Second Clean up hitch

We're about halfway through this hitch now, and it's been lots of fun so far. I've participated in 1 volunteer event and helped to organize another one so far. The first one was in the White Mountains, which a group of high school seniors, who wanted to do a service project with SCA during their senior week. That was lots of fun. We cleaned up campsites by picking up any trash we found, cleaning out the fire rings, and "downsizing" all fire rings to a manageable size for backcountry camping. It rained the entire time we were there, and of course none of us thought to bring an extra pair of clothing with us to change into when our clothing still got a little wet, even though we were wearing rain gear. The next event was one that our group planned entirely. We had about 25 City Year interns come out and help to clean up various trails in Bear Brook State Park. That was lots of fun, because in order to plan the event, we had to hike all of the trails in the park, so we knew what needed to be done and where. It was pretty sweet, although it also rained for the majority of the day. One of the best parts during that event, was when we were eating lunch at Smith Pond Shelter, and we watched the sun breakthrough the clouds over the lake. It was pretty awesome. For the beginning of this week, we've worked on various projects around camp like creating new raised garden beds and planting our whole garden with over 100 plants that a local farm gave us in exchange for us doing manual labor for them on random weekends. We've also worked on organizing and inventoring parts of the toolshed for hitches that are coming up and sharpening tools that are in the toolshed. I'm pretty sure that that's all that I've done recently, but it's been alot, and really tiring. Tomorrow we're going to go back over to the school I taught at and doing a workday outside with our students putting in and reviving the butterfly garden. That should be really fun, and it'll be awesome to have it over with finally. Then we have the Great Parks Pursuit on Sat that we're volunteering at and then we get Sun and Mon off, which will be amazing!!!! I also got a new sleeping bag, it's a wiggy bag, and it's awesome!

Alot has happened since the last time I posted. I cut my hair really short, kept it that way for a week, then shaved it all off for St. Baldrick's. I've also been out camping for the past two weeks. The first week, we were camping at Charlestowne, NH where SCA headquarters in located. Then this past week we camped in Greenfield State Park in NH and worked on cleaning up campsites from the ice storm in December, before all of the campers arrived Friday. We were still working on cleaning up campsites when campers started arriving Friday morning, but we managed to get all 252 sites cleaned up enough for people to camp on them. It was pretty impressive. I spent 12+ hours raking trying to clean up the campsites, and to have them up to the fire codes (clear out 8ft from all fire rings in all the sites). It was lots of fun, and I loved camping with no hair, because it makes your mornings go so much faster. Plus, people can't tell whether or not you've showered recently, so I looked cleaner than most people, even though I didn't shower until the morning after we got back. For our next hitch, I'm going to located at Bear Brook, so I get to stay in my own cabin for the majority of the time, unless they're working on the roof of my cabin, which I hope will happen.

I'm attempting to upload more pictures to facebook from the past month, but it's going very slowly. I might go to the library tomorrow to upload a bunch of pictures, but we'll just have to see how I'm feeling. I currently have about 10 pictures up, but working on more.

So one of our LNT instructors is really sick, so our trip was canceled. We're still going to go hiking and camp overnight, but we won't be able to get the certification for awhile, if ever. And we didn't go to the Whites to do everything like we were going to do. Instead, we're just going to go camp on Smith Pond, which isn't very far from where we currently live. At least we're going hiking and camping though, I guess. I'm also going to be camping on Smith Pond this weekend with Hannah and Bear, because Bear wants to test out his primitive survival kit, but wants a back up incase something happens.

This Friday, I'm going to teaching at a beading party at my teacher's house. It should be lots of fun, and I'm glad that I now have somebody to bead with up here. Now, I'm just trying to kill time until 10 when we're going to helping out the interpreters with their nature hike they're going to do with the kids that are coming tomorrow.

My conservation season training began last Wednesday with grip hoist/rigging training. By the end of the three days, we had created an aerial system that transported rocks from the top of a hill to the bottom, by lifting them up and then belaying the rocks down. It was pretty cool. I also learned how to climb a tree just using slings that I put up myself and an arborist's ladder with a rope you flip up the tree to keep you from falling. Today, I've been learning about the basics of chainsaw maintenance and preparing for my leave no trace backpacking trip tomorrow. We're driving up into the white mountains then meeting our trainers and backpacking in about 2-3 miles while learning about the leave no trace principles. After Wed, I'll be a certified leave no trace trainer. Which means that I will be able to teach other people about the leave no trace principles.

Just a reminder, I'll be shaving my head May 15th for St. Baldricks.

After having a very rough week lesson planning and what not, I'm really looking forward to spring break and not having to think about working for awhile. Even though we replanned our lesson at about 10 last night when we were teaching at 7:45 this morning, the lesson went well, I think. One of my group members feels the lesson went horribly and is in an awful mood. But whatever, we only have one more lesson and then it's Earth Day and then spring break in SC!!!!! I'm super psyched about that. Tomorrow at school, I'm going to go down to the teacher's lounge and make a copy of our teaching portfolio so that I can have one for myself. My boss said that it would be handy for me to have, not only as a reference, but also for if/when I start teaching. I'm pretty psyched. I feel like we did a lot of good lessons, and that it's a lot of good material. I'm going to try to take pictures of my cabin this weekend and post them on facebook, but I'm hiking to find a lost shelter Sat, so I don't know how much free time I'll have.

I slept in my summer cabin for the first time last night, and it was awesome! It got down to at least 32 last night, but I was pretty warm wrapped up in my sleeping bag and blankets. I'm stoked about it all now. It's really nice to only have one other person in the cabin with you, so that you don't get woken up constantly by other people coming and going.

Summer Cabins

I have now moved out of my winter cabin, and into a summer cabin with Hannah. It's a pretty awesome cabin. There was a decent sized hole in the edge of the roof, but we fixed it with some plastic to keep most water out. There's also no wood stove in it, so we'll be chilling in there, literally, during all the nights to come. It's going to be pretty awesome. Tonight's our first night sleeping in it, and it's going to be amazing, if just a little bit chilly.

Thanks to everyone who has donated to St. Baldrick's. I'm half way to my goal, but not quite there. Our group goal is $1,000 for 7 people.