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3. Looks like I will be relocating soon

Well folks, I think my time here in Oscoda is going to end soon. I have found it pretty much impossible to make any kind of decent living here. My college limits the number of classes I am allowed to teach - even though the students themselves are demanding that I be allowed to teach more! I am finishing up my Field Biology and Field Botany courses and then I am most likely outta there. I can't keep teaching for chump change and no benefits when I have been teaching for SEVEN YEARS and doing environmental consulting for 20. And the consulting work is crapping out on me as well, so I have basically no income from there at all right now. It totally sucks to have to give up the life that I have built for myself here, with all of the friends, fishing spots, shooting, botanizing, and other joys I have experienced living in this area. I have done this far too many times in my life and I'm both sick of it and too old for it. But, I have no choice, my financial situation has made that choice for me.

So...I am looking at a job in Ann Arbor (yes, where I used to live) that sounds just perfect for me (Wetland Biologist/Plant Taxonomist), and my boss knows and has good relations with the company so he is going to "prime the pump" for me with a phone call or email or something as a sort of letter of introduction for me. That means it is quite likely that I will end up there. And guess what? I already know some fishing spots! The two bass I have posted above were on here a long time ago, but serve as a reminder of the fishing opportunities I will still have if I have to leave this "outdoorsman's paradise". And there are a few trout fisheries down there for me to explore too...

I will keep you all posted on my progress in this regard. Tight lines to all!!!

Jonathon

Jonathon, Im sorry to hear your bad news. Teaching is probably the least appreciated and under paid profession there is, and unfortunately it has always been difficult to make a decent living in northern Michigan. Im glad to here you have some possible worked lined up. It would be very hard for me to move back down here after living up there, but you gotta do what you gotta do. Maybe we can carpool up to rifle sometime! Take care and keep us updated on what is going on.

Mike.

Best of luck, Jonathon. I hope the new position ends up with new fishing opportunities.

Gentlemen, I will keep you posted on what my future holds as it unfolds. I seriously regret leaving here, but there are at least three things I WON'T miss by moving downstate:

1) The tourists and all of their stupidity and lack of respect for this place;

2) DEER FLIES, the insect that nothing drives away and raises welts on me the size of a quarter; and

3) A severe lack of dateable women!

If I move to Ann Arbor, not one of these things will trouble me any more.

Having said that, I am telling all of my students that if they want me to stay, they have to fight for me. I can talk until I'm blue in the face and they won't listen to me. One of my students is sending a letter or email to our college President strongly suggesting they hire me full-time. She referred to me as an "irreplaceable asset" and described my knowledge as "university quality". I'm tremendously complimented but not all that surprised, as I do put a huge amount of effort and passion into my teaching so that the students KNOW they are getting a good education. In fact, I believe every one of my past Field Biology students referred to that class as "the best class I've ever taken anywhere". That says something about my teaching abilities, doncha think?

So, it's not 100% yet, but it is looking that way. If this job doesn't turn out, my boss knows 5 more consulting firms that he can contact for me. "You'll get one of those jobs." Helps that he has great relations with all of these firms who he has worked with in the past.

Like I said, I'll keep you posted on whatever happens with me. I just wish the damned deer flies would DIE already so I could go enjoy some fishing!

Tight lines and heavy hatches to all of my fellow Troutnuts! And if I end up in Ann Arbor or wherever, I'll be sure to have a place with a guest bedroom for wayward Troutnuts. And I'll put you on some fat Basstards for sure, like the two above.

Jonathon

Jonathon,



If you are under 55 you need to readjust your priorities.

#3 becomes #1

#2 stays the same

#1 becomes #3

OK Matt, I got it! To be honest, I haven't thought much about dating at all since I moved here, as the pickings are, well, terrible! If I wanted a drunken bar fly I could have my pick...but my standards are waaay too high for that. Besides, the wrong woman in my life would not only steal my money (been there, done that!) but interfere with my FISHING TIME. Totally unacceptable.

And the terrorists - I mean to say it like that this time - ALSO get in the way of my fishing, and since dating hasn't been a priority, fishing has.

I'm sure my attitude will change once I move downstate - every time I have gone down to visit my family, it just blows my mind how many nice-looking women are down there - because I don't see them around here! So, once I start seeing some more attractive women, maybe dating might be more of a priority.

I am still under 55, but only by a few months...

