Week 13- It's CatGriz Week!

Monday 17th November-

My Mammalogy class was on bats which will be the topic for the next two classes as well. It was really interesting I just wish we had done lectures like this for more of the mammal groups. After class I went home and studied for our Vertebrate Design lab practical that afternoon. I was feeling confident after going over everything on Saturday. The exam went ok and there was an equal amount of questions on each topic. Bret came in mid-way through the exam with black bags for the cats. after the exam I said bye to Tiger (mine and Shannen's cat) and headed home hoping I would not have to smell formaldehyde for a long time. The CatGriz football game on this Saturday is a big rivalry game between UM and Montana State University. It's such a big game that students camped out Sunday night to get guest pass tickets. My housemate Sarah headed in at 3am and she was still 150th in the queue. I just needed a ticket for myself so I didn't have to go in until after college. 

 Tuesday 18th November-

I had my second last Mammalogy lab today which was learning to differentiate between Montana vole species. It was very difficult to find any differences at all and I'm beginning to see why most people fail the last lab exam. We got our term papers back (mine was about coyotes) and I got 53/60 so I was delighted. I don't have too much to correct so hopefully I'll get it done soon. After lab I tried to watch squirrels for my journal assignment.  It was -10*C and apparently biros don't like to work at that temperature. After about 20 minutes I had to give up because my hands hurt so much from the cold. I corrected my Grant Proposal assignment for Habitat Management that evening. My first one had been too broad so I changed it to focus on black-footed ferrets- one of only three species of ferret and North America's most endangered mammal. They were thought to be extinct until in 1981 a ranch dog came home with on in his mouth. Since then captive breeding efforts have brought the population from 18 to over 500. In order to survive this species needs prairie dogs, which are seen as pests by ranchers. Efforts are underway to try to change attitudes and show ranchers that prairie dogs are actually beneficial as they improve grassland quality. Pretty interesting to say the least. It was Siobhan's birthday so everyone called over to her place for a surprise. We brought her an oreo cream cake and had tea and chats.

"Om nom nom nom"

Wednesday 19th November-

At work today the celebrations were well underway to get everyone pumped for the big game on Saturday. A lot of the staff wore Griz jerseys of referee shirts and the marching band even called in to play a few (deafening) songs. It was pretty fun and definitely got people excited for Saturday. At home I started to work on my coyote paper. This final draft will be worth 40 points. Looper was on tv and seeing as I loved it first time round I watched that for the night.

Thursday 20th November-

It's Mockingjay day! I seriously cannot wait for tonight and this movie. my work shifts went fine and my Habitats class was short because the guest speaker forgot to show up! :P I wasn't complaining. I tried to get some sleep after work because the movie wasn't on until 11pm. After a quick nap Shannen and I headed off to meet Kate and James. Shannen was so excited for the movie whereas Kate and I were curious where they would split the book. There didn't seem to be a big crowd of people waiting when we got to the cinema at 10pm. We got popcorn and drinks which were absolutely massive but quite pricey. For $14.75 I got a large meal which was probably twice the size of a large meal in Ireland. We sat down in the lobby until Kate decided to ask if we could go in yet. Apparently there was a queue down the hallway so we headed there. There were about 100 people already there so we joined in. Good thing we did too because about 5 minutes later there was quite a queue behind us. We were left in at about 10.30pm and got exactly the seats we'd wanted. When we booked our tickets we'd decided to pay a little extra to go to the "Big D Experience" which was definitely worth in. The leather seats were high backed, extra wide and reclined! The screen was also the biggest and clearest screen I'd ever seen. There were quite a few ads as we waited. When the lights went dim at 11pm everyone went quiet expecting the movie but then the trailers started... 20 minutes of them! Fair enough I'd wanted to see most of the trailers anyways but I was not expecting so many. The movie eventually started and everyone quietened down. I won't talk about what happened because I don't want to spoil it but I will say it was pretty damn good. Fans of the book will appreciate the time given to the actual story whereas those who have who have just watched the films might be disappointed by the lack of big action scenes. Shannen was on the edge of her seat watch the end. I was happy with where they split the film because any less would have been too little and any more would be too much. Safe to say I can't wait to see part 2 next year!

A large meal is pretty damn large here!

