Week 23

The sun setting over the Chesapeake Bay.

And the Packers are in the Superbowl!! I got to watch the game last Sunday at a local bar in Cape Charles, and it was pretty great. The guy sitting next to me was a bit of a Bears fan, but he said he was happy for me when he saw how excited I was. Go Pack, go!

Last week involved a little bit of everything in terms of work load. 8:30am Monday morning found me out in the woods of Kiptopeke State Park cutting down more pine trees, the mercury in the thermometer (figuratively of course; my daily temperature source is Ruth’s Blackberry) showed a solid 22°F, rising to 30°F by the afternoon. I sawed and loaded trees into a dump truck all day, until that same dump truck carried my teammates and I home at 4pm.

An exterior view of my lodge home.

There were a few days that I got to work with Jerry, a 79 year old man who retired from his “real” job as a radar engineer 17 years ago and has been working here ever since. He reminds me so much of my Grandpa Maynard in many ways, so I had a great time every day that we worked together. The first day was a little stressful as it was the tree cutting day, and Jerry crowded me as I zipped the chainsaw through the miniature pines, trying to help by guiding them to the ground. It was a nice gesture, but all day I was terrified that I’d chop that sweet old man in half, or quarters or something. Fortunately, men that have been around that long seem to be immune to danger (at least the fatal kind), and no mishaps occurred to sever my ties with Jerry.

Jacquie and I worked with Jerry in the park’s workshop on Tuesday and Wednesday, which kept us out of the severe rain storms going on, as well as giving us a chance to help Jerry and soak up some of his endless knowledge and skills in the area of wood working. He taught us how to repair, create, and install sign posts for park signs. Being diabetic and also a food connoisseur, Jerry perpetually enjoys talking about food (most of which he’s not allowed to eat), which is perfect, because Jacquie and I too are extremist food talkers. The three of us got along famously, chopping, sanding, ratcheting, and drilling, all while maintaining a running commentary of what we had for breakfast, what we planned to have for lunch and dinner, as well as the best things we’d ever eaten, and the things we hoped to one day try. Let me tell you, on these days I was hungry long before the figurative lunch bell rang, but luckily Jerry shared his mid morning snack of peanut butter crackers with us – 2 for Jacquie, 2 for me, and 2 for him – and our new friendship was solidified through that communion.

My chest waders fit me not unlike a strapless ball gown, but
I believe it's the Kevlar chaps that give this outfit an element
of class...

Thursday and Friday we worked out at the Virginia Nature Conservancy, which is the organization that we’ll be spending the most time working with while we’re here in VA. For your entertainment, I’ve included a picture of me wearing chest waders, and since those weren’t ridiculous enough on their own, I put my Kevlar chaps on for good measure. We were building a boardwalk through a marsh, and my job was to saw off superfluous chunks of 4x4 sticking up from the muck, as well as the 2x6 planks to be walked on, which had to be staggered and fall in the middle of each post. We also made some repairs to an old part of the boardwalk that has started to dip down dangerously over time. The first part of the day was fun, but my feet became painfully frozen, because my socks had gotten wet walking through some grass in my tennis shoes before reaching the marsh and putting on my waders. During lunch, I changed my socks (I had an extra pair in my backpack, which I make sure to include every day now), and the afternoon went off without a hitch. Dry socks make all the difference; lesson learned.

We also helped to demo an old horse stall in a storage barn, which included some sledge hammer work, a lot of board de-nailing, and more chain sawing. My arm muscles are getting more and more used to using the chainsaw, and everyday it gets a little easier to maintain my work load, which is good, because I was getting pretty exhausted those first couple of days after using my saw for hours on end.

The folks here at the nature conservancy are great, and my whole team loves them already. They are always telling us how thankful they are to have us, and how they couldn’t accomplish all this work without us. Of course, we know that we do good work, but it’s nice to get some recognition to along with that self satisfaction. Ann, a woman we’ve been working with a lot and who you only have to talk to for 30 seconds to recognize that she’s incredible, made us chocolate chip cookies and coffee on our first day. Such an unexpected and much appreciated gesture of kindness.

Oh, and Donna, I found a Scalf here that might be related to you! I asked him if he had any kin in KY, and he said he has a bunch, though he doesn’t know any of them personally. He had no idea who you where, but I of course let him know what a wonderful cousin-ish person he had in Lexington.

Dusty & Sharon happened to be in D.C. the same weekend
as me! Geez I love seeing those guys.

This weekend, my team rented 2 cars and took a 4 hour trip to our Nation’s Capitol, completely unrelated to AmeriCorps. We stayed with Jacquie’s family, and they accepted us as nothing less than royalty. Elaborate meals (I’m talking food that makes you close your eyes and contemplate the wonder that is life) that we shared as a giant family at the dining room table, hilarious and stimulating conversations that lasted long into the night, a constant stream of new friends to meet and be intrigued by, cuddly dogs that filled the hole we all share since not being allowed pets for the duration of this 10-month commitment, and always the question, “Do you need anything?” Mr. and Mrs. King, I just want say you thank you again for one of the most wonderful weekends I’ve ever spent. I feel like I’ve known you guys forever. And David, if you read this, your cooking leaves nothing to be desired, and those fried Oreos may be the best night time snack I’ve ever enjoyed. THANK YOU, KING FAMILY!!

