This isn’t my typical blog post. No wildlife, fish sketches, or hiking anecdotes. This is an explanation for my recent sparsity in writing.

For those of you who don’t know, I decided to go back to school in January of 2018 to work towards a second bachelors/teaching license for Life Sciences for grades 9-12. This summer break, I was able to write quite freely. Even last spring allowed for ample time to share at least a weekly tidbit about earths creatures. This semester however, my final before student teaching in the spring, has been nothing short of chaotic with 24 hour days consisting of 36 hours of to-do’s. So, I haven’t been able to post as much as usual. Neither has my wife, aka @teacherwhohikes, who is also swamped with life as a high school English teacher.

All of that being said, the second season of the podcast is still under works. In fact, Richard will be in Minnesota next week when we will be recording several of the episodes. Despite the flurry of things impossible to name and categorize in any coherent manner blowing in our faces at all times as of late, we have carved out time to work on research, interviews, writing, and production work for what is guaranteed to be an astonishingly better second act of what was an admittedly okay-ish first season. We’re tackling topics from dinosaur extinctions and life on other planets, to secret military operations and the absurdity of jellyfish. It’s going to be epic.

As far as writing goes, expect more from me as the weeks roll on and I gain my composure enough to sit down for a brief moment to share observations and facts about life in the natural world. I’ve also been leading nature hikes and programs at a local park, the next of which will be on 10/27 as an in person version of the Twilight Zone episode of season 1. If you live any where near central MN, you should come on by.

Before I get back to the nightly grind that is my study and try-to-stay-sane time, I want to put out a call to anyone (naturalist, hikers, biologist, or every day people-ers) who would be interested in joining the writing team for The Wild Life. Not paid or anything like that, but simply and importantly a contributing or guest writer. If you are interested, even for just one post, email me at devonlbowker@gmail.com

With that, I say “good night”.

Except not for me. I’ll be up for awhile.

P.S. In a shameless plug, please remember that The Wild Life is listener, reader, and viewer supported. If you believe in what we are doing, you can show your support by becoming a patron here. Any amount truly helps us to do what we do. It helps remind us that the work is worth it, allow us to take the time to do the research and interviews (which is incredibly time consuming, I might add. For real, one episode takes at least 20 hours of research, emailing, calling, and interviewing to prepare for.), and allows us to fund the website (about $300 per year) and podcast expenses (equipment upgrades, editing resources, etc). If you choose to become a patron, I will love you always—plus you get perks and merch.