after a weekend trip to new haven, ct to see the yale gospel choir with one of the other corps members, i hurriedly gathered my big pack and day pack and hopped into a van headed to mohawk state forest for a week of learning basic trail work skills. wahoo! sunday night consisted of some fun and games and a tasty dinner...all the while discovering that i left my headlamp in my other backpack (good thing the full moon was this week).
just some background on the week, there are 24 of us from hawley, 10 corps members from the central crew, and 1 team leader for the berkshire crew, so the 35 of us are divided among 6 groups for adventures in learning trail work skills of rocks, drainage, tread, timber bridges, and new trail building. i'm finding that everything revolves around water. it's kind of cool : )
MONDAY
i woke up cozy in the cabin i shared with caleb and elysa. with all of my hustling and bustling around, i haven't actually been sleeping in my own bed much. i've gotten used to life in the bunkhouse and now find it rather strange to wake up in a different room (or tent) where i'm not surrounded by 23 other people. so, i digress, i woke up in my cozy cabin and got myself ready for a day of rock work. the day involved learning how to use a tool called a rock bar (basically a 17lbs lever) and trying (and sort of succeeding) to set a rock into this really messy steep, rocky, wet section. in the evening, we enjoyed a meal of stir fry with quinoa and peanut sauce. yummmmy! i didn't swipe leftovers soon enough though so i had to pack a lunch of a cheese and mustard sandwich. yum?
TUESDAY
i woke up thinking that there would be rain, but it hadn't started yet. my group (called the mule deers) went to a different trail to work on building a bog bridge from rustic timber. that's trailwork talk for putting a few logs (rustic timber) over a muddy section of trail (bog bridge) so it's easier to walk over. once we got to the work site, we had to carry these really heavy logs that had been cut to size and the bark removed over to the bridge area. that took a lot of effort! we used these tools called timber carriers which make it easier to move logs, but it still take quite a bit of elbow grease. then i worked with some others to finish setting the foundation for the bridge...which took longer than it should have.
lunch happened sometime in between; however, it was one of the worst lunches i've had in a while. not because of the food (my sandwich and apple were great!) but because of the torrentional downpour (and coldness). for a few hours after the rain, i lost a bit of my fine motor ability (i discovered that when i had trouble unbuttoning my pants as i was taking a pee break). that was a scary feeling, and it was only made worse by the fact that my work gloves were completely soaked and caked with mud. whenever i put my gloves on my hands would re-freeze...it was a bad cycle. i can say that i was wise to pack an extra pair of socks and enjoyed the luxury of being able to put them on in the middle of the day...it was amazing! i was most definitely covered in mud at the end of the day, but i enjoyed the feeling of knowing i did some good work. i learned about so many new tools and actually partook in the completion of one bog bridge. i am sure trail season will have many more to come...
Friday, April 30, 2010
Sunday, April 25, 2010
hawley nature camp highlights.
this week, all 24 of us pulled off an awesome 4-day nature camp for students during their april vacation (yes, our students get a week off in february AND april. not fair!). we had monday to prepare any last minute props and iron out details...
on tuesday, we welcomed 80 kindergarten-3rd graders to the state forest for two days of fun and learning! we had this overarching mystery going on throughout camp, so we began and ended our day with a skit related to the mystery. on tuesday, i was a group leader which meant i stayed with the same group of kids (the owls!) through the whole day. we went to 7 different stations and took breaks for snack and lunch. the day ended with some all camp skits and games.
on wednesday, i taught a station on recycled musical instruments. that was a blast! a lot of crafty work, but having kids make drums and kazoos and dance around to music that they make is just kind of awesome.
thursday and friday we hosted the older kids (4th grade-8th grade) at our site. some of them had been coming to hawley nature camp since they were in kindergarten, so it was great to learn about what they know already and build upon that knowledge. i was "camp director for the day" on thursday which meant i carried around a radio and a fancy clipboard. luckily, nothing bad happened...the biggest problem was some concern of afternoon storms, but we just moved activities in the pavilion space and that solved the issue! oh, i did arrange to have coffee made for the group leaders and teachers at lunch and baked them cookies so that they were still warm and gooey at the end of the day.
