Thanksgiving Week!

So there hasn’t been much work going on since the last update and it has been quite a nice break. Tuesday night Sam left us to visit his girlfriend and Abby headed out on Wednesday to see her sister, and then there were 9.
Thanksgiving day in Alpaugh was very nice. In the morning we watched the Macy’s Day Parade….(we recently discovered we have basic cable). Then we switched over to football for the day. The entire day the kitchen smelled delicious with all the great dishes being made, that is, until I burnt the rice. But in the end we had a delicious meal with a fantastic turkey, stuffing, sweet potato casserole, cooked vegetables, mashed potatoes, very cheesy broccoli, and pumpkin and pecan pie. It was definitely comparable to past Thanksgiving meals I’ve had. The weirdest part about it was that there were 9 of us opposed to the usual 38 or so.

Kendra's delicious pumpkin and pecan pies!

My feast

After Thanksgiving passed we spent some time sitting around the house, watching movies, playing games. We’ve also gone to Visalia the past 2 days. We organized an ISP at the Visalia Rescue Mission. We split up and helped out at two different thrift stores. We bagged items, organized merchandise, put out new
Christmas items and set up trees! We also got some good shopping in. I was very good about not spending much. I just ended up leaving with some yarn to crochet with. Others have started getting presents for the present exchange we’ll be doing later. We’re all getting small gifts for each other to put in stockings….I need to work on that!
After working the thrift store on Friday we headed over to a movie theatre. Half went to see Harry Potter while the rest of us saw Due Date. I thought it was a pretty good movie, it definitely had it’s funny moments.
Then on Saturday after the thrift store we all went to downtown Visalia and got dinner and sat around a sports bar/restaurant called Steve’s Place. Later a live reggae band started playing and they were super good. They covered Sublime and Pepper and they were pretty awesome!
As of now it’s just another lazy Sunday around the house. We’re all waiting around for Sam and Abby to come back tonight!
Starbucks update: Abby and Sam’s bus got in a wreck. I’m not sure how bad it is but they are alright. We may be waiting longer than initially anticipated.
P.S. I forgot to mention we got a flat tire last night....what a fun time. Then on the way home we also hit a ridiculous fog!!!! It's been eventful.

Quick Blog

We are at Starbucks once again. No work tomorrow! So the team has big plans of possibly bowling or a movie. Sam left town yesterday and Abby is heading out in about an hour so it's weird with our team splitting up for the first time, but so far we've survived.
We have a real turkey to cook tomorrow so the plan is to cook and eat all day long instead of having all of the food prepared for one meal haha. It should be fun. And very interesting since I have to substitute for cheddar cheese in the green rice.
On Friday and Saturday we will be working from 3-7 at the Visalia Rescue Mission thrift store. It's good to get some hours in. Hmm....Nothing too exciting to say here. I can't wait to be back in Colorado! Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Backwards Blog

