Another month, another blog post. Shannon is off with the fish stocking crew today somewhere in KY. They started loading at 7 this morning and headed out. They dip fish out of the appropriate raceway, weigh each net full, transfer the net full to the truck, and at some point head out. I’m sure I will be regaled with fish tales, or maybe fish tails, when Shannon gets back later this afternoon. I’m schedule to make a run next week.

All trout, mostly rainbow and some browns, in KY come from this hatchery. Our understanding is that trout are not native to KY and do not naturally reproduce. The hatchery was established to mitigate changes to KY waters due to dam construction, and so the trout production here is very important. There are state of KY trucks picking up fish almost every day.  The hatchery also has their own trucks to deliver fish to federal waters and Indian lands. Shannon is with the fish hatchery crew.

 We continue to settle into our volunteer gig. There are now 4 volunteer couples, and a fifth one is expected at the end of this month. In May we started working 9.5 hour shifts at the VC. We start at about 7:45 preparing for opening the VC at 8. Starting in May the VC closes at 5, and we usually complete closing procedures by 5:15 to 5:30. Staff works from 7 until 3:30; so, it is our responsibility to make sure everything is shut down and locked down, and we mostly, and I emphasize mostly, get it done correctly. My big job is feeding and caring for the animals. What’s a plant guy doing being a zoo keeper…? Feeding the three snakes (1 rat snake and 2 corn snakes), one snapping turtle, and three American toads is the most exciting task. They usually take their food with a great gusto. I still have not totally gotten over recoiling when they strike. It’s fascinating to watch the snakes turn the dead mice in their mouths so they can swallow them whole. The way the animals attack their food and stuff their mouths brings back memories of eating in the college cafeteria. Who said we’re not very far from the animals?

We usually work two days in a row and then have at least two days off. Often we have 4 days off, and the days we work vary with each week. As soon as the schedule comes out, the volunteers are negotiating with each other trading work days. The volunteer coordinator doesn’t make changes to the schedule; he trusts that we will work it out ourselves and someone will always show up to run the VC. What a different culture than the NPS.

Anyway, on our days off, we have been getting out and about trying to experience KY.

One of our first visits to somewhere was Cumberland Falls. The falls are on the Cumberland River way upstream of Cumberland Lake and Wolf Creek Dam. This falls is unique because under full moon conditions it often will display a moonbow. Unfortunately we were there during the day, and it is too far to visit it at night. Beautiful spot even in the day light.

A must see on our list was Cumberland Gap. We had headed to Cumberland Gap on our first visit to the south, coming from MN and heading to Santee NWR in SC. However,. Super Storm Sandy was chugging her way up the cost and was about to hit NC. We wisely decided to detour south into GA. This time, no super storms were on the horizon. It was a beautiful day and we drove miles and miles through hardwood forested mountains. This picture was taken from a short trail that took us to the top of the Gap. Somewhere on the ridge in the photograph is where VA, TN, and KY come together. We are actually in VA when we took the photo.

We also visited the Big South Fork Recreation Area administered by the NPS. The main feature is a wild and scenic river. You can see KY is quite rugged.

One of the VC’s is located at an old coal mine with a well preserved tipple. This was built to separate coal into different sizes and load railroad cars efficiently. There were interpretive displays about the development of coal mining in this area. (Now I appreciate why we see all the ads on TV crowing about how Mitch McConnell is a big friend to coal while Obama is not…I gotta get over this…) There is also an old train that provides transportation to the site. We opted out because of our dog (remember, NOT MY IDEA), and we drove. We got lost; visibility was poor due to all the smoke from cooking mash in all the hollars we passed. But while we were getting lost and didn’t know it and then finding where we were suppose to be, we were able to experience a lot of beautiful and spectacular scenery.

Both the dogwoods and the red buds have added to the landscape being called “spectacular.” The red buds have been pretty much done now for a couple of weeks and the dogwoods are starting to wane. They have added much beauty to a very beautiful landscape. It’s a good time of year to be here.