Guess where I am!

As I sit here in an office in Puerto Rico, drinking 11.27 oz. Luke-warm CoCo Rico from a can, I realize it was more than a month ago that I last posted about anything. So I shall start at the very beginning.
Once upon a time... Just kidding. About a month ago when I was dealing with subzero temperatures and lack of power, a light bulb popped up over my head and the harder I tried to ignore it the brighter it became and the more I wanted it. My bright idea was to join Carmen in Puerto Rico for a week before joining my parents in St. Kitts for the holidays. So I devised a plan to tell my boss my idea, more or less I brought it up in casual conversation about how “I had a layover in Puerto Rico, and wouldn’t it be nice if I could see El Yunque National Forest while I was there?” Slowly I added more and more days to it: “wouldn’t it be nice if Carmen and I had a chance to work on some things together?” Well, a few hour layover turned into a few days, turned into a week. At the time I had still a few weeks to plan the trip and Thanksgiving in St Louis to go to. Every time I scraped ice off of my vehicle, I thought of Puerto Rico. Every time I could see my breath in the air, I needed Puerto Rico’s warm 83 degrees temperatures. Towards the end of November I made the few hour flight home for Thanksgiving. It was a wonderful trip. By the end I had seen my friends, spent time with my family, and eaten way too much turkey.

 I was ready for North Carolina again, but as soon as I landed I was back to dreaming about Puerto Rico.
During the next few weeks, several things happened. I had to return the teal mobile. Before I did this I had noticed that the 4 wheel drive was not engaging, and that there was a little more clunk in the wheel well. It is going to get retired this year which is very sad for me; he was a good SUV, usually reliable. I will miss him very much.
I also have the opportunity to be extended to March, which I am very excited about. I found out that with this I would be changing my duty station, my supervisor, and where I live. I had four days before the Puerto Rico trip to pack up everything I own and move. This was a lot harder because I stocked piled food like a squirrel. After packing most of my stuff I realized that A} I don’t have a key to the new house, and B} I would never finish cleaning the house before I left if I didn’t stop packing. So I asked if I could move when I get back. That was a great relief!
So that was Friday, December 7th. Only a few days, a couple of meetings and a conference call or two until I left. On Thursday the 13th I arrived at the airport in Atlanta at 6 am to start my all-day journey to San Juan, Puerto Rico’s capital.
Carmen met me at the airport, and we drove in the pouring rain back to her house (still 80 degrees). Today is my first day in the office. Situated in a beautiful tropical rain forest, El Portal Tropical Rain Forest Center is wonderful. The people are super friendly, the food is great and the weather is spectacular. We have a couple of conference calls with our boss, we are working on a best practice program PowerPoint for the region, and on Sunday we have a tropical bird count to attend. At the count we will be out with volunteers counting both exotic and endangered birds.

Sandy and The Snow Storm

It has been so long since I last blogged. And wow, has so much happened.

Last week when Sandy was blasting the East coast we got 45 MPH winds with 65 MPH gusts. We got rain that turned into snow. And needless to say we lost power about 530 on Monday afternoon. The first night was fine, we couldn't cook, but the RVers had been warned so they had propane for their heaters and water in their tanks. Because we get our water out of a spring, when we lost power, the electric pump stopped working, so no water for us.

 On day 2 with no power I went out to lunch and dinner, as we still had no power in the house, I kept thinking about the food in the refrigerator. They say you have 4 hours in a closed frig and 48 hours in a closed freezer, well by late afternoon on day 2 it was getting close to the 24 hour mark. Some of the RVers were abandoning ship as the cold weather and wind were getting into their RVs. some people were experiencing problems with their rigs and had to pull out early. Stotle and I brought up coolers filled with ice to put some of the food in.

 Day 3 in the morning we got generators for the dorm and activity building refrigerators, but I think it was 2 little too late. Again I we had dinner out, when we got home, I ate some of the food out of the refrigerator, and it was a mistake. I was sicker than a dog on Thursday. Oops.
 Thursday we got power back on which was good as I don’t know how well I would have done in my condition with no power.

