Remsa INC. My Job

 

I know this is a little late in posting, especially since I am home now. I did want to have a more full accounting of what happened while I was in NC, I have not changed anything from this posting from when I originally wrote it, enjoy…

Well everyone, It has been some time since I have posted and thought I would catch you all up on what has been happening and what might be happening in the future. So here we go…

How I got here:

The Wednesday before I was to leave for home, with out a job, my roommate’s wife came to me and said there was an immediate opening in North Carolina as a turtle observer. All I had to do was send the hiring lady my resume tweaked for turtles. I called Roxy, the hiring lady, and we talked about my limited experience with turtles and after a few back phone calls and emails I was hired. This all took place in a matter of a few hours. Suddenly I had a job that I had to leave for immediately. I went home that day and started packing to leave the next morning. The next day I made it to D.C. for a short stopover to catch a few winks and continued on. At 1300 I reached Nags Head and tried to catch a few winks before I had to go to work.

Where I am:

I am in Nags Head NC. working as a turtle observer. The hours are from sunset to sunrise, sort of. It took a while to get on a schedule since I was working days for the past four months. Once I got on a schedule this job is super easy and super boring. We sit in what is called the dump shack

The dump shack can also be called the smoke shack, My clothes stink like I am a smoker again. they also have a faint tinge of diesel to it, in other words I reak of nastyness. My job for this contract requires me to be on the beach for the entire night. we have to conduct three beach surveys every night to ensure there are no impacted turtles by the dredging operations. The rest of my time is spent in the dumpshack sitting around doing NOTHING! It is BORING to the extreme. recently I started bringing my laptop out to the site so I can watch movies. Mark and I head over to the survey shack, looks a lot like the dunpshack only no smoking and much cleaner, and watch movies between our surveys. makes time go much faster. We also take naps occasionally, usually during the movies. We are done only when the last pipe is removed off the beach. There is only one piece of pipe left on the beach but it is a HUGE piece and requires a cap that is not on site. once that is put on and the pipe is removed I will be done. I have been coming out to this site for three days now and have done nothing but sit in the shack and walk out to the pipe and verify that there are no turtles there. It takes about 30 minutes to complete and then there is nothing to do, except go fishing. I have been fishing fo rthe past three nights. I have caught a skate, blue fish, a whiting and a black drum.

What is on the horizon:

I got an e-mail from one of the ground observers i applied to and it looks like that is in the front runners of job possibilities. pretty much it is the only front runner so it looks like i am going to head out to Alaska for the next job. The best thing about the ground observer job is the pay. it pays $135-160 a day regardless of if i am on a boat or not. so it is great pay. I am sad that I have not heard anything from some of the other jobs that I have applied to, I really wanted to have a job working with birds but I need to pay the bills and this job has the potential of doing just that.

Well that is all i have for now, I will leave you with some photos from around the work site and a couple of videos

And so we go…

I have arrived

I am in Nags Head, NC. I start work tonight at 1900 and am done tomorrow at 0600...I will be dragging ass tomorrow morning.

I am so excited, this is going to be a terribly boring job but I am excited for the fact that I am here. I am overjoyed that I have a Wife cool enough to let me do something like this. Thank you Regina!!!!!

So the job is a night turtle survey contract job. Not sure how long it will last it could be 7 days it could be a month. I am working with a Guy his name is Mark whe is a turtle guy and I am a bird guy. He is a former Marine I am retired Navy...this should be interesting. He is a nice guy I am looking forward to this job for the experience it is going to give me.

I am on a public server that I can hit when ever I want but It is about 3 miles from the apartment, which I have to drive :( So i don't have my own personal internet or a phone...

I thought my cell phone was going to work here but unfortunately it does not! grrrr! I am thinking about geting new service that is more nationwide just so I can talk to Regina and the kids when i want...it just won't have unlimited everything.

Ok I am starting to ramble so I am going to hit the road I have to go buy some bread chips and apples for 'lunch'.

And so we go....

Damn DC is expensive

So I finally left yesterday morning for the next leg of this adventure. I left Bar Harbor at 0700 and motored on down the road. I made it to D.C. for the evening around 2100. I stayed the night at a Best Western. $94 dollars later and a huge breakfast I am just about ready to motor on out again. I am writing to you from the lobby of the Best Western.

I talked to my new co-worker Mark. He is from Texas and loves to fish. I will get more information when I get in to Nags Head tonight.

And so we go...

So I was mistaken

Well I haven't even finished this adventure and the next one has started. I will NOT be coming home as planned. I just accepted a posistion in Nags Head, NC. I will be walking a beach everynight to watch for nesting sea turtles. I will get everyone up to date as soon as I can with what is going.

