Whew

Hidy ho! I'm still around, really. I'm just...wait for it..........busy! Well, I have a pretty cool entry in the works so bear with me. Type at ya soon!

Thar she blows!

Well, we finally had enough rain and Old Woman Creek broke through the barrier beach! It happened somewhere between 9AM and 1PM. I saw it was still good when I passed it this morning but the water was higher. When I came back for lunch, the water was gushing making white water out in the lake and sending brown sediment away. Here's some more pictures!









Too bad I wasn't there to watch it go. That would have boon cool!

Another week has passed...

Don't you just love it when you plans go all whacky? I was advised of a commercial that could be made for my club at OSU (Environmental Education and Parks Society) and that I had a week till the deadline. (Now I'm looking at 2 days till I have to get it in the mail.) This is where my small experience with filmmaking has come in handy: Be ready for ANYTHING.

Plan A: Sunday, perfect weather and 10 participants.

Plan B: Sunday, rainy weather and up to 10 participants.

Plan C: It's Sunday morning, it's pouring, and no one has shown up. Thank goodness I've taken a TON of pictures.

I will triumph!

(and I now have a ton of cinnamon rolls to enjoy too ~evil laugh~)

Besides that, it's been a busy week. I dropped a bunch of stuff off at home and met my friends new cat. I also got to see another friends new baby. This was in conjunction with the Meatloaf concert and such so I'll not spend too much time on that. Those were just cute pictures. The main thing I wanted you to get out of that was that I dropped a bunch of stuff off at home.

When my dormmates returned from their trip home, they gave me a whole bunch of great teacher stuff the Pennsylvania DNR. They had duplicates so now I have great lessons on bears, PA songbirds, etc. That was so awsome! However, it now does not look like I took anything home.

That was also pretty much the last day they were here. After Dr. Krissek's beach survey (more on that in a moment) we had a yummy farewell lunch for them and they hit the road. I wish them both the best of luck in school and in their future careers. I think they'll do fabulously.

Now, back to Dr. Krissek, who also did a talk at Stone Lab, did an evening talk with us on Andrill. Andrill is an incredible drilling program in Antartica and, amongst other things, they are using the bedrock cores they drill to help understand where the world might be going with this whole global warming thing. Dr. Krissek has been to Antartica many times and will return again. He filled us in on Artic Slugs (Weddell Seals) and the drilling mechanism and he had lots of great pictures of the transportable station. He even went over some of the results of their reasearch and managed to make it very understandable. It was a great lecture.

The next day, we all piled out to the beach to be educated on the movement of sand on the beaches of Lake Erie. Dr. Krissek showed us how to do a beach survey and we got to use some cool antique surveyors tools like sticks and string (there's a "back in my day" joke in there somewhere).

We dug holes in the sand to look at the layers and came across a sand spider. We also played in the odd purple sand that apparently is made up of magnatite and garnet which have heavier masses and therefore don't get blown away by the wind leaving purple stripes.

Dr. Krissek had us pick up random rocks and he told us what the different stones were made of and where they came from. (Even the ones from Michigan.) That was really cool. It made me think that, along with all the other classes I've decided it'd be a good idea to take, a geology class may be a good one to take. That was also a really fun event (because all the other events that I've participated in have soooo borning[/sarcasm]).

The next two days were full of Project Wild training and I have no pictures of that because I forgot my camera. However, I am now trained on Project Wild too and even taught a lesson during the class. Friday was wonderful and not filled to the brim with excitement. Saturday however.....

....was East Harbor State Park's Conservation Day! That was a fun day. We set up microscopes so people could look at plankton (and many did). There were many other stations that included caterpillars, cornhole with fish shaped bean bags, paper making, Lucky the Ladybug, and much more. It was a great event and there were LOTS of people who came with their families.

We returned back to Old Woman Creek after a brief stop at the craft supply store (and to do some brief "research" on how a certain member of the local economy is doing in their task of creating bird habitat). With that, it was time for me to head back to the dorm and prep for the proverbial commercial today and to clean up for the Division of Forestry folks who are coming this week.

Other things on track for this upcoming week is the OWC Advisory council meeting where I'll be doing a presentation on my internship, finishing this commercial thing, and finishing anything else I can finish. I am intern, hear me roar!

