Hug a tree

Joe and I, along with Laurel, who was in town visiting (brave and daring), struck out with a small group of geography students Saturday morning to attend a tree planting out on Green Island. It has been a very long time since I went tree planting...at least since high school. And oh my goodness, it is so satisfying.

Our group consisted of about 12 people, but the volunteer 'task force' was about 100 to 150 when we got there. A bunch of friendly and funny people gathering around eating organic pop tarts and bagels or enjoying coffee or apple cider. (I'm not going to lie. I ate a pop-tart. It was delicious.)

The McKenzie River Trust had 14,000 trees to be planted to restore the riparian habitat along the McKenzie River. That's right 14,000 trees. It was kick ass. We had about 15 people per group and a set of rows we were responsible for. So we spent the morning leap frogging each other as we planted (in pre-dug holes--thank goodness) a nice variety of trees, including: oak, cottonwood, red alder, valley ponderosa pine and big-leaf maple to name a few. I think I could even identify some of these trees now. In four hours the task was done. It was glorious and immensely rewarding. Although, I woke up this morning feeling like I had been in a permanent crouch all night. So stiff.

It was a beautiful sunny day, punctuated with funny story telling, some politics, some Micheal Pollan talk, fly-fishing tales, and some tree-lovin'...I actually saw a little girl run up and put her arms around a seedling as tall as her and give a big hug.

*Thanks to Leslie for the photos*

How time flies...

Tomorrow will be the fourth official week of school and my fifth week as a 'productive' student and instructor wandering about campus. FOURTH. I feel as though I have barely even started and now it's almost half over. I have stars in my eyes and a healthy sense of fear. I have an office that is shared with three masters students and I have office hours, sometimes students even come and see me and ask questions. I have classes, I have seminars, I have weekly meetings and reading groups....I love it. Some days I feel in my element and some days I cower at the responsibility of it all and wonder at all the things I don't know (how did I get here?!)

The past few weeks have been mostly devoted to being an instructor and trying to remember what it was like to be a freshman (I'm having difficulty there).

I'm both excited and overwhelmed. Some days favor one over the other.
Just some things:

- the library. I love the library. and it is dead sexy to hear that my books are due back in April. APRIL!

-the people. they are brilliant. they are totally immersed in their research and keen to hear what mine will be.

-the students. they are unbelievable. the don't read, they don't take notes, they don't talk and they turn in papers that have no clear direction or demonstration that they read the assignment.

- the campus. It's huge and beautiful. I'm getting a lot of exercise and have spent some quality time marveling at the trees.

- the academics. Oh the things you can think! I'm taking climatology, two graduate seminars, and two reading groups...it's incredible, I won't bore you with the details.

- our house. It is such a joy to come home to. Joe has been doing some finishing touches and has been taking care of me as I wend my way through all this new territory.

Moving and Improving - Part 25 - Smothering the grass.

I had this wild and crazy idea about how to kill the grass over the winter. In my mind, it was a lot simpler. In any event, I collected all the newspapers I could over the last month of our stay in Portland and we spent this past weekend papering the lawn to smother the grass.
We had some compost delivered. Er, some meaning, 17 yards. We got enough to cover the front and back lawn at about 3 inches deep.

It was amazing. Smelly, hot and a lot of work, but we managed it. Now it's time for some nitrogen fixing cover (I'm thinking alfalfa...but we'll see) and some winter veggies.

Front:
Back:

We saved a small plot in the back (near the porch, Joe is standing on it to take the picture) that was previously covered in bricks to plant some winter greens over...but everywhere else got newspaper treatment.

Moving and Improving - Part 24 - Odds and Ends

Well we made the mudroom a room, and really all that was left was the finishing touches.

Like adding shelving and molding.