I'm not in the pic....but we mixed seed in the cement mixer

Garbage can full of seed

Working hard on the nature trail

I just accidently put the pictures first...oh well.  This isn't just the backwards blog, it's basically just out of order. It's starting and ending with me in Starbucks on Sunday but I wrote the center on Saturday. And it talks backwards about the week from there....now for Saturday:
Currently the Ameri-mansion is much cleaner than usual and the Rolling Stones are blasting through a sound system we just discovered. We are waiting for the Silver unit Leader to show up within the next hour or so. His name is Ben Richie and he is Chika’s supervisor as well as the guy who decides who goes to Hawaii or Alaska for the Silver unit. He goes around to each of the Silver teams during each spike. So once he gets here he will meet with Chika and Steve, the project supervisor. Then we will all drive around to the areas that we’ve worked to show him what we’ve done so far.
Speaking of which, we did a lot this week. On Monday we continued working on the nature trail, which we finished by lunch on Tuesday. Then we headed back to the wetlands where we continued removing bassia that afternoon and Wednesday. Sam and Ashley also finished planting the fields with Bill. But then on Thursday we mixed some more seeds so they were back to planting again. This time they were in a hurry because Steve heard it would rain on Saturday. So they planted all day Thursday and then headed out at 6:30 Friday morning. Ron and I joined them after work Friday and we all continued working until around 7:30 that night (which was quite a dark and rainy night). But we finished planting all 4,000 pounds of seeds that we had just mixed, plus another 700 pounds we had to mix ourselves that night. So basically, it’s been a long week.
Not to mention this morning we went to our first independent service project (ISP). Everyone in NCCC needs 80 hours volunteering in their free time to help out different organizations. Although I’m aiming to get the Presidential Service Award which requires an additional 20 hours of service, but I’m on my way with the first 5 hours out of the way. (Sam says hi.) We left at 6:30 this morning to drive to Tulare and work with the Salvation Army. They were providing boxes of Thanksgiving food to low income families. Silver 1 took the boxes across the street to senior low income housing. Then a few people arrived from Alpaugh and we drove back with them to deliver another 30 boxes to families here.
Now going backwards some more, I will tell you how we discovered the ISP. On Wednesday evening we went to the Alpaugh town meeting. There we just 3 board members in the room along with a few townspeople and a Tulare County sheriff along with a special visit from a representative of the congressman. We learned a lot about the community there and luckily heard about the ISP. We might also be helping out with a community cleanup later on.
Back in Starbucks again: Other things that happened this week…..I sliced my finger with an exacto knife, basically finished my first crocheting project (a small scarf that I’m going to add a button to!) almost finished reading Into the Wild abd next I’ll probably move onto Into Thin Air. Kendra and I realized why our cookies turned out weird…..we have small sticks of butter that look like half sticks, but are actually full sticks of butter. Oops. And last but not least, my camera finally died. But I’m sure I can steal some pictures from other people to show you. That’s about it for me. Happy Thanksgiving everybody! I’m sad I can’t be in Kansas! Miss you!

Another week

Silver 1 has officially completed our first week of service (although we did have Thursday off). It was intense work but we really did get a lot done. On Friday we moved to a trail on the BLM's land. We cleared trees hanging over the path and did lots more bassia removal. Fun stuff. I got to take out a small palm tree and it turns out the palms from Palm Sunday come from the center of palm trees. It seems so obvious but who knew?!
On Saturday the whole team headed to Visalia, CA. It's about an hour north of Alpaugh. We went to a great farmers market in the morning. We split into groups and each group had a list of fruits or vegetables to find. Once we found all our items most of us got distracted by all of the free samples or fun crafts around. I wish I had taken pictures but I was just too distracted I guess. My favorite stand was one with a large assortment of dips and pita bread. The cilantro jalepeno dip was delicious!
Afterwards we ran a couple of errands, Target/bank, then headed downtown. Steve had reccomended a cafe called the Tazzaria so we hunted it down. But once we got there most people thought it was over priced and headed on their way. I thought it looked good but I wanted to look around some more so I went with.
After deciding I couldn't resist the honey mustard chicken sandwich I went back to the Tazzaria, where it turns out Ron had been talking to the owner and got us a deal of $7 for anything on the menu which was normally around $10-16. I was quite happy about that and my sandwich was fantastic.
Then I wandered around some more. There was a thrift store run by the American Cancer Society. I bought "Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer and the game Mastermind. Then I saw a set of crochet hooks, and since Kendra said she would teach some of us I couldn't resist. It was supposed to have 5 crochet hooks but I noticed one is an orange peeler.....It's ok, I actually was looking for one at the store a few months ago haha. So then everyone told me there was a craft store down the street so I went and bought some yarn. Afterwards there were a few of us waiting around for other people to come back from more errands (Costco, Walgreens, etc.) so I headed to a sports bar where Kyle had to see the Ohio State game.
Later that night Kendra refreshed me on how to crochet....but now I can't decide what to make! Not much is going on today. Starbucks in Delano and later some of us will venture to church again!

