The NFO. Small, quait, and quiet.

This is where I worked for the last four months and two days.

This is my favorite photo of the season.

&

This is my last blog entry.

-KCC

Away I go to places of utter beauty.
I leave for wonderous sights are left to see.

How long is my life
for that I don’t know
It may be a year
before I will grow
The winter may prove to be harsh
Prove to bring much snow
but spring will surely come
But when will I grow?

The start of my life
Will I become a tree
Or possibly a flower
such quaint friends with a bee
Perhaps a mangrove
with such great views of the sea
Whatever the outcome
I hope I have some company

Some more of my kind
or some others for that
I would be quite happy
to be friends with a gnat
the stories we’d share
about this thing or that
The age we would gain
and grow comfortably fat

But these are just dreams
I just thought you should know
They are just hope
Just thoughts about life
Just hopes ’till I sew
pehaps a large field
But when will I grow?

Hiking long days and under the sun so bright,
I return to my pick-up by the start of night.
Stomach aches at the thought of warm brie,
So I sit down to enjoy my MRE.
The wind picks up, the dust clouds zig and zag,
I find a nice spot to put out my sleeping bag.
The stars lit up and the satellites moving with grace,
I lay down with my hat to cover my face.
The morning starts with a well thought plan,
For I am the modern day mountain man.

The outdoors.
A place I have competed to work in since I was a child.
A place that when I enter makes me sigh in relief ever since my job started to develope into being behind a desk more and more with each passing year.
A place where I am happy to be free of phone service.
A place where the internet is forgoten and viral videos go unwatched.
A place where blogs go unread.
A place I dream of.
A place I wish to stay.

What a day, what a day! Who knew seed scouting could lead me to so many electrifying places. At first, I tried to keep to my comfort zone, up in the moister hills, shaded by trees and buffed away from the wind. Yet, I have found myself tossed out of my shade, my moisture, my home, sent to wander the plains of sage and grasses. I have found myself in the middle of multiple burn sites, exploring canyon cliffs while observing its petroglyphs, to marking plant populations after examining a triceratops dig site. Still, I am drawn more to be amazed by the simple beauty I find all around me, too small to see without the desire to be found. So minute, yet, so overwhelming. Bring on tomorrow!

As lost as my name, I have begun my internship with an open mind to new ecosystems and opportunities. A chance to explore my new forests, inhabited by pine and juniper, with only a few deciduous neighbors who only swing by to say hello. Not the eastern hardwoods I have grown to love. To know each tree not only by leaves, but bark, and seed, twigs and all. To watch my step, not only to avoid my herbaceous friends, but to destroy their intrusive and annoying companions from overseas. Yet, in a new world with little knowledge besides what I have read in books, I tread lightly. Not knowing who I may desire to remove from this new ecosystem and who deserves the right to flourish. The lack of comprehension with this new outdoor world excites me to a level near fear. I have five months to gain knowledge of what some study for their lives; I have five months to help collect the seed of species which may fall from fires more intense than ever; I have five months to learn to write in a non-scientific style; and I have five months to find me.