Seasons greetings everyone!
If you do not know me very well, you may think (understandably so) that I am making outlandish comparisons. But, in 2024 I did pick dead rotting fish out of gill nets, as well as live young bullheads that stung like the devil, and I did extricate live snapping turtles from trap nets. I did that for my career, and I ended that career in 2025 for various reasons. Biggest leap of faith in my life, and on the brink of 2026 I have no regrets.
I had made the decision a long time ago. For one, even when I was in my twenties I did not envision myself doing this kind of work when I was over 60. My balance and strength aren't what they used to be, and I was one unfortunate moment away from disability. Hands dipped in frozen waters, gripping heavy nets, were giving me the signals of arthritis. I didn't want to lose the ability to play music.
And, a new supervisor. My first negative performance review in 31 years on the job, during the year my husband died. The day he sent me the "Performance Improvement Plan", a real gut punch, at 4:30 PM I announced my plans for retirement in April 2025, just before another cold miserable field season.
No regrets whatsoever. I learned to plow the driveway with Debbie, my side by side that Joe had convinced me to buy the previous October. I don't remember much else. Grief and change do that.
The week I retired I was invited to play music at Sandstone Arts in the Park, and was also invited to Root River Roundup, a cool gathering of alternative fisher people. A weekend earlier I went to see Air Supply at Mystic Lake Casino with my long time friends Jana and Val. Good vibes!
Root River was a blast, although I started out my journey with a flat tire and a car packed with camping equipment 4 miles from my house. I made it there just after dark, and some good people got my tent set up. I wasn't going to fish, but I ended up catching 3 species. On that Sunday after I left, I visited my uncle LeRoy and aunt Cindy in Winona. It had been many years!
At some point as I retired I had applied for a job on a whim, a Spongy Moth surveyor with the MN Department of Agriculture. Temporary, intermittent job but it sounded fun. At first I got the disappointing news that the job had been filled But the last week in May, I heard that the guy who was to take the job had had a knee injury and could not do it. Good luck on my part, bad luck on his. I also had someone intervene on my behalf and write an awesome letter of recommendation.
That job was so fun! Driving around northern Pine and southern Carlton counties, setting moth traps at predetermined places in June-July, then removing them in September. My crew leader called me the "Moth Queen", I probably got more moths than anyone in the northern region.
There were also...adventures. My brakes went out on the second week of the job, also needed new tires. Job mileage paid for that which I needed anyway, and I also became good friends with Jim at Complete Auto in Moose Lake. When I got a flat tire on the Soo Line Trail the second to last day of my job he fixed it for free.
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