RAIN

Well, it has been a while since I have written anything, but I have been so busy!  So last thursday I helped Matt Gibbons repair a road out at the Coburg Preserve.  It was really pretty, the ridge where the road was is tall enough so that you can see all of Eugene.  After I helped Matt I went back to the office and helped Matt B moved some plants out to the hayfield.  I hung out with some friends thursday night, then on friday I celebrated halloween!  I went over to Allen and Allison's for dinner and got to see Lili dressed up as Hermonie from Harry Potter.  Marley was the greatest little clown, she had a huge wig that looked hilarious on her.  After dinner I went over to a friends house and hung out before we went to an ultimate frisbee halloween party.  Eugene was a fun town on Halloween, everyone from the college was walking around in great costumes.  On Saturday I went up to Portland with a friend Andrew, he is Thompson-Wilson's Roomate's-Brother, and Thompson's girlfriend's younger sister, Nancy Beth.  We went to a Concert at Lewis and Clark which was a ton of fun.  The band is called Alpaca, I have seen them twice now and am starting to really enjoy there music!  You can look them up on myspace.com under music "alpaca."   On sunday we drove back to Eugene, and when I got home I helped celebrate Henry's birthday with some neighborhood friends of Jeff and Thea's.  The weekend was great fun and I think that I might be heading back up to portland for this coming weekend.  On monday I went to work and helped Matt B show a group of high school kids the hayfield and then started planting some.  The auger was broken though and I couldn't drill holes in the hayfield.  On tuesday I pulled up tons of strawberries, I have now bundled together about 1200 strawberry plants!  They will be put in the hayfield, and at another preserve called Briggs.  After working with the strawberries I cleaned some seed and then worked on finishing pruning the apple trees.  After pruning trees I went with Kyle, an Americorp intern, and filled protane tanks up for flame throwers.  We had backpacks with two gallon propane tanks in them.  There was a hose from the tank to a wand that had a pilot light at the end.  When you pulled a trigger on the wand a giant flame would fly out the end.  We flamed a bunch of non native plants that are taking over some of TNS's land because of a neighbor who had some on his land.  It was pretty fun using the blow torch!  Today I spent the whole day drilling holes at the hayfield.  I drilled 1820 3 inch holes in the field.  My arms feel like they are going to fall off!! Tomorrow I am going to a conference for Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board.

been busy!

It has been a while.  Last thursday I went in to work a little late, I wasn't feeling good when I woke up.  But I went to work and then hung out with some ultimate friends.  Friday afternoon the Ultimate team left for Chico California.  It was about a 7 hour bus drive from Eugene, but as the north california kids would say, a "hella" beautiful one.  We woke up early saturday morning and played 4 games of, very intense, and really fun, ultimate.  My team won all four games saturday, and earned ourselves a break sunday morning.  We didn't have our first game till noon.  We woke up and went to a pancake house where we at breakfast.  We then went to the fields and played our only game of the day, which we sadly lost, by just a few points.  The drive was alright, I slept most of the way.  Monday morning was a hard morning!  We didn't get home till 12:30 monday morning, so waking up at 7:00 for work was way hard.  I went to work, and then biked to ultimate.  I got to the fields, but there was no practice.  I hung out with a few guys from the team, and then went to Market of Choice and did some grocery shopping.  Yesterday was fun, I seeded a bunch of different spots on the hayfield, drilled some gallon size holes for plants and put flags around the field marking different species.  I played some disc golf after work with a few guys I met, one was from California, the others were from back east though.  I got home and went straight to sleep.  I had walked a million miles seeding the hayfield, and much more playing disc golf.  Today at work we moved plants from the nursery and shade houses onto the hayfield.  It took two trips, consisting of a large trailer and bed of a truck overfilled with plant pots, to get everything out there.  Some fell off, and sadly, were lost to the wheel of the trailer.  After work I went to Ultimate, then ate at a pizza place and biked home.

making everything all pretty

Today was an interesting day.  While cleaning seed Matt called me over to help him and Jason plant a large prairie called the Hayfield.  Matt drove a tractor, pulling a large seed dispenser and worked on covering the entire field with grass seed.  Jason and I walked around with a small hand cranking dispenser and seeded certain spots with different species.  It felt very cool putting so much seed around such a big field.  I wish I was around for the summer of next year to see everything we planted in bloom or all grown up!  Anyways, the seed was planted where it would have the best potential to grow.  We followed this map...Basically, everything inside of the orange perimeter was seeded with native grasses.  The highlighted zones were hand seeded by Jason and I, each color represents a different species planted.  It was neat working with so much land.  Normally working with the earth is small scare, and working with a field that is as big as 42 acres takes a lot of team work.  

