Sunday, March 20, 2011

FIRST LOSERS



Happy spring! One of us is tired of the cold. The other is relishing indoor projects while she can. A more active lifestyle is right around the corner. When the garden beckons, it doesn't let up during the growing season. I'm not much of a gardener, but I always try.



Today we headed out to find some newly-placed geocaches on the Lewiston side of the levee parkway system. We left Nellie behind, thinking that it might be difficult to control her if there was foot traffic on the path. As it turned out she would have been fine. Now I will have to take her for a walk.

These geocaches were placed yesterday, we think, so a "first to find" would have been great. I don't know why -- there's no reward for being the first to find a cache that I know of. But when a new cache is placed, some geocachers will race to be the first to find it. I suppose when one logs a "first to find" on the computer it's a status thing amongst one's peers.

"We're the second ones here," said Mike as he logged our first find. "First losers," I commented -- what son Clint used to say of a second-place win.

We walked along the levee for a mile, I guess, and traveled to two more by car, finding seven in all. And as we picked up our very last one, Mike commented with a grin that he was the "first to find." What did I tell you? It means something.


And as we walked, we spotted a marmot in the rocks. You know how rodents are -- cute as can be. They have sweet faces and capture the imagination, but they are prolific and do a lot of damage. The marmots burrow under the rocks and compromise the stability of the levee and the pathway. Nevertheless, they are so cute and so much fun to watch that attempts to control their population is controversial. KW

4 comments:

Hallie said...

That marmot IS cute!

Leah said...

That is one BIG marmot. Guess they're at home around rocks, because they are all over rocky outcroppings in the Colorado mountains.

Hallie said...

We sometimes call them "Rock Chucks". Interesting to know that they are in Colorado as well.

Kathy said...

Wikipedia confirms that rock chucks and marmots are one and the same. They are also called "whistle pigs."

They are "harem polygamous." Each male has up to four females in his burrow and each litter contains 4-5 young. It didn't say how many litters per year.