Rain, rain, go away...come again another day! Today is very murky, damp, and dark outside. To this date it has been the coldest and ickiest day since our stay. We have been very fortunate with our weather and it staying warm consistently...well at least until today. The last 3 days have been in the average of 75-80 degrees and pleasant. Those beaches surely feel good laying down on without wind and the cold. The beginning of a tan has begun on my arms and face and it feels very different considering in Illinois people do not get tan until the end of May where it starts warming up and the shorts come out. Here it is a very different story and I love that aspect.
We are almost half-way through with our oyster project and it is kind of sad because all of the team is loving it here and doing the tough, grueling work. We sweat everyday in the heat and feel our bodies getting more toned. From this experience I am a whopping 195 lbs. Almost down to my goal weight of 190 by the end of the SPIKE. I weighed myself in the Goodwill store yesterday because I was in NEED to see if there has been any improvement. Guess there has been some, not the way I wanted...but I will just have to eat even more healthier.
Ok...now time for the fun part...detailed day-by-day update on all I have done the past week. You will see it surely has been a hard, painful and busy week that all began Tuesday which was the preparation for the things and tasks we will be doing this up and coming week...
SUNDAY
- went to Easter sunday at 11:00 AM with teammate Stan and Shannon from another Raven group, while we were there we spent a couple minutes helping the little kids find the easter eggs scattered along the lawn across the street
- Stan and I discussed we will be going to that church every Sunday at St. Xavier's over in Brunswick, GA...takes about 25 minutes to get there and a nice easy ride
- after mass, I went on a 45 mintue bike ride to start off my PT for the week...very peaceful, got many hellos from the campground folks as well as the Jekyll Island population on my route, everyone seems to be so friendly which is nice...surrounding yourself with positive people day in and day out really makes you feel good inside.
- Raven 3 team meeting to discuss some important issues
- head down to the beach which is about 4 miles from our cabins with some team members and lay and work on getting our tans
MONDAY
- last day our 4-day Spring Break they gave us, some stayed (about 6) and the others left elsewhere...one went to visit her band friends in Savannah, one went to North Carolina to visit her brother, another went to visit and stay with her husband that had road tripped from Indiana and the husband is planning on staying in the campground area out back tenting for the next week and a half
- we had to make the best of it so some of us decided to go to Driftwood Beach which is walkable distance from our houses, spent a couple hours laying down in the sun
- I went on another 45 minute big ride into town to check out what else is on the Island, discovered there is mini golfing, driving range, couple restaurants and bars, and several more fun outdoor things
-
The next days from Tuesday-Friday were pretty much the same so instead of individually describing each of those days, I will pick out the most important things and tasks we did during those days as a whole. First of all, we pretty much all those mornings either bagged oyster shells to get them prepared to bury OR we unloaded oyster shells from trailer beds onto the beach we are working on. It mixed up from day to day. Unloading the oyster shells from the trailers got difficult from time to time, but everyone dug deep and was able to carry them with no problems or complaints. Sometime we did the assembly-line technique to transfer the bags from the bed to the beach...when that didn't work we reverted to lifting them individually. There are 10 of us so that meant each of us transporting 100 bags from the huge pile located about 50 feet from the beach and placing them along the shoreline to be picked up in 2 boats and driven to the muddy waters. This week was all high tides which meant that low tides would be coming later in the day/night and we can't plant and bury the bags in high tide. Our sponsors drove 2 boats to the shore and we hoisted bags into, roughly about 100 each trip, and took them to the 20 destinations along Beach Creek (our area we are concentrating on building the artificial oyster reef). On one of those days myself and 2 other teammates drove with Daniel and Courtney to Savannah to bag and load up more shell (shell that was pre-bagged and gotten from oyster roasts, restaurants, and other places). On that day we transfered about 1,000 bags amongst the 5 of us. I found a little gardner snake in the pile that freaked me out...but that is another story within itself :)!
I failed to mention that along with the oyster bags we have been lifting palettes into the boats to be dropped off in the 20 spots. It reminded me of the days of working in Dad's warehouse and the word "skidifying". The palettes purpose are to be wedged into the mud and the oyster bags placed on top. Approx 25 bags can fit on one palette. Starting tomorrow, which represents that all this week will be low tides during the morning and afternoon...we will be kayaking and canoeing to where the bags were thrown and begin the planting. Getting muddy is what we will be doing this whole week. It is going to be a blast. This is sinking mud and they gave us mud walking training on what to do when you do get stuck...very cool! But being able to kayak and canoe is amazing in itself. We are all super stoked! It uses your upper body and a great work out. I have such amazing Ameri-Corps friends that my friend April that happens to be back in Perry Point with her SPIKE, actually sent me down an extra pair of pants for the project. You get cut up very bad from the shells once you are in it. Along with the cuts and scars, comes the aches and pains in the back from constant bending down. I am hurting in those areas badly. Plus the effects of possibly getting dehydrated if there is going to be consistent 80 degrees on the lake. Anyways, she did me a HUGE favor because careless me didn't think twice about it and packed 2 pairs of shorts instead of both pants. To think that I needed that blows my mind because I should have went over a check list prior to departure. My thoughts were...warm weather + work= shorts...but obviously that equation doesn't work too well being in the situation I am in. Thank God for friends like April that are considerate and able to do favors for others.
So basically in a nut shell and I am trying to explain is...all of next week we will be digging up holes at low tide and taking the already bagged oyster shells and placing them onto the skids and placing them in. The goal is to plant about 1000 bags each day amongst the 14 people that are helping. Bring on the mud!
Along with the strenuous working with the oyster shells, we recently got involved with working at this aquarium place called Tidelands. We do service work over there for them if we have left over time during our work days. We feed the sea animals and clean their tanks and do whatever the lady wants us to do. Since it is teamed up with the University of Georgia, it is not considered ISP hours which is unfortunate. We have found other places to get those hours from. One being Habitat over in Brunswick and another place is this Sea Turtle Center on the island about 10 mins away. We got the tour of the Sea Turtle place this past Thursday and learned more and more about the life of the turtles. A very nice 1.5 hour tour. We then asked if there is any additional help they needed and they responded back if we wanted the chance to help them out every Sunday from 2 PM-6 PM and like flies on meat...our team quickly shook our heads and barked back a boisterous "yes"! We are actually heading there later in about an hour to help out. It should be fun. As for Habitat we will be getting ISP hours helping them every Saturday for roughly 6 hours each time. Yesterday was our first time and we got to shingle a house, look for shiners, and also some nailing. Very fun and yet exhausting. It is brutal being on top of a rough in 80 degree heat with black paper, papering the roof for 4 straight hours! Overall, a great experience and it prepares us for any future Habitat SPIKE projects. A side note, I am super sore from our team's PT that was set up by Lauren, PT coordinator, as she worked us really hard yesterday. We are planning on having a team PT session 2 times a week to keep physically fit.
Exactly 26 days left! So as you can see...this has been a very hectic and busy week. We are getting a lot of these weeks and hope the fun continues these remaining 4 weeks. Bugs are still biting, but we are hoping with the cool weather today it will shoo them away for good. Every other day it seems they come out. Anyways, kayaking and canoeing this week and many more hours! I will keep you posted same time, but next Saturday. I was very busy yesterday running around doing too many things at once and ended up passing out early. I will be on my game this coming Saturday though :) Until next time...have a great week!
