Sightings

Wouldn't you know ...I saw my first squirrel today. Sure I've seen deer, deer, and more deer, big horn sheep, wild turkey's (they are soo big!) and their babies, copious amounts of bunnies, and at least 10-15 different kinds of birds, but alas there were no squirrel sightings until this morning - and that was at least 50 yards away. Go figure.

It has been awhile since I last wrote, but that is only because I have been off having so many adventures. Well, not really, but I have been cooking a whole lot with a couple mini adventures thrown in for the heck of it. Like the time one of the students wandered off by himself (big no no) and dislocated his knee. Let me set the scene....

It had been a beautiful day in the Black Hills and I was heading back toward the computer lab when all of a sudden about 8 students come running down the hill and into the woods - the last one was carrying a back board. Curious as I am, I ask if something is wrong (really though I can't believe they all just looked at me and ran right past me...meaning I had to ask and they didn't just yell it as they were running past!) Turns out one of the camps neighbors had heard a students cry for help and had been all neighborly and let us know that the student was stranded on some rocks near the cliff with a dislocated knee. AWESOME! So the search began. We spread out all over not knowing exactly where to find the injured. Myself and 2 other girls did one last check toward the creek and then headed back in the direction of the cliff only rather than being on top of the cliff we were below it looking up. At this point we figured the group had found the injured student and now we were just trying to meet up to help carry him out. This is where it gets interesting... After walking along the bottom of the cliff we decide to head up - yes we decided to climb the cliff. I can honestly say that as I joked out loud "they're going to have to come rescue us when their done" I was silently praying "dear Lord please do not let us slip and fall into the spiky rocks and poison ivy infested land below". What an adrenaline rush. To my amazement we made it and popped up right where the group was strapping the injured student to the backboard. Fun times...oh wait it gets better. Remember the neighborly neighbor? Well, he had gone back to his house (at the bottom of the cliff) and had gotten out his binoculars to check the progress of the rescue efforts. Know what he saw? Three crazy girls climbing up the cliff. Ha ha ha ha!



Yes, I made Neile go back with me to try and find where we climbed up. This is at least near the bottom of the climb.












Here's a view looking down from the top - we climbed up the inside of this crevice for the last 10 feet of our journey.










Can you see neighborly neighbor? Me neither, but from up here it does seem like he has a good view =).






So that's one of my adventures.

There is another one that involves just Neile and I and a potentially life threatening climb down an incredibly steep, completely loose shale lined....yeah, I'll call it another cliff that ended in the creek. And it all started "just for the heck of it". But at the end, I described it as "marriage counseling" and "never to be repeated" and "kinda fun". I'm pretty sure the adrenaline rush from that one didn't go away for at least 2 hours after it was over.

So mostly we are having a great time. Our only wish is that we had more time together to actually go hiking (you know places where we won't potentially die) or exploring this beautiful place. Right now our plan is to maybe take a little camping trip, just the two of us, at the end of our stint at cooks - and I can't wait! This week we had our first visitors - my mom and one of my aunts. They were in and out, but here long enough to enjoy a camp favorite - blueberry chicken as well as lose at a game of Settlers of Catan. ha ha ha! It was so great to see them and hear about their big adventures as they travel to beautiful Idaho (am soo jealous). We are still on the job hunt, but things are looking a little more positive so that is encouraging for us both. Only 5 and a half more weeks to go and we still don't know where "home" will be when we leave. For the most part... I am okay with this.