Up North with Lauri

This week I went up north to spend some time with Lauri and see the work she is doing there. I had a wonderful time and was impressed with the passion and professionalism Lauri has for her work. Here is a little tour of my time there.

This is the cabin she is staying in. They think it was built in the 1930s.
I was surprised at the size of it and it is very comfortable and unique.


This is the kitchen.

Here is the main room with a fantastic fireplace.

Above the mantle is this head staring down at
you. Check out the chandelier, it's made of
gnarled wood.

Lauri doing her "Price is Right" model impression.
This is her data recording area.

Miss "Price is Right" demonstrating her bedroom.
There are two built-in bunks. I slept in the bottom one near
the window.

And here the hallway leading to the bathroom
and other bunkroom.

The other bunkroom with many built-in bunks.

Out behind the cabin.

View in back. The river running through there made the
greatest babbling noise, I could have listened to it for hours.

Out in the forest setting the traps. There are 200 traps to set
every day.

Looks like fun but keeping up with Lauri wasn't easy.

Lauri setting one of the traps.

This is after midnight. Lauri and her assistants have checked all the traps
and brought them to this site where they check each mouse, weigh it,
gather saliva samples, tag the mice and record data: gender, age,
condition, etc.

They do all this work deep in the forest. When they turn
off their headlamps we are engulfed in total darkness.
The tree canopy overhead blocks out even the moonlight.
It is a very strange feeling to not be able to see anything
with your eyes wide open.

They take all the necessary safety precautions such as the face
masks and gloves.

This is the trial arena. You can see one of the mice in the
upper left corner. These trials are video recorded.

This is looking into the forest with only the flash of my camera.

Lauri and one of her little friends. Isn't he cute?

After spending the entire night in the forest we head back
to the cabin. On the road we encountered this group of elks
out for an early morning stroll.

This concludes my little tour. I hope you enjoyed it. Thank you Lauri for showing me a most enjoyable and fascinating time.