The BigD Screen

Friday 21st November-

We didn't have an evening lab today so college finished early. Shannen, Siobhan, Desiree and I headed to Southgate mall and North Reserve Street for some shopping.  I found some great bargains and spotted some things I might go back for on Black Friday next week. That night the UC Theater was playing If I Stay, a movie me and Shannen had both wanted to see but missed out on. We met Kate, Francesca, Dan, Aoife, Orla, Ida and some of their friends there. It was a pretty sad but cute movie. By the end most people were crying. I even had to work to not cry. The very end left people confused because we didn't know there will be a sequel.

The river was completely frozen, it's thawing

The Mall's Poinsettia Christmas Tree

Saturday 22nd November-

I worked on my coyote paper and got most of my changes done on it before the game. Elliot, Shannen and I headed to the game at 4.30pm. We just wanted to go to the second half because the games go on for so long. We made it into the stadium for the last quarter and met up with Kate, James, Desiree and Dave. Grizzlies were winning 34-0 but the Bobcats brought the score up to 34-7 before the end of the game. We headed onto the pitch to get some pictures with the team for the craic. It's not until you stand next to some of the players that you realise just how huge they are! Later on Dave, Elliot, Desiree and I headed to Eoghan's neighbours house party. We played a few games of beer pong before Elliot and I headed into town to meet up with Siobhan and her friends at Union Hall. I'd been to this place before, it's pretty cool and had a live band playing. We stayed here for a while before heading to the Rhino, a more clubby place.

The tailgating outside the stadium

Desiree, Shannen, a grizzly, me and Kate

Me and Kate with the 'Brawl of the Wild' trophy

Sunday 23rd November-
I slept in this morning, had a bit of a sore head. I rang home and chatted for a while. The Foodzoo rang me and asked would I cover a shift at 5 so I made an early dinner and cycled into work. While I was working it snowed and rained so by the time I finished work at 10 the place was like an ice rink. Luckily my friend offered to drop me home so I didn't have to fall off my bike trying to get back.

Thanks for reading this week's blog. Hope you liked it - Fiona :)

Week 12- Tis a little bit chilly!

Monday 10th November-

I woke up to snow this morning and temperatures of -14°C! Possibly the coldest temperature I've ever experienced. The snow was beautiful but made getting to class so much harder, thankfully the student buses still go. A little snow doesn't shut this country down! In our Vertebrate Design lab we had our last ever lab quiz. Today's lab was just a review of everything we have covered for our lab practical exam next week. This exam will be on the major organs and systems of the cat and should be easier than the last exam. After the lab we got the bus to the mall to get a birthday present for our neighbour Bridget. When we got home that evening I started studying for our class exam on Wednesday, which involves a lot of physics on how the body functions. Men in Black 3 was on tv and seeing as I'd never seen it I watched it.

Tuesday 11th November-

It was Veterans Day today, a federal holiday, so college and everything else was shut down, including the buses. Shannen and I had planned on going to college to look at our cats, but seeing as it was -16°C outside we thought better of it. Instead we studied for our Vertebrate Design lecture exam tomorrow. After a while we decided to go to Walmart to invest in some warm clothes and get de-icer for Shannen's car. The problem was the car was already frozen shut. So we did the Irish thing as poured warm water on the doors and windows to get them open. This took several trips to get water and a few odd looks from American. Eventually we got all the doors open- Irish Girls 1- Montana Winter 0. When we got to Walmart the back doors had refrozen as it was so cold Irish Girls 1- Montana Winter 1. We got our supplies, including two large tubs of vaseline, which Shannen's Dad had told her to smear on the door seals to stop them from freezing shut. About 15 minutes and two sets of frozen hands later the car was ready to brave the freezing cold (Irish Girls 2- Montana Winter 1). We spent the rest of the evening studying for our exam. 

A white tail doe outside my apartment

Sunny and -14°C don't go

Wednesday 12th November-

The lecture exam went well, everything that came up was something I had studied so I was happy out. I forgot to bring in my Hunter Check station form so I had to go home, grab it and come back to college. Luckily I did forget it because I'd also forgotten to top up my Griz card so I could do laundry. On the way home I met Amber, who'd just given blood. They had given her chilli afterwards and that put me craving some chilli. So naturally I made a pot big enough to feed a parish, as my Mother would say. There's nothing quite like chilli when it's chilly (I'm so punny! -_-' ).

