Well, it’s only been eight hours since Edna started her special on waffles, and I think It’s safe to say that  most folks are sick of them already. Waffles are a little like Fair food- you get a hankering for them, but after a couple of servings, you’re good till next year. That’s just editorial commentary. Make of it what you will.

That Game has been keeping Mr Singh and the other Forest Service rangers busy. He came by the museum to visit and his phone rang repeatedly. He joked that he initially cussed people taking cellphones camping, then, with the addition of GPS, it made his job easier. Now, even the GPS isn’t much help versus the human power of obliviousness. “Fortunately,” he said “This company wants to make more money that it loses, and we are discussing with them how continued coverage in this area might be very expensive in the long run.”

Currently, the Forest Service is doing trail maintenance through out the area, including some new wildlife bypasses in order to let animals pass under roads to avoid accidents. One issue that had come up last year  were badgers trying to use these spaces to trap other animals, but hopefully by making the passages larger, issues of wildlife aggression can be subverted.

I asked him about our local situation with the badgers and Singh sighed. “Preservation is critical, but so is safety. We are put in a difficult position, as we know now that past ways of dealing with them were actually very inhumane. Catching and relocating, however, would only spread and increase the problem, and culling is something we would all like to avoid. Currently, we are looking at controlling their population via sterilizations, like is done with feral cat colonies. However, there are ethical considerations here too, though this may be the best route, long term.”

I asked Mr Singh if he would like to go to Edna’s and grab lunch, but he indicated the Edna had grabbed him as soon as he had parked, gifted him with a box of waffles “For charity” and vanished back inside the diner. “I think she has maybe finally lost it. But, I guess this happens to everyone when they get a new appliance. We got a new blender and I swear I’m going to be drinking weird smoothies for the next month. With a new blender, everything in the fridge is a potential smoothie. So, Good luck around here with the waffle irons.”