After work I rode my bike into town to play some ultimate.  We had a long practice, just about 3 hours...just long enough to make my legs want to explode.  Anyways, I am going to California this weekend for a tournament which should be very exciting.  One of our teams is themed 1870s and the other 1970s, I think I am on the 1970s team so I will get to play some ultimate in a tie dye shirt like I normally do.  

Off to stretch my legs! 

legs about to fall off...

Monday started off slow.  The forecast had rain showing up in the morning.  I woke up around 6:50 and left the house around 7:30 just five minutes after sunrise.  It was pretty cold!  After I got to work, I had barely beat the rain, I grabbed tools and walked up the hill behind our office to prune some apple trees.  It started to rain after about a half hour and I went inside.  Guill, the Botanist, who discovered a considered to be extinct whale in Antarctica and has work in the Smithsonian's own collection, showed me how to clean some Allium seed.  I worked on the for nearly two hours.  Its a long process breaking the plant slowly down until you have just the seed which is stored and planted in time to come.  After the Allium I worked on Dico-something and did the same thing, collecting the seeds.  A local high school came to some TNC land monday and worked on clearing an old fence out of a pasture.  I went along with Matt and helped teach them about the burn we had the previous week, and some of the trees along the fence line that were invading the pasture.  They worked for nearly an hour in the rain, some clearly did not want to be there, but they got a ton done!  Matt and I took the metal from the fence to a recycling center and then went back to TNC office.  I rode my bike to ultimate practice.  It was a sick practice, the captains were trying to teach some of the freshman, and new kids how to lay out (dive and catch the disc).  We had an intense scrimmage, it seems like the U of O is playing pretty hard this year, they want to do well.  So in the last 30 minutes of practice it started raining pretty hard so my bike ride home was in wet clothes.  

Today I woke up around seven, like I normally do, and set off to bike to work.  I figured that it was 5.6 miles to work.  This morning however it was so foggy!  In the hills I could barely see 100 feet in front of my face!  When I got to the bike trail I took this picture, it was in the valley though...not as much fog.

When I got to work it was pretty yucky out so I just went straight to seed cleaning.  After an hour or so of that I went along with Matt to a Presentation at the Eugene Public Works Offices on Grass Specific Herbicides and how they help restoration, and don't harm rare native plants species that grow amongst the grass.  I got a good bit of information out of the meeting.  Useful information, I have to put a presentation together on the specific herbicides to present to the same group.  After the meeting I went back to the Office and cleaned seed for a good while.  I got some crazy allergies from the Dico-something species...been sneezing all day!  But I went to the climbing gym after work till pretty late.  

My legs are getting used to the biking...  18ish miles today?  Hopefully I can play at the tournament this weekend, with U of O down in California.  But if I do, I know my legs are going to need some serious rest before any more biking!

So the last few days have been nice.  I took friday off from work.  I woke up about the same time though, and went for a hike near bye.  After hiking I checked out the local climbing gym called crux.  I bouldered for an hour or two and then biked over to the U of O campus to run with the ultimate frisbee team.  After running we threw some discs around.  I went over to my uncle Allen's house for dinner, we had some great squash soup.  After dinner I biked home and slept great, I was exhausted.  Saturday morning I slept in and then went to the Saturday Market.  The Saturday Market is very neat.  Its a farmers market, craft market, and has tons of other hand made items for sale.  But the market takes up about 3 blocks, and it was pretty crowded.  That evening I met up with Wilson, my friend from Portland, and we went to see Lotus.  The show was great and I it was nice to meet people.  I have been relaxing today, I went grocery shopping but thats about it.  I am excited to work this coming week!