 Friday I was feeling much better, we had our last happy hour as a group as most of A team were pulling out Saturday.

  Saturday seeing most of the big rigs pulling out, made me realize it is going to be a lonely winter, there will be no popping into the visitor building to chat with whose ever working, there will be no checking to see if the activities building has lights on as I drive passed to see if I can stop in there later, and there will be no happy hour. I have grown to love my time spend in the company of strangers, we have become a mini family, I am their adopted daughter, and they watch after me like they are my parents. It has been a wonderful summer and I have met so many wonderful people.

Today when I woke up it was sooooo cold, as my window is still broken and about 3 inches open, I have a nice temperature gauge. It wasn’t until I got half way across the hall that I noticed it was SNOWING!!!!!!!! Not just snowing it was sticking to the ground!! I was so excited! I hate being cold but I love the snow. When I got down the mountain it was just raining so my plan is go leave a bit early to go walk around and get pictures, we are supposed to get more tomorrow, I cannot wait. I need to get new boot as after a year they are no longer waterproof and seem to leak quite a lot.

I have been working on the Volunteer Strategy for NC, this involves contacting District folks to get a picture on how their programs are running and how they want them to be running, it’s a lot of emails and phone calls but I have been seeing a trend with the districts across the state. In the end, I will be presenting the forest supervisor with a document about where we are now and were we want to be. As I have immersed myself in this project I think I will do really well.

I also have noticed a declining number of page views and comments, I think I am alone now, no comments since September, except for my parents. Sad day for me.  So tell all your friends, I miss the comments. Pictures will come tomorrow, as I cannot upload them on the cradle internet, it’s too slow.

 

Pictures From Tommy Hodges

 

Photos From Camping in the Old Style

  

          

Camping and Tommy

Tomorrow is Camping in the Old Style. which is just as it seems, a group ofre-enactors will be camping out in our field. they will be showing four typical canvas tent styles, showing fire building with flint and friction and be cooking over an open fire.  and yes they will be sleeping out in the 35 degree weather, and no yours truly will not be joining them. because this program is presented by the Traditional Outdoor Skills Program, Schiele Museum of Natural History, all of the re-enactors are trained staff they will be wearing the garb, walking the walk and talking the talk. when you come upon the 1900 era blacksmith shop you will also feel like you have stepped back in time with a real live camp.

Next week is is the Legend of Tommy Hodges. Legend has it that a student from the Biltmore Forest School disappeared on Halloween night in 1906, this is his story. Each year the Cradle of Forestry in America present this Legend a slightly different way, as what really happened to Tommy Hodges is still a mystery. Visitors will be lead down a the Biltmore Campus Trail where they will encounter characters of the play. With in each of the old buildings there will be a few min skit to tell that part of whole story. you may meet Dr. Carl Alwin Schenck, founder of the Biltmore Forest School, or Mrs. Gillespie, wife of the head ranger, or students from the forestry school. each of these characters play a role in the mystery of Tommy Hodges.

Pictures will definitely follow!

The Fair and Tea with the Llamas

                                                                       

On Friday and Sunday Rachel and I volunteered to work at the state fair, the Forest Service had a booth set up, where we talked to visitors and handed out brochures. This was a great experience for us both. We worked  four hour shifts then got to walk around the fair, The first night being Friday night the State Fair was PACKED!!! Tons and tons of people everywhere! During the eight day duration of the fair there was an estimated 175,000 people present.

On Saturday we had an event at the cradle involving Llamas!! Basically a local Llama farm brought a few of their rescue llamas into teach us about llamas and then use them as pack animals to travel up the trail (300 feet elevation change) to have tea time. it was a pretty sweet experience, because llamas have pads (like a dog) not hoofs (like a horse) they are allowed on any trail in the Pisgah National Forest. I found this fasinating. we had a really goot turn out, about 100 for the first trip and 60 for the second one. not only that it was good exersice for all of us, seeing as one loop was 2.1 miles we got in about 4.2 miles just with the llamas.

