weminuche audubon | Subalpine Design

January 21, 2020February 13, 2023

Looking Back, 2019 in Review

It’s easy to get right back into the daily routine and not take the time to look back and reflect on the work that was done in the last year. Before the first month of 2020 flies by, let’s take a little peek at Subalpine Design’s projects from last year and where we spent our time.

Red Silk Essentials
For the fourth straight year in a row Red Silk Essentials, by far, kept us the busiest with a wide range of active projects that we manage for the brand from composing e-newsletters on mailchimp to updating Amazon content and a lot of the in between like photographing and packaging design. In 2019, Red Silk updated its essential oil product line to be exclusively organic and expanded its offering of pre-diluted roll-ons, diffusers and carrying case options. The gemstone water catalog grew with more products as well. This meant both the website and the Amazon store kept up a steady demand for new imagery.

Websites
In the last update about the business, it felt as if I’d gotten off track by focusing on website design. While Subalpine does continue to maintain and update a handful of websites for clients, no longer do I try to keep on top of all of the trends. Usually working within a theme, I have very little to do with css anymore. There have been no new web creations, only maintenance: product or blog posts, backups/updates, plug-in configuration, or even server migrations. Art & Framing Center of Pagosa Springs and the Weminuche Audubon Society were some of the websites supported in 2019. Personally, our website(s) moved into the cloud with AWS, and we added an SSL certificate.

Seasonal Educator
Since 2017, I’ve also volunteered with Audubon Rockies’ Four Mile Ranch Environmental Education Program and posted briefly about it. This fall they asked me to become a part of the seasonal staff; so from about August to October, I put in 100 hours as a Seasonal Educator, primarily visiting the second grade classrooms to prepare the students for their field trips where they learned about both terrestrial insects and aquatic macro-invertebrates. When I wasn’t leading with our talented team of volunteers, I was able to guide visits from Kinders and 4th Graders. To some degree, my skills as a designer were put to use, creating a poster for volunteer recruitment, photographing ranch visits, and re-formatting the Volunteer Training Manual, which is still a work in progress.

NOLS Wilderness First Aid
Moving into the staff position with Audubon required at least a certification in basic First Aid and CPR. It just so happened that a NOLS Wilderness First Aid/CPR class was offered in August in Pagosa! I’ve wanted to take this or the Wilderness First Responder course for over 20 years—since I was active on a Search & Rescue team back in 1998. You bet I took this class and certified. The goal now is to keep the certification up to date, especially if I continue to work with the Four Mile Program. Personally, it was good to have the refresher as most of our vacation and exploring time is spent in remote areas, far from medical support.

What’s Ahead in 2020?
It seems Amazon content will continue to be a focus. There are some new updates set to publish in a few days that I plan to write about in a separate post. I’m sure there will be websites that need some help.

In 2019, I started sharing illustrations on this website, and this year I introduced you to Lou. There’s currently a new Lou sketch in the works with a long list of more ideas and inspiration streaming from her. A goal last year was to draw more regularly, preferably daily. In some ways this is a personal goal, but it blurs into the business realm as soon as you start exploring Subalpine’s portfolio. With a lot of the businesses I’ve worked with, we’ve created logos by either drawing on the computer, a tablet or even on real paper. So I figure it’s a good skill to practice. With the new year, I found a new approach and have successfully drawn at least 14 out of 16 days, planning to post more about that soon. Also there are sketches in the works that will be the first forays into serious watercolor. I’ve invested in a nice, small kit. Now I need to create some paintings and play with technique.

And who knows? There’s a whole year ahead, plenty of possibility.

April 2, 2018February 13, 2023

Conserving the Best of The Rockies

Lest you think it’s all arts and crafts these days, I dedicated a good part of my Spring and Fall of 2017 teaching Environmental Education to Kindergartners-Fourth Graders.

Not so many years ago when I worked for the Southwest Land Alliance, I met and worked with Mrs. Hershey, the landowner and amazing conservationist who granted an easement on her property and fostered this Audubon program. In a small town, the connections were deeper than that; and over time and space, became more distant than ever.

In too short a time, I’d forgotten about the educational program that was being developed at the same time I helped conserve other properties, nearby. I had a zen moment [they call it a flashback] of the ED of the Land Trust hiking along with me on those very trails, and saying that someday, maybe I’d be back to share my knowledge of the San Juans with its Youth.

