The training class was held at the Whitefish city library at 1 pm and ran until 4 pm. A beautiful day for a bicycle ride and so I rode the 15 miles to the library. I don't get up to Whitefish but a few times a year, usually when I catch the train or meet people who come visit me via train.
As I rode nearer Whitefish I could see the lower half of the ski runs on Big Mountain above town were bare of snow.
Building! Building! Building! In addition to the brand new hospital being built on the south side of Whitefish at the intersection of US 93 and MT 40, a field near MT 40 now has quite a number of large houses. Initially I thought they were condos or townhouses as they are large and are close together, but as I rode past they appeared to be individual houses. Usually houses this size are on large lots, like 5 or 10 acres, and yes I saw a number of them elsewhere today.
One I couldn't believe was a house as it was huge. It looked to be three or more stories tall with windows upon windows. Initially I thought it must be an inn, but the location wasn't right for an inn. A house was next this large one, or was it a large trailer? It looked tiny compared to this monster house. I guess the owners needed something to live in while their monster house was being built.
Anyway, this collection of houses outside of Whitefish each looked to be two or three times the size of my little shack. Who needs all that space for a house? I don't get it - the bigger the place the more one fills it with stuff.
I was plenty early to the training session so I rode around Whitefish. Whitefish is a touristy town, especially in the winter during the skiing season. But there a number of galleries and shops to sell stuff during the summer season. I found the new Indian restaurant which I want to try someday. I made it up a few streets on a hill overlooking Whitefish Lake before having to go to the library.
I imagine there were 60-70 people at the training session. All were women except for seven of us men. I think 90% of the people collected social security as the average age appeared to be in the 60s. So I felt like an odd duck.
It appeared a number of people either had a poor short term memory, else they were like teenagers and weren't listening all the time. A number of times they asked questions about things that were explained earlier.
The session covered the roles of the various election judges:
- greeter
- register judge
- poll book judge
- provisional judge
- ballot or M100 judge
- automark judge
This election the officials consolidated 46 voting precincts into 30, and 26 of the 30 are new locations. This is because the new law mandated handicap access and most of the old places were not handicap accessible. Say what you will about the 2000 Florida debacle but some good came out of it in new laws requiring handicap access and provisional ballots for those who don't have id or for some reason there is a question about their legitimacy to vote.
Most every group has one person with many comments and questions, and this group had that one person. A 50-ish man who had reading glasses on the end of his nose that he looked over when asking questions. He has some good comments but then he seemed to get overly concerned about how the ballots would be handled, how the seals worked, how the machines would work and if they could be tampered with. Questions after question after concern. He felt the Ohio 2004 election had many irregularities that we need to avoid. After the election presenter answered his concern twice he said "maybe I am the only one who doesn't understand it", to which the majority of the people chimed in, "we all understand it".
I am glad he is not on my "team". Election day will be long enough without listening to all his concerns all day long. Afterwards a woman on my team said at the next table people on his team were passing notes to one another asking "please, he's not on our team?"
On my team is a woman who smokes. A rule is that the election judges must remain in the building at all times during the election. If they leave the building they cannot return and be an election judge anymore. Smoking is banned in all public buildings so this will be hard for the judges who are smokers. I guess she plans on wearing a nicotine patch. We'll see what mood she will be in by the end of the long day.
I met all but one woman on my team. This missing woman apparently is the only one on my team who had been a judge previously. My initial impression is that the people on my team seem to be nice.
After the session was over we decided which role we wanted to take. Carmen is the chief judge. Tom is a 50-ish man with a short grey ponytail. The men-with-ponytails fad is long over, and other than my friend Darrel, most older men with ponytails look silly. Tom volunteered to be the M100 & automark judge as he works with computers and felt he would be best in that position. I didn't tell anyone I was a former IBMer. Fine, he can judge the computers.
I then took "provisional judge". Now if everyone has their id and there are no challenges to their ability to vote, my job probably will be quiet. On the other hand, it could be stressful if they are not registered properly and I need to resolve their ability to vote. I think the others sighed a sigh of relief as I don't think they wanted the provisional judge position.
Rene is the smoker and will be the greeter. She did have concerns the greeter would be on their feet all day as they work the line to ensure people are in the correct line for their precinct and have the correct id. Rene looks to be of social security age so I said I would switch and be greeter if she felt it would be too hard on her. "No! No! I don't want to be provisional judge!" So she will be the greeter.
