My Crazy Week

 
Disclaimer
I am an intern. I'm am not an employee of the Forest Service. Everything I say on this blog is just my opinion and not the views of the Forest Service or the United States government.

Another whirlwind week. I’m really enjoying my experience. I have learned a lot, I can't wait to go exploring tomorrow. I think I might go into Asheville with Rachel my new housemate, she is from Boston. I had a nice geography lesson when she got here; who knew the coast was so big? I didn’t that’s for sure.


On Monday I got ready for our Pisgah Ranger District meeting which was on Tuesday. I printed out all of the stuff and made sure everything was ready. Then I started transcribing the map notes. I learned that people have the worst handwriting. We have six districts on this half of the state, each has at least 3 trail complexes. Which is at least 18 maps total, but some of the districts had 7 maps. So you guessed it, a lot of notes. These notes are written on Post-Its with the initials and a number that correlates to the initials and number on the map. Some of the comments have meaning, and others like “horses should wear diapers” are just dumb. The Forest Service is not going to ask all equestrians to put diapers on their horses, I’m sorry, not gonna happen.
Tuesday we had our meeting. It went smoothly: we had about 25 people show up which is a great turn out, we spent about 2 hours of the 3.5 hour meeting writing on the maps, and as I walked around the room to answer questions the best I could, I couldn’t help but think “transcribing all these notes is going to be a pain in my behind.” After the 2 hours of drawing/note making, we went around and people made comments about what they had written down. People added to it as they saw fit and I scribbled as fast as I could, trying to keep comments straight. After the meeting I met the two guys that on May 21^st  will become my other housemates. That night they actually stayed at the Cradle. 


On Wednesday I worked in Asheville. We got some of the transcribing kinks out of the way, which helped streamline the process. My computer froze then crashed in the middle of the day and was super slow after that. So at about 3:30 I packed up and headed for home, not feeling that I had accomplished much, but I had maps in the back of my car for Thursday and Friday. I was going to get three districts done by Monday even if it killed me and I did it wrong.


On Thursday I only had to go to the Pisgah Ranger Station, where I set up shop in the conference room, armed with 15 maps and a slow, angry computer. I started typing up the smallest district, and POOF, I was done, then the next smallest district (they were going on the same excel spreadsheet) and you know what? POOF! done. This was by 1 pm, my two days worth of work was quickly becoming one. The last and final district I had brought was the big 7 map district; and you know what? POOF! Done! I was so proud of myself, I felt like I had accomplished something in the last two days of my wasted week. 


On Friday when I came rolling into the Pisgah Ranger District, I found that I had no computer hook up, so I went and did my grocery shopping. When I got back I plugged in my computer and got to work filling out my time card. When I finished it up I realized I had worked another 100-hour pay period, so I packed up and went home. It was a wonderful Friday.

SATURDAY WAS BIRD DAY! Or National Migratory Bird Day. We had bird walks, people came from Wild for Life Wildlife Center to show off their birds, and we had bird games. It was impressive the amount of people that showed up considering it was threatening rain all day. In the morning I had to go fish out “floats” from the pond, which consisted of me getting my kayak out and paddling around looking for bobbers. I found one. It was within reaching distance from shore. Not sure why I had to get the kayak out, but I guess it was an excuse to kayak in my pickle suit. Don’t worry, I have pictures.

Photos Only Blog

Oh Yeah. This is my job!

Jim and Lydia Decker with grandkids

Catipillar

So Cute.

Wish the lady wasn't in this picture!

Everything Needs a Title

Not much to report this week. I spent Monday in Asheville at the SO working on more trail strategy stuff. Had a meeting with 2 of my bosses to work out schedules because I can't handle many more 100-hour pay periods. Once we got all that taken care of, I worked in my cubicle for the rest of the day, which wasn't that long since I now only work 6 hours in the office because of my 2 hour drive. Monday night I had sushi for dinner, because it's the off season they have buy-one-get-one free rolls. It is truly fantastic.

On Tuesday, I was in Asheville again trying to get a Google group’s page working, creating a doodle calendar, and more deciphering. Not a very exciting day in the office. But when I got back to the Pisgah Ranger District, I found I had a present!!! A NEW CAMERA to replace the one that broke in Washington DC when I was there on training a few weeks back. I am so excited to try it out, I might make a mid-week blog of just photos!!!

Wednesday was Fun Day; basically the ranger district has a safety meeting once a month, this one, before the season starts. They take time to appreciate the staff with a potluck and games and awards. I got to sit through the safety part but then had to leave before the fun began. Then had to go back to Asheville for a lunch meeting at a place call Home Grown. It is amazing. I have been there twice and each time I get the smoked trout wrap with apples, pears, sprouts, and cream cheese, it's wonderful! After the lunch meeting I worked some more on maps and deciphering people's hand writing. Which to my surprise is a lot harder than I first anticipated.

By Thursday I was so tired of traveling to Asheville to work 6 hours then driving home not feeling like I was accomplishing much on the dinosaur I call a computer, that I decided I would work from the Pisgah Ranger District (PRD), which is only a 15 mile drive down the mountain. I spread out on the floor working on giant 3 by 4 maps trying to put trail numbers with trail names, which would be pretty easy if people didn't draw on one trail, write a different number, then call it a different name all together. So that took a while and in the end I didn't get close to being finished. 

Friday I put the finishing touches on the doodle calendar meeting, finished the NC Trails Strategy group, and had a conference call with the regional office. All before lunch. Pretty productive, and then I sat on the phone for 3 hours trying to get on the Oracle Drive and get my VPN, and after 3 hours then decided the "O-drive" would work but I would have to be transferred to another person for the VPN. I need the VPN because come the winter (or anytime I want to work up at the cradle) I can't. I have to drive down the mountain, which right now is fine because its summer but come winter when the snow is 3 feet deep at 4000 feet, I’m not going to want to make that journey everyday. So after I was transferred to someone else and sat on the phone for another hour they told me my supervisor would have submit the request. Then it was time to go home for the day! So all-in-all not very productive when you add the morning to the afternoon. Worst part about those calls is they remote into your computer so you can’t even get work done while you’re on the phone. Terrible.

Saturday I did a whole lot of nothing. I woke up early because we had a group photo, then individual photos. Then I went into town and did some shopping looking for some gifts. Went back up the mountain and hung out at the cradle, was going to take pictures of visitors but there wasn’t many, so I just talked to the volunteers. After the shift was over, we had a Cinco de Mayo party at the community building. Oh, but first we had to watch the Kentucky derby because it’s history and a long-standing tradition. And we talked about the Super Moon, which is when the full moon is closest to the earth. It is 15 percent bigger and 30 percent brighter. And it was happening at 11:35, so I stayed up. Only we forgot to factor in that we are in a mountain bowl: every point around us is higher then we are. So I set my alarm for 30 minute intervals. At 2:30 in the morning the moon was high enough so I could see it, but by that time it had gotten cloudy. I did manage to get a couple of good shots that I will post on here as soon as I figure out how to get the photos off my camera.

Look who showed up. It's the Schwan's man.

My pictures in the paper, too bad no photo credit.