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.