Oh Deer!

The lilacs are starting to bloom!

Yesterday was SO much better than the days before!
I'm finally starting to get answers to my more pressing questions and getting some training at least scheduled. I still have some frustrations with the way I was thrown into the job without guidance at all and the fact that the park was not set up all the way when I arrived (with some things needing to be done that I am not yet trained to do), but I am slowly but surely working through all of that. Even though those frustrations are still there I am feeling less overwhelmed by them and they seem more manageable. There is an end in sight and soon (hopefully) all will be resolved and I will be able to move on to other tasks.

My little arsonists are slowly getting the hang of things around here as we head into a busy Memorial Day weekend here at the park. This is a learning experience for us all and with time I'm sure we will get to a place where most things run without issue.

SUCH pretty eggs!

That being said, they do still have quite a lot to learn. For example: I had them go around and clean up the picnic shelters so they would be ready for visitors to use over the weekend. I went up to check on things and to take some pictures of the lake from the shelters to find that they had taken it upon themselves to move this robin's nest. They were quite proud of themselves and thought that they had helped the birds by moving them from a visitor use area. they felt pretty bad when they found out that you are not supposed to move the nest once there are eggs in them. We quickly returned the nest to its original resting place and I'm hoping that the momma robin was not to offended by their mistake.

My high-tech deer protection set-up

We planted some little sapling trees, but I forgot to take pictures of them. I'll have to take some another day when we go to water them so I can document their changes as they (hopefully) take root in their new home and leaf out. After planting the baby trees, one of the arsonists came and told me that a little fawn was curled up in one of the campsites. With so much tall grass and forested areas around the park, it was strange to see that the momma deer had left her baby out in the open like that. With campers arriving to other sites that night and to that one the next day, I was worried the deer would be hurt or that the mom would be too scared to come back for her baby. I called North Dakota Fish and Game to ask what I should do and she insisted that the fawn was find and the momma deer would come back for it after dark. Because I was concerned for its safety, she suggested marking its location so that campers would at least know to steer clear of the area. I couldn't find cones, so wet floor signs were the next best thing. After a few hours I drove back by to check on him and he was gone, so I collected the signs and went on home. A few minutes later, our camp host called me to say that the fawn wasn't gone, it had just moved to another site. He was concerned that it looked a bit deformed and said he saw the momma deer come back for it but she licked him a few times and then kicked him in the head before running off. I was concerned that it was sick or injured when we found it, but Fish and Game insisted that it was just pretending and would be fine. He was gone this morning, so one can only hope that the momma deer got over herself and came back for her baby. I just hope that the little guy is ok and doesn't suffer out there alone or anything. Fingers crossed no more baby deer get left in the campground this summer!

I hope you're ok little baby deer! 

Most of my deer friends over the years have been dead. This is a nice change.

 HOW NEAT IS THAT?!?!

Diving Into "The Dumpster Fire"

Today is only my third day as Park Manager and already I am a bit overwhelmed. In any other position, when you start a new job you have a supervisor or some other employee there for at least a brief period to orient you to the various aspects of the position and make sure you are set up for success with all of your work duties and expectations. That, unfortunately, is not the case here. With the department shuffling around staff right at the start of the busy season, I am being thrown into things to fend for myself (remember the dumpster fire I mentioned last time.....its proving to be an ongoing thing). So, huge shout out to the three employees who decided that this was a great time to retire instead of doing so in the fall or winter so that this could have been settled then and everyone would have been better prepared for the busy season. But, here we are. This is the hand we have been dealt, so we've just got to play through and hope for the best. 
Thank goodness I worked here last year and have a handle on the daily operations of the park and what all the seasonals need to do each week. I can't imagine how much more stressful it would be to get thrown into this position having never even visited this park! So at least I have that going for me.

The dumpster fire in all its glory:

• 

  
  

  The park's amazing maintenance guy, Steve, also retired this year, which leaves all maintenance supervision up to me. One of my seasonals is a "maintenance ranger", but it is his first time working in this type of job, so I've still got to get him trained up on how things work around here.
• I'm two weeks out (at least) from getting my park cell phone
• My computer set-up in the office is barely functional (I've got someone coming down on Thursday to help with that though)
• Its days before Memorial Day weekend and the buoys are not out at the swim beach (apparently they should have been put out by May 15th, but nobody did it) and I haven't yet had boat/trailer training to put them out myself. My current options for that are to just not have them out or get in the freezing cold water while its 30something degrees and windy as fuck out to place them myself. But, SURPRISE SURPRISE, they are old as shit and the chains are rusted through so those need to be replaced first.
• I don't have a purchasing card, so I can't go out and buy things (like the chains) that the park needs until that comes in.
• The firewood shed was removed before a replacement arrived, so the firewood bundles were outside and got rained on last week. (my executive decision was to throw them all into the shop for now so at least people can buy some dry firewood this weekend)

• 

  The beautiful truck they are stealing from me

  They tore down an old vault toilet but haven't finished the replacement, and I have no idea when that will be done. I don't even have the keys to it- the contractor person is holding them hostage.
• I have one little Kubota among three employees because one is in the shop and the wrapped ranger pickup is being taken away from me and given to a manager at another park, so the blank pickup will become my work vehicle.