I Leave tomorrow morning at 0600 and will hopefully make it to Nags head tomorrow night and start my job. WOOHOOO!!!

Not sure how long this will last 1-3 weeks for right now. I will hopefully be home sometime at the end of October! I really need to reconnect with my family, School and friends.

Love to all

And so we go...

My last post from Acadia

Wow I can’t believe that this part of the journey is just about over. Time here has flown faster the a Peregrine Falcon chasing a Wilson’s Warbler for dinner. So I have thought about what I want to write for my last post from Acadia. I have not come up with anything, so what i am going to do is write about my last few weeks here like I normally would. I am going to ask for comments at the end, I want to hear from those who read my blog and see what it is that they remember from my time here. I can then maybe elaborate on some things that I may have glossed over or things i didn’t explain well enough.  Hope this works out.

My life has become Beavers and Applications. Every day for the past few weeks My partner, Bik, and I have been out bush whacking through some ‘backcountry’ on the island. We are conducting a complete census of Mount Desert Island. We are following a census that was performed in 1997 and looking at how the population dynamics might have changed of the last dozen years. The worst part about this project is that it leaves you exhausted at the end of the day and feeling nasty. You have to wear chest waders while walking in these out of the way places. Chest waders have this unfortunate side effect of not breathing, so five minuets after you start walking you are pretty much soaked from chest to toes in your own sweat. by the end of a 6 hour day of doing this you feel pretty damn nasty. The up side to this is I have gotten to see some of the most beautiful areas of the park that no visitors will ever get to see. These beaver created ponds and lakes are incredibly beautiful. There was one recently that I approached that had a beaver swimming along quietly with a dozen wood ducks floating near by and a few mergansers further back. The sun was shining and there was no wind so the pond was as smooth as glass. I ended up sitting there for about half an hour just soaking it up. Unfortunately I do not have photos of any of these areas, they are difficult to reach and as such I don’t take anything that can’t get wet, let me explain why. There are some areas that we check and we don’t need the waders, however we don’t know that until you actually arrive. More often the not you are traipsing around marsh area that looks pretty solid tall grass low shrub/scrub. what you don’t see are the four to five foot deep channels that are hidden in these location. It makes walking a sport to be sure. Also hidden are sink holes that are created by the Beaver tunneling through the soft mud under the floating hummocks. It is pretty funny really, you will be walking around and focused on where you are headed and then suddenly you are buried up to you chest in water in the middle of a hidden channel. Your lucky when you don’t top your waders, it gets close a lot.

The other half of my life is applying to any job that I have even a little bit of qualification. I come home shower talk to Regina while i apply and then eat and then pass out from exhaustion. I am getting just a bit nervous now. I had hoped that I would have a few possibilities by now but so far the only call back I have had was from McFaddin NWR in Texas. I have heard nothing since that interview. I have seen little movement on the jobs through USAJobs.gov only two have been passed on to a real person. As far as the non-government jobs go, I have had one get back with me telling me that the job was filled but thank you for applying. Two other jobs told me that they had received my application and that I could expect to hear from them in November. Any jobs that I apply to now will not start until November or later. I have applied to three different ground observing companies in Alaska but the training doesn’t start until December and the contracts will start in January. I must say that if any of you have a job, even if you don’t like it, KEEP IT! It is a tough market out there right now. I base this on the fact that there are people applying for the traditional ‘Intern’ jobs that college kids apply for just out of school which makes it really tight.

Enough about that…it depresses me every time I think about it.

So other things that have happened since last time…

My friends Mo and Bernie came back to Bar Harbor for a wedding and stayed with us in our extra rooms. It was a great weekend. They brought there sister Mary, who, just like the rest of the family is pretty awesome. We caught back up and chatted and just had a great time visiting.

Yesterday I climbed the Precipice with my roommates, Adam and Jen, and Had a great climb. I was really proud of Jen because she is terrified of heights and she didn’t freak out once. She made the summit! Grats to you Jen.

The next time I write to you all I will be home, I can’t wait to get back and see my family. While I am home I plan on visiting Oxford a few time to get my final project done and hopefully graduate next year. It would be nice to finally say that I have graduated from school.

And so we go…

 

I would love to hear from everyone that has read, glanced at, or just visited once my blog. Let me hear what you thought was my biggest adventure, the funniest thing that occurred or ask some questions I will fill in any blanks that i might have left.

My next adventure will be driving home and my visit with the Fam.

Take care all!