Jonathon

Johnathon,

Sounds like relocating wouldn’t be all that bad then to me ! Lol

Best of luck to you and keep us posted 😊


David

Hey guys, latest developments:

The job I was looking at was old, posted back in May. Not much chance it would still be open (but you never know...). However, some work has FINALLY opened up here, for perhaps the next couple of months. In order to maximize income, and to prepare to move elsewhere, I have (with great sorrow) resigned my teaching position at ACC to concentrate on consulting project work. BUMMER. This fall is gonna be strange, to not be standing in front of a bunch of "kids" (I say this as a joke because I have had students older than me!) telling stories about flora and fauna I saw in Chile while in the Peace Corps, or about how Michigan has a freshwater jellyfish and freshwater sponges, or about how plants give off O2 during the day but use O2 at night to burn their photosynthesis products for growth...or how to use a microscope (REALLY gonna miss that..."Mister DeNike, what's THIS??" "Well, that's an air bubble.")

At least this summer I got the opportunity to teach my Field Biology course AND to put together my very own and very first Field Botany course. Yesterday a.m. I took my botanists to Tuttle Marsh and showed them such calciphile plants as shrubby cinquefoil, Kalm's St. Johnswort, brook lobelia, marsh harebell...with Joe-Pye weed and boneset just coming into bloom along with goldenrods and touch-me-not, and the ever-striking cardinal flower. And we did not get pestered by deerflies! Simply lovely day.

Then in the afternoon we attempted to catch fish in the Pine River, and failed miserably...not enough fish herders! However, stabs into various substrates produced high diversity and numbers for the benthic communities. LOTS of blackfly larvae, almost as many caddis larvae (tiny square wooden cases, also tiny stone cases, and caseless net-spinners), a whole bunch of tiny mayfly nymphs of several types, a few beetles, midge larvae here and there, a good-sized crayfish (and Ronda spotted one she said was about 5"), and at least one stonefly nymph and a big dragonfly nymph. And a wonderful surprise, two little sculpins! HEY, we DID catch fish! And...no deerflies AGAIN. No tourists either! And a nice afternoon, the water was c-c-cold! Carley said "OW, it HURTS!" Not a big girl and not exactly fat either, she had NO insulation (unlike my fat ass). My professional opinion:

The Pine River is one healthy trout stream!! And that it's fish population is more easily sampled with a fly rod than a 20-foot seine net.

Now the consulting work: a stream restoration project that will require pre-construction fish, insect, and habitat surveys to establish baseline data for longer term monitoring. Haven't done this in 4 years! Index of Biological Integrity (IBI, uses fish) and Index of Chemical Integrity (ICI - uses benthic macroinvertebrates) and a Qualitative habitat Evaluation Index (QHEI) will be our metrics. This should be plenty of work, especially if I get to start on it in the next couple of months and get to do both the collection and ID. It would be great because my (beautiful, young, blond) field assistant, who is basically doing an internship with us, will get experience with this stuff as yet another aspect of consulting work. She can be my sorter and I will teach her a bunch of aquatic entomology along the way, plus sampling methods, analysis, etc. She has been an excellent field assistant, very field-ready and tough, and a very quick learner (plants, soils, GPS, etc. - no thanks to me, of course!). My last student? For a while anyway...she also makes me feel very good:

"Geez, I'm tired, I must be getting old!"

"I'm tired TOO! This is hard work!!"

Bless you my good woman.

So I'll be around for maybe a few more months, hopefully engaged (and getting paid well) for the project I described above. Oh, also, a soil wetland study to push some old lines around...I'll make enough to catch up on my debts and move when the work runs out (Sept.-Oct.?). And, that means I get to hit my favorite spots here a few more times before they become hours away, instead of minutes.

More as I find out how the future unfolds. Tight lines to all!

Jonathon the (soon former) Teacher

Jonathon, wow, Im really having a hard time trying to tell you how much you mean to your students, I have never forgotten any of my teachers and the lessons learned. I hope things work out up there and I know it sounds cliché but money isn't everything. It helps a lot, don't get me wrong, that's why Im still working although Im retired from GM. Things aren't like they were back in 60,s early 70s. But at least I can afford to drive up north once a week and fish, and that's all that matters to this old man.
Mike.

I spent much of my summer1976 in the UP and drowned myself in its treasures. Working as a contractor for Clev. Cliffs. I would live there permanently if there was stable work, but it wasn't to be. Two Hearted, Little Garlic and Escanaba rivers and Cherry Creek provided much excitement after work, not to mention a foray on Superior to troll for lakers. Even the Carp had multitudes of Brookies to amuse oneself. I'm 70 now but would go back anytime to sample that wild country.