Crazy Town

 Ok so this is me with the first bird I banded, a purple finch. And this is not at all how you would hold it. This is actually after we were done and I was opening my hand to let it fly away when my friend grabbed the camera and snapped this quick. And you can tell how disoriented the bird is. So normally you have their neck between your first two fingers and the body in your palm kind of...or you could squeeze it's upper legs between your first two fingers.

 So now I'll gush about people up here some more. The 16 of us that live here have family dinners and meetings every Sunday which is so healthy. We eat good food, have fun, and then have healthy discussions so nothing gets too crazy. We joke that we're still in our honeymoon stage, but I think we're all adjusting really well. So pics on the side of our fancy dinner.

So this week is crazy busy for me. I actually only taught once but so much other stuff is going on. I'm a liaison this week for the first time and it's stressful. Being a liaison means you are responsible for one of the groups here for their entire stay from welcoming to goodbye. And it's just a lot to take on and work with. Thankfully my group kicks butt and there haven't been any problems. I'm also getting trained in on a new class tomorrow, and worked with the wildlife today.

The other reason this week is crazy is because the grad school. It really sucks to be working full time and have school on top of it. Our classes are also super condensed - 5 meeting times for a class - so it's just really accelerated. So I have tons to do before class on Friday this week. Shout out to my Aunt Mary Jo for helping me with one of my assignments this week! Very much appreciated!

And the final thing going on this week is Wolf Ridge's 40th Reunion - which basically means a big party all weekend. Everyone who was every connected to WR is probably coming this weekend and bringing their family. Work wise we're helping get things ready, then will kind of be posted around for an open house type environment. It should be fun, and we should get to meet a lot of important people. So I get my A-game on for smoozing.

We started the week with breakfast with Jack Pichotta who is the founder of WR. It's an amazing story and I hope he writes a book. He was a pioneer who fought long and hard for WR and other environmental centers to be created and it all started back at the first Earth Day in 1970. WR is actually the first residential learning center to be accredited in the nation and just the story of how they got to that point is fascinating. So I'm sure I'll hear many more good stories at the reunion.

 So here's Thistle, I know most of you are in love from afar. He's actually crazy spoiled. I worked with one of the other  naturalists to drill holes in a log and hide peanuts in it, then we also stuck in some raspberry leaves to lure him over (on the right). Just an enrichment activity to keep him active.

And finally a picure of me from the first time I ever did the ropes course. I'm not sure what emotion I'm trying to convey on my face...but I do it all the time now. I go through with kids walking below me and talk the whole time without freaking out so progress has been made. Each class definitely fills me anxiety though because your bound to have at least one kid freak out or cry and have to talk them through it. All my evaluators so far though tell my I'm super chill, which is perfect for this kind of class to set the mood. I never realized this before, but it does kind of make sense. Or maybe I'm just trying to lead by example, hoping they'll calm down and be like me :)


Remember to send me your address if you want a postcard.

"Guys...We live here"

But seriously, we say that a lot. I live here. And it never gets old. Look at those colors! 

Taught a class this morning, did a little rock climbing, got rewarded with a beautiful sunset, and now I'm spending the night close by our fire. It's been getting chilly and it's nice to curl up and relax. I was writing another batch of postcards. I've realized and I'd love to write more postcards, but I don't have that many addresses. So, if you would like a postcard, send me your address over facebook or to smasloan@gmail.com I'd be overjoyed to send them to you.

Working the Weekend

Oh hi. Yesterday afternoon was kind of my weekend because I'm working through this one. But fun stuff first.
I banded my first bird yesterday!!!!!! It was a purple finch, I got to hold it and do some measurements, then stick a metal band around its leg. Super cool to hold a wild bird, even though it maybe didn't like it so much. I'm hoping to learn a whole lot more about how banding works here. Last night I handled another wild animal- Hunter the great horned owl again. I got to have him on my arm, feed him lots of bloody mice pieces, then put him  back in his mew (room/enclosure/cage) after the raptor program. The raptor program happens about once a week here, and if all goes well I'll be giving the program later this year.

Complete change of topic- the leaves are changing and it's so beautiful. I took a little walk to try to snap some photos, and I also collected lots of the leaves. (There is a slideshow at the bottom of this post.) It's so very peaceful when there aren't children screaming everywhere. There were some deer on the path that weren't frightened of us at all. I also took a few pictures of chickadee landing because it's creepy. The idea is that the birds will get used to the fake people, and then kids could take their place and feed birds out of their hands.

