Lots of new experiemces

I have had a ton of new experiences in the last ten days since the last time I wrote. We are being keep very, very busy still. The last two weeks I have been working about 60 hours per week. My placement at the Coastal Health department is going great. Last week, I had to invent the actually optical brightener collectors. There is no real money to buy fancy stuff, so I had to get creative. This coming week we are going to place the four different collectors in the water and see which one works the best. My Ways to Water project is coming along. I have finally finished putting all the collected information about the pathways onto a spread sheet and went to visit a couple of the pathways to gather some more information. It was nice to take a break from computer work, but some of the pathways were very difficult to find. One time I was driving, following the directions, and the road simply ended. There was nothing but a wall of trees and bushes. So, needless to say, I never found that pathway. LOL

The 4 different collectors I invented. Like how resourceful
I was!

Group projects are my favorite because we get to do different things every week. This past Monday we worked with a group of ninth graders to clean up a beach. We also taught them mini lessons on sand dunes, marine mammals, water population related to the ocean, community service, and how the coast is an fragile environment. It was very, very windy and cold that day. I had to wear about 4 layers of clothes (the newspaper said the winds were 35 mph). Another group project we did recently was WET FEST. I believe I have talked about this before. Wet Fest is a water education program that we put on for schools. This time we went into Harwich elementary school and educated fourth graders on many different water concepts. I was in charge of teaching the booth about the three phrases of matter and doing a quiz broad with the kids. It was fun and did make me miss teaching.

Teaching at Wet Fest

This past weekend I volunteered to help build a playground for the children of Truro. Apparently, this town was the only town on the Cape that did not have a playground. The playground is going to be beautiful when it is completely done. I only help out one day, so I was not able see the finish project. I helped with painting and building a wooden fence around the playground.

Putting up the wooden fence

Painting

I also volunteered to help a scientist collect data on the types and number of fish that are in a certain area in Wellfleet. I can't remember the name of the beach that we were at. I learned how to set a net, pull it in, measure fish, and learned a lot about the different types of fish that live along the shore line. The day started off cool, but warmed up and turn out to be a great day. It was a lot of fun.

Pulling in the fishing net
Measuring American sand eels



Setting the net out

A big stripped bass we caught in the net

Gross: American sand eels

I know you want some drama from the house. But people are still getting along fairly well. People seem to be getting on other peoples' nerves a little bit more and some people are just disappearing from time to time because they need alone time. Dishes have been an issue this last week. People forget to do them. Annoying. But we just ask everyone whose dishes are in the sink and figured out who didn't do them. Then we harass them for a couple hours. ;) One of the girls' mom sent everyone in the house Halloween goodie bags. Thanks Mrs. Walls!! Every Wednesday, we have a house dinner and meeting. Each week two different people make the dinner. This past Wednesday, it was my turn to make house dinner. Christin and I made stir fry. Ok, I think that is everything for now. I am going to put some pictures up on here and head to bed. Good night everyone. Oh, I also helped out at a Cranberry Festival and got to see a wet harvest of cranberries.

Cranberry harvest

Harvesting cranberries

Creepy house