on friday i taught a lesson on energy conservation. the students became energy detectives after a brief discussion of what energy actually is...the lesson was awesome! they loved it.
i am so excited now for my job in california! i really enjoyed the week : ) next week, i'll be learning some basic work skills for trail work!
ps. today i spent some time outside learning how to properly hula hoop. i also did some handstands and played frisbee! great time spent outside : )
on tuesday, we welcomed 80 kindergarten-3rd graders to the state forest for two days of fun and learning! we had this overarching mystery going on throughout camp, so we began and ended our day with a skit related to the mystery. on tuesday, i was a group leader which meant i stayed with the same group of kids (the owls!) through the whole day. we went to 7 different stations and took breaks for snack and lunch. the day ended with some all camp skits and games.
on wednesday, i taught a station on recycled musical instruments. that was a blast! a lot of crafty work, but having kids make drums and kazoos and dance around to music that they make is just kind of awesome.
thursday and friday we hosted the older kids (4th grade-8th grade) at our site. some of them had been coming to hawley nature camp since they were in kindergarten, so it was great to learn about what they know already and build upon that knowledge. i was "camp director for the day" on thursday which meant i carried around a radio and a fancy clipboard. luckily, nothing bad happened...the biggest problem was some concern of afternoon storms, but we just moved activities in the pavilion space and that solved the issue! oh, i did arrange to have coffee made for the group leaders and teachers at lunch and baked them cookies so that they were still warm and gooey at the end of the day.
on friday i taught a lesson on energy conservation. the students became energy detectives after a brief discussion of what energy actually is...the lesson was awesome! they loved it.
i am so excited now for my job in california! i really enjoyed the week : ) next week, i'll be learning some basic work skills for trail work!
ps. today i spent some time outside learning how to properly hula hoop. i also did some handstands and played frisbee! great time spent outside : )
Sunday, April 18, 2010
hold your hardhats.
it's been a little while since i've written, but life has been really busy! this is the point when my blog switches from sharing conversations with kindergartners to sharing the amazing experiences i'll have becoming a super buff trail building machine! okay, it won't be that dramatic, but i'm excited to have a shift in my responsibilities.
when i got back from break, we jumped right into trail season. with few hours of sleep and not enough time to unpack and repack, all of us hopped into vans for a 2-day crew leader retreat at this beautiful place called Nobleview. it was a great training filled with fun memories and adventures. we all bonded over the lack of running, potable water (yay outhouses!), and a few of us even slept out on a roof so we could gaze at the stars all night and wake up to a beautiful sunrise over some distant city nestled in the hills.
when we returned to hawley, we had a few more hours of training, some rushed unpacking and repacking, a round of showers at the neighboring state forest since our water situation is a bit precarious, and a night of sleep in our own beds.
in the morning, 6 of us packed up into a minivan (with a trailer!) to head out on some site visits in the central part of the state with the conservation coordinator. these were the sites that the 6 of us would be crew leading, so it was great to get a visual sense of the work we'd be doing and our accommodations. i loved being able to see so many beautiful locations in such a short time! we stayed at a mass audobon site called wachusett meadow. they had adorable cats and goats! it was good practice to cook a meal off site (note to self, never cook sweet potato burritos on hitch! or...minimize the ingredients!) and stay the night in tents. i just bought a new sleeping bag and love it!
my site visit was a little strange...i didn't actually meet the person i'd be working with, so i didn't learn a whole lot about the exact project. we got some insight onto the philosophical foundations of trail work, but that wasn't what i was expecting at all...i think my project will be a lot of fun, but the actual site visit was a tad awkward...
then, this week we broke up into different groups (and were joined by the central and berkshire trail building crews) for specialty skills. while other folks were learning how to wield chainsaws and use a high line pulley system called a grip hoist, i learned how to be a carpenter! we actually build 60 feet of boardwalk in two sections on a boggy/marshy part of a trail at the clarksburg state park. we learned everything from site planning and layout to how to use power tools to finishing up and making sure the site looked like we were never there (except for the amazing boardwalk!). i discovered the joy of a good pair of work pants (there are so many pockets!!) and the importance of dressing in layers. it was really hard work, but it made me look forward to a summer of meaningful work!