Thursday 13th November-

After work Kate and James called over to watch The Hunger Games. We decided to try and watch them before Mockingjay comes out next week. We only got the first movie watched before we were all too tired to watch Catching Fire so we called it a night. Shannen dropped them back to college. 

Friday 14th November-

After college Shannen, Eoghan and I headed out to North Reserve for some shopping. Shannen and I got name tags cut for our dogs in Petsmart. It's so cool watching the laser engrave the tag. I got a much needed haircut while Shannen got ingredients to make Irish stew. We were making dinner for our friends the next day. I took the rest of the night off and watched some tv.

Saturday 15th November-

We had an open lab today, the last that would be on before our practical Monday, so Shannen and I headed in for some extra study. We met Taylor and Joe there and worked on our cats for over three hours. That evening we made stew for Siobhan, Elliot, Dave, Desiree and Eoghan (who would call for his Sunday instead). They stew actually turned out lovely and almost tasted like home. Everyone was full after it so we just sat around chatting. Kate and James called to watch Catching Fire and Elliot, Dave and Desiree headed off to go out. I'd forgotten a lot of Catching Fire so good thing we rewatched it.

No lid #CollegeStudentProblems

Elliot, Desiree, Dave, Shannen, me and Siobhan

Sunday 16th November-

I worked on my squirrel journal assignment for most of the day. I had six journals that I had to write up properly so I got those done. Only have 2 hours more to journal about, which should be fun while it's so cold :P . Shannen dropped me to work because it was too icy to cycle (Thanks Shan!) and collected me after. She also figured out how to turn on the seat warmers in her car. Living the life of luxury here like!

I didn't get up to too much this week. Things are really starting to get busy in college with finals just around the corner so not much time for trips. Thanks for reading, I really appreciate everyone who follows my blog- Fiona :D

Week 11- Gone Huntin'

Warning: I was working at a Hunter Check Station this weekend so I have included some pictures of animals that hunters shot. If this makes you uncomfortable don't read past Friday.

Monday 3rd November-

We had our last cat dissection lab today where we examined the digestive and respiration tracts. It was really interesting to look at lungs and a kidney under the microscope. It's amazing how many blood vessels are in the kidney. We were comparing our cat's systems to that of a shark so I took some shark skin (which feels like sandpaper) and looked at it under the microscope too. It was so cool, it looked like tiny claws coming out of the skin. That evening we went bowling at Five Alleys bowling, which was amazing value at $1 each a game and $2 for shoes. It's been years since I was bowling so I was pretty awful :P . Shannen on the other hand was really good. She won the first game and Kate won the 2nd. Shannen decided to show me how to bowl properly and then I went on and won the game, beating her by 1 point! :P I was shocked at how many other people were bowling on a Monday night, all the lanes were busy. After bowling Shannen, James, Kate and I headed to Walmart to try our luck at the claw machines. I won a Redskins teddy bear, Kate won Gandalf and James won a red gorilla. We had a great night and decided to go again next week.

A cat's kidney

Tuesday 4th November-

It was election day so we had college off. I have a Mammalogy exam tomorrow morning so I spent the day studying rather than relaxing. Our exam will be on trophic cascades, keystone species, niches, hibernation, heat adaptations and domestication.

Wednesday 5th November-

My exam went well, a long question came up on hibernation and I'd studied that well so think I'll get on grand. That evening I had to do my assignment for Wildlife Habitats. We have to write a proposal for a research project in the Northern Great Plains and Prairie Pothole Region. I found it pretty hard to do because I'm not familiar at all with that area or what kind of conservation projects take place there. The second Jurassic Park movie was on so Shannen and I watched some of it when we'd our assignments finished. 

Thursday 6th November-

Did the usual work, class and then work again. Happy I won't have such an early start next semester because I chose mostly morning  classes and afternoon shifts. Jurassic Park 3 was on so we watched that. Deja Vu was on after and since I'd never seen it and even though I was wreaked I decided to watch it. It was quite good but not worth being so tired the next day.

Friday 7th November-
Happy Birthday Nicole!