Then because I was feeling really ambitioius, a friend and I hiked up Mystical Mountain for the first time. It's not an official trail so it's a lot more intense. At one point you are using a rope to climb up the cliff (photos in the slideshow.) But it was well worth the effort. We got out of their quick because we noticed rain coming our way but I can't wait to explore off it later and during the day, maybe even camp up there before it gets too cold.

On a downer note, I have my first class this afternoon for grad school. We will be having 4ish hour classes once a week either here at WR or down at UM Duluth. The professor is coming here for this first one. I have a ton of readings to do still, so this post is definetly a means of procrastination. I am also teaching this weekend. We have two adult groups on campus. One is a group on retreat, average age 60, from a nature center in the twin cities, and the other is a community college. I'm teaching the community college kids Beavers Saturday and Sunday morning. I guess for this weekend they are getting a PE credit...so we'll be doing lots of hiking. I'm hoping they're into it, and if not I plan on being super weird to make them get into it :)

Voyageurs Rescue

So one of our classes is Voyageurs which is a crazy good time. It's taught completely in character as a Frenchmen and the whole class gets characters to play in a voyageur canoe. I haven't taught it yet, but I will, and I desperately need to work on my French accent. So if you don't know, voyageurs were the Frenchmen that traveled all around the north in canoes for the fur trade. So in the class you get a character, dress up, everybody gets in a Montreal canoe (thirty something feet long), paddle across Wolf Lake to a campsite and party - cook, play games, start  fires with flint, carve some wood, etc. So today the voyageur class took off...by the time class was over they realized it had got pretty darn windy and they didn't even want to attempt making it back to the other side.

So after lunch, we decided to dress up and rescue the canoe. There is no direct trail back from the campsite so it was quite the trek. In true voyageur fashion, we sang songs in French and made lame jokes. The lake was brutal and a little bit of white caps...but we powered through and saved the canoe. 

Uffda!

Hi there. I hope everyone is having a good week. Looks like the weekend was the worst of my cold but I'm still carrying a scratchy throat/cough with me. This week WR has been taken over my 7th graders, and boy are they different from 4th graders! The school brought 380 people (this is 18 over capacity so there are mattresses on the floors of some of the rooms), and they were crazy hyper when they first got here Monday. They have since calmed down thankfully. This week I am being trained in to teach rock climbing. Yesterday I observed someone, tomorrow I will teach while being observed, and then I will be able to teach solo. I guess they're concerned about kids falling off the wall...Actually so am I since I am not a climber. 

This first photo is an early morning photo from last week of some fog rolling down into the valley, but I just wanted to show the view of the valley. This morning I taught Stream Study and it rocked! So I start my class overlooking this view so they can get a good view of WR and of Sawmill Creek. My ILFers will love this - While we are looking at over the valley I introduce the idea of a watershed and watershed address. I most definitely used the hand/cup/where would the drop of water go demo-it worked great. We talked about watershed addresses- if you're curious mine is Sawmill Creek>Baptism River>Lake Superior. Then we started our 20 min hike down to our classroom which is the tiny building in the back of the next photo. And there's a beaver lodge :)

So we spend some time inside and I demo all the tests we're going to do. Physical (Temperatures, Habitat types, Velocity/Volume), Chemical (Dissolved Oxygen and pH), and Biological (catch critters!) are the tests.  Then they split into groups and do everything at sites like the one shown below. Nice huh? 

I run like a maniac between them all to help where needed. They caught some fun stuff today - minnows, dragonfly larva, damselfly larva, giant water beetle, leech, and of course crawfish. They love it, and we do a group show and tell at the end. Then back to the classroom to compare data, talk about what it all means, and decide if Sawmill Creek is healthy or not - it most definitely is.  I brought it back round to the watershed concept, had them compare to water bodies in their area, what can they do to keep water clean. Then I ship them back to top of the ridge with their chaperones, clean up, then struggle back up myself. A big part of this hike is the Stairs of Health and Happiness or as the kids call them the Stairs of Death-photo below isn't even half of them. Literally it's impossible. They're not getting any easier either. Somewhere along the way, us Minnesotans are bound to say Uffda! Ok whatever I'm not a Minnesotan-but I still want to say Uffda!

I have a cold...

So this is Shovel Point on Lake Superior where we rock climbing yesterday. It was a way to celebrate our first week of teaching (woo-hoo!). I really need to start planning for next weeks lessons... I also really should be writing my first assignment....but I know how you guys want to know about this stuff.

It's a popular place to climb so they have permanent hooks at some of the runs to hook into. You start at the top, get lowered down, and climb back up. I had crazy anxiety to be completely honest. But how gorgeous is this view?!?! I live 10 minutes from this...

