I'm having a hard time keeping up with the posts, much less our every day lives. It would help if I didn't have a new job every two months to go to.
Here's the latest news, which I'll try to sum up without making it too boring. I'll give you some photos every now and then to keep your interest. I have been working for the
ENLC since the end of April. My job with them right now is seasonal, but we had all planned on training me to replace the project manager when he left in the fall, which would have been a more permanent job with benefits, with one major caveat: the ENLC operates on soft money. In fact, the entire non-profit may or may not be funded in any given year. Not exactly job security.
(This is one of our field sites. You can see the field work is pretty awesome.)
When we arrived in Ely in May, several things happened. First, Ryan was offered a job with ENLC as a seasonal, which he gladly accepted. Second, two more permanent jobs with the Feds that I applied for back in February called to interview me. One was a four-year position with the Forest Service in Logan, the other was a permanent job with the Fish and Wildlife Service in Vernal. I was offered both jobs and I accepted the Vernal job. At the same time, the project manager was offered a sweet job in Reno, which he starts in July. So now the ENLC is in a bit of an uproar--both the manager and the person training to replace him (me) are leaving in a month.
I hate leaving the ENLC so soon; I loved what I was doing for them and the job had every thing I was looking for: field work, writing, data analysis, project management. But I can't pass up a permanent job with the feds, especially in Vernal.
(Me eating a snack on what turned out to be a sweet little stretch of road, before we rode back toward Ely and Ryan tumbled into the gravelly road shoulder because the 6" strip of pavement between the rumble strip and shoulder wasn't wide enough. Sheesh. He was okay, but we ended up having to walk our bikes along the highway for a stretch.)
Before Ryan and I moved to Ely, I thought this might be a place where we could think about buying a house and settling for a while. But after living here, even for just a couple months, I can't imagine living here for any length of time. It is impossible to road bike anywhere without fearing for your life. There is only one paved road leaving town that isn't a highway, and it is a 20-mile ride out and back. All the other paved roads are highways with tiny shoulders, rumble strips, and 70-mph speed limits. Not fun. We did find a beautiful 20ish mile long paved road up in a mountain valley with very little traffic, but we either have to risk 15 miles of crappy highway riding each way to get there and back, or drive our road bikes to the start of this road. How weird--driving for a casual road bike. Not a fan.
(We loved biking this road, as you can see from Ryan's smile.)
The mountain biking is good, but there isn't much of it or a cycling community. We are 4 hours away from any major metropolitan area, and while I love country living, I think I still need access to fun activities and a gym every once in a while. Pretty much the only thing to do in this town is drink or play pool at very smoky bars. Healthy living is not a priority, and Pratt Kansas has more culture by comparison.
(Awesome singletrack near Ely. Best way to get there: drive.)
Nor is living here very sustainable. Most activities require driving to get there, all of our food comes from the grocery store and is shipped in from Vegas, and the growing season is about 90 days. Yeah, we could have managed, but it would have taken major time and effort. And imagine buying a house, putting in solar panels and a greenhouse, then finding out my job wouldn't be funded next year.
On to Vernal! We will be moving at the end of the month, and fortunately half of our stuff is still in boxes. Ryan will continue to work for ENLC through August, driving back and forth between Vernal and Ely, working 8 days in the field and taking 6 days off in Vernal. I start work July 6. Now all we have to do is find a place to live and start packing again.
(One of the new things I will be packing is this little baby, a coffee grinder given to me by 10 of my closet friends from Corvallis. PNWesterners understand how important coffee is.)
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