10/15-10/16

So the last two days have been pretty busy!  Yesterday was a brutal bike ride into work, it was about 35 degrees...COLD.  After I warmed up I pulled up some Scott's Broom around the office and worked on cleaning up an old shed.  While tearing poison oak off of it, which had been treated and killed already, I discovered a yellow jacket's nest.  I got some bee spray and took care of it, but it was quite a surprise!  Still, the shed had another surprise in store!  A snake had wrapped itself around a metal pump which had crushed him some how.  So this snake was lying down and scared me half to death, but it was actually dead.  Anyways, I then transplanted a bunch of lupines and worked for a little bit on moving some fragaria.  Matt and I hauled some tree branches to a local wood chipping place, and then I did some stuff on the computer.  I left a little early and biked about 9 miles to the frisbee field.  I played with the University of Oregon which was tons of fun.  After frisbee I went over to Lili, my little cousin's house, for her birthday.  We rolled sushi, ate cheesecake, and watched some of the debate.  Today the bike ride was a lot warmer.  I trimmed apple trees for the first portion of the day.  I then helped Matt and Jason unload corn seed.  A full ton I think.  After lunch I worked on pulling up the Fragaria and wrapping them in wet newspaper so they would keep for about a month before being planted.  I am baby sitting Henry (two year old I am staying with) tonight and taking of work tomorrow so I will be able to get a little more settled in.

Portland -> Eugene

Well I have been in Oregon for just about four days now.  I arrived in Portland friday evening (after 7 1/2 hours of flying!) and was picked up by my friend Wilson.  Wilson goes to Lewis and Clark and lives near the school off campus.  I slept at his house friday night.  We went into town on Saturday, and then a concert at night.  It was great fun seeing portland, and seeing Wilson who I have not seen in almost a year.  Sunday I took a bus from Portland Airport to Salem and picked up a car that my uncle's in-laws had left at the Salem Airport.  I then drove the car down to Eugene, picked up some groceries and then met the family I am staying with, the Cooks.  Jeff and Thea have a son named Henry who is about 2 years old.  I am babysitting Henry thursday night.  Anyways, after settling in I had dinner with the Cooks, who cooked, and invited my uncle and his family over to enjoy some amazing tofu.  Dinner was great and I got a good nights sleep.  I woke up monday morning with the sun and went on a hike with Jason Nuckels.  Jason is the head guy at The Nature Conservancy (TNC) in Eugene.  We went out to a hill called "Mount Pisgah" and looked at some land that was in the process of being restored.  After the tour we went to TNC's office just outside of Eugene.  They showed me around the place and got me familiar with what I will be doing.  Later in the afternoon a truck came by and dropped off around 14,000 plants and bulbs that will be planted on some TNC's land.  Jason gave me a ride home from work and I passed out at home, I am still kind of on east coast time.  

Today I woke up bright and early again.  I rode my bike to work today, I think its about 4 miles but was mostly down hill to the office.  This morning I met some employees I will be working with and helped prepare for a field to be burned.  The prairies that are being restored in what is called the Willamette Valley need to be burned ever few years to get rid of big bushes and trees and also release more nitrogen into the soil.  

It was very exciting today to watch the burn happen.  A crew of about 20 fire fighters, mostly BLM employees and contracted wild fire fighters, in addition to two TNC employees planned to burn about 50 acres of land.  They burned the land very efficiently, It only took them about 30 minutes to burn 30 acres and put fire out afterwards.  It was very interesting to see this done and makes me really want to do something like that at some point in my life.  I left work around 3 today, biked home...a very grueling up hill bike ride, and then went for a hike near bye the neighborhood I live in.  All is well, and I am really enjoying the work at TNC so far.  

On the way to Oregon, I am taking four days and stopping in El Paso, Texas to visit my Grandfather and Grandmother.  Yesterday we woke up early, packed up a .357 magnum, a .22 six shot revolver, and a .22 automatic rifle.  We drove thirty minutes out of town to Fort Bliss Rod & Gun Club.  Fort Bliss is an army base, and currently is under going upgrades and construction.  The fort expects 40,000 new troops to arrive and is in the process of updating current buildings and erecting new barracks for the troops.  I had been to this Gun Club with my grandfather about 5 years back, but only shot the .22 rifle.  He hadn't brought out the .357 before because frankly I couldn't of handled a pistol with that kind of punch when I was 13 years old.  The rifle range was great fun and very relaxing.  We returned to their house for lunch and then just my grandfather and I went to the driving range to hit golf balls.  After hitting a bucket or so, I played nine holes.  

This morning we went to the golf course and all three of us played 18 holes.  Tomorrow we are going back to the rifle range in the morning and then hitting some balls after lunch.  I leave from El Paso friday and am being picked up in Portland by Wilson Brown.  I am very excited and cannot wait to be in Oregon to start my internship!