Weedwhacking

This deserves an entire post of its own.

I was busy last week and this week - weedwhacking. On Tuesday after the 4th of July weekend I started a "field crew" job with a local non profit, Northwest Watershed Institute. The "restoration" of Tarboo Creek, which may sound familiar since this is where I did the amphibian training in February-ish, involved weedwhacking, and a LOT of it. Daily dress involved thick orange nylon chaps, a harness to fit the weedwhacker, an orange hard hat attached with ear muffs and a mesh visor (didn't take a photo. I also wore my rubber boots or leather boots and extra ear plugs. The main crew consisted of all men plus me. Gene - who seems to have a complete camo wardrobe, Tommy - the motley late 30s math teacher, Andy - polite, stoner 19 year old who talked a lot about barbeque, and Taylor - the polite, 17 year old pot smoking eagle scout, yes...and me.

Day One was hard and warm - Gene didn't drink enough water so he went to the hospital later that night we learned. This dude's probably done manual labor his whole life and we spent days trying to figure out his age until after a week we learned it was his 48th b-day. He was designated as the "field crew supervisor." With him being out of commission, although he lives on the property and also acts as the land caretaker, somehow I was unofficially designated as the interim field crew supervisor and the guy that hired us all started calling me daily and giving me instructions, etc...don't know why he couldn't just drive his butt out, this was the beginning of many irritations with the job.

After Day One, I even wondered if I could make it to Day Two...it was hardcore. The weedwhackers have metal blades, think samarai throwing star.

Day Two, I persevered, was probably the hottest day we've seen all summer, how coincidental. We all sweated through our clothing completely, two got sunburned since they decided it was smart to work shirtless (yes, while weedwhacking) without applying sunblock. Mom, you'll be proud that I did wear it everyday and encouraged the rest of the crew to do so also...I never got a sunburned and worked in long sleeves even on the hottest days. Taylor was added to the crew while Gene was recooping.

Day Three, Gene still gone but we acquired, Natalie. Initially I'd been excited to hear of another female but on Day One, she never called me back about carpooling and then called me, instead of our supervisor, when she couldn't find the place. It's not that hard to find, btw. So she was MIA, the first two days...not sure why it took two days to find the place. Oh, and the "place" is a large, many miles long, wetlands area with creeks running through it. It was once a dairy farm, for only 20 years, and it's now in the process of being restored to it's original form and hopefully salmon will eventually come back. The day was rainy but I think we were all just fine with that after two days of sun beating down on us. Instead of being soaked through with sweat, just rain that day. Natalie started having bad allergies and since I had my car (which still has 1/2 my stuff in it) I turned into Nurse Claudia. She left an hour early and never returned.

Day Four, Just me, Tommy, and Taylor. Andy has set off to go to Oregon on Day 3 & 4, Gene STILL gone. I was still the liaison. By this day, I was feeling pretty rough. Hips sore from weedwhacker rubbing against them, walnut sized bump on collarbone from harness, sore hands from gripping the trigger and overall tired from getting up at 5:45am. The three of us pushed through. It took me the better part of the day to get un-grump-ified. Tommy was pretty good at lifting my spirits and was always waiting to fill up my tank when I came in. Taylor was pretty good at nailing that guy on the head, "that's the perfect case of untreated ADHD" --- Tommy was hyper and talked our ears off on just about anything. Sometimes I just had to lay my head down on lunch break while he rambled.

Day Five (this past Monday), Gene back but main supervisor still communicating with the crew through me. Andy's back, so full crew of 5 this day. Learned that we'd been cutting down some native plant after 4 days...corrected this but was pretty peeved that only now we were being told this. Made a lot of progress but spent the first 4 hours of the morning thinking about how much I wanted to quit. The day ended with all members of the crew, minus me, deciding it was a good idea to smoke pot in one of their cars...I laid in the grass waiting for them to finish so I could go home.

Day Six - Realized how unprofessional everything was. I know it's just weedwhacking but I felt pretty uncomfortable thinking of the day before and feeling outnumbered without support. Supervisor still MIA. After a 1/2 I left to go to a meeting at the marine science center, thank goodness, and QUIT~!

I could have stuck out another week and a half. Instead of wearing myself down though, I've decided to work hard on the job hunt/applying full time, get ready for marine biology camp, think about any travel/trips I want to do before summer's end and enjoy the company of my "girls" - Jess, Julia, Val and Heather - as it's likely we'll all be going in separate directions in less than two months. Onward!

Another noteworthy item - it was 7 hours a day of weedwhacking. Also, I didn't mention Andy and Taylor as much since their personalities weren't as outlandish. As much as I don't feel like like an adult some days, being around them certainly made me realize that I am an adult. I gained a perspective on myself by watching them - realized that I've come a long way and gotten to a place where I feel comfortable with my identity, although like them, I'll continue to learn and grown as a person.