Do I smell like meat to you?

First things first:  I had a dream that I found my phone charger. 
Second things second:  I've come to the conclusion that to live frugally also means that your life revolves around simplicity and repetition.  For example, I have consistently eaten a very smushed and almost unrecognizeable PB&J, along with a bag of goldfish and chocolate truffles for the last three days.  For dinner, I've eaten top ramen and yogurt with mango.  Turns out I found the can opener but it did NOT open my can of pears.  However, upon inspection this morning, I think I may have been trying to open a tin of hot chocolate and was either 1) too blinded by the necessity to look cool while opening the can in front of Winter or 2) actually really blind.  It should also be mentioned that Beth and Winter put kimchi into the fried rice they were making.  STINKY.  Stinky was what it was.  Smelled like when you forget to check the mouse traps under your bed.  The GOOD news is that I made some small talk with the roommates and got to choose the next record (Bob's Highway 61 Revisited).  Then I thought that maybe the time had come to try and loosen the thick film of dirt and sweat encrusting me by putting some water on myself.  I forgot a comb.  The BAD news is that then I was 100% too shy to go back out and watch Inglorious Bastards with Winter and Beth, and instead opted for going to bed at 9:00, like Scottie. 


In the brief and stressfull casual conversation with Beth and Winter, they told me they had just released a Barred Owl from Wolf Hollow that had been rehabilitated.  For those of you who don't know (all three of you probably already know) Barred owls (Strix varia) are a controversial inhabitant of the Pacific Northwest.  There's been one metric butt ton of arguments about what to do about their interactions with the Northern Spotted Owls (Strix occidentalis caurina).  The Northern Spotted Owls began rapidly disappearing as the old growth forest was being cleared from logging during the 40's and 50's.  Northern Spotted Owls are small and nest specifically in cavities, platforms, or abandoned nests of other birds.  They are very sensitive to disturbances in the environment.  Logging being the main industry of the Northwest, communities were violently opposed to the new enforcements being made by the Department of Fish and Wildlife to protect the Spotted Owl habitat.  Spotted Owls were killed and hung on telephone poles in defiance of the new regulations. 

Barred Owl (Strix varia)

Northern Spotted Owl (Strix occidentalis caurina)

In addition to logging, the introduction of the larger, more agressive Barred Owl threatened the Spotted Owl population, directly competing for food and nest sites.  It's been sugested multiple times and I think may be practiced in some areas--the culling of Barred Owls in known Spotted Owl territories.  It is still debated whether the westward expansion of the Barred Owl was natrual, or whether it was either enabled or executed by man. 

Here is a link for more information on the Northern Spotted Owl in the Pacific Northwest.

island is pronounced i-land

Right now I'm hunkered down in lab 3 because I can't figure out where ichthyology is supposed to be meeting.  Or if it is supposed to be meeting.  This mornin' I had some close encounters with the college kind which were, as per usual, lame and made me want to go back under my big warm rock where there's peanut butter and those good trader joe's chocolate truffles. 

On the bright side, islands are full of birds!  Just full of them!  Here is a baby Glaucous-winged gull.  The ones here right now are not this cute because they have lost their speckly down and have resorted to following their parents around making soft peeping noises.  I saw one try to eat a piece of red algae yesterday. 


For those of you who DON'T live in the northwest (not that you will ever read this), I am living on San Juan Island in the San Juan Islands.  That's right.  I live on the one that the rest of them got NAMED after.  The ORIGINAL ONE.  It is shaped mostly like a pointy pork chop, or like a elephant seal with a disproportionately fat body and skinny head upside down.

Right now I live in an awesome house with some people named Winter, Beth, and Scottie who are all older and more cool than I am.  They listened to Neil Young last night and ate curry and watched a horror movie from what I cold tell as I hid on my bed.  I ate chicken flavored top ramen and ate trader joes vanilla yogurt with mango chunks for dessert because I couldn't find the can opener to eat some canned pears.  They have 2 cats and a bunny named Roy.  The fatter cat--Feldspar, I think?  Came and sat on my bed this morning as I got ready to leave.  She is the softest thing.  Actually the bunny is the softest thing.  They have crates and crates of records and all kinds of yummy food and i suspect they cook a lot.  Winter is an artist and there's all these awsome paintings/collages on the walls and in crates.  Apparently there's an art studio, but I'm not sure where and I'm afraid to use any supplies. 

It's sunny outside right now.  It's already thursday.  I'm tehtered to my computer waiting to hear if I can switch my classes so that I take the Pelacic Ecosystem Appretinceship.  I think I might head into town.  Fo to ACE harware and look for a doodler that will magically make me be able to plug in my computer back at the house.  Maybe I'll swing out to visit my old eagle friends at Hunt's Point.  I wonder if they've migrated inland. 

If and when I have internet, I will attempt to keep all of you (the one of you) caught up on my fascinating life.  I wish I had a camera to document things I see.