#27 'So it begins.'

Said Théoden before the battle for Helm's Deep began. I am not in a battle, but I thought of this sentence when the first workshop started on Wednesday. But first, let's talk about the day before.

On Saturday, I moved out of my cabin and into the 'Elch' cabin. The reason is that Fatih and my cabin are the only winterproof cabins, so they naturally belong to the photographers. Since my cabin is not winterproof, I unfortunately no longer have a functioning bathroom 😩 and now have to share a bathroom with a photographer who also does not have a winterproof cabin. Due to the move and the subsequent cleaning of my cabin, I was looking forward to Sunday, my second-to-last day off in the next five weeks..... but unfortunately that didn't happen, because on Sunday I had to spend my time in a tent. The most exciting part of this time was the first twenty minutes. I saw the bald eagle again, but it flew away quickly. The sea otter was back, but it also disappeared quickly, and the fisher marten briefly came by, but this time it only ran past me to the right in the trees, and yeah, that was it. The rest was just nutcrackers, Gray Jays, and ravens. So what do you do with all that time? A lot of thinking, solving Sudoku puzzles, and looking at the pictures and creating dialogues for them. However, constantly observing birds is quite disillusioning when you still haven't really seen the wildlife. Maybe it's because of the (in my opinion) lack of preparation. One thing that really drives me crazy is Jenny's obsession with her construction site. She devotes every second to it, and on Sunday she was supposed to go to the end of the lake to check the spot during the day. Instead, she continued working on the house, and I could understand David's frustration. The days before the workshops were associated with a lot of head shaking for me, as I simply couldn't understand her actions. On Tuesday, David and I set out the 'premium bait.' A deer that had died in a wildlife accident. The problem here was that David accidentally turned off the freezer twice some time ago..... I don't think I need to explain further how the deer smelled then. We are still trying to figure out how to get the smell out of the jacket and gloves :D

'So it begins,' I thought on Wednesday, because that's when the first workshop was supposed to start, and I kept thinking: What is actually my task?

Jenny and David always said so many things that they still wanted to do but seemed to have conveniently forgotten. Here are a few excerpts:

• drive quad bikes with me so I get a feel for what it's like with a passenger on the back
• play a kind of 'role play' with me, where Jenny plays a (annoying) customer so that I can 'learn' how to interact with them
• practice how to best free the truck when I get stuck in the snow
• ....

All of this really annoyed me and put me in a bad mood, as I felt so clueless about these workshops. However, on Tuesday we also had a clear night and I could look at the stars, find peace, and in that moment, I realized how small my own problems are. Because honestly, the workshops have been working for five years, so why shouldn't they work this time? I must say that I am incredibly blessed here. I have a warm place to sleep, I am paid here, and I get free food. Things that are unimaginable for so many people. Especially through the catastrophic earthquake in the Turkish-Syrian border region, one becomes aware again of how rich one actually is, and that wealth is not just a question of money. And when you realize that there is sooooo much other suffering and so much injustice in the world, at least I realize that I can sleep away this bad mood without any problems and start the new day in a good mood again, because I am incredibly blessed and fortunately have what many people sadly can only dream of.

On Wednesday, Jenny then picked up Simone and Sabrina, while David and I set out bait again. We also had to collect our tents, which had flown away about 30 meters due to an extreme windstorm on Monday (fortunately, they got caught in the bushes right away and didn't fly over the entire lake). This wind is a real problem because it keeps the animals from coming out and the wind here is extreme. Former ninth-grade technical course, remember? Right, it's air that moves between high and low pressure to create pressure equalization. Due to the very large temperature fluctuations here and the resulting low and high pressure areas, we currently have extremely strong windstorms that are not ideal for the workshops or the construction site. But yes, to another topic: Sabrina is originally from China and now lives in the USA. Simone is from Italy and boy, does he have an accent, it's really funny. Rhett arrived on Thursday and, like Sabrina, comes from the States. These three people form our first group and so far have been very pleasant to serve. The only thing I notice is that at some point I just get tired of these people and then leave the room to give my brain a short English break. On top of that, the main topic is of course photography, and I can ask them what workshops they have already attended, but you only ask that once 😁 The rest is about photography itself, which I absolutely can't participate in, and at some point I just tune out. However, I think it doesn't make a good impression if I just stare off into space and show no interest in the conversation, so I'd rather leave the room. The problem is that David is flying to his polar bear workshop next week and then only Jenny and I will be here. Since Jenny always cooks a big meal in the evening, I am responsible for the entire entertainment from next week onwards - in the morning and afternoon during the rides and then in the evening before dinner - Yeah! 😩

Not much happened on Thursday, except that Rhett arrived and we continued working at the construction site. Sabrina and Simone had no luck that day either and, like me, only saw ravens, nutcrackers, Gray Jays, and the fisher marten. However, it is interesting how quickly the mood can change. On Wednesday, both said that they didn't mind not seeing any lynxes in the first few days, as it's just nature and no one can train the animals. On Thursday, however, both were not in such a good mood because they didn't see any lynxes, and I was like: HUH?!

On Friday, I drove Sabrina and Simone to their spots for the first time, and oh boy, I felt like it was their first workshop. They were so loud. Simone had his GoPro, which beeped all the time, Sabrina kept talking, and she even won the top prize.... she had set her alarm clock, which then rang, and I was like: Congratulations, you probably won't see anything today. When we arrived at their spot, where both of them wanted to sit today, Simone suddenly said that he would like to go to a different spot, and Sabrina wanted me to bring the meat closer to her tent. Of course, I didn't do that, so that was really such a stupid request 😁 When I wanted to take Simone to his tent, we got stuck in the snow for a moment, and I just thought: Shit. But Simone was a big help to me, and we quickly got out again. After I dropped him off, I actually ran into a coyote. A little too late, I thought. 😁

Today, I was at a different spot where I had to collect the tents that had been blown away by the wind, and I knew that I definitely wouldn't see anything (I was there for too short a time, and picking up the tents made me too loud), so I just sat there and waited.

I just came back from picking them up, and today Sabrina saw the fisher marten, nothing else... what a surprise. However, Simone was really lucky today and saw a lynx! Oh man, you can't imagine the pressure that fell off our shoulders, you could really feel it. Because if the customers don't see any lynxes within the first two days, they become very, very dissatisfied and show it. That's why I was so happy about the lynx sighting, and afterwards I was 'depressed' again, because the lynx was already there when I dropped off Simone and when I turned around to walk back to the car, the lynx came out and watched me, but since I didn't turn around again, I didn't see it unfortunately. However, Simone did have his lynx sighting today, and on the way back, I luckily saw a great gray owl, so I stopped and Sabrina's camera rattled like crazy. I have no idea what kind of camera she has, but it feels like it takes 30 pictures per second 😅

So it was a very successful day for both of them today.

Now it's time to shower, freshen up, and switch back from 'guide' mode to 'waiter' mode.

Until then.

Samuel