Badlands Residency Day 7

March 28, 2012

Woke up early today, and decided to go ahead and get up. Turned out to be early enough to wave farewell to the Calhoun crowd. Thanks again to Jackie for the snow globe and shared hiking experience. I hope you email to say hi from time to time, and I hope I spelled your name right. Spent some time looking through images I've taken so far and preparing some ideas for the school program I'll be doing at Interior School. Visited there today with ranger Julie to meet the teachers and work out a schedule. Julie also had Steven (other AiR) and I help her clean out the kitchen of one of the Calhoun rooms. They had a plethora of extraneous food items that Julie wanted us to take. We're planning to have a Viking style Sigrblot feast in the quad some night soon. Thanks for that, Calhoun! We'll try to send you pictures. Spent the rest of the morning feeling lost and out of focus. Time to transition and buckle down to work. Life feels very raw and exposed today. Tried to work on the painting I'd already started, but only got about an hour's work done on it. It's just not the right fit for today's mood and state of mind. So I switched gears completely, pulled out a big painting board and stretched a full sheet. Set it in the sun to dry while I had a snack/lunch-like meal. Put about two hours in, more or less flinging the paint down. At least that's what it felt like in comparison to my customary style of choice. It's quite raw, and reflects where I'm at today. Not quite finished though, and not quite far along enough for me to feel good about posting it here. Plus it is late and the lighting is terrible for photography. Will do when I've slapped a little more paint on it, maybe tomorrow. I hit a point where I just couldn't work anymore, so set off to climb the small butte by the housing area for sunset. The mourning doves and meadow larks filling the air with their disparate songs. Next I hiked back to another spot near the quad where I have gone on several night hikes. Ran into Ed and Steven there, who were holding a deer skull and antlers, respectively, goofing around. They struck a pose for me. Got to see others of Ed's skulls, including a Hyrax. Right now I just got back from the Wagon Wheel with them. We met some other people from the park there and had a little late dinner. Made some plans for hikes the rest of this week, and much more fossil talk, of course. Plus plenty of bad humor all around. Think I might head back to Sage Creek tomorrow, and bring a park radio along since there's zero cell service and it's quite remote. I'm curious whether the bison skeleton is still there, and would enjoy doing more hiking further out into the hills of that area. Talking under the stars with some of my neighbors tonight, there are quite a lot of meteors lately. Then the coyotes started in with their resonating chorus. Splendid.

Sunset on Angel Butte.  Quad in front.

Hail to the deer.
Ed (paleontologist) with Steven (photographer).

Hiking area behind quad.