My delicious sandwich from Tazzaria

First work week

So this is the second blog I’m writing this morning. So far we’ve had 3 work days with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). On the first day we mixed seeds. I didn’t see this being as tiring as it actually was. By the end of the day we had mixed about 3,700 pounds of seeds.

The process begins with the BLM hiring some people a few times in the year to collect all the different types of seeds from the fields. We had around 8 or 9 types of seeds we were mixing. Then We collected the proper amount of bags for each seed ranging from about 4-18 bags. Then we each took one seed and poured a certain amount into a 5 gallon bucket. Then all the seeds got put into a garbage can which was poured into a cement mixer. Finally the mixed seed got poured back into bags for planting later. The process got to be so quick that I was constantly measuring and dumping over and over. This required lifting the heavy bags of seeds and quickly took a toll on my back. But by the end of the day we had got enough done for 135 acres of fields (I think).

Then on Tuesday and Wednesday we were sent to the wetlands. There is a plant there called 5 hook basia that has little stickers that attach to all of your clothes. We had the pleasure of removing all of them from the area. We’ve pulled out some tools for the work but I prefer to just find the softer ground and pull them out. We did this all day for 2 days and my hands are more sore than they ever were after percussion. But we are just about done and we had a lot of time to get to know each other while we were working. It’s been fun. Oh and a couple people from the group have been in the fields helping Bill plant all the seed we mixed.

When we got back from work on Wednesday there was a new dog waiting for us out front. Apparently he had been in the fields all day and since then he’s been hanging around the house. The 2 people in the filed named him Billie, but before we knew that we named him Winston (Churchill). So now he is Winston “Billie” Churchill. As we left in the van to drive to Starbucks this morning, he chased after the car until we couldn't see him anymore. It was adorable!

Some other things going on:

• I've started reading Into the Wild. Good book so far.
• I'm in the beginners phase of learning to play ukelele, fun stuff!
• The other peer helper and I had our first activity last night. A random fun game and a craft-make signs to remind people of things around the house. ie please don't leave dishes in the sink
• We've seen more than one black widow so far. SCARY!
• And I'm very happy to have Veteran's Day off. It's a nice break.

Winston "Billie" Churchill

Ashley and the dog

A picture to prove I'm still alive

Abby and the black widow (it was behind the glass)

Foreign Mass

I guess I should start off with Saturday night. We tried the Mexican restaurant in town for dinner. It was quite good and everyone enjoyed it. It’s just a small place with only 6 menus. While we were there the tv was on the whole time playing games shows in Spanish. They also had a couple of pool tables there. Everyone wants to try to go back around once a week…..we may be able to work it into the food budget.
The next night a few other corps members and I went to church. There is a small local Catholic church in Alpaugh with a 5pm Spanish mass. On the way to mass all of us were quite nervous. We had no idea if the would be 5 or 55 people there, and what we did know is that there would be a big language barrier.
We walked into the church and there was a glass with water by the door. Ashley, being the first one through the doors, dipped her fingers in the glass as if it’s holy water. Whitney, who is right behind her starts to worry that Ashley just put her fingers in someone’s drinking glass since that’s what it looked like. In the end we saw others use the glass as holy water too so we we’re ok. But when we first entered we also saw two rooms and people were in both of them. We weren’t quite sure where to go so we just took some chairs close to the entrance. As we waited more and more people showed up until the two small rooms were packed.
Before mass started a woman got up and spoke to the parish for a while. It felt like she kept asking questions but non of us could understand what she was saying. At one point some people raised their hands while we all just sat there looking confused. Then as the mass got started we all just went through the motions without understanding anything. At least the 4 of us that went are Catholic so we could basically follow along. Although we thought we would be able to do all the responses in English but it gets a lot more confusing than you would imagine. Then when communion came around a lot of people in the back stood up and made a line. We waited patiently for when our row would head up but before we knew it only the 2 people on the inside of our row had received communion and sat back down. It turns out only 50% or less of the church actually goes up for communion…so we missed it. We attempted to sing along during mass since we had the words to the songs. But it was very difficult to find the tune….not everyone was singing together. Overall it was quite the experience.
As we left into an uncommon rain shower the priest was shaking peoples hands. As we passed him he changed to saying “Gob bless you” in English. So we’re going to go to mass again next weekend and maybe we can speak with the priest afterwards.
Well that is the story of church in Alpaugh….now to right another blog.

