Hut Crawl last night was fun and then this morning a mating chase, no rest for us.

Winter crew decked out in their finest. Abe, Sara and Ryan.


Dieter and his squeeze box.

Beth and Dieter playing some cajun music.

Crystal and Abe


Julia, Beth, Dieter and Sara
-Ryan

When I try and describe Squirrel Camp to people who haven't been there they always want to know what people do on those long snowy nights in the winter. Here are a few of the things that folks have been up to this spring.

Group crosswords by the Coleman lantern.



A musical jam with Elsabe from town.


Wearing crazy home-made glasses and drinking tea.


Sitting around after dinner and just smiling!


Watching TV in the kitchen - actually it is a mating chase going on outside the cookshack, which is even more interesting.



-AMc

It wouldn't be Squirrel Camp if there wasn't a construction project on the go. This year Stan built an addition on the Data Hut that has now been dubbed the 'Half-Way House'. It is attached to the insulated and heated Data Hut and will house crew members during the colder months and will be used for computer work once the weather warms up enough for the crew to stay in the (uninsulated) sleeping huts.



Speaking of warmer weather, temperatures have been consistently above zero during the day and we are losing what little snow that we have had. We have had consistently warm winds at night that would make any Calgarian feel at home. The warm weather has many crew members moved out of our heated cabins in favour of the privacy of their own hut, but all these thoughts of spring will probably disappear soon. We will surely have a few more blasts of winter before long.
-AMc

Well the 2008 season is now fully underway as the new techs for the 2008 season have arrived and are now learning the ropes at Squirrel Camp. This year we have 6 core crew members from California, Quebec, Ontario, Alberta, and Michigan. Pictured from left to right below are Krystal Tangen, Julia Shonfield, Dieter Weise, Beth Kolb, Bastien Ferland-Raymond, and Cate Brown.

The crew is now out and trapping a small number of middens on their own. This involves setting and checking of live-traps, handling squirrels in specially designed handling bags, weighing the squirrels and putting unique coloured wires in their ear-tags so that we can recognize them from a distance. Picture below are Beth, Bastien and Cate on their first day of trapping on their own.


Beth weighing a squirrel.


Bastien handles a squirrel.


Cate trapping.