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.

     

Tales of Courage (and the release of my first spike location!)

       Hello hello from Iowa! The weather today is a beautiful, sunny 40 degrees and after a few weeks of foggy, haze I am soaking up every ray. One would never think this Florida girl would be walking around in short sleeves in weather below 50 thanking God for the warm weather! Ha! From my previous blogs, you may have noted how crammed with training the past three weeks were. There are underground tunnels that connect every building on campus for comfortable facilitation in the Winter. But last week I found myself saying, "Holy cow, I have not seen the light of day in four days!!" So the past four days have been much needed for the lack of vitamin D and hard labor! Here is what I have been up to:

    
      I have just come back from my first spike. What is a spike you may ask? No, I am not being trained in the art of vampire slaying, rather this is the term NCCC uses for our team trips. It comes from the idea of pitching a tent. Carrying everything you need for a project on the strength of your shoulders and pitching a tent; driving the spike into the ground and claiming the land! That is what we do in NCCC. Go in with minimal supplies (in girl standards) and maximal skill and enthusiasm.

      So for my training spike we were sent to Camp Courageous, a camp for individuals with disabilities of all ages in Monticello, IA. It was awesome. We were not promised much time with the campers because we were going to be focused on infrastructure improvement. The camp had recently come into 30 additional acres to expand upon and a chunk of my team was given the job of taking down the fence that surrounded the previous acres so the expansion could be made. Our supervisor called this the "farm boy" job. I don't know if raising goats and chickens would count for that category but I volunteered. I found out two things: 1. I am an expert wire wrangler (better even then the North Carolina cowboy on my team) 2. Clay stains clothes something fierce (especially pristine AmeriCorps NCCC uniforms). The Iowan snow has turned into Iowan mud mush. I have become quite fond of my steel-toed boots. In fact us Corps members have a fun game we like to play. We put on our boots, find the largest person we can, and have them stomp in the toes of our boots. The result is a excited yell, "I did not feel a thing!". It's pretty fun, and a way to stay entertained in Iowa.
      Back to camp stories... We did a few other jobs too during out three days there. Painted the interior of three dorm buildings and ten bathrooms. Sanitized the dorms for the most medically challenged campers (think hospital sanitation). But by far my most favorite was the Mardi Gras dance the camp held. Camp Courageous is entirely run on donations which is a miraculous feat because everything about this camp is top notch. They even have a climbing wall in the pool! The dance was one of the many fundraising opportunities the camp has to invite the community to invest in the camp and campers.

      So you guys know me and my amazing dancing skills (example to the left, I'm in the blue pants with my booty shakin!), cough cough. Well, the campers of Camp Courageous were the best dance partners I have ever had. One of my favorites was a man named Stephen with down syndrome who showed up in a greaser jacket with a fine tooth comb in hand. Even with all the Danny Zuko coolness running through him, he could not fight the urge to get crazy with some Baha Men, "Who Let the Dogs Out?!". He got down on all fours with a few other campers and began imitating a dog. Before the song was over I had been bitten once, nuzzled on, barked at, and even imaginary peed on. Needless to say, that broke any ice of appearance and embarrassment that us Corps members may have had and we went all in! Those kids could dance. I threw my best moves at them and still did not win the dance contest! Haha.
         My three days at Camp Courageous taught me a lot, but one word fittingly comes to mind; courage. I saw in these campers total boldness of character. They loved who they were and didn't care what others thought. That takes courage.
      In closing, this is the verse that God used in my life this week: "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, rather in humility value others above yourselves." Phil. 2:3. I don't know about you, but sometimes I think that I am waaaaay more important than other people. Crazy right? I am sure that I am the only one out there that does that too. But Jesus was a pretty humble guy. And he said and showed the example of valuing others over myself. I'm gonna keep chewing on that one for now :)

And here is the big news!!! I got the location for my first real spike. It is a split round which means two locations in six weeks. The first I am heading to Jackson County IOWA! Haha, working with the Environmental Conservation Board (clearing trails, teaching environmental education and working on the siding of the cabins and whatever else they give us). I am excited about getting to get out in nature and using my muscles, not to mention a machete. Muahaha. The second three weeks we will moving to Waterloo IOWA to work with Habitat for Humanity! So likely building houses, yaya! I wanna get ripped! Ha. Love you all and I will talk at you soon! Pray for windy weather :) XOX

Hope

Update:

      I got my AmeriCrew! This consists of nine of the most miraculously awesome individuals you have ever seen! We are all incredibly brilliant. Passionate advocates for the underprivileged. Leaders of leaders. And we all have  perfectly chizzled Greek god-like bodies. If you are looking for excellence folks, look no further than the Americorps NCCC crew, Cedar 2. When we are together in our 15-passenger van, Oobie, the metal paneling vibrates from the sheer power we exude.  

Hold up...... not all of that is true. 

Brilliant... not the best word to describe the time we had to give a presentation on the importance of PT and the proposed idea was doing ten minutes of lyrical dancing in front of our whole unit. And the bit about our chizzled god-like bodies... well I will let you know how that is going once I get past 10 push ups, girl style. But our van is named Oobie. So that bit is true. And we do want to help people. So, foundationally we have all we need. 

      On a more serious note, this week has been exhausting in every way. Physically (waking up at 4:50 am four days a week for PT), Mentally (getting trained in disaster relief, CPR/first aid, paper filing protocol, Support Ranger, and learning the female alto part in the Star Spangled Banner for the induction ceremony all in one week), Emotionally/Spiritually (watching the people around me wander in darkness without the Love that sustains me... not to mention a few suicide scares).We were talking today at church about how to know if we were spiritually maturing (growing from infants to adults) and my friend Alex said something I really liked: " In this world it seems that the older or mature we get the more independent we become. But in my walk with God it is the opposite. I have seen that the more mature I get the more dependent I am on Him." One of my favorite verses has always been John:15, "You are the branches and I am the vine. Remain in me and I will remain in you. Without me you can do nothing." Nothing. Every muscle in my body is sore from PT, my brain is stuck with an IV and crammed with training for 12 hours a day and I watch the people I have come to love fill themselves with things no more lasting than vapor. I know that without my relationship with Jesus I can do nothing. 

        But what do you do when you sit down with a friend lost in darkness and pout out your heart to them (the hope, joy and love you feel) and still all you see is emptiness and utter hopelessness? The Holy Spirit led me to this; "Why, my soul, are you so downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him, my Savior, my God." (Psalm 42). Sometimes things are just way too big for me.And that is OK, because I am not God. And He is big enough to handle any question, pressing darkness or lost sheep. 

     

So I wait on Him.... knowing that, "suffering produces perseverance;
perseverance, character; and character hope. And hope does not
disappoint." Romans 5:3-5. Hope. It is a tangible thing.

Love and miss you all. Call me and I will give you a blog shout out on my next post! Holla! Till then, pray for windy weather....