This is not me. But it's a friend and a good shot of the climb. If you can see the dead tree way down there....that's where the climb officially starts. I didn't even go down as far as she did. I was more worried about not being about to get back up since I started climbing about 1 week ago. Also it's crazy scary when you're that high with the lake below you.

That's me. I think at this moment I'm looking below me at the lake crashing against the cliffs....Thankfully the friend belaying me (keeping from dying) was also keeping me calm and walking me through it. To be totally honest my heart was going crazy, and when I got back up I almost shed a few tears of relief. Very powerful experience. Hopefully next time we go (after lots of practice on our indoor walls) I'll be able to go down farther. Worst part was definitely trusting the equipment though and hanging off the edge. 

Today I hung out with our wildlife naturalist. She takes care of Thistle, Elsie the chicken, Ruby the red-tailed hawk, Chup the perigan falcon, Hunter the great horned owl and the raven who hasn't been named yet. I'm going to be one of two wildlife interns this year. This means on top of full teaching schedule, 18 grad schools credits, I'll also  be working to learn all the care and handling of the animals. Elsie is like a dog- she comes when called and stays when told, it's freaky. We took Thistle on a walk to the nat wing (where we live) today for a visit. I learned how to gut mice and quail and about the diets of the raptors. Then I got to hold my first raptor! I handled Hunter and fed him some mice bits out of my hand. It was crazy awesome. I have to work a lot with him before handling the other raptors since they are a lot more intimidating. Ruby is also super strong. 

I also did some ropes course tonight. Here's a couple photos of the course. First is the Indiana Jones Bridge.

Next is the Burma Bridge. That's not me, but that's what it looks like when I demo the course for classes. 

Here's a gorgoeous view of Superior. So rewarding. 

There's a double log, a single wire with no handles, a single log.....and a view from the zipline. Jumping off the zipline tower is hard every time. I have the class countdown because it forces me to go in a reasonable time :) 

Brrrrr It's Cold Today

So getting up extra early to do the weather this week really stinks. I have to try to announce/scream it to everyone over the chaos in the dining hall as well. Also I've taken my first naps this week to try to compensate for the sleep loss.

Yesterday I taught high ropes. It was my first time so I had a permanent staffer evaluating me, mainly for safety concerns. I passed woohoo! Now I'm teaching it again today by myself. It's weird to have everyone watching you from the ground as you go through the course to explain it all... I do some great demo falls as well, just saying.

Yesterday the student nats did our first official botany exploration. Apparently I think naturalist eat everything... But for reals, apparently you can make yogurt with bed straw....

But I didn't actually eat it.

Also check out our snazzy Wolf Ridge Staff rain jackets.

The sky is on fire! Sunset yesterday from our telescope deck. 

 And some pictures of my room...
Yes I know it's messy...
Yes it's small, but it will be cozy in winter.

Day 2 Plus Phenology

 I'm rushing this post before I pass out for the night. So this morning, and for the rest of the week I am the meteorologist at Wolf Ridge! This means I get up super early check the weather, take some measurements outside, do a little forecasting and announce the weather to the dining hall at breakfast. It also means I get to spend some time this week doing phenology. To put it simply, phenology is the study of change in the environment marked by natural occurences. Birds migrating, leaves changing colors, crickets disappearing are all signs of change. So I get to go around and look for things changing, then I compare that to the  average date of the year this normally takes place. On the left is some high bush cranberry (different from the bog cranberries you eat at Christmas) and the namesake of the WR driveway - Cranberry Road. I tasted one today and the berries are mature/ripe. It's a little bit early for this, they usually ripen after 1st frost. 

So I spent about two hours out with our staff phenology expert as he showed me the ropes and what I should be looking for this week. There was tons and tons of stuff, but don't worry I won't bore you....too much. The paper birch tree leave moved on from flecking (starting to change color) to first solid color (a whole branch or whole tree has changed) but not peak color (all birch trees have changed). This is on time, but for a lot of individual trees it has been happening since a few weeks ago. This is due to some leaf miners! This is a generic term for insects that only eat the middle layer of a leaf. So you can see in the close up photo the part of the leaf that is dark brown. The brown is the top and bottom outside layers of the leaf, and the inside has been munched away.

Then this afternoon I taught Geology, which totally rocked :) Overall I think it went really well. It was a rowdy bunch and I struggled a lot with trying to keep them from jumping off a cliff, but most seemed to retain a lot of information. I was worried about content, but I think I was as great as I could have expected for a first time. I was worried about time, but got back even a little early from the hike. And like I said, when we reviewed at the end, they knew a lot more than they started out with. 

I'm getting up crazy early again tomorrow to check the weather than teaching Adventure Ropes! I'm being observed since it's my first time so let's hope I remember all that safety stuff and don't drop a fourth grader 30 feet :)

First Day!

