The tourists have arrived

There is a noticeable increase in the amount of cars on the road and coming across the bridge. And it took me almost twice as long to get home from Woods Hole today. Must be the start of tourist season. I can't wait until June. LOL. I have been very, very busy this past month. I can not believe that April is almost over. Every weekend for the past three weeks have been busy and the next few weekends are going to be busy, too. I went to Connecticut to have Easter with my Uncle and other family members. The weekend after that I drove back to Rochester to visit. Lots of fun and lots of good food. I think, I gained ten pounds in just those two weekends. This past weekend AmeriCorps had their huge annual Cape Cod Canal Clean-Up. There was more then 350 volunteers at this event and we picked up about 800 lbs of trash from along the canal. Several of my fellow members planned the whole event. Nice job guys!! The event went very smoothly. I had to work today and will have to work Saturday. I have service next Sunday. The weekend after that we are going to Boston and then I finally I will have a weekend with no plans. The last two weekends in May my family will be here visiting. I can't wait to see them. So, as you can see I have been keeping myself quite busy. Plus, I am trying to apply for jobs, which take up almost all my free time during the week.

As for service projects, we have not done anything that new. Here are some of the most recent projects.
~Helped Falmouth Service Center get their garden beds ready for planting
~Helped out with bird banning-We helped catch birds, tag them, and test them for bird flu.
~Did a few more cut and burns with the National Seashore, one which involved removing a ton of thorn bushes
~Helped with fire reduction

I guess that is about all. I am off to bed. I'll upload some pictures soon. Here are the pictures

Getting gardens ready for the summer

Baby rabbit that we rescued (Sad story)

AmeriCorps Working hard. LOL

Before clearing the area for a new grassland bird habitat.

New grassland bird habitat

Trimming the side of the road

Setting up the nets to catch the birds

We have a bird. Off to tag it.

Tagging the bird

Spring is here

Well, Spring has arrived on Cape Cod. Which means mild temperatures but rain and rain and oh yeah more rain. We have been doing a lot of work clearing herring runs. The runs need to be cleared soon because the herring will be arriving in the next couple of weeks to spawn. We clear out fallen branches, trash, piles of leaves, and any other items that are blocking the flow of the water. It is tough work, but very satisfying at the end. We also put up a fence around a public garden. It is a lot of work putting up fences! We trimmed back blueberry bushes in a downpour and cleared a trail.

I also took a road trip with a few of my housemates last week (which was our Spring break). We went to Atlanta, Georgia, the Outer Banks, D.C., and Philadelphia. We saw a lot of cool things, but did a lot of driving. I really like the Georgia Aquarium. It was awesome.

Not too much else is going on. Enjoy the pictures.

Jenny, Ashleigh, and me putting in fencing.

Before trimming the blueberry bushes.

After trimming the blueberry bushes.

Trimming blueberry bushes.

Tearing out old flower benches.

My upgraded trail trimming equipment. No more loppers for me. LOL

Yep, this is my life and it's hard too. LOL

I have been fairly busy working my second job and doing service projects. Lately, we have been doing a lot of trail clearing, plus we helped clear a herring run and planted some more beach grass. I also went to a cut and burn with the National Seashore. The state is doing a research project to study a plant that seems to only grow after a fire. They don't know why this is, so they are going to burn different sections in the woods and study the results. Our job was to cut back all the big stuff and make burn piles. We could not burn the piles because it was too windy. We also went on our mid-year retreat at Coast Guard Beach. It was a really nice break from the typical week. Although, it was cold we still walked on the beach and went for a walk in the White Ceder Swamp. We also did some training and team building games. The last day of our retreat, we saw a dead baby seal on the beach which we believe a coyote got it. I took some pictures if anyone would like to see them, but I am not going to put them on here because they are very graphic. Not much else has happen here on the Cape. I am still working next door and it is going well. Being a server is hard work. I am exhausted when I come home. Overall, things are still going well.

Cut and burn

Being a swamper, person who pulls the trees away after they are cut

Outside the lab at my IP

At Brewster General Store

Jenny and I at one of the many lighthouses on the Cape

The whole house taking a break after clearing trails

Clearing the herring run

Walking along the road to our next site
On the beach at our retreat

Isn't it suppose to be snowing??

Although, today was February 2nd, it was 54 degrees and sunny out. Can you believe that? It was so nice out and we spent the whole day on the beach planting beach grass. Like I stated in the last blog, we really have not done any new service projects. I did, however, start a new job. I finally decided to get a part-time job, so that I can save money for when I move back to Rochester. I will be working right next door at the Cape Cod Senior Living Community. This is an assisted living home for elderly people who do not need the extensive services that a nursing home provides, but do require some extra assistance. I am working in the dining room serving people meals. It is great. The best commute ever; all I have to do is walk across my yard. LOL I only work there one day a week. I do an eight hour shift every Sunday.
Ready for work

Making oyster cages

On Martin Luther King Day, we completed a huge community service project. We painted rooms at homeless shelter. We also planted plants and made curtains and benches. Well actually, I did not do any of these things. As AmeriCorps members, we simply ran the event and managed volunteers from the community. We had about 150 volunteers. It was nice to see so many people come out and help us out.

This coming weekend some of my housemates and I will be going to Rhode Island to hang out. One of the girls' in my house has an aunt that owns a beach house there. I am excited to go. It should be a lot of fun. And it will be nice to have a little different change in scenery. Hmm, what else have I been up to. A few of us went on a hike this past weekend. The trails were covered in ice, so it was more like a skating in the woods instead of hiking. LOL.

