Get busy living, or get busy dying

Truer words have never been spoken, and those particluar words come from my all time number-one favorite film, Shawshank Redemption. A while back, my mother had informed me of the sad news that the infamous oak tree of that movie had died after being knocked around in a storm. And with the recent death of my last grandparent, that oak has been on my mind, along with reflections and musings on life and death that ultimately echo what was quoted in the film. "Get busy living, or get busy dying." Lately I've been so wrapped up in figuring out my next move career-wise that I failed to notice that October had already begun, and my time in the Driftless is drawing to a close. The thought of leaving fills me with a kind of sadness I haven't found words for yet, but I feel it every time I leave. The only remedy is to finally hand over the reigns to my nomadic soul, and enjoy all the moments I have left here.

First, there was the shopping trip in La Crosse, though I started out by finally going up to the Apple House at Shihata’s Orchard and picking up  some cranberry wine, apple wine, ½ peck of apples, and loganberry jam (which I had never heard of before, but I’m so far a fan). Then I continued up the highway to La Crosse on the pretense of needing supplies for my Halloween costume, but really I needed a change of scenery.

So, needless to say, I've been on some adventures lately!

The only hint I'll give as to what my costume will be this year!

After hitting up Target and the mall, my last stop on my spree was a local co-op called People’s. I was really excited to check this place out because there was a People’s in Manhattan, KS where I did my undergrad, and I LOVED that place. The La Crosse People’s blew. me. away. Holy moly. A deli, big produce section, bulk selection that stretched for miles, aisles of gluten-free, locally made pasta, cheeses, eggs, O M G. I tried my best to reign myself in because I could’ve easily blown a few hundred dollars in less than fifteen minutes. I walked away with some gluten-free goodies, specialty chips, juice, chia seeds, and one giant loaf of brick-oven baked bread (to balance out the GF stuff, of course!). Oh and some Pearl Street Brewery brown ale because one should also balance out their alcohols.


The day after my splurge in La Crosee, I was back for an extra-exciting day at "work." Long before the Shawshank Epiphany, my boss had planned a Pikes Peak Employee Field Trip/Training/Fun Day. Pikes Peak is part of the area’s “Big Four” that also includes Effigy Mounds National Monument, Villa Louis, and Wyalusing State Park. While I’m a regular at EFMO, no one else had spent a lot of time there in recent history, and none of us could remember the last time we were at Villa Louis or Wyalusing. So on a rainy and cold morning we piled in Daisy, and went adventuring:

Effigy Mounds

Fire Point lookout at EFMO

Villa Louis

Villa Louis, Victorian mansion, obscured by trees.

Wyalusing State Park

At Wyalusing State Park, looking at Pikes Peak...which was
a bit of a weird feeling

While we were at Effigy, the acting Chief Ranger, who has also served as a mentor for several years, gave me free tickets to go see Garrison Keillor at Luther Campus in Decorah, a small and super cool little town about an hour away. SCORE!! I was so excited! And it was everything I hoped it would be! I especially enjoyed finding my way to a parking lot on an familiar campus, being swept along in the alarmingly large crowd walking from that same parking lot towards what I could only assume was the building with the auditorium in it, finding my way to my seats/folding chairs in the very back, and making friends with my fellow aisle-R residents. The one drawback was driving home in the dark with thick fog, which I find more terrifying than thunder-snow.


The rest of the days were your average days at the park filled with giving directions, identifying plants and animals, pointing out migrating hawks, and otherwise wandering around striking up conversations with people.


Friday night was another Big Blue Sky concert, this time at Uncle Sam’s Saloon in McGregor. I had never been in there before, and let me tell you I WILL be going back! The place is part of McGregor’s Landing, a block of town that has been restored to look like it did “back in the day” of bank robbers and river pirates. Uncle Sam’s definitely has that old-timey feel, with a long sturdy bar, wooden everything, and a piano in the corner. In that atmosphere I was once again treated to the folk-blues sound that characterizes Big Blue Sky.

Not only that, but if you were a veteran conservationist, local biologist, or bird enthusiast, you were there. I made friends with a local organic, grass-fed beef farmer and his best gal, who is a plant biologist from Indiana. An hour in and we were discussing our pet peeves when it came to the way conservation biology was handled in graduate programs. The next hour we were sharing pizza and our favorite hiking spots. The last hour, I’m not even sure what the conversation was, only that we all couldn’t wait for HawkWatch to start at Effigy Mounds the next day.


Saturday and Sunday was HawkWatch. What can I say? I was in heaven.  Two days of live bird programs, avian education, sharing smoked lake trout with fellow hawk enthusiasts.  Also, it was peak leaf season, which means clear blue skies, mild temps, and the bluffs were just walls of orange, red, purple, yellow, and green (because of the pines and cedars).

Walking up to the banding station :)

Little Red-tailed male that was captured while I was there

Close-up of a female juvenile Red-tailed Hawk

Then along came last Monday, but that trip deserves a post all to itself.  Here's why:

There is a trip, a pilgrimage if you will, that I have been wanting to take for a long, long time. In my first year as a Wildlife Bio major, I was required to take a class entitled Wildlife Conservation and was first introduced to the writings of Aldo Leopold.  Re-reading it this past year, as I make the transition yet again from academia to active participation in the world, I’m struck again by the passages and musings on our relationship to the land. So I drove into the heart of Wisconsin, to sandy Sauk County and to a small shack near the river....I was really affected by this trip, and want to put some thought into how I present it via blog.

Though you'll have to wait for a bit, because the next two days I'm going on another pilgrimage.  This one a little closer to heart and home.