I hope this post finds you feeling safe, and calm, with everything you need. We’re still down in southeastern Arizona at Kartchner Caverns State Park. Last week, word came down from the main office that all cavern tours were cancelled, and last weekend the Discovery Center also closed. The campground and hiking trails are still open until further notice....
Read MoreWhat I’m Learning
There’s always something new to learn and experience at our volunteer jobs. Usually the learning is obvious: we have to know facts and stories about the place, or the people, or the natural areas. We have to study, review, maybe take some training tests, so that we can share our new knowledge. But this job is none of that for me. Because I’m not going into...
Read MoreWinter in the Desert
If you know me at all, you know that my standard line has always been “I hate the desert.” And yet, here we are, volunteering at Kartchner Caverns State Park in the high desert of southern Arizona for the next four months. We are surrounded by mesquite trees and century plants and prickly pear cactus, and I am truly and deeply loving the landscape. ...
Read MoreGratitudes From Paradise
It’s been a lovely two months of leisure and travel as we’ve slowly made our way south from our plover job in central Oregon. We traveled north up the Oregon coast with stops in Tillamook and Nehalem Beach State Park, enjoying the windy beaches and small artsy towns. Then we finally left the coast and drove inland to Sauvie Island, just north of Portland....
Read MoreTillicum: Full Circle
Twenty one years ago, Marika, our eleven-year old lab mix, Zasu, and I were on our longest RV trip in our 24 foot motorhome – six weeks along the Oregon coast. We had come for a birding festival in Charleston, near Coos Bay, at the beginning of September, and then we spent the next five weeks inching our way up the map. We spent time in Florence...
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