WOW!!! The cages are starting to look like cages!! At least the breeding cage, anyway.
Still dodging heavy rains (we got 3" last night and over 2" the day before) and heat and humidity (heat index around 95 or so), Roger and Laurel are working away to put up the frame of the breeding cage. Thankfully Roger had the foresight to make sure the site had good drainage and Tim Nelson had the skills and equipment to make it happen, so the mud isn't hindering them. And it REALLY helps that the gravel was already laid on the floor of the cages, so there is NO mud at all there.
The heat and humidity have been harder to deal with than the rain. The guys have been starting about 8 AM but have to call it quits by 1 or 2 PM. (You can't blame them...they're volunteers and ages 72 and 83!!) But they keep coming every day, and it's starting to look like something fast.
Monday they were joined by Charlie Myhre of Fountain, MN. Charlie is a gopher trapper from Fountain and actually grew up near where I did. We've been doing deals in gophers for a while, and now he's willing to lend a hand on the cages as time allows. He should be back again this week to help speed things along.
My fiance, Hein Bloem, is back in Holland, and has been since May 23. I was skyping with him yesterday when Roger and Laurel came inside for an air conditioned lunch break, so they had a visit with Hein too. Roger assured him that they would make sure to leave some work for him so he couldn't just waltz back into the picture when all was said and done. Hein plans to return about July 14, after his immigration interview at the Consulate in Amsterdam.