Well I survived my class. In fact, I think I did a little better than survive. This afternoon I taught GPS and Geochaching to a group of 6th graders, and they left with smiles on their faces!

(classroom before they arrived!)

I actually never really had a freak out moment and went in pretty confident. I was worried about some things I shouldn't have worried about and maybe should have thought about others a little more. I was great with time and content, but classroom management was a little tougher. In my defense, the group had just arrived an hour before and it was their first class - so they were a bundle of energy. I feel pretty darn good about the class though. 

I also observed a high ropes course tonight with a bunch of fourth graders. They are so tiny, it's amazing. They all seemed to fly through it no problem as well. I will be teaching a two high ropes courses this week, one with fourth graders and one with sixth graders. I think the most important part of the class is to stress patience as they usually have to wait a bit before they can go through the course. Obviously being supportive and positive to others is right up there as well. 

But now I desperately need to go to sleep. The excitement has worn me out for the day. This week I am doing the weather forecast every morning so I have to get up at 6:15 to take all the weather measurements....yikes. Then I'll be cramming all kinds of material in my head because I'm teaching geology in the afternoon. Then I'll get to watch the raptor program after dinner. 

Fourth grader quote "It was really scary, but also really fun!"

A Beauty and a Challenge

So I am desperately in love with Lake Superior. Every time it takes my breath away. This is a view from Palisade Head. We hung over the cliffs a bit, I of course was terrified of the height.

Below is a picture of Shovel Point where we are going rock climbing next Friday. I'm still not sure if I'll be able to actually do it, but I really want to. We have two rock climbing walls here, and I've been on them both. I know that out there though will be a lot more fears. They are going to set it up so you start at the top, get lowered down, then climb back up...but I'm worried I'll just have to make them pull me back up. Also there isn't that direct line of communication/sight that you get with indoor climbing. I'll let you know how it goes...

Yesterday was matriculation, or a big party to officially welcome us into the community. A few showers and a gorgeous rainbow made the party exciting, and everyone was super sweet about it being my birthday as well. Everyone here is ridiculously nice and community is central to everything. First school is arriving tomorrow and classes start Monday! Eeek! 

"Quit Naturalizing!"

This is a shot of a sunset from my window, from the west side of the ridge. Once the trees lose their leaves I expect to be able to get a much better view of the valley.

This is the severe thunderstorm moving in last night. I was terrified. It started hailing when we were having a meeting in the conference room and I wanted to curl into a ball. The building is my dorm.

Above is a great shot from the geology class hike. You can see Raven Lake which is smaller than Wolf Lake and more marshy. Wetlands class is taught on the edge of it. And in the back is the endless expanse of Lake Superior. Takes my breath away every time. I had to bring myself back down to earth, because I'm teaching geology next Tuesday!

Leaf fossil! There are really interesting rocks up here and I'm doing my best to learn them fast! This class is cool because it centers on a hike to observe the formations, but it is also very content heavy. I need to get my but in gear to study!

The geology hike goes to the top of Marshall Mtn, which is where my sunrise pictures were from :) You can see from the elevation it is not actually a mountain, but it is one of the highest points in the area.

Other classes I've done this week include FIRST Games, Orienteering, Forest Ecology, and Beavers. FIRST Games is team  building types of exercises - Fun but kind of exhausting. Orienteering is crazy intense. We were doing it on two different courses,  no one finished, and one student nat got stung by wasps and almost had to go to hospital. We are all coming out of orienteering with negative outlooks on teaching it. 

Forest Ecology was fun, cool hike, and I learned a lot more about identifying trees. The class mostly focuses on succession and balancing the needs of wildlife, water, logging, and recreation. 

Just finished Beavers which was fun even though we didn't see any beavers. Because of a lame winter, flooding earlier this summer followed by very dry months has really affected the beavers. We did find some very fresh signs though! A lot of speckled alders had been freshly chomped, fresh drag paths down to the water, and a brand new dam! The new dam has already dropped the water level dramatically. It's probably 6-7 feet deep behind the dam and only 1-3 feet deep on the other side. As we walked downstream for awhile there was a lot of freshly exposed mud and loose grass in the water that also showed evidence of the dropping water level. And we saw some beaver tracks! You don't see them often because they're usually in mud, but they look fairly recent. The mud was also firm enough to hold the print and you could see toe-nail prints (not in the picture though...)

And I leave you with a picture of wolf scat :)

Did I already tell you I saw a bear on our driveway on Saturday? Well I did. It was probably just a year old or so and crossed right in front of the car. It was using our stream study trails.