On Tuesday we went to work at a sight that was in the middle of a field that was surrounded by old cottonwood trees. The day started off rather poorly because I had thought I grabbed my rain pants.. but apparently I hadn't (I'll explain in a little bit what happened to my pants). It was crazy that I forgot my rain pants on the one day that it was down pouring on us and the wind was going every direction possible or as Forrest Gump would say " One day it started raining, and it didn't quit for four months. We been through every kind of rain there is. Little bitty stingin' rain... and big ol' fat rain. Rain that flew in sideways. And sometimes rain even seemed to come straight up from underneath. Shoot, it even rained at night... " I think he explained the rain perfectly for me. Anyways.. a class from an alternative school came to help us but only stayed for about 30 minutes because it started to look unsafe because of the trees. When the kids left we headed up for lunch and ate in the van. We had a rather long lunch and within that time Amanda, our sponsor and the co sponsor who we were working with that day decided to head over to a different sight. Mainly because while we were having lunch Amanda and our sponsor from Mountains to Sound saw a fully grown cotton wood tree fall over just from the wind. Yep it was defiantly time to move to another sight! On our way there, we stopped at Snoqualmie Falls once more for my team members who didn't go with me, Amanda, Maddie and Aysia on Monday. The falls were flowing heavily from all the rain we had gotten in the past few days. After the falls we continued on to our second location which was by a river that was overflowing by the minute. The land that we were working on was meant for when they got an excessive amount of rain. It was interesting because to get the little trees we had to plant we had to cross over a beaver dam to get there. The sponsors let us go about 20 minutes early which was nice of them. We then started to drive back home; but the road that we usually go down was closed. On to the next road! Which usually takes about 10 minutes to get to... within 5 minutes we were stuck in a stand still traffic. We found out that there was a car that went into the water and they were trying to find a missing person. Some teammates slept, some got agitated, and most were hungry. We sat in traffic for about 25-30 minutes. Just to find out that the road that we were trying to get to was closed as well. By then we all were hungry so decided to call our Sacramento base to see if they would give us money. They ended up giving us $10 each; so we decided to go to the only restaurant open in carnation. A small pub that had primarily drunk hunters. We walked in and stuck out like a sore thumb, (thanks to our amazing uniforms) so had a few guys came up and asked who we were and what we were doing. We ended up meeting a interesting man that has lived in 4 different countries, and has been all over the US. He thanked us for what we were doing and by then we finished our meals. During that time Amanda was making many calls on what to do regarding our housing for the night. The options were to wait and see if any of the roads open up or to get a hotel for the night. By the time we got done one road opened up. We got home that night around 10 and everyone was pretty tired. Now back to the story of my rain pants. When we got home I looked all around for where I would have put my rain pants. I distinctly remember putting them on the pool table with my rain coat. I knew if it wasn't there it would have been on the hook right outside of the girls room. It wasn't! So I kept looking and found them hanging in the closet that I never go into. So how they could have gotten put there when I was the last one out of the house that day, and never go in there I'm not sure. Everyone is betting on the ghost here.
Wednesday we went to work at the golf course to finish removing the pesky blackberry's. When we got there we noticed the WCC (Washington Conservation Corps) was also there removing the blackberries. The WCC is another AmeriCorps program but are only based in Washington and only work on trails/removing invasive species and plant native species. Working with them was really fun especially because it was a nice sunny day and they were pretty interesting. While we were working we noticed across the street a heard of elk grazing in the pasture. When we were done we set up a "friendsgiving" set to be after work on Tuesday with the WCC crew! We're all excited for the little celebration and all the food!
Thursday we worked with the group of kids from the alternative school again. This time we were planting bare root trees (baby Christmas trees). Then using a GPS to map out where some of the trees the class planted last year were. We learned a lot about the students and vice versa. The teacher ended up emailing Mountains to Sound greenway, telling them how much the kids liked working with us and asked if they could work with us again soon.
Friday we headed to a new sight. We headed to tiger mountain to decommission one section of the trail and rebuild it so it goes around a curve. I'm not going to lie, it sure was a hike up there with all the layers on, our book bags and tools we had to carry. I was tired. But hiking is one thing I want to becoming better at, so I think this is great start!
Saturday we worked on the same trail. We had one volunteer that unfortunately I wasn't able to talk to because I was working on the other end of the trail; but I heard he was pretty cool and has lived an interesting life. We were all in good spirits because we knew that tomorrow we'd have the day off.
Today (Sunday) is our only day off this week because we have thanksgiving break starting Wednesday after work. I found the closest Catholic church from where we are staying about 25 minutes away. 2 people who had never been to a Catholic church, only a non denominational, said that they were interested in going; which I thought was awesome of them being open to going to something that they aren't used to. After mass we went to the café, but when we got there my computer decided to restart itself, so sadly I wasn't able to use the internet very much. We then headed back home to help unload the groceries that my TL got and while doing that I got incredible super strength and somehow broke the refrigerator door of the non working refrigerator that we put all of our boxed/ bread groceries. So that is currently being fixed. After a while I went and helped clean out our van which was pretty dirty after all the mud we trampled in there from the past couple weeks. On another note, I found it interesting because every time we have left and come back to the house there were deer in the pasture next to our house.
Tomorrow we are returning to tiger mountain to continue rebuilding the trail and then the rest of the week is still up in the air.
Just a side note on what I have been doing in my spare time, other than blogging. I have been looking up college courses at Kishwaukee Community College and other possible programs I could go into after AmeriCorps. I believe that this program has already improved my work ethics towards making and accomplishing goals; and I'm excited to see what else I learn over the next 9 months.
~Savannah
Some of the deer that I've seen today
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