Spike #1

So as I start this blog, I just realized that I did not bring the cord to connect my camera to my laptop. So….we’ll see if I can figure out another plan. As far as I know the other cords in the house are different. Well, I guess you’ll know if I find a solution.
Anyways, we arrived safely and on time to our house Ah….I think I forgot my battery charger too. Dang it! Anyways, again, we were greeted by the people who we’ll be working with: Steve, Susan, Bill and CJ. Steve is the project manager and has been working for the Bureau of Land Management in Alpaugh for the past 9 years.
Yesterday they took us around to look at past areas they have been working on as well as the areas that we will be working. In the “high point” of Alpaugh there are little horned lizards that Susan is studying for her masters. She picked one up and let us “pet” it. They were everywhere!
So far our nights have consisted of playing a couple of card games and watching Jeepers Creepers and The Departed. Some chess games and puzzles as well. We also have a mini foosball table in the house but I have yet to see anyone playing it….I don’t know if it has a ball…?
This morning was awesome since we all got to sleep in. I woke up and read a little bit then a dog walked through our front yard! A few of us headed outside to see what he was up to and he wandered into our backyard. Ron continued to follow the dog and discovered that it is a very friendly dog! So we named her Mary and she has been hanging around the house for the past few hours while we have all been eating pancakes. Good times.
We’ve stayed in Alpaugh since we arrived but today we plan on heading into Delano.

….So there’s been a couple hour break in writing this. I’m writing on Microsoft so I can just post it when we have internet. We worked on an emergency plan packet and had our alcohol discussion which all went well. I also found out that Whitney’s camera cord works on mine so I have pictures! YAY! I think it also charges my camera….I think.

My bedroom along with Rebecca and Chika

Our living room

Dining area

Kitchen! Check out the sweet lighting

The horned lizard that Susan caught

I tried to rotate that....but that's Mary, our temporary pet

Now I'm at Starbucks in Delano. Fun stuff.

TEAMMATES!!!!!!!

Today I realized that I haven't formally introduced you to any of my new teammates or my team leader. So here they are:

Chika is the Team Leader. She's the leader because she had a different application process and a month of training before we arrived. She gets to take care of lots of planning and keeping us informed. She is 23 and was born in Japan and grew up mostly in New Jersey. And she has a degree in...biology?
Kendra, who is currently next to me in the computer lab, is also one of my roommates. She is the oldest one in the bunch at 24. She's from North Carolina and is our Media Rep/ Service Learning Initiator. Rebecca is my other roommate. She's 22 from Baltimore. Her job on the team is also Service Learning Initiator. Then there is Ashley, 22 from New Jersey. Whitney, 23 from Chicago. Abby, 18 from Indiana. Kenny, 18 from Milwakee. Ron, 20 from Santa Cruz. Sam, 22 from Minnesota. And Kyle, who just turned 24 from Sandusky, Ohio. (Tommy Boy!). They all have jobs on the team as well....I just forgot to list them all but that's not too interesting anyways.
So the other day....I'm not sure how it got brought up but a few of us were discussing starting a(n?) ukelele band. As we were randomly discussing it later Kyle mentioned that he actually plays ukelele and owns 2 that are back in Ohio. So turns out we even have our own personal instructor. But wait....it gets better. Kyle and Ashley and I headed out to a local music shop today where Kyle purchased his 3rd ukelele. Ashley and I wanted to support the fun so we split a book with tons of fun songs to learn. I figure this project will keep us quite occupied while sitting around our Alpaugh home. We leave in a few days!

The start of the ukelele band! btw thats Kyle

In Mendocino



I love this. So random.