Taggin, trappin and takin in the view...

I am officially an AmeriCorps NCCC member! No more training, time to go "get things done for America!" (one of our tag lines). So I have been in Maquoketa, Iowa, for almost two weeks now. Same brown corn fields, faded barns and thankfully, even though it is still chilly, same warm hospitality. Here are a few stories of what I have been up to working with Jackson County Conservation Board:

Tagging fish in the Mississippi

     I think this has been the most memorable experience of all. We worked with a team of guys from the Department of Natural Resources tagging fish on the Mississippi River. And if I ever wondered what it would be like to be one of the guys on manly fishing trips, I now have a first hand fly on the wall experience. Us ladies were out numbered  four to one, but I took up the torch. My daddy and Papa Lou raised me right ya hear. By the end of the day the men asked me to join up next year as a commercial fisher-woman with them. We brought in about 110 Northern Pike for tagging (to keep informed on the population changes). And some of these suckers were fat! One of my favorite fishermen, Royce, would see a fat female and call out, "That sow is mine!". He would then follow that up with his own rendition of "I like em big, I like em chunky..." from Madagascar 2. I hope you know what I am talking about, cause that song is hilarious. 

    By the end of the day, I had kissed about nine fish, only the really fat ones and cute tiny ones got the pleasure. I may have smelled like a fishy man, and looked like one in my puffy down suit to keep warm, but I know that I had proudly portrayed the boldness and stealth of my gender. 

Denny the Trapper

     In a battle for the most interesting person I have met in Iowa, Denny takes home the gold. He is in his sixties and has been working for the Department of Natural Resources for about thirty years. We drove out to Guttenburg for some fish tagging and all of my team mates were asleep for the hour drive there and back. So Denny had an abundance of time to tell me all about himself. Denny is one of the ten people in Iowa interested in Beaver trapping. He traps about 100 beavers every year (in addition to an abundance of deer, bear and otter). Denny is the kind of guy you could just sit next to on a public bus and have a pleasant conversation with and then it hits you, BAM! This guy is a genius. He knew more about anything and everything with fur, gills, or talons than Steve Irwin ever did. And family, you know my obsession and schoolgirl crush on Steve. 

      After a long day of netting fish he brought us to his house and opened his garage door to reveal nine beaver carcases (skinned pink with yellow teeth still grinnin, creepy I know). What happened next would remind me of  a scene from Silence of the Lambs if Denny weren't such a stand up guy. The room behind the garage was the most interesting... straight out of fear factor ladies and gentleman. Two walls are coated with beaver and otter hides that are being stretched for tanning. Above the door, like medieval torture devices hung about thirty toothless traps with rusty chains.There was the freezer full of "spare parts". Beaver and all his other trophies to sell and eat. And last but not least is the wall of beaver Caster glands. There is no getting around it, these looked like dried testicles.

"This is where I bring all of my daughters boyfriends when they come to the house for the first time," he told us. "I tell them these are all the past boyfriends." Beavers produce Caster to mark their territory but it is a very pricey material due to the fact that it is used to make high end perfumes even today. Bet you didn't know that. Denny makes an extra $8000-10,000 a year in trapping. Everything I just described may sound grizzly and barbaric but Denny has a huge respect for these animals. He even travels around Iowa giving educational seminars to schools on trapping and meets annually with members of PETA.
 

Other tid-bits

    We have filled the rest of the days here in various ways; volunteering at local elementary schools, clearing trails at the parks, preparing the area for the flooding of the Mississippi due to heavy snow melts from northern states, and completing two observation decks and docks for residents to enjoy all the natural beauty that Iowa has to offer. 

     After just two weeks, my knuckles are cracked like a Neanderthal's. I have developed a hopefully not permanent knob on my big toes from my steel toe boots. And I do not even want to mention the state of my hair, lets just say that I make dread locks look like a fancy prom up-do. But man, have I seen some beautiful views. Breathing fresh air all day and getting the satisfaction of creating something with nothing but shaped metal and your muscles. Nothing can compare. Well, I am out for now. Like always, early morning tomorrow. Love and miss you all more than you can possibly imagine. And if by chance you want to get your hands on some of that pricey beaver caster, let me know. I know a guy.