First work day at Hagerman

Today was our first day volunteering at Hagerman Wildlife Refuge. Our job mainly consists of maintaining the three day use areas and checking five of the hiking trails to make sure they are clean with no limbs blocking the trails. We drove the refuge truck around and really enjoyed this beautiful day. We picked up trash and Mike did a little weed eating. Even though there was a lot of trash along the roadway, I believe once we get it under control it will be pretty easy going. They supply us with those long litter pickers ( I guess you could actually pick up anything with them) so we never actually have to handle any trash. We worked a pretty long day today but we wanted to get to all three areas before the weekend. Of course, along the way we just had to stop for a few photo moments. We have seen the Great Blue Heron, Great Egret and the Snowy Egret. Yesterday, on our orientation drive through the refuge, we were able to see the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher. This is a new bird for us but we did not have our camera and did not get the picture. This bird will be leaving the refuge any time and traveling to South America. It was a busy day and we worked hard but it is a beautiful workplace.
We went to Sherman this evening for a quick sandwich at Chick-Fil-A. We wanted to see about getting one of those green grass looking indoor/outdoor carpets that you find at Lowes or Home Depot. We finally did find one at Lowes. It is an 8x6. I think I mentioned out site is not the best. It is not long enough for a 39ft. RV so we had to park at an angle. In doing this we are not near the grass that would normally be right outside the door. The road is very close to the front of the motorhome and the road is the white powdery crush and run type gravel. Anytime a vehicle goes by dust is thrown in our direction. Messy! The biggest problem has been our dogs. When they go outside they have been getting their feet wet and then walking in the gravel stuff and then coming into the motorhome. Mama is not happy!!! This evening Mike cut some limbs from the cedar tree behind the rig so tomorrow we are going to back the motorhome up about 4 feet. That, along with the carpet, should help make things a bit better. We hope so because this is a nice place and a good workamper job but we have both decided that if we can’t make this work we might have to leave early. We just won’t mess up the motorhome for the sake of a job. We’ll see how things go tomorrow.