 

 

Update on the Teal Mobile

On a Happy Note, I ment to mention this in my last blog, but the Green Machine is back and still kicking! turns out the check engine light was because of the fuel injector senseor and the fuel injector sensor was because of a faulty gas cap, so the Teal Mobile was trying to tell me he was sick this whole with the ominus orange light! So after the sensor and gas cap were replaced he runs like a dream! Oh and he had a birthday, Big Green reached 88,888 miles! Pretty Sweet!

My Hike in Pink Beds

Last week I want for a hike in Pink Beds Recreation Area, well technically I went to look at the White Faced/ Bald Faced Hornet’s nest. The thing is HUGE!  It is in a well-used Recreation area, however because of its size we cannot safely remove it, it is about 3 feet off the ground, about 1.5 feet across and 2 feet high. We will wait until it freezes a couple of times before we remove it and use it as a display in the Cradle. Along the way I spotted some pretty sweet critters, the yellow caterpillar is an American Dagger Moth Caterpillar; he is a fluffy little guy that’s for sure.  I also saw a 4.5 foot long Black Rat Snake; he was slithering along the forest floor, and then stopped so I could snap a few photos.  

At the Cradle the Volunteers and Interns get together at least once a week for craft time and usually a Pot Luck. The last few weeks we have been quilting, this week we start making teddy bear and bead necklaces, as well as continue to quilt. I am super excited about all the new fun things I am learning how to do, last Saturday after our botched weekly float trip(it started sunny then down poured rain and dropped about 15 degrees, not fun in an intertube!) we headed home to warm up and get some dinner, we ended up spending our Saturday night watching DVDs and quilting, wow we are adventuresome! Another awesome activity I have picked up is mushrooming, or Hunting Mushrooms, I love wandering out in the woods, looking for mushrooms, my latest score, Black Chanterelles, so yummy, a mild apricot smell, delicious in a garlic onion sour cream brandy sauce. Each time I come back with some mushrooms I can’t wait to go back out, this is definitely my new favorite hobby. Its hiking with a bonus. Awesome! The mushroom pictured below is a Fly Agaric it is highly poisonous and should be avoided, but boy is it pretty! Until next time happy hunting!

Good Morning World

  

 

He's so fluffy, I'm gonna die!

Two Float Trips and a Road Trip

Rachel and I went on a float trip down the French Broad river, it was wonderful lazy trip, before we left we picked up some food and went to the college to see if we could see the famous White Squirrel ( I was convinced they weren’t real) but low and behold I saw not one but two little White Squirrels. It was pretty sweet.

The next day (Tuesday August 22) I left for my work trip, I started in Robbinsville NC met with a few Campground Hosts, stayed overnight and then went on over to Tellico Plains TN, in TN we met with a few more Campground Hosts, ended the day in Chattanooga TN. It was a great trip; I learned so much and had a really fun time getting to know some regional volunteers, learned a lot about the culture of Campground Hosting and about what trainings need to be offered. This was the trip were Michelle, two people from San Dimas and myself interviewed recreation staff as well as campground hosts to see what training they provide or what training they wish they had access to. What they wish they knew when they started, what they deal with on a daily basis. It was very informative. On a sad note, the Green Machine died twice on the way home from the trip, he is scheduled to go to the doctor sometime this week, everyone believes they won’t pay to fix him and he will be put down.  It’s a very sad day indeed; we have been through so much together.

On a lighter note, Rachel and I conquered our fears and braved the 68 degree water and went down Sliding Rock. You slide down the 80 foot long natural waterslide, landing in an 8 foot deep pool fully submerging your body in the cold water, it was so icy, and I now know why they have so many rescues. When you hit the pool your natural response is to breathe in, well when you are underwater, breathing in is not an option, hence the rescues. We ended our lazy Sunday with another float trip and dinner at my uncle’s house, where I met my new second cousin Abigail.