Jacquie made me put on a performance during a gathering at
the King's abode.

Well, I’ll include today’s haps in next week’s blog since it’s time for me to turn in for the night.

Love, love, love,

 k 

Week 22

Virginia, my home.

After 2 FULL days of driving, my team and I finally made it to Cape Charles, VA! It was a pleasant trip, and since we brought a cargo van in addition to our 15-passenger van, we had plenty of space. I am one of 6 drivers on my team, and we drive in shifts of 2 hours, so my share was about 5 shifts over the two days, which wasn’t bad at all.

In addition to a great trip (we stayed in a hotel with clean sheets and everything!), we arrived to find accommodations so wonderful, I’ve been stressing about how to describe them. Instead of going into great detail of which you would become bored and frustrated, I’ve decided to include these pictures to show you the lodge along with my teammates’ initial reactions when we first arrived.

Jacquie and Chris Money in the hall.

Cain and Mac in enjoying their new room.

Huge living room.

Cozy fireplace!

Here’s a quick overview of the perks of my temporary lodge home: one roommate, hardwood floors, good water pressure, endless hot water, fireplace inside, fire pit outside, comfortable mattress, closet space, easy access to Chesapeake Bay, cell phone reception, a living room with comfy furniture, a porch and deck both complete with rocking chairs, hiking trails, beautiful scenery, and probably other things that I haven’t even discovered yet.

Me, Ruth, and Jacquie snuggling on our new couch.

Just me and the trees.

Yesterday was our first day of work, along with a tour and short orientation. We learned quite a lot of history from the park manager who showed us around, and we even got to go inside a Yurt, which was a new one on me. More importantly though, I got to use a chainsaw all afternoon, chopping down a slew of baby pines. Don’t cry, Lorax, I just had to mow down enough to maintain the driving/walking trail. Apparently, these trees spring up like weeds, choking all other plants and wildlife. So dense is this baby pine forest, John and Taylor decided it would be fun to jump headfirst into it and let the trees catch them like a crowd at a rock concert. Their pain was my gain, as it was one of the funniest things I’ve seen in a while. I couldn’t help but chuckle at the thought that if Scotty had been there, he definitely would have participated in this activity.

My whole team in a Yurt.

Yesterday being Friday, we made a fire and cooked hotdogs and marshmallows, all the time shivering in our AmeriCorps Carhartt parkas. Living by the bay creates a constant breeze, and it is January, after all.

More to come next week. I’ll have internet access on the weekends when I come to town for coffee, so I’ll keep you updated.

Much love,

 k

The purple cowboy hat I crochet.

Week 21

My big sisters and I.

Back in Mississippi, the home I missed over the holiday. Christmas was very nice and relaxing with the fam, but now I’m refreshed and ready for work and routine once again. In the past whenever I’ve had a few weeks off of school for Christmas break, I still have to work a job or two for all but a couple of days. This was the first year since I started work at the age of 15 that I spent 2 weeks with nothing I had to do, and nowhere I had to be. It was cool, but a little more boring than I expected.

I rode the bus back to Vicksburg at the end of my KY vacation, which took about 16 hours. It was slightly stressful, sort of smelly, and more than a little strange, but all-in-all, uneventful, which is what I was hoping for. I’ve been back a week now, and nothing too exciting to report. Trainings and lectures on what sorts of things to do after this program, and how to go about doing them. Lots of focus on MLK Jr., and even a cool ceremony on Friday, which included speakers who were involved in the civil rights movement and some who knew Dr. King personally.

On Monday, everyone from our campus will be working on various community service projects around Vicksburg in honor of MLK day, so I’m looking forward to that. My group will be working with a community service center whose focus is on child care. We’ll be painting and doing various beautification tasks at the center, and I’ve been told it’s a possibility that us trained sawyers may get to put our chainsaw skills to the test. Good thing we had a refresher course this week.

There was a talent show last night on campus that I participated in. It went really well, and the show was really fun. We have a lot of very talented and creative people here, so it’s fun to get together and entertain one another. The night before last we had a Pajammin session for a few hours, which translates into having a bunch of people who play musical instruments at varying skill levels get together and jam in our pajamas. It’s awesome to be around so many interesting people who like to do more than just watch TV.

My team will be leaving for our project in Virginia next Wednesday. I recently found out that our housing is in so remote a location for the 5 weeks we’re there that we probably won’t be able to get cell phone reception, let alone internet. There are of course cafes and things with internet, but we’ll have to cross an expensive toll bridge to get there, so I’m not sure we’ll be doing that every week. All this to say that I’ll write updates as often as I can, but it may not be every week.

To you Hotwork people, I just want to say that I’m sorry I didn’t come by while in KY over Christmas, but look for me in June J

Take care,

  k

Me & Ellie