On Monday our crew worked at a site in Ravenna that had already been cleared, and all we had to do was "slam plants"....before lunch we planted about 125! Then we returned early to EC to pot plants from the nursery...a rather relaxing day.
On Tuesday we went back to Tyee Valley, by the airport, to put finishing touches on the site we spent about 5 days at a couple weeks ago.....meaning we moved 100 yards of mulch!!! 5 dumptrucks worth...hauling it down the slope to the 1,600 plants we had recently planted and composted...what a workout! We were all sooooo tired by that afternoon, definitely our hardest day yet...but we still found ways to entertain each other and push through, usually in fits of laughter :)
Then on Wednesday we had our first "education day", which means we stayed at the office to LEARN!! We started with ecology of the Pacific Northwest, then went on a field trip to a natural history museum by the UW, the Burke Museum. And for the afternoon we were trained by the volunteer program staff, for our first VOLUNTEER EVENT!!!
So...what this means is n Thursday we were in charge of managing over 200 volunteers for the day! They were REI store managers, in town from all over the country for a conference in Seattle. With one other corps member we were in charge of a smaller group of 30, to work on a specific piece of land in Dearborn Park. We had to lead them through the day, teach about invasive plants, how to use tools, safety, etc. We were all kind of nervous about the day, to have to speak in front of a large group of adults who already knew about the outdoors....but it was really fun in the end! It was nice to supervise and lead, but not work...mostly making sure they were pulling the right plants out of the ground, and staying safe. It made me realize how much I'd learned already, as I tought them about restoration techniques, etc. Unfortunately it was our first day of real RAIN, so before they even arrived we had spent the morning on site, soaked, and cold...pretty much what we'd been expecting from Seattle, but hadn't experienced until then. The weather has been amazing the past 6 weeks!! Now were looking at 49 degrees and rain for the next few weeks, woo-hooo....
So then Friday was another ed day, and it was awesome!! Because the volunteer event ran long on Thursday, so we didn't start until 9 am, and got an hour lunch break! What a treat :)
And our newest tradition is to play soccer after work on Fridays, so I played for a while, then had dinner with my friend Nick. As I mentioned, we're gonna be house mates soon!! So while he cooked, I actually did some deep cleaning on the the kitchen which was quite disgusting, lol...hopefully in the 2 weeks before I move in it doesn't get too trashed again :) While there I also got to meet a few more future roomies, and they seemed nice. I'm excited to move in!!!!
And speaking of exciting things, my Mom and Veronica are on their way!! I just spoke with them as they arrived at Yellowstone park, but had to hang up quite suddenly as a buffalo was attacking the car (my car!)...let's hope they arrive in one piece...
Also cool, next week there will be a reporter from The Seattle Times coming out to the work site with us! She will work with our crew pulling ivy for the day, and then interview us about our corps member experience. We'll be famous!! I'm pretty excited that EC is getting this kind of attention, and honored that our crew was picked to represent the organization...
And one final note, I was put in charge of creating a "day in the life" slideshow/movie for EC, to put on the website. It will be finished in the next few days, and I'll definitely post it on here, so you can see what a typical day looks like :)
Cold and rainy here. Sending my love!!!!!!!!
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