I'm positive that after the first few weeks of chaos, it will all settle down and be completely fine, but at this very moment it kind of sucks. 

Despite my complaints, I really am excited about this position and I can't wait to learn and get a better handle on what's going on. I'm going to gain so much from this position, that any bout of stress will be overshadowed in the end.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Campground is almost ready for campers!

Now that I've had a chance to go through my day, I do feel a bit more in control of what's going on. One of the little arsonists is on his weekend and the other seasonal ranger is back from his. (Don't tell the others, but this one is already looking to be the favorite) Things on their end has been going really smoothly today and I've actually had time to get some stuff figured out in the office and even hop on a mower for a bit to clean up some of the trickier areas. The two of them have been busy touching up the park grounds with the mower and weed eating wherever needs it (I drove around half way through the day and made them a list of what still needed cleaned up). 

Everything is actually looking pretty good for their first official go of it and it will only get better as they get more practice with the equipment and get a better rhythm going. They should have it all finished today or tomorrow morning and then we can move on to planting the baby trees we just got in the other day. With it being Memorial Day weekend, most campers are arriving Thursday and staying through Monday, so we had to make sure everything with the campground got squared away before then.

Hopefully we keep on this ever so slight upward trend and things just continue getting better and easier from here on out!

Tomorrow starts my first [BUSY] weekend as Park Manager!

How Neat Is That?!

The Return of Ranger Rhian!

 Its been a hot minute since I've been on here, and I've done a ton in that time. I decided it would be fun to hop back on and share about the day to day of life in my new job and my new home!

I'm now the Park Manager at
Beaver Lake State Park in North Dakota!!!

I was a seasonal Park Ranger here last year, so I'm super excited to dive into a new realm of 'rangering' with the added responsibilities this position will bring. In addition to ensuring the successful day to day operations of the park, I will be supervising four seasonal employees (three have already started and I will be hiring one more) as well as camp hosts who rotate in and out monthly. In the fall or winter (when the busy season has subsided) I will be attending LETA- the Law Enforcement Training Academy where I will spend 12 weeks learning and training to earn my Peace Officer certification. That's right- Ranger Rhian gets a gun!!!!! This is probably the part that I am most excited about. I've always enjoyed enforcing park rules and even do it in my off time when I'm out and about hiking on my own, but to be able to have the training and certifications to do more than just talk to rule breakers is exciting. 

I can't wait to write all these bitches tickets. 

Dog off leash?.....TICKET!

Fire left unattended?.....TICKET!

Sneaking into the park without paying?......TICKET!!

Mild power trip aside, I am also excited to get wildland fire training, pesticide application certification, and work with a local game warden on trailer and boat training. I think the part I'm most nervous about is the "behind the scenes" stuff like managing the park budget because its an area I have never worked in before. I'm confident I will pick it up quickly, but it is certainly overwhelming to think about right now- especially starting the week before the busy season starts (i.e. Memorial Day weekend). Starting a position like this right at the start of the busy season is shaping up to be quite the shit show. I fully intend to be completely honest about my experiences in this position, sharing the gross and stressful bits as well as the fun and exciting. 

Did I mention the new job comes with a three-story lakehouse?!

Today marks the close of my second day in this position and it has been non stop GOGOGOGOGO both days. I have essentially been thrown into a dumpster fire and the fire department is not on duty. I have to put out a lot of these "fires" on my own and with little to no help/training/guidance from anyone else. All the while, I have three little arsonists (my seasonal staff) setting more tiny fires for me to deal with. In their defense, they have had about four "supervisors" in the week or two that they've been here, so they haven't had much consistent direction or training in what to do. It might take a couple weeks, but I plan to have them whipped into shape soon. All three are brand new to the park scene and it has already proven to be a challenge trying to train them as they go while also having to deal with a backlog of emails and deadlines that I am being thrown into last minute. Its going to be a stressful start, but I'm hoping it will calm down soon.

Thus far, I have spent a shocking amount of time trying to convince two of the seasonals that they can, in fact, use the riding mowers on uneven ground. For whatever reason they are convinced the ground needs to be completely flat (hehe...flat earth) in order to mow it, so they have left random patches of long grass throughout the park. They also seem to think the mowers are like 10 feet wide, so they won't mow around the trees and fire rings and things. We will definitely be taking a nice in depth crash course next week on what the mowers can and cannot do because this is just silly.

In between showing the little arsonists what needs done and how to do it, I have been in and out of the office dealing with ice deliveries, making deposits, creating the work schedule, helping visitors, and trying to weed through a sea of emails and information. Little by little, I'm chipping away at this dumpster fire- it'll be out in no time.

There is so much to do to get the park ready for the Memorial Day crowd this weekend- many of them are staying Thursday through Monday. I'm sure the coming months will create for some amusing little stories and I can't wait to share my experiences as I settle into this new position.

Cheers to the next few years!

New job, new house- HOW NEAT IS THAT?!