Till next time!

3 chrysalis and counting

Did anyone stay up to watch the Perseids meteor shower last night? I drove back in from Columbus and got here about 2AM. I promptly parked myself out on the lawn and watched meteors zip by for about a half hour. If you haven't checked it out yet, you still have the chance. It peaks today and tomorrow. It's worth the drive out to the country (too bright in columbus). I think I've read that between 10PM and 1AM are the best times. If you want to go crazy, haul yourself out to the Sierra Nevadas in California. You can see this the best out there. I got to enjoy it in '96 out there at 6000+ feet. It was amazing, I'd never seen so many meteors. (Here's another blog with some suggested accessories.)

Last week was one of those "hit the ground running" kinda weeks. First up was the COSEE Teachable Moment workshop. Day one was spent in the classroom for a little bit but then we all headed out to the trail for a quick tour. On the way, we found some facinating caterpillars hanging out on a Black Walnut. I'm still not really sure what they were but my expression in that picture can be explained by their bizarre camouflage tactic. That and the fact that one spit at me. (WAIT...I found them. The Walnut caterpillar. Ours were the black ones.) Once down at the overlook, we chatted about wetlands and why they're important and some of the research that's going on here.

Once back in the classroom, we discussed what our next task was going to be and we all piled into canoes and followed Allie, the researcher, on a quest for sediment cores. She is studying how iron in the sediment is helping to break down certain pollutants that water treatment plants don't seem to touch (like some pharmaceuticals). Watching her, I wondered how many times she's fallen in the water collecting these things. We got three cores and headed back to the wet lab to learn how to process these things.

We preped the extraction tubes, transfered the cores, got the pore water syringes attached, and started testing for things like pH and iron content. It was very complicated and it took most of the day but that's what it's like in real life.

It turned out to be a good thing we did all that the first day because day two was WET. It poured till noon. We reviewed what happened the day before and started doing some lessona that revolved around Lake Erie. COSEE Great Lakes is a great resource for teachers and other educators.

That was the "big" event for me this past week. I also got my Luna Moth situated. I found it outside one morning and it was one it's way out. I helped it along and have now pinned it so that I can mount it. I'm calling it my first taxidermy. I need to find a frame for it now.

The Lotus are very much in bloom now. They are also growing in quite thick. The mouth of the creek is still closed but with the rain it's a lot higher. I'll get a picture of that tonight.

Our "children," the monarch caterpillars, are growing up. We have three in chrysalis and one is making it's chrysalis today. I'm worrying about the other two that are smaller because the milkweed plants are getting a little unedible and they need new ones but I don't want to disturb the others.

I was going to head back to Columbus Thursday but a friend kidnapped me and took me to the Meatloaf concert. All I'll say is that it was good times and involved the front row. (Woo!) I then returned to Columbus for real and did the wedding reception thing. Remember, internships do allow down time! Go have some fun!

While home, I managed to win some Cedar Point tickets so it looks like I just may be going there before I leave Huron. :D

I hope life is good where you are too!

Short and sweet

Happy Saturday! This internship is flying by! I can't believe that I only have 4 weeks left. Where did my summer go? Do I have to leave?

Well, I've been a busy girl still. Getting more lesson plans done and I am now combining ideas for our foyer display windows. I've been using the Ohio Coastal Atlas for ideas. There's some great maps and information in there if you can get your hands on one. (Someone's bring some home for raffle prizes at the next Environmental Education and Parks Society grill out.....hinthint.) I spent some time yesterday measuring the foyer area and making a scale model pattern so we can see what some of this stuff will look like. I think it'll look fabulous.

I also finished (finally) taking pictures of places around Old Woman Creek watershed. I feel like I picked the hottest day to do it too. I'll post a few pictures of that once I get them off my camera. (You'll also get to see my first "taxidermy." ) It was a busy day yesterday!

Today is a busy one as well. The Friends of Old Woman Creek are having their first annual Lotus Float. That starts at 4PM. It sounds like it'll be a great event.

In other news, there are Naked Ladies on the beach. (Go ahead, click it. You know I wouldn't put anything that naughty on this blog.) You can see them in the above picture that I nabbed from the all knowing internet.

Okay, I'm off to be productive!