PASSED!!

IT'S OVER. It was three and a half hours of constant questions and discussion - it lived up to the hype of being one of the most difficult (academic) things I've done - and it's finished. Passed with flying colors as they say, and I couldn't be happier about it. I think it's going to take a few weeks to set in that it's actually over and I never have to do it again! Now I just have to write, write, and write some more - get these papers done and finish up. I think I love leapday now (did you know leapday is always on a Friday?).

Finally

You would think nervousness would be the dominant emotion right now. And don't get me wrong, I'm pretty goddamn nervous. But relief is what I'm feeling. Not much that can happen in the next 4 hours can be worse than the past four weeks. Bring it on.

Resignation

Well, there's not much more I can do at this point. Re-read all my answers and made notes about points that need to be clarified and ideas that were omitted. Should have read some more papers and tried to memorize more authors and their "contributions," but I'm just not convinced that knowing authors is important. In fact, I think if articles were published anonymously, the science would be better, the egoism would be reduced, and we'd all be better off. Hopefully I don't have to make that argument tomorrow - likely not to work. After my candidacy exam I felt as if I'd been beaten up. My answers, no matter how thoughtful, were scoffed at and my written submission, no matter how detailed, was pushed aside. I have reason to believe that my committee will be much more friendly, but I'm not looking forward to being beaten up again. There are 10 questions and 4 members so I'm hoping we can't get into that much depth in any one given area - yeah right. I have a feeling that at the end of it all I'm just going to feel exhausted and upset and not exactly happy with my performance. Glad I'll be with good friends - looking forward to a good, tall, , well-deserved toast to this seemingly never-ending stress coming to a close.

Junk Drawer

Any good home has a junk drawer. We've been working slowly on ours, but now its time to step it up. I found some matches and a pin to add today . Hopefully by summer we'll barely be able to close the thing. I think we need more rubber bands and paperclips. If you'd like to send some, let me know - if this is going to succeed, it's going to be a team effort.

Snowy Stream

The temperature was in the mid thirties yesterday and the sun was shining - time to go fishing. Headed down to Coburn and parked just past the intersection of Penns Creek and Long Roads. Changed into my waders amid the roadside slop and tied on a green woolly bugger and a woven stonefly nymph. My leader was in poor shape having been slowly shaved down at the end of last year, but the deeper holes proved fruitful - four rainbows; one small, two around 10" and one pushing 13. Had a fifth one on, but I couldn't set the hook well as it hit right in front of me and lost it after a brief fight. Never had to change flies - caught two on both. It was great trying to cast along snow covered banks and hemlocks. The stream was at about 600cfs and a touch off color - perfect. The water was cold and my stripping hand got pretty cold in the wind - have to bring a glove next time. Now it's raining/snowing/sleeting outside and I've got a lot of work to do. Guess I'll be at this computer again for most of the day.

February Hunt

Last hunt for the year today. Paul, Libby, T, Thor, Porter and I hit Idiehl for five hours today. Shot skeet for a while before tromping the grounds in search of chukkar. Gorgeous blue sky and warm sun made me forget for a while it is still February . The dogs were crazy - running hard and listening poorly, but we were able to bag six out of seven birds; the seventh flew right over the dogs' heads until it was out of range. It was so nice to walk ourselves tired, feel the wind and sun on our faces, and watch the dogs work and the guns shoot well. Can't wait for next year...

Bald Eagle

We took the dogs for a walk out at Bald Eagle reservoir yesterday - its a beautiful spot tucked in against the steep bald eagle ridge. Paul and I used to hunt pheasant there a lot during my first few years here. It was at bald eagle that I got to see Whiskey in action and at his prime; he would go full tilt through just about anything, lock on the most solid points, and most impressively, would track (catch if needed) and retrieve most any bird we hit. He was beautiful and inspired me to take the plunge into dog ownership. It was nice to walk those fields again and remember one of the best hunting spots, and dogs, I may ever know.
They don't stock pheasant at Bald Eagle anymore - this was my first time back there in years. The fields once left long for habitat are cut short, the paths are crowded with multi-flora rose. It looked like the rabbit population is doing well, but the deer tracks were few and far between. Whiskey had to be put down a couple weeks ago - his old age had caught up with him and the health issues were too many. I don't envy having to make such a decision; I'm not looking forward to parting with my dogs. But the memories make me want to live in and enjoy each moment. We're headed down to Idiehl this afternoon - our last birds for the year. A different ridge, different fields, and now, Whiskey's sons working hard.

Done?

Today's the last day I have to work on these answers. I keep going back and forth between confidence that I've done a good job and certainty that I've blown it. Reality is probably a good combination of both. Sitting here waiting for the 29th isn't going to be fun. Wonder how hard they're going to grill me. Anyway, looking forward to this being completely over so I can focus on writing. I'm hoping I can focus on getting papers written and "out" all spring and summer. Should be relatively easy. Hopefully other stuff won't creep into the schedule too badly. Really have to start thinking about where I want to be come January '09.

Uno Mas

One more. Whew. I've been sitting in this chair for one week. I don't know how much energy I have for editing. Probably ought to make sure my answers are in English... Really curious how the defense will go. Is the point just to give me a hard time? Can't wait 'till March 1.

Halfway

Alright - I'm halfway there. It's amazing how physical and emotional this intellectual challenge is. I'm exhausted and starting to question my every move. The last "answer" was 20 pages and rereading it made me want to puke at how "sappy" I was at the beginning of it - poetically reflecting on forestry. Need to go back and change that. I've been sitting in this damn chair for four days straight and will be here for four more. Ugh. But I'm done with five; five more to go. I had thoughts on most every question when I initially read them, but getting it all down on paper is exhausting. I'm taking a break in a wine bottle right now. Can't wait to type my "I'm done" post.