About 14 people out of 40 showed up for my 8am Mammalogy class which was on sleep patterns. Guess everyone else decided to study sleep in bed :P To treat those who came our lecturer showed us the cutest video of a porcupine who thinks he's a puppy. Look it up on YouTube for guaranteed awhs :D . We had group work for our Vertebrate Design bird project out at the Field Station until 5pm. We analyzed the videos we made of our bird taking off and landing. It's really cool to see bird flight in slow motion. After our lab we packed and headed south to Darby where Shannen and I volunteered for our Hunter Check station class. We will be working with Montana Fish and Wildlife Services to count and assess the ages of game that hunters catch in the Bitterroot Forest area. We arrived and the Mountain Spirit Inn at 7.30. We went to the check in office and met the lovely couple who run the inn. They were delighted to hear we were from Ireland and told us all about the local area, including about the wildlife. The man told us about a time he went hunting and three wolves jumped onto the trail in front of him. It seems they are very common here along with mountain lions and of course deer. Our room is so cute, it looks like a cottage crossed with a motel. We have a huge king sized bed and a little kitchenette. We spent the rest of the night learning how to tell how old deer are.

Me doing science :P

Saturday 8th November-
We arrived at the Hunter Check Station at 10 am and met the people who run it, Becky and Mark, and another UM student Dylan. Becky and Mark gave us a run down of what we would be doing which was mostly counting hunters. There were two lanes; one for hunters with game (success lane) and one for those without game (loser lane). Shannen, Dylan and myself took turns going up to unsuccessful hunters to find out what section they had been hunting in and if they had seen bears, wolves or mountain lions. Most were friendly and cooperative but we got a few old grumps, annoyed they hadn't got anything. Our first success of the morning was a bull elk with some very unusual antlers. He had a sort of a club antler, which Mark explained could have been caused by bad genetics or he could have fallen when the antler was developing, either way it was good to get him out of the gene pool. When an animal comes in our job was to find out where exactly it was shot,  how many points it had on it's antlers if it's male and to age it. In order to age a deer you must slit its lip and spread the jaws so that you can see the molars. The condition of the third molar allows you to age the deer. You can tell how old an elk is by their ivories or canine teeth. It's important to collect all this data as it allows the Montana Fish and Wildlife Department to compile population demographics on various species. Our day continued like this with a steady flow of unsuccessful hunters and the occasional successful. When an out of state hunter would pass through we would just check that their hunting permit was in order. We saw a huge bull elk come up from Nevada where they have better quality grazing and grow huge. We sat outside for most of the day because it was so sunny and spent our time decimating the local bee population,who insisted on landing on us at any opportunity. The game warden came for a while and when a truck drove past with people who were obviously hunting he would chase them and make them turn and come back to the check station - the drive of shame. It's illegal to not stop at a check station if you have been hunting, even if you didn't catch anything. After nightfall we sat inside the mobile home where there was heating. A young man pulled up in the success lane and what did he have only a black bear! I thought it was pretty big but apparently it was under a year old. I won't put up a picture because there was blood and I wouldn't like to make people feel uncomfortable. Some people are upset when they see a large predator get shot. I do too but I understand that when a hunter pays for a hunting permit that money then goes towards conservation and management efforts to ensure the growth and future of those animals. We finished up at 19.30 with a total number of 12 successful hunters from our district and Shannen and I headed to Darby for dinner. We ate at a place called Blue Joint which had the nicest chips (fries) I think I've ever had. I had a Swiss cheese and mushroom beef burger which was delicious and almost too big to finish. We headed back to the Mountain Spirit Inn and watched The Hangover. I was shocked to see that I'd even got a bit sunburned on my chest! Only the Irish could get sunburned in Montana in November! :P

The Elk bull with a club antler

The Check Station lanes

The bull Elk from Nevada

Not a bad place to work!

 

Sunday 8th November-
We got up extra early today because we thought it would take time to check out, which it did not. We were at the check station for 9.30 and met the two new UM students who would be with us today, Carly and Mary. The weather was much worse today as there were storms blowing in from the north and the west. There was no sitting outside today and instead we huddled inside the camper. There were fewer hunters stopping in today and we worked much faster and it was pouring rain. During the afternoon we heard that there were traffic delays south of us because of fallen trees. This held up hunters and caused them to all arrive at the check station at the same time. Shannen worked through the unsuccessful lane while the rest of us documented the kills. Becky's husband and daughter arrived to help out during the rush, which lasted around half an hour. That evening we were allowed to leave after 6pm as the weather was getting worse. We said goodby to Becky and Mark who'd been so helpful all weekend and headed off. Shannen and I stopped in Hamilton for dinner and got back to Missoula just after 8pm. Kate the lifesaver covered my shift in the Foodzoo so I didn't have to worry about that. We relaxed for the rest of the night.

