Still here

Quick post to let you know I'm still around.  I haven't posted lately for several reasons:

1. I upgraded my internet connection from dial up to DSL and was out of commission for over a week in early April as I made the switch.
   
   
2. I was busy getting my hayfield and pasture (and my neighbor's pasture) harrowed. I also burnt my ditches and helped my neighbor burn the part of his field that couldn't be harrowed.
   
   
3. I had a full week of class for census work.  The Census hired and trained me to be a crew leader for the next phase of the census: Non-Response FollowUp.
   
   I will be in charge of a team of 18 people who in May will go to the addresses that did not return their census questionnaire and get the information about those addresses in order to complete the census accurately. Yup... easily the hardest task in the entire census procedure.
   
   I was assigned the largest and most difficult district in our county (and part of the next county).  My area starts at the Canadian border and goes south past the north end of Flathead Lake..  My area is at least three to four times physically larger than the remaining seven districts combined.
   
   I haven't determined its length but I expect my area is over 100 miles long. I have large maps to help me find the addresses. 65 maps in fact. If I tried to hang all the maps on all the walls in my house I wouldn't have enough walls.
   
   If you look at the data on the official census web site (http://2010.census.gov/2010census/take10map/)... right now Montana has a return rate of 65%.  Flathead County has a return rate of 58%.  My area has two sections and their return rates are 26% and 37%.  Like I said - and my bosses said - I have the most difficult areas in our district.
   
   But I am up for the challenge!