: )
by the way, an update on the job situation, i accepted an instructor position at the high trails outdoor science school in southern california for the 2010-2011 school year! should be exciting!!!
when i got back from break, we jumped right into trail season. with few hours of sleep and not enough time to unpack and repack, all of us hopped into vans for a 2-day crew leader retreat at this beautiful place called Nobleview. it was a great training filled with fun memories and adventures. we all bonded over the lack of running, potable water (yay outhouses!), and a few of us even slept out on a roof so we could gaze at the stars all night and wake up to a beautiful sunrise over some distant city nestled in the hills.
when we returned to hawley, we had a few more hours of training, some rushed unpacking and repacking, a round of showers at the neighboring state forest since our water situation is a bit precarious, and a night of sleep in our own beds.
in the morning, 6 of us packed up into a minivan (with a trailer!) to head out on some site visits in the central part of the state with the conservation coordinator. these were the sites that the 6 of us would be crew leading, so it was great to get a visual sense of the work we'd be doing and our accommodations. i loved being able to see so many beautiful locations in such a short time! we stayed at a mass audobon site called wachusett meadow. they had adorable cats and goats! it was good practice to cook a meal off site (note to self, never cook sweet potato burritos on hitch! or...minimize the ingredients!) and stay the night in tents. i just bought a new sleeping bag and love it!
my site visit was a little strange...i didn't actually meet the person i'd be working with, so i didn't learn a whole lot about the exact project. we got some insight onto the philosophical foundations of trail work, but that wasn't what i was expecting at all...i think my project will be a lot of fun, but the actual site visit was a tad awkward...
then, this week we broke up into different groups (and were joined by the central and berkshire trail building crews) for specialty skills. while other folks were learning how to wield chainsaws and use a high line pulley system called a grip hoist, i learned how to be a carpenter! we actually build 60 feet of boardwalk in two sections on a boggy/marshy part of a trail at the clarksburg state park. we learned everything from site planning and layout to how to use power tools to finishing up and making sure the site looked like we were never there (except for the amazing boardwalk!). i discovered the joy of a good pair of work pants (there are so many pockets!!) and the importance of dressing in layers. it was really hard work, but it made me look forward to a summer of meaningful work!
: )
by the way, an update on the job situation, i accepted an instructor position at the high trails outdoor science school in southern california for the 2010-2011 school year! should be exciting!!!
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
midwest homecoming.
last week, i went back to the midwest during our mid-term break. after a hectic week at school and at camp (8 more people changes everything we do!), it was great to hop on a plane and get away. here are some of the highlights of my adventures:
- meeting my niece, olivia, in chicago!
- playing rock band with my family
- taking several walks at sunset
- going to the gym with my parents
- unofficial take your daughter to work day!
- getting a ride from linda lawther to ypsilanti (hooray for the kiwanis family bonds!)
- night out with friends at the corner brewery
- finding a toad friend on a beer run
- hanging out on the roof at chateau moxie
- seeing good friends and professors : )
- going contra dancing!!
there were lots of wonderful moments...thanks all for a refreshing trip home!
- meeting my niece, olivia, in chicago!
- playing rock band with my family
- taking several walks at sunset
- going to the gym with my parents
- unofficial take your daughter to work day!
- getting a ride from linda lawther to ypsilanti (hooray for the kiwanis family bonds!)
- night out with friends at the corner brewery
- finding a toad friend on a beer run
- hanging out on the roof at chateau moxie
- seeing good friends and professors : )
- going contra dancing!!
there were lots of wonderful moments...thanks all for a refreshing trip home!
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