Kentucky - Environment Day 4

Day Four

Written by Caitlin Lukin

Because everyone is quite tired from these last two days of work, we are writing this blog entry much earlier in the evening which means we will send it out tonight, too!

Breakfast Crew made some nomsy burritos for breakfast. Thanks Lauren, Nathan, and Cayla for waking up before the crack of dawn for us! We were all a little sleepy after our first taste of physical labor yesterday, but we made it out the door on time and met Emily from LBL and our site leader, Darren, at the LBL Nature Station on time.

Our morning project was the sprucing up of Empire farm. It was a functioning farm during the 70s that was closed due to a sudden pullout of federal funding. The area, which includes acres of beautiful Kentucky land and lakeshore as well as a bald eagle nest, has been closed to the public since the late 80s. Darren and the LBL staff strongly believe that this environment needs to be shared with the public and are currently trying to jump through the legal hoops to reopen the farm as a nature viewing station.

Darren split us into two groups, one to pick up trash along the walking paths and beaches, and one to clear ground around the front gates and repaint them. Trash team had great fun with the trash-grabbing hooks and met some gnarly snakes and mice. They valiantly interfered with the progression of the food chain and saved some mice. Gate team did the chop-wop (a verision of the popular dance "the wop" which involves plant shear) and cut down the plant revolution.

After lunch Emily from LBL taught us a fun game a previous alternate spring break group showed her: a "round of toasts" drinking game to stay hydrated. We all go around and toast to something then everyone drinks a swig of their water. Everyone became the walking crew and combed the beach for trash. We recovered a sobering amount of garbage that had been swept down the river and washed up on shore, including six tires, a jack-o-lantern, and lots of alcohol bottles. Best part of beach combing was slag, a cool blue glass created as a byproduct in the production of iron. We love slag!

We ended our volunteer day at the Nature Station and chilled with a bunch of cool rescued animals. Max was awestruck by the bald eagle, Nathan heartbroken by the tragic beauty of the tethered redhawk, and Megan was terrified by the growling bobcat. Ethan would animporh into a great horned owl. We helped Darren erect a bat house that is expected to house a few hundred little brown bats. Mitch and Matt led the lifting process—great work boys! We also met some ticks, but we ripped their heads off, so it was a short-lived affair. Tell your friends, ticks.

Before heading home, we checked out Moss Creek for a swim. As is tradition, we had some navigational challenges (Matt…), but we found our way. One rocky beach, lots of encouragement/peer pressure, and a few shrieks later, we all got in the water to play Ninja. Raean had the fiercest swipes! We dried out in the sun while the boys skipped rocks.

We nomsed on six different types of pizza for dinner, including Mac'n'cheese pizza. Mitch and Raean caught nine fish between them, but released them all because we already have some fish fillets in the freezer for tomorrow.

Once again, it was an educational day. We learned that someone always dies in lateral thinking puzzles (which we played to pass the time in the car), and the chances are high that its in a field. We also learned about ospreys, white-nose syndrome for bats, iron processing, and poison ivy. On a related note, Raen, Cayla, Maegen and Max are waiting to see if they are allergic to poison ivy. Keep posted for updates.

LIVE UPDATE: Max has a tick. We're going to kill it with fire. Megan has one too… We're being overrun. Please send help.