Volunteering

June 8, 2009

I started volunteering at Shaw Nature Reserve a few months ago, but that was kind of a special deal. I was doing it in the afternoons before my Master Naturalist Class met. Today was my first day doing the "regular" volunteer shift, which is 8am to noon on Mondays (Tuesdays, too).

I started by working in the greenhouse, dumping small pots of soil into large buckets. I then helped organize plastic containers used for planting. While this was fine, I was relieved when Jenny took me outta there! We went to her newly assigned gardening area. I was given the task of cutting the dead blooms off of a wall of corral bells. I also halved the cliff goldenrod.

I really enjoyed myself. We had some intense storms early in the morning (while I was driving). The air was damp and cool. I listened to the birds and a train. It was just one of those perfect mornings. I loved getting my hands mangled in the wet cascading leaves and stems. When it was finished, it looked very pretty.

After cleaning up from this job, I helped carefully remove weeds from a mossy rock next to one very stinky pond that luckily didn't have a snapping turtle after all. This was cut short because I had to head home to relieve my new babysitter (Abi). But before I left, Jenny got a ring necked snake out of a barrel for me to see (and touch!). What a pretty little thing it was. Next time, I want to hold it. I can't wait to see what next Monday brings!

June 15th

Another perfectly rainy Monday! Two in a row-yippee! Today, I worked with Diane at the Trail House. Judy and Susan from my naturalist class came, too. Because of the rain, we didn't venture out for any seed collecting. Instead, we took the dried plant specimens collected the week before, and sorted and counted them. Judy and I sorted Miami Mist-an annual that was to be shipped to the Chicago Botanical Garden today. I sorted stems and then gathered the seeds in a bag. Does this sound boring? I found it to be relaxing and quite enjoyable. Three hours flew by. I can't wait for next week. I'm going on Tuesday and I will be doing my volunteer work, my capstone project, get advanced training from a bird expert, and then have my monthly chapter meeting. I'm so excited! This is definitely fun.

June 19th Earth's Classroom in Rosebud, Missouri-see story "A Day at Earth's Classroom"

June 23

SNR 8-12 Besa and I planted some things (can't remember their names!!) in the Rain Garden. Had lunch in Pacific at a Mexican place. Yummy.

SNR Capstone Project 12-4 Worked in the Outdoor Explore Classroom. We widened the path to five feet to allow carts to get through. We also created a path to a little brick landing. We were told that this was the original wildflower garden. It has been left alone for 12 years and is a bit of a mess. Lots of invasive species have taken hold. The woodland floor is a huge, tangly mess of vines.

Advanced Training-Jim Jackson on bird behavior. Great guy. Very interesting!

Monthly Chapter Meeting- Felt lengthy after such a long day working outside. I loved seeing everyone and missed all those absent!

July 6

I spent my morning at SNR. After a brief talk about how much poison ivy completely sucks, we were off to the rain garden for some seed collecting. For some reason, everyone seems to be under the misguided perception that I have a clue. I can only hope that they aren't too disappointed when they figure out that I'm a "Master Naturalist" in name only! I'm working on becoming a master of something. I think sedges is in the running right now...

Months ago, I thought sedges were synonymous with boring. Green, grassy, plain, uninteresting, fillers. The baby's breath of the rain garden. I have since changed my mind about them. Green-yes, but full of often overlooked character. Interesting-yes, the seed pods are kind of exciting to me. Fillers-well, maybe-maybe not. I do like them; some more than others.

Today I worked with lots of "Carex". When I came home, I found out that carex is a genus of plants known as sedges. Makes sense. I collected Carex: effusus (juncas effusus?), squarrosa, crinita (fringe), and muskingumensis (palm sedge). I reallly liked the palm sedge's seed pods and the squarrosa's.

I was warned, "Sedges have edges". I thought my hands would be fine. In actuality, as I sit here and type this, my fingers are covered in little sedge produced slits. Lovely.