Maria and I on our ice hike
Ashleigh and Maria on the ice hike

The other excited thing that has happened in our house is that we discovered a flying squirrel living in our basement. Phil and I tried to catch him using a bucket and a blanket, but that did not work. He was way too fast, so we got a have-a-hart trap. After the squirrel out smarted us a few times (he would somehow eat all the food in the cage but not get caught), I finally caught him and released him down the road a couple miles. My little friend, the flying squirrel

Is it too cold to swim?!

Well, everyone in New York will be happy to know that snow has finally come to the Cape. We have had snow on the ground for the past week and it has been in the low to med 30s. It has also snowed everyday for the last three or four days. This morning it was only 1 degree and I almost felt like I was back in Rochester. The last couple weeks have been pretty much the same stuff. We did another WET Fest and did some oyster harvesting. Well, I should say my housemates did oyster harvesting. I was too sick to go and went to the doctor's instead. I had bronchitis. I do have some exciting news to share though, well a couple fun things.

Snowy Ocean, Cape Cod

My new roommate has finally arrived. She is from Maine and fits right in with our loud, crazy group. It will take me a couple days to get use to sharing a room again. On Saturday, I gave her a little mini tour of our part of the Cape. I showed her where all the important things were: Dunkin Donuts, Stop and Shop, Wal-mart, and things like that. LOL

Yesterday, both houses got to do a service project together, which does not happening very often. It was fun to see everyone from the other house and spend the day with them. We planted beach grass on sand dunes to help slow erosion. It was one of my favorite projects so far. We got to be outside all day planting! What could be better?

Planting beach grass (Sorry, no good ones of me)
The sand dune before planting
The sand dune after planting, sorta looks like hair. :)

Planting the grass.

So, after the beach grass planting a group of us decided that we wanted to do a polar plunge. Yep, you read that right. We jumped in the ocean with snow on the beach and the temperature around 31. It was cold but surprisingly not as cold as you would think. I am glad I did it. One more thing I can check off my "Lifelong To Do List". Enjoy the pictures.

Running out of the cold, cold ocean

Holiday Season

Well, the holiday season is almost over and 2009 will be here before we know it. This last month has been quite busy with the normal service projects but also with lots of other holiday related service projects. Both my IPs are going well. The Ways to Water project is really keeping me busy. I am busy from the time I arrive to when I leave. I gave a presentation to the Conservation Committee at the end of November and was approved to make improvements to a water way that I had put in a lot of time on. So, that was cool. Some of the work to the area has been completed already and the rest will be done in Spring (planting). The area will look very nice when it is done. I will be sure to include before and after pictures when the project is completed.

My other IP is also going well. We continue to work on water testing and my optical brightener project. This past month we successfully placed 8 collectors in the water and retrieved 6. Lost two or just couldn't remember where they were. LOL But not bad. The collectors that I designed worked great and for the most part did what they were suppose to do. This was really our first run (we had done a mini trial run earlier in November), so we learned a lot and I will be making some small improvements on the collectors. I have also started to design a poster based on keeping our waters clean and how to reduce your water usage. It is fun.

Everyone is the house is doing well. We all were very excited for Christmas break in order to go home and see family and friends. We will be getting a new member sometime in the beginning of January. So, I'll keep you posted on where she is from and when she will be arriving.

The last month has brought a lot of holiday fun. We did a children's Christmas party at Children's Cove (A great organization that works with children who have been sexual abused). I also helped with two fundraisers. One involved wrapping gifts and the other one was selling Christmas tree. Our house had a Christmas party which involved a white elephant swap. We made a ton of food and had a good time. I went to Nantucket with a couple people from my house (Maria and Ashleigh). We took the ferry over then spent the day strolling along the cute little streets of Nantucket which were all decorated for the holidays. We had a snow day after we got 8 to 10 inches of snow in one night. We spent that day doing major house cleaning and maintenance. We did, however, take some time to enjoy the snow with a walk with the woods.

Me, Ashleigh, and Maria on the ferry to Nantucket

Santa coming to Nantucket in style

Christen and Davis fighting over a gift during the White Elephant Swap

Four Ponds after the snowstorm

Jenny, Maria, Ashleigh, Jaclyn, and Megan at Four Ponds

I am now back in New York. I had a good Christmas at my parents' and enjoyed seeing everyone including my hyper little nephews. Currently, I am in Rochester visiting friends. Hope everyone had a great holiday. Happy New Years!!!

The boys opening gifts

End of November Already!!

Wow, I can't believe it is the end of November and I have been living in Cape Cod for three months. Sometimes it seems like I have only been here for a few weeks and sometimes it feel like much longer. I was home at my parents for the Thanksgiving break. I car pooled with four other people. Yep, there was five of us and all our stuff in my little Jeep. Just trying to do our part to save the planet. LOL More like trying to save money. My next break is December 24th until January 3rd. So, please let me know if you have any time that we could get together. I would love to see people when I come home. I have not done any new activities over the last couple weeks. We constructed a trail in the woods, did another WET Fest, trimmed back some overgrowth around a cranberry blog, and did some invasive species removal. I currently have my own room. My roommate decided that the program was not for her and that she needed to explore other options and left the program. She was a great roommate and we got along well. We may be getting a new member after the holiday break but not sure yet. I hope that we will get along also and it will work out as well as it did with my last roomie. I hope that I will be see some of you over the Christmas break. Leave me a comment and let me know how life is going with you.

The Yurt we camped in.

Bundled up - Maria, Ashleigh, and Me

Water Quality Testing - It's clean. Placing an Opitcal Brightener Collector - Let's see if my design works.