Over a decade later, I did volunteer and become an Environmental Educator; and it reconnected me with my Community in a way that I think I’ve needed for a long time. Unfortunately, I returned too late to rekindle a relationship with Mrs. Hershey who has passed on; but her memory and vision are alive and well on the Ranch.

I’d like to remind everyone that there are MANY worthy causes in YOUR community in need of your talents.

Audubon Rockies – Environmental Ed Program
http://rockies.audubon.org/four-mile-ranch

Four Mile Ranch Conservation
http://rockies.audubon.org/conservation/four-mile-ranch

Southwest Land Alliance
https://www.facebook.com/SouthwestLandAlliance/

January 6, 2012February 13, 2023

For the Birds

I attended the dinner Monday night to conclude the first annual Christmas Bird Count conducted by the local Weminuche Audubon Society. The event was a great success with around 50 volunteer counters who are eagerly awaiting for the data to be compiled and reported.

It was while working on a website for the Christmas Bird Count that made me think about the birds…or actually a tree for the birds. Our home is very small, and a point of contention each Season is if we can have a tree and how big. I dreamed up the brilliant idea of a full-size tree on the porch and decorated for the birds. So in November, I picked up a permit from the Forest Service and we went the day after Thanksgiving to find the perfect specimen. I set it up in a stand, tied it off so the wind wouldn’t knock it over, decorated it with lights and treats…

My ideas for ‘ornaments’ came from Wild Birds Unlimited. I first had tried to make my own version of the Grapefruit feeder. My idea was to use tangerine rinds which I’d juiced and used in the Thanksgiving cranberry sauce. I thought I could dry the rinds and hang them with birdseed in them. Unfortunately, not even a week into drying, they showed major signs of mold and I literally had to toss that idea.

The jays really liked these globe feeders. Now that I’m taking the tree down, I’ve moved them and no one has tried to eat from them. I’ll have to rethink where I hang them.

I had bought the two clear, globe-shaped feeders and some corn cobs at my local Feed Store. I also picked up a few pretty pine cones when we cut down our tree. After the birds picked away the corn from the cobs, I slathered them and the pine cones with peanut butter and rolled in seeds. I’ve had to ‘re-fill’ the ornaments about every week. That is, the ones my huskies didn’t eat.

Another decoration that did not live up to my expectation was the popcorn & cranberry strand. I popped 2 bags of old popcorn and strung them with cranberries. This didn’t make a very long strand, but I placed it on the tree to see what the birds would think. Never touched it. I think a husky tried to swallow it, broke the string and that was the end.

I’ve started to take down my decorations and put them away. I’ve left the tree for now, and I think I’ll refill it once more as I love to watch the birds: chickadees, jays, juncos (but the nuthatches won’t touch it). I really enjoyed it and may have started a new Christmas tradition. Next year, I would like to find more non-edible ornaments that will weather outdoors. That way I can decorate down where the huskies can reach and put the treats up high for the birds. Maybe I’ll look at making some sort of ornament out of recycled materials (like old plastics & metals…plenty of time to daydream for next year).

Disclaimer: This post has very little to do with Subalpine’s business. I must confess, I haven’t found the time yet to build a personal blog, and have a lot of neat ideas, projects & pictures to share. I’m hoping by posting this, it will kick start me to get something going in that direction. Call it a New Year’s Resolution.

December 16, 2011November 8, 2020

Weminuche Audubon Christmas Bird Count

I can’t talk about this project without talking about the person behind the project. I met Beverly Compton over three years ago through my work with the Southwest Land Alliance. Since then, she’s volunteered for my projects as I have hers. She even helped me have one of the most awesome summer jobs I’ve had in a long time when I worked with her at Pagosa Feed & Nursery.

Beverly’s asked me to help with web projects before, and for one reason or another the timing doesn’t always work out for the depth of work requested. I know I can always say no. And she knows she can always tell me that the project has found another avenue.

The timing was just right for me to spend my *Stay-cation slapping together a classic TwentyEleven theme packed with content and links which Beverly did a fantastic job of gathering.

*Stay-cation: While a storm moved through in October, we holed up in the house with the dogs for almost a week without ‘work’ obligations. Then Hubby and I took off a night to spend his birthday in Taos, NM.