I also helped look for "Sweet Cicely" and couldn't find it. I hope I can see it next week. It is supposed to have a pencil lead like seed pod. It is in the carrot family and is supposedly quite fragrant. I must see it! and smell it, too!

July 13

Today I worked in the rain garden again. I weeded with Besa. I enjoy the task of weeding that beautiful garden, the only problem is, I can't tell the weeds from the plants! How completely embarrassing! I can identify some of the weeds, but there are a lot that look like they "belong" there to me. Goodness, I thought learning all of the different plants was going to be hard.... I feel pretty useless-like a grown up seven year old that needs constant watching. Oh, joy.

I did get to collect seeds again. I really enjoy seed collecting. Today was carex hirsutella also know as fuzzy wuzzy sedge. I collected swanee-eye (sp?) sedge for Terri in her garden. Terri is such a lovely woman! I enjoyed talking with her while I worked. I saw the berries of the golden seal plant-a very interesting shade of red. I am so falling in love with sedges. I think flat sedges are their own category. I love the globe flat sedge and burr sedge. I want to move so badly....and then fill my land with pretties like these.

July 28, 2009

Capstone at SNR. I met Besa, Jenni L., Mary R., and Denise in the Outdoor Explore Classroom. We smoothed out some recently poured gravel along the main path in the woods. Afterwards we walked over to the lake and walked inside the little bamboo forest along the edge. There are a couple of clearings inside the bamboo. It was really pretty. We picked some blackberries along the edge and I saw a buttonbush in bloom. It was pretty.

We went back to the trail and cleared invasive species. I'm getting better at identifying Bush Honeysuckle. It does kind of look like Boxelders so there is a bit of confusion. I learned that Virginia Creeper is a native invasive, so we left it alone. It was pretty. Currant plants have lovely shaped leaves.

Afterwards, we took showers and hung out on the porch of the Adele Freund House. The clouds were dark and there was a lovely breeze. Rain followed. We had an AT on GPS and geocaching. We used the GPS units to geocache over at the Trail House. Fun.

July 26, 2009

I drove to the Caldwell Memorial Wildlife Refuge. There, I met: Sam, Matt, Bet

h, Melinda, Denise, and Susan G. Caldwell has three lakes that we mapped using GPS and a sonar floating device. First, Matt mapped the contour of the lakes, then we did depth readings. Easy and fun.

Sam gave us a tour of the property. It is a bit over 100 acres, used to belong to the Caldwell family who were friends with Daniel Boone, has a family cemetery,and a museum. They lease some of the property to farmers. There were lots of trails through the fields and woods. Blackberries were ripening all around and we ate as we wandered. I discovered a new plant (for me) pokeweed. It had pretty pinkish berries. Later, when I got home, I read that it is poisonous and that the fermented juice of the berries was used to write the Declaration of Independence. Very cool.

I didn't see hardly any wildlife. No turtles, lizards, or snakes. A couple of people saw some turkeys, but I didn't. We did see many beautiful spider webs. I saw some small fish as well. It was one of those gorgeous afternoons with a super blue sky and perfect fluffy clouds. I can't wait to go back.

August 11, 2009

Shaw Nature Reserve

Collected 5 different rushes from the rain and wildflower garden areas to be sent away for identification.

Collected a large bag of carex grayii (burr sedge) seeds.

Collected wallflower seeds.

Collected seeds from the glade area. I don't remember the name-the plant was very tall with star shaped seeds on the ends.

Lovely day!

August 17-My birthday!

Perfect and rainy. I cut down a piece of bamboo from the edge of the lake and took it to the rain garden. It will be used to untangle the flag. I weeded the one gallon pots that will be part of the plant sale. I worked with Cindy and planted Lobelia Cardinalis and willow? sunflower. I learned what mulberry weed is and pulled a bunch.

August 21

Went to Babler State Park for a wildflower survey. I identified, photographed, and counted wildflowers. It was me, Charlotte, Katherine Brown, and Susan Golay (plus her daughter and friend). Fun.