"Comprehensive"

1. Defend research that spans multiple disciplines

2. Describe and contrast the methods of FIA/NWOS vs. our PFL study and discuss implications on timber volume estimates

3. Defend research that uses both qualitative and quantitative methods

4. Review all pertinent literature re: encouraging PFLs to work together, then design a comprehensive study to explore these issues

5. Draft a forest practices act, an implementation plan, and monitoring scheme. Define positions of stakeholders and devise a strategy for garnering support for your act.

6. Describe the intricacies of ordinary least squares modeling and the ways it is appropriately and inappropriately used

7. Pose two hypotheses regarding PFLs and written management plans and design a full statistical model to test.

8. Describe how procurement foresters influence forest sustainability and how we can improve their "impact"

9. Detail what PFLs should do about Gypsy Moths from a sustainable forestry perspective

10. Design and fully detail a comprehensive Human Dimensions of Natural Resources course that could be taught at a small liberal arts college.

Comps are here

We set the date for my comps over two months ago. Seemed a long ways off back then. The time has flied and tomorrow I get my questions. Anywhere from 8 to 16 questions, 10 days to answer them. Supposedly, answers should be 8-12 pages per question. Really looking forward to this... It's February in PA, the skies are permanently gray, and the temperature switches frequently between freezing and almost freezing making it impossible for any snow to stick around. It's a miserable time to be outside with the mud and the cold and the ice. Time to hunker down, write 100pages, and take the next step toward this degree.

Unpointable birds

Went for a nice walk today up on lower greens valley road with the dogs. Overcast with a bit of fog floating through the leafless trees, but the temperature is right around 50 and is was so nice to feel the fresh air. I was thinking a lot about pointing dogs and flushing dogs and the best strategy for nabbing those wily feathered beasts. Here's the thing; most hunters fall into either a pointing or flushing "camp." Flushing dogs search for birds and when found, chase and/or lunge at them to flush them out of the cover offering the hunter a shot. When pointing dogs find birds they thoroughly freeze their bodies so as to not scare the bird up, but rather "point" the bird out to the hunter. These strategies require different training techniques and offer completely different hunting experiences. But when your goal is to find birds and fill the game pouch, our resident roughed grouse doesn't always cooperate with either strategy. So what strategy is best? Is one really better than another?

As far as I understand it, those with flushing breeds train their dogs to hunt close (within gun range) and thoroughly search the cover. If the dog hunts beyond gun range, then birds flushed will simply fly off. Hunting over a flushing dog requires constant attention to keep the dog within range and stay prepared to shoot as the dog will likely flush a bird quickly.

Pointing dog owners hunt differently. Dogs are encouraged to range further and "hold" a bird on point until the hunter can get within range. Sometimes pointing dogs are trained to flush birds on command and other times they are trained to be steady (remain on point) until the hunter has flushed, shot, and given a retrieve command.

The problem is that birds don't always cooperate. In my experience, most grouse don't hold very long providing few opportunities for pointing. Other game birds, especially pheasant, often run along the ground to get away from dogs instead of flying. If you're going to have a flushing dog, how can you keep them in range once they're tracking a scent trail? If you're going to have a pointer, then what's the good of it if you only work them inside gun range? I guess the answer I've come to in the short time I've owned dogs is to adjust how I work the dogs depending on what I'm hunting. When hunting grouse or otherwise "spooky" birds, I do my best to keep the dogs within gun range. When hunting chukkar or pheasant, I let the dongs range and rely on them to hold birds until I can close the distance.

The biggest problem with this approach is running pheasant, especially the roosters. From what I've seen, once a pheasant has decided to run, it is unlikely to sit still and be "held" in place by a dog. So what to do? It's fairly easy to tell when a dog is on a running bird- nose to the ground, tail wagging furiously, sharp direction changes as they explore dead ends and return to the scent. When I see this, I have to keep the dogs within range despite their best efforts. So, within range on grouse and running birds, further out on steady birds. There is a little more room for error here than with a flushing dog, as the pointing reaction will likely give you a few moments more to react on those quick to flush birds. The other option is let the dogs run down those running birds and hope they learn to cut them off and hold them on point or flush them back to me...probably depends on the day:)

Probably boring to most people, but I needed to get my thoughts straight. Luckily, no one reads this besides me!

Colossal Choke

That was disgusting. Brady looked horrible save for one scoring drive. The Giants caught every break, from fumbles falling forward for first downs, to fumbles apparently recovered by the Pats but ruled the Giants ball?, to that ridiculous escape by Manning followed by a terrible, terrible throw and a game deciding catch against a helmet amid three defenders?! We lost it though. I thought it was over when the Sox won the World Series, but leave it to Boston to raise their fans' hopes and find an improbably and utterly heartbreaking way to shatter them. This one's gonna hurt for a long time.

DC Superbowl

In DC for the superbowl. Left from State College early to avoid the impending ice storm. Felt bad dropping the dogs off at the kennel (always do), headed to dumplingfest (don't ask), and drove to DC to arrive just after midnight. Ben's at work now, but soon we'll start the ridiculousness. The Pats are favored by 12.5 points which means we're supposed to win rather easily. Everyone always hopes for a good, close, exciting game. I'm hoping for a complete blowout, a Manning meltdown, and a decisive win with a 20+ point spread. It's going to be a long wait till Sunday night.