Summer interim ...

well campers it's not due to lack of time per se... more like gelling and vibing the sun to come out and play...that and a sinus infection lasting way too long...

August is upon us and I am one of the fortunate ones not to have school start till the end of September. Currently I am working with former faculty doing research and documentation (not as boring as it sounds) for his writing project. (I am not at liberty to say just yet, he is in process) Needless to say I am looking forward to getting back up to the Mountain with M even if it's just for a day...prolly after Labor Day...less crowded...maybe even camping...that would be way cool...

I am visualizing some drawing...I've even charged up the camcorder...need to get the spring film up on line....work in the vegetable garden which has thankfully produced wonderful items of delight...and the most important...practice the art of doing nothing...very zen...

Till next time, keep your bbq charcoal dry and weed something this weekend~

Peace Out...

Spring quarter slowly winding down...

After learning Final Cut Pro 7 for film editing and creating an 18 minute film for the Nisqually River Education Project... and a lesson plan for the elementary teachers...I am now on a learning curve with YouTube to upload a gazillion gig file in segments...the film was/is a success...I got full credit, even thought the TESC website has yet to record my first year transcripts...

I will post more when I get the film up and get permission to share the lesson plan with my friends who are elementary school teachers outside of the Nisqually watershed.

Love you all, still transitioning to summer, working on an internship (more details to follow), loving life, my love Marianne, my family, my friends and TESC!

Rock on campers it's Summer get out and hike!

Cheers

Spring Quarter pre-begining....

Ok campers, this week starts with Spring quarter for our program officially beginning on March 31/April 1. My team meets with our primary faculty on Friday BUT.... we meet with our project customer Sheila W. from the Nisqually River Education Project on Thursday around 1pm...both of my teammates are enjoying a well deserved break and I am hopeful that we can connect before this meeting. ;-)

I will post more about the details after both meetings.

To date I have the brainstorming drafts done, purchased my own camcorder (because I want to be able to film other projects), sent out emails to my team on meeting updates and updated my Americorps timesheet for the month.

oh yes... my grant proposal for re-imbursement funding was mostly approved...lol I was granted about 90% of my request...not bad...this will cover mileage, any overnight stays on the mountain, and materials to produce the film on DVD.

Needless to say I am very excited!

Until then DO NOT put away your rain gear or your snowshoes...it may be Spring...but it is the Northwest!

Toward the end of another quarter...

Ok, enough of really bad jokes and onto the report of the field trip to Pack Forest and snowshoeing on the trails of Mt. Rainier National Park. Let me just get off my chest that the "old wives tale" about staying out in the cold will give you one.... http://coldflu.about.com/od/cold/f/coldandweather.htm  

So the flu/cold I erupted with after snowshoeing was from my classmates, who didn't have any more choice on this than I, and not from being outside. ok...I'm done with that one...and I am getting better...

The trip was work and fun...we were able to help the Ohop Valley Project with their riparian area restoration by putting "sleaves" on newly planted vegetation, pulling scotch-broom out with giant metal pullers, and replanting sweet little noble fir trees. My winter coat still has a bit of dried mud on it...and yes it snowed on us while we were working, and freezing rain, and it was cooollllddddd......the cold/flu has subsided a bit and now I have a  sinus infection...never dull here....

At Pack Forest we had guest lecturers Tuesday evening - Mt. Rainier's Outreach Planner, Bryan Bowden and Nick Bond, Planner from Eatonville. Both work with the Nisqually River Council.  Bryan was most generous and loaned me the Carbon River Corridor Charette that his group put together as a tool to know the Carbon River Water shed better. 

They can use this data to better plan for contingencies and future restoration for the area. (I need to return it to him next week!)

On Thursday we listened to Mt. Rainier Natioanl Park Education Dept.'s Fawn Bauer, and Greenhouse Supervisor Greg Berchard (hope I spelled that right Greg). Tacoma Power (that would be a whole other blog-or a documetary) PR song and dance guy Randy Stern were earlier in the am. 

