Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Sheryl Crow

We were lucky enough to see Sheryl Crow at the Usana Ampitheater last night during her Detours Tour. It was worth the drive from Wyoming because she put on a great concert. She sang most of my favorite older songs (e.g., "Leaving Las Vegas" and "Strong Enough") and some of her new songs.

It made me think back to all the concerts I've been to, which doesn't amount to very many: Sting, Dave Mathew's Band, Doc Watson, Broken Valley Roadshow, Southern Culture on the Skids, Natalie Merchant, The Police (twice), Brooks Williams, Sawyer Brown, and Alabama (yes, I am from Spanish Fork and I was only seven years old but managed to get all their autographs).

My favorite show of all time: The Police. We won front row tickets to their Seattle concert in 2007 and saw them again five days later in Denver. We hopped a plane to Seattle, ate lunch in the Space Needle, and went to the show that night. When I went back to work the next day, I had to brag that I saw Sting's underwear. Yes, I was close enough to read the label and, in case you're wondering, he was wearing Calvin Klein (although I couldn't tell you if they were boxers or briefs).

Sunday, August 17, 2008

Flaming Gorge

Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area is a special place for me. I moved to Dutch John, Utah the day after I graduated from high school and continued to go back every summer until I graduated from college. Something continues to draw me back. I have worked on the Ashley National Forest in three different positions and the place continues to intrigue me. You never know what you'll see in some of the seldom visited spots.

I had the opportunity to go there this weekend for a friend's wedding ceremony. We visited the Green River and hiked up the trail. I saw some wild turkeys near Little Hole which I never saw any of the years I worked there. I guess it could be due to the fact that the wildland fire that burned around Dutch John and Little Hole changed some of the habitat.

It made me think about all the crazy stunts we used to do after work at night (most of which I can't mention here). In a town of less than one hundred people you come up with some crazy stuff. How do you stay up until five in the morning and then go to work at six? I guess in a way maybe my "habitat" has also changed over the past ten years. I've found new and amazing places to frequent, but this place remains among my favorite places in the world.

Sunday, August 10, 2008

What I've Been Up To...

Since this is my first ever blog, I'm writing about what I've been up to. I graduated from Snow College and Utah State University with a bachelor's degree in Forest Management. I've been working for the U.S. Forest Service in the Western United States since then in Utah, Montana, Nevada, and now Wyoming. After jobs in wildliand firefighting, helitack, forest health monitoring, and trail crew, I settled down as an Environmental Coordinator for the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest. It's one of those jobs no one knows how to explain, but basically means I do a lot of editing and writing of environmental documents and responding to appeals and litigation on projects that the Forest Service does to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act. I'm currently working on the Wild and Scenic Rivers EIS for the National Forests in Utah. It has been very interesting, but means I get to work in Salt Lake City most of the time.

I love my job with the Forest Service, but it does little for the creative side of my brain so I find myself writing books. This summer I met some literary agents at the Jackson Hole Writer's Conference and have started sending out queries to some of them. To see more about my writing, check out my website at http://www.amycbarker.com/.

In 1998, I got married to my fellow trail crew partner and wildland firefighter Walt. He fought fires for the past ten years and is currently in the process of a career change.