falling behind!

I know I've been super lazy about updating.... but its been a crazy month!

One fun thing we did a few weeks ago was a Saturday service at a community garden in Sandwich. The garden is run by the Housing Assistance Corporation, the group that runs the shelter we renovated in January. We helped them pound in posts and add some fencing for the community plots.



The herring arrive next month, so we've been doing a lot of cleanups at herring runs. Last Friday we did one in Bourne, and one in Falmouth this Monday. Basically, we cleared out the water of debris and anything that could be an obstacle for the fish swimming upstream.



My group in the AmeriCorps office on Thursdays has been doing weekly after school programs with elementary students called "Kids Go Green!" I've led two classes, one on recycling (where we made recycled paper) and one on composting. The kids are a lot of fun but full of energy ... it's definitely a lot of work. Last week one of my housemates led a class on animal tracks.

A few weeks ago, our house got a call that there was a mass stranding out in Wellfleet. My housemate Amanda and I responded to the call, only to find out that it was over by the time we made it to the outer cape. Not wanting to waste a day out near the National Seashore, we put on our waders and headed to the beach. It was one of our first nice spring days, and got me pretty excited about life on the Cape when it finally warms up for good!



Last week was our spring break. Five of us took an ambitious roadtrip to philadelphia/atlanta/north carolina/DC.... quite a trip. Pictures to come!

february retreat

I knew this week of warm sunshine was too good to be true.... woke up this morning to fresh snow and some rain. Oh well, it was nice while it lasted!

This week we spent three days in the Coastguard house on the National Seashore, having our midyear retreat. We did a lot of group activities like AmeriCorps trivia and member jeopardy, had a talent show (I was involved in a poetry reading and an all-house dance routine), and talked a lot about issues of civic engagement. We had a tour of the water treatment facilities at the Cape military base and learned about the process of cleaning up the groundwater from years of chemical spills.

We also took a short hike to see the famous Nauset lighthouses and a red cedar swamp, which were beautiful. At the end of the weekend, one of the members found a dead seal on the beach, probably killed by a coyote. One of the Wellfleet girls has her placement with the Stranding Network, so after calling it in she went down to tag it and collect some data. She removed a jawbone and a skin sample for the Stranding Network, and we got to watch and help which was pretty interesting. No dead seal closeups, I promise...

This Saturday four of us were asked to judge a local science fair in Falmouth. I was nervous (my science is a little rusty), but it was lots of fun, and they had us judging middle school so all the concepts were well within my grasp.

This weekend after service a few of us went out to Eastham to go to a potluck with the National Seashore fire crew and spend some time at the Wellfleet house. It was nice to get out of Bourne for a little bit and see the rest of the Corps.

Tomorrow I'm off to perform my first puppet show of the year. It's called "The Green Ribbon," and it teaches the kids about the importance of recycling through the use of some snazzy songs and goofy voices. It's harder than it sounds... and has a pretty good amount of potential for disaster. But kindergarteners are pretty forgiving, so it should be fun.