Greetings from Wyoming!

I have been here in Laramie a little over a week, and after unpacking (mostly) and watching the first of many summer hailstorms on the Laramie Plain, I am finally settling in.  The transition has been a whirlwind: in two weeks I packed and moved from my New Mexico archaeology gig to botanizing in southeast Wyoming.  I just missed the training in Chicago, and after a few days in the field, I took up the leadership role for the SOS team.  Won’t say that I never missed a beat (still missing them—if you find them, let me know), but I couldn’t be more pleased.  Laramie is a solid western community with college town flair, and as for the landscape, it was love at first sight.  Of course, reliable sources tell me that July is Wyoming’s one pleasant month of the year.  I’ll keep you posted.

This internship’s primary goal is getting seed collections for the Seeds of Success program.  This means that my job is to hike, camp, and look at plants all summer—so what am I supposed to do for fun?!  Write blogs, I suppose, and maybe catch some live music in the park for the Fourth of July.  So far we’ve been scouting and collecting on the Laramie Plains, down to the grasslands of northern Colorado, up to the Powder River Basin, and high up the Snowy Range today for a change of pace.  The wildflower display is fantastic, and sometimes it’s hard to remember it’s the seeds we want.  Right, seeds.  Less pretty, more useful.

Still learning, and hopefully will get better as time goes on.  You can be jealous now, or just enjoy your own CLM experiences.  Happy summer!

Cheers, Abby D.