Ok to the cool stuff: 

Wednesday SNOWSHOEING! My first time and I chose the trail my instructor Lucia Harrison was leading because 1) I'm older and slower and 2) I've never snowshoed before. I used to ski when I was younger but then buggered up my knees in TaeKwonDo...another story.

We did the Cougar Rock Campground trail out of Longmire just about 4 miles round trip...I had a blast...could not keep up with the 20' somethings but I kept a steady pace, saw a golden mountain ground squirrel, multiple mini waterfalls coming out from under snow covered ravines, the Nisqually banked by wonderful scenery of snow-covered trees, fallen tree obstacles that you either went under/around/over, snow falling, sun streaming through the forest, and such quiet (the road to Paradise was closed so no car traffic!).

We ate lunch here and headed back to Longmire....

golden mountain ground squirrel track....

After I got back to Longmire I headed over to the Trail of Shaddows... I did that one in the fall and wanted to see what it looked like in the winter.

Then there were snowball fights

Friday... WOOT!!! Paradise is open...cool...actually sunny then snowy then cloudy....

Along the way we had to stop 3 times to adjust our chains on the van...the third time, I did not assist and went back to Jeff's car (he was sweeping-a hiking term) and asked if he had any history to share about this part of the mountain... we were almost to Longmire and about 150 feet back behind the speed signs on the north side of the road...Jeff told a story about Hudson.  See above.  That hoop marks the spot that Hudson is burried. Back before Mt. Rainier was a NP, the Longmires were the experts so to speak of the area. One night Hudson was tending his campfire (in the fall or winter months, ok maybe spring-snow lasts along time up here) his derringer fell out of his pocket and either landed on the ground or in the fire and went off, shooting him in a bad way, like bleeding out kinda bad way... by the time someone got to the Mrs. Longmire and they made their way back, Hudson was gone. I'm thinking it had to be winter time or Hudson had no kin,  after storing him in the shed (because it was way colder outside than in) they buried him along the road back a bit. After ward the Veterans Assoc. established the hoop as a marker. Now you may say why a marker? Well if it snows on average of 10 to 20 feet a year...it would be nice to see the marker from time to time eh?  That day there was 13 feet of recent snow....Paradise had a total of 40' as of that day...prolly more by now....Here's to you Hudson!

Back on the road to Paradise....

Well MORA had her skirt down.... this is the bottom of the Nisqually Galcier....

The trip was maybe 2 miles round trip...not bad you say until you realize its kinda vertical and making trail through 2 feet of fresh powder with short legs is not wat I called leisurely... lol

It was invigorating and I would have taken more pictures, but I had enough to do hanging onto my poles and picking my self up after sinking into the powder up to my hips and twice falling on branches or tops of trees...Yes you may say TOPS of trees we were walking on top of and besides the tops of young Mountain Hemlock, Doug. Fir and Alpine Fir....

We left between 3 and 4 not sure when, very tired...still had the drive back to campus then drive back home, dropping Chris off in Tacoma...got home at 8 pm... 

That brings us to the top of todays blog campers!  

Ok remember to check your straps on your snowshoes! And when using a water bladder in your back pack keep the hoses inside a zipped pocket...otherwize up on the glacier your tubes will freeze and you will get dehydrated...

Peace out...more to tell stay tuned...

Professional and Technical writing...

Ok campers here's where collegiate meets reality...if only blogging would qualify for peer reviewed writing...I love the 3...'s instead of commas and semicolons...or thought spaces....et al...

Met with my faculty on Wednesday afternoon, conferenced about writing skills and techniques. Wrote 6 revisions of my Spring Activity Grant, had my boss do final edit and submitted with 1 hour to spare. Holy moly batpeople....received a confirmation email of receipt...slept like a baby...thank the maker...

Today REI...yahoo...new rain pants that actually zip fully up the sides so I can get them over my boots in the field, new rain light weight rain jacket that won't fall apart after 3 uses, polartec under layer bottoms, gators, lightweight snow gloves and snow baskets for my trek poles...saweet....

