2006-04-19 - 6:46 a.m.

THE SPRING SEMESTER peaks this week. I give two exams today and one tomorrow, with today's two due to be graded and returned on Friday (the last day of school for the semester before finals). So I hit the road early today to keep things going.

We found a single flamechub minnow on Monday in a tiny creek off of a remote back road. For my three students, it was the first flame they'd seen live and in the flesh. We were able to go about 30 meters upstream from the road before we hit barbed wire crossing the creek as part of a cattle fence. The creek itself was clear water over gravel, and tree roots forming big holes under the bank. The only fish we caught was a large female flame. This site produced at least six flames in 1982, according to museum records. The other site we visited, several kilometers downstream in the same creek system, yielded typical stream species but no flames. The precise site we were looking for was at the end of what turns out to be a farm road, even though it's marked in Mapquest as a small public road. We started to drive down it before realizing it was gated. As we turned around and left we noticed this huge dog in a fenced pen going nuts, and a woman standing in a door glaring at us. Sorry lady, next time we'll stop and chat.

Ruth is doing all sorts of rabbit wrangling this week. And the garden continues to expand, in our summery weather.

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