Jean and Pam will be Register and Poll book judges. These are the people who look up the names in the register and track the ballot numbers for regular, provisional, spoiled ballots in the poll book.
After we settled on the roles, the women decided we need to determine who will bring what food, as we can't leave the place to go eat. Tom volunteered to bring a buffalo stew in a crockpot. Rene said she doesn't cook and volunteered to bring rolls - before I could volunteer. I forgot what the other women are bringing, I think one is bringing a salad, another chocolate. The women didn't want chips or pizza as they didn't want to gain 10 lbs. But... chocolate... yup, women!
Then the women looked at me - "what are you bringing?"
"Umm... I don't really cook."
Rene piped up, "Too late, I am already bringing the rolls!"
I volunteered to bring fruit and vegetables. Carmen then asked if I was an vegetarian. "No." She thought I might be a vegetarian as I am thin and look healthy.
With that settled I asked where the armory was located and got directions. It was outside, SE, of town. With how the roads are laid out it appears the fastest way to get from my place to the armory is to go through town then back out to the armory. Otherwise I would have to zig-zag on backcountry gravel roads to reach the armory.
When I got home I let my "girls" out of the corral and into the yard. I had given them hay earlier and lots of bread in the morning. I even gave them a package of tortillas. They didn't care for the tortillas but I noticed tonight all the tortillas were eaten. I guess they wanted to sniff and taste test them first.
Right after I let the cattle into the yard I got some boards and worked on a wobbly section where the yard fence attached to the hayfield fence. I doubted the heifer got through this area yesterday when she got out into the ditch. But how else did she escape?
As I worked on the fence from the ditch one heifer came and ate grass on the other side of the fence. The rest of the herd was still by the house. A short time later I heard the rattle of wire and looked up to see the heifer doing the limbo under the wire gate to get out of the yard. So that's how she got out yesterday!!! The wire gate wasn't as tight as I had thought. She had gotten her head under the wire and bending down and lifting her neck she slipped under the gate which went back into position after she exited.
How and why she thought of doing this, I don't know. The gravel driveway is on the other side of the gate so she shouldn't have accidentally discovered this while reaching for grass on the other side of the fence.
I quickly opened the gate and herded her back inside. As I went to close the gate she approached again. "Shoo!" A minute later she came again in a beeline to get to and under the gate. "Shoo! Shoo!" She got mad at me. She made some sort of noise, swung around and ran off twisting her body and kicking her rear legs in the air like cattle do when they are annoyed. *sigh*
Since she went and rejoined the herd by the house I quickly went and got my pickup and parked it in front of the gate. That put an end to her jail-breaking ways.
I am glad to have figured out the mystery on how she got out yesterday. And relieved she hadn't hopped the fence to get out. If she had hopped the fence that could have been trouble down the road as that is my standard fence height.
I did see a smaller heifer had gotten inside the fence around my well shed. *sigh* I watched and after she ate the grass down inside she sniffed but did not chew on the shed's asphalt shingles. Then she wanted to get out but forgot how she got in. She pushed the fence down a little and tried to walk over it but got her leg in the fence. She reminded me of a cat trying to shake something off its paw. But a heifer is a little larger than a cat. She got her leg free but was still inside the fence. On her second attempt she got out. I had to later go and fix the fence and put it back up.
The cattle went around and around eating the grass down. One more day and that will be all as the cattle have trimmed the grass down pretty well. They don't seem to care for the foxtail, and I will use the lawn mower on that and also to even out the odds and ends of taller grass (mainly next to the manure dropped earlier).
When it came time to go back in the corral most approached me as if I had something for them. I had to be a "meany" and turn them around and herd them back to the corral. After a few steps they went into a run and ran back into the corral. Two nights in a row they easily went back into the corral. Either they are fast learners, or I got lucky two nights in a row.
I did notice my pile of rocks collected from my walks across the hayfield was scattered. For now I dump the rocks against the corner of the barn where the addition sticks out. I don't know why the cattle spread the rock pile out - maybe mad at me for not letting them out into the yard when I was gone at the training session?
The stump in the SW pasture is still smoldering. Tonight as I rode on the road I could faintly smell the sweet smoke from the stump. Yesterday I could still see smoke rising from the hole. Tonight the wind was from the right direction to push the smoke towards the road, and the air temperature or whatever was right to hold the smoke near the ground and not let it rise up and away.
The other night the moon was a dark orange. Not red - orange. The full moon was last Saturday so it was past full moon. Still, quite pretty hanging low in the SE sky late at night.
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