Tuesday we leave for Pack Forest...on the way we go to some kind of wetlands/swamp and tramp in the mud, later pull out some scotch broom ( oh la) and then to dinner and a lecture..

Wednesday...snowshoeing....snow cave building....field journals...tracking...etc....

Thursday...reverse Wendesday....

Friday...role playing ....oh goody...processing the trip...then homeward bound.

The really cool thing is I get to scope out one of the sites I will use for my Spring Project...ha ha ha....not letting that out of the bag just yet...

So campers...cold tonight up in the PNW...maybe some snow on Monday...oh that's tomorrow....ha...and we will be watching the avalanche reports closely...don't worry any danger...no snowshoeing  (booo!)

Till then...grind the coffee tonight in case of power outage and pack for all contingencies...I think I need a sherpa...

Peace out.

Here and there and back again...

Hobbits abound!

Since JBLM or jablam as some know it...we had a field trip to Wilcox farms...the most up to date modern, salmon safe 25% free range chicken ranch in the area...I may submit this one field trip entry separately but after I graduate...

We have been introduced to water testing! Not for pools and community drinking water, but river water which may be your drinking water (aren't you glad I now know how to do this?)... pH, nitrates, turbidity (cloudiness) and disolved oxygen (if the oxygen is not disolved in the water things can't live, like salmon, frogs, and the like)... then we practiced water testing riverside on Medicine Creek...then we facilitated the testing yesterday with 105 gradeschoolers at Sequalitchew Creek...the kids were/are amazing...so bright, energetic and like sponges...we shared the techniques of water testing, shared our passion for nature studies and laughed...

I've also been rewriting a grant proposal for over a week, finalized it today thanks to my instructor, dare I say my hard work and my sister's eagle eye for punctuation and editing....off it went and lo and behold a response of acceptance of my application and thesis with budget...I can now rest knowing I'm only partially behind with my schoolwork and hope to catch up this weekend!

Brevity is the bane of time or the lack of...

Ok campers we are off again to the Mountain next week...snowshoeing (baring avalanche warnings), service learning, lectures and s'a mores!

Peace out....

JBLM...Nisqually meets the Army meets the environment...

So yesterday's field trip to Joint Base Lewis McCord was hosted by a slew of Evergreen Alumni...if ever I doubted my education at TESC would not produce work (like I thought that) here is proof positive that a bunch of so called hippies could work professionally and productively with the Feds, specifically the military feds...well there you are...

Great group of people dedicated to their work...most of them at their positions over 10 years each, one with a doctorate in biology. 

We saw the Earthworks recycling station that is built on a land fill and actually helps monitor the gasses coming out of what is left of the space created in the 70s. They recycle just about everything from the JBLM base including: asphalt, cement, buildings, materials from revamped buildings, food waste that is compost-able, building waste, machines, timber and either reuse or recycle it back to the base or sell it for $$$ for schools. They are ISO 14001 silver working on gold and some platinum EPA standards.

An amazing meeting/lecture from one of Nisqually Tribes' best advocate Joe Kalama. He filled in some of the connection to place that words on paper cannot. According to Joe Kalama JBLM is one of the best relationships in the region to help protect Nisqually land and good stewards to boot.

We saw Muck Creek, King Cemetery where Joe performed an ancestor ceremony letting them know we were here with respect. I have to tell you that I picked up on their energy before we got there and my walk through with instructions from Joe was intense. Joe is an amazing person, someone who I would like to listen to more.  I will say that the area was bordered by Oregon white oak and on a knoll right next to the "impact" area of JBLM. We learned that the Checkerspot Butterfly and the Oregon Spotted Frog and the Western Grey Squirrel are being re-introduced to the area. While back a the creek we were able to draw and reflect on the day.

We also learned earlier about the re-veg program utilizing 8 species of rare plants to reveg the impact zone and provide restoration on base all the while in other areas the military are training.

Here is to all who participate in the solution, no matter where you stand or how open your heart is...woot, hoorah, rock on...

Remember Campers the goundhog does not come out for a few more days, hold onto your socks, we may have an early spring!

Cheers and peace out!