'll post information about the wedding on this website, so you can never miss a beat ;)

I'll leave you all with some pictures :)

Noelle took an artistic picture of me mowing through the tall buttercup 

At the end of our hike last weekend, Eddy got tired so we tried putting him in the backpack.. it didn't work too well ;-)

On our hike to Fairy Lake

Eddy at Fairy Lake

An eventful weekend

As many of you already know, our first few weeks in Bozeman have been quite eventful! 

Last Saturday, Scott and I took a day trip into Yellowstone National Park (I have to say it's so amazing to have it basically at our back door). After seeing several bears, Scott decided we just had to go to Yellowstone Falls.

Pretty cool to see two right next to each other!

For those of you who have never been to the falls, you can get pretty close by walking down over 100 rickety steps, (with a million other tourists getting in your way). Scott thought that since it was cold, there wouldn't be as many tourists there, but that was not the case! We walked down as far as you can go, and he started to act weird. We were surrounded by a huge group of Japanese people taking pictures and talking very loudly. He decided we'd get a "better view" the next flight of stairs up. Once we got there, he kept acting strange (and I have to say, I kind of knew it was coming, maybe I know him too well!), and he decided that we better wait to go up until the other large group of tourists came down the stairs. Finally there seemed to be a break in the large crowds and he then proposed to me! And somehow, I don't think anyone noticed!

I have to say-- its a great place to be proposed to!

I told Scott that we have to stay in shape because on our 70th wedding anniversary we're going to walk down (and up) the 100+ stairs to look at the falls again.

At least we got someone to take a picture of us!

And here it is! I love it, and think it suits me quite well. He picked it out all by himself!

When we met at a Halloween party almost 5 years ago, I could have never guessed this is where I'd be today! I am so excited to see what our future brings, and what adventures are in store for us. 

Besides our 700 mile move and getting engaged, we've just been trying to settle in. We've decided to make a list of all the things that we want to do this summer (drift down the Yellowstone River, fishing, backpacking, hiking, a weekend trip to Glacier National Park, I want to see a wolf..the list goes on and on!) It's so exciting to live in such an amazing place with so many beautiful places to explore. We both don't even feel like we moved away, Bozeman feels so much like home. (However, the views are so much better here than in Fort Collins!) 

This next week should be a busy one for me. I'm going to be setting up my study sites and applying my treatments all in one week! Then I'll go back later in the summer to collect tons of data. I am starting to get a bit stressed out.. but I know this is only the beginning....  

First week in Big Sky Country

Hi everyone! First blog post in Big Sky Country. I figured this would be a nice way to keep all of our friends and family in the loop during our time in Bozeman, MT.

This was our first week in Bozeman, and it flew by. Last Saturday we left and moved in (thanks to the help of my parents and Scott's mom!!). The drive out went by pretty smooth besides a little accident with the bike rack (no major damage, luckily) and poor Jacque was stuck in the car with a howling Robert. Both Scott and I had to start work on Monday. Talk about jumping right into things! My week was fairly uneventful at work, but I know that will change in a hurry, so I should enjoy it while it lasts! I found out a little more about my project, and am going to be finding my research sites next week hopefully! For those of you that don't know, I'm going to be getting my Master's degree in Land Rehabilitation/Restoration Ecology, and am going to be doing my research on an invasive species called tall buttercup. Basically I'm going to try to figure out if it is a problem, and if it is, how can it be managed?? The cool thing about it is that there is really no research on the species, so it'll be exciting to be apart of some brand new research.

Scott seems to like Glass Doctor so far, he's just trying to get used to a different way of doing things, and different tools (that definitely aren't as good as the ones he had at his last job!)

Both Robert and Eddy also seem to be settling in nicely. Robert has lots of windows to sun himself in, and Eddy has his very own backyard!

I have to say that Bozeman is absolutely beautiful. Its surrounded by mountains (which way is West again??) and is so close to so many amazing things (Yellowstone NP, Glacier NP, Yellowstone River, Big Sky, etc. etc.) I know we're going to like it here. It will be hard to be away from home and all of our friends and family, but luckily its only a 9 hour drive away, and our door is always open for any visitors!

For everyone back in Colorado with the 90 degree weather-- its snowing here today!!
I'll post some pictures soon of the beautiful scenery, but for now, here's some photos of our new place!

Living Room

Kitchen

Rainy backyard

Scott assembling my cheapy bookshelf in the "study"

Guest bedroom

Our room-- have to say I am not a fan of the gothic purple walls-- we may be painting soon when we get some time.

Bathroom ;)

Here it is!

My family had to put down Brant this week. Not an easy thing to do and he will be greatly missed. He was such a good boy, and so loved. 

My sister, Eddy, Brant and I at the cabin before we left to Bozeman. 

That's all for now, will post another blog again soon :) We miss you all and hope you're doing well!