About Me — Kim Zuch
I’m a dog mom, small business owner, volunteer, and I work outside
Hi! My name is Kim and I joined Medium in mid-October. I like to write, but I’ve never really written consistently. Most of my writing is for work, which is fun, but I don’t get to choose my topics or content. I’ve written fewer than 20 stories so far, but I’m having fun with it and I enjoy the opportunity to choose my topics and explore different ideas.
I Have a Blended Family I was born in Las Vegas, Nevada. My dad worked in the oil field so we moved around a lot. My mom and dad eventually separated. A year later, my sister and I moved to Vernal, Utah with my dad and step-mom.
My dad died when I was 15. He had an aneurysm in his abdomen and he contracted a staph infection from the surgery. This was devastating to my family. As a teenager, I was barely learning how to live. I had no idea how to process death, especially one so close.
Life, as it always does, goes on. My step-mom remarried a year later, to a man she and my dad had been friends with. It turns out his wife had also passed away recently, so they had something in common.
My family was not Mormon, but my friends always joked that we would make a good Mormon family based on the number of brothers, sisters, step-brothers, step-sisters, half-brothers, and half-sisters I had.
College and Beyond Once I graduated high school, I was accepted into Utah State University (USU). I spent the first year living at home in Vernal, attending the local extension to get some of the basic classes out of the way. The rest of my college career was spent on the USU campus in Logan, Utah.
I graduated with a double major in Parks and Recreation and Anthropology. My first “job” outside of college was an internship at the Center For Southwest Studies at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado. I then moved on to a Park Ranger Aide job at Dead Horse Point State Park in Southeastern Utah.
The Park Ranger Aide job turned into a full-time position. When the Park Naturalist quit, I interviewed for and was offered that position, which I held for seven years.
I met the man that is now my husband while I was the Park Naturalist at Dead Horse Point State Park. He was born and raised in Northern Nevada and wanted to make his way back to that area. We moved from Moab, Utah to Yerington, Nevada in September 2011. That was a huge adjustment for me (almost like a culture shock), but we made it work. We lived in Nevada for a year before I started to feel like I was getting to know the area, meet people, and get used to my new job.
Today My husband and I both work full time. We have two dogs — a Golden Retriever named Charlie and an Australian Shepherd/Border Collie mix named Sunny. The dogs are each around four years old and keep us busy. They love their walks and their “adventure rides” in the truck, even if we just drive them around town. They both love treats of any kind, but their absolute favorite treats are the peanut butter flavored biscuits from Trader Joe’s.
I serve as a volunteer board member and treasurer for a local non-profit organization with a focus on environmental education. We bring students out to their local river and teach them about the watershed, nonpoint-source pollution, ecology, and more. Over the years, many of these students have grown up to follow environmental science-oriented career paths.
I have my own small soap-making business. I love to read (one of the reasons I love Medium), and I learned to knit by watching YouTube tutorials last winter. When a friend told me about writing on Medium, I thought the last thing I needed was another hobby. Since I like to write, I signed up and got started. I’m excited to see where I can go and I really do love reading and learning from other authors on this platform.
Top Stories
Stories About My Dogs