Aging a deer

A mule deer buck

An Elk bull

Thanks for reading this week's blog. I had a good week and experienced rural Montana life. I learned a lot from working at the Check Station and would recommend it as a class for anyone to take. - Fiona

Week 10- Halloween Week

Monday 27th October-

I was able to begin registering for my classes for next semester at 8am Monday. I got registered for two of my classes but couldn't sign up for the rest because I needed overrides. That evening when I got home there was a parcel waiting for me from home! My Mom had sent me a parcel of goodies including a porter cake, which I was delighted with :) . Thanks Mom! Shannen and me went shopping for pumpkins this evening.

My parcel

Tuesday 28th October-

Luckily the next day I had a meeting with my academic adviser and she was able to sign me up. Unfortunately the class on Conservation Genetics I wanted to take over January break isn't being offered and neither is the field trip to Yellowstone. Shannen and myself were disappointed because we'd heard it was an amazing trip. Tuesday evening Shannen's Missoula family invited us over to carve pumpkins and to say thanks I made them scones. They made us a lovely Irish stew and brown soda bread with apple dumplings for dessert. We had a great night and had fun making our pumpkins. 

Homemade scones

My wolf pumpkin

My wolf and Shannen's minion

Wednesday 29th October-

There was a thank you dinner on Wednesday night for all those taking part in the Missoula Family Program. The president of UM, Royce Engstrom welcomed everyone and there were a few speeches on the benefits of the program. It was nice seeing a lot of the international students who I hadn't seen in a while. When we got home we watched a documentary about Japanese Macaques which was narrated by Liam Neeson! 

Thursday 30th October-

My Wildlife Habitat term paper topic was due Thursday, it has to be on a community ecosystem facing conservation issues. I chose to base mine on a high Himalayas community  including snow leopards and how climate change is restricting their range. Can't wait to start it but not looking forward to the presentation I will have to give to the class. We were given an assignment due next week to write a grant application based on a project in the Northern Great Plains. When I got home from work Shannen was upset. She'd had bad news but thankfully everything was ok. We went for Dairy Queen ice cream as a pick me up (our last because they are closing for the season). We had planned on going out but Shannen just needed a night in so we watched the first two episodes of Planet Earth. I finished off my Halloween costume, which is a Pocahontas dress I made from a huge t-shirt. I actually had a lot of fun turning a shirt into a dress.

A really cool pumpkin someone made

Friday 31st October-

It's funny how seriously Americans take Halloween, like there were a few students dressed up in our 8am lecture! A few people in work were dressed up too which was pretty funny. In my Vertebrate lab we studied the arteries and veins of the cat, which was so cool! Getting ready that evening was really fun. I dressed as a zombie Pocahontas and Shannen was a zombie cowgirl. I had way too much fun with the blood and scar makeup. Elliot hadn't got a costume so we turned him into a zombie too. We headed over to Aoife and Amber's apartment for a predrinks party with the internationals. When they headed to town we went to Elliot and Dave's apartment to wait for Kate and James. When they got there we just decided to relax for the night and we ended up getting pizza and 2am. Typical Halloween night! :P

Zombiefied

Saturday 1st November-

Just had a relaxing day off. Arsed around for most of the day and rang a lot of my friends. Eoghan called over too to hang out. We decided to have a horror movie night so Kate, James and Bridget called over. We watched The Uninvited, which was pretty good with a twist I did not see coming, and Zombieland, which was very funny. 

Sunday 2nd November-

I spent most of Sunday working on assignments and studying for my Mammalogy exam on Wednesday. Eoghan made a delicious roast dinner for Shannen and me. It was really nice and reminded us of home. After dinner Shannen and I facetimed Sarah and got all the news. I rang my cousins in New York and made my plans to spend Christmas with them. I booked my flight ticket from New Orleans to New York, can't wait now to spend winter there!

Hope you liked my blog. Until next time- Fiona