All A-Cuivre for Invasives

Dear Internet,

I've spent the last four weeks hunting this plant:

Garlic mustard

It's invasive season all right! All our projects these days are hitting various invasive species (bush honeysuckle, multiflora rose, autumn olive, etc.) I've spent the last four weeks at Cuivre River (it's pronounced quee-vr and means "copper" in French, but here in Missur-uh, they say quiver). There, we kill a devilplant called garlic mustard.

Garlic mustard was brought over from Europe to be grown in gardens and used as a seasoning, since the leaves really do taste like garlic. Turns out, it's invasive, taking over whole areas and killing various fungi in the soil (including popular Morel mushrooms). So, we kill it.

It's not terribly exciting, but it's not terribly terrible either - mostly just walking through the forest with a backpack sprayer of herbicide and hosing down all the plants we find. Meh.

Also for the last three weeks, I was a Team Leader (TL) at Cuivre. It's an interesting change, leading the team, but I've found I'm pretty content just to be a team member. People tend to argue with me when I make group decisions and there's a lot more responsibility to make sure that everything goes as planned - not to mention making the plan in the first place - so I'm not crazy about it. It's not terrible though, and it's a set of skills I'd like to work on, so I'm glad for the opportunity.

Anyway, that's about all that's been going on. I'll be on a 10-day rotation at a place called Roaring River this next time (if we don't get called anywhere for the hailstorm/thunder storm/tornado that just rolled past the front stoop). See you later!

xoxo Liz

Soulard

Dear Internet,


For those of you who don't know, I live in Soulard. And I love it. It's a historic, laid-back, beautiful old neighborhood. I spent yesterday walking around photographing some of the most landmark places in Soulard for me and the rest of ERT - enjoy! And welcome to my world every weekend.

The view down Allen Avenue, where I live.

The Shenandoah apartments, where half of ERT lives and all
of ERT hangs out.

Pontiac Park, directly across the street from Shenandoah.

From what I've heard, these stars (found on the sides of many a
Soulard building) are a symbol of the community because as
many of the old buildings start to come apart, these stars
anchor the walls to the beams inside.

Hammerstone's, a popular bar

Old advertising on 9th Street

More old advertising on 9th and Allen!

Old advertising

The Shanti, my favorite live music-hippie-hangout bar

Another bar, 1860s Saloon, has a bus... which invites you to
follow along!

The Soulard Coffee Garden, a great sit down/take out place
for brunch or just coffee! Will and I go here a lot.

At the famous Farmer's Market! It's a great, albeit crowded place
to hang out on a Saturday morning.

More Farmer's Market. Mini donut stand!

Farmer's Market

Farmer's Market

Farmer's Market

Farmer's Market

It's unofficial, but I really think this house looks like it came
out of A Series of Unfortunate Events. I think of it as the
Lemony Snicket House. Anyone?

Vincent's Market, a "real neighborhood store" is the only
grocery store within walking distance.

And finally, good old Soulard Soap - the laundromat, where
many ERT members can be found on a Sunday evening.

Anyway, I love the community vibe in Soulard. There's a variety of people who live here but the bars and restaurants and parks are definitely local hangouts, not commercialized or tourist-dominated, and each has its own character. It's been a wonderful place to live and I'd be happy to show any of you who come to visit around! There's a lot of great places that didn't make it into this post... come and see :)

xoxo Liz

Just your average Wednesday...

Burn, Baby Burn!

Dear Internet,
   

I’m a real firefighter now! Last week in Eminence, MO I was on my first prescribed burn, and this past week in Cape Girardeau I was on three more prescribed (or Rx) burns and even a wildfire!
   

The first burn was just a tiny little 8-acre patch next to State Highway 19, but it was cool because it was a stand of virgin (i.e. never cut) pine trees that were 200 to 250 years old. The area hadn’t been burned in 50 or 60 years, so the plan is to slowly burn off layers of debris so that the roots can adjust and work their way back underground. Anyway, ours was the first in that series of burns.

It was hot, and I breathed a lot of smoke. Fires are probably a lot nicer when it’s still cold out, but oh well. I got to run the drip torch (basically a canister with a spout to slowly drip gas, which you light on fire) to ignite the fire, which was pretty cool (albeit heavy!).

A drip torch

Last week, I was a team leader in training at Cape Girardeau. I’m considering doing a second year on ERT, so I think Quinn wanted me to get trained for that leadership role. Anyway, the training part was not a big deal, mostly a lot of paperwork.
   

And we did three Rx burns! Over 400 acres altogether, working with the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) guys in some conservation areas. They had us AmeriFolk mostly just monitoring fireline as they ignited it, which was fine with me - it was beautiful out, and we didn’t have to work too hard. The weather was a little wet to be burning, but the MDC guys seemed pleased enough with the result.

The team, looking badass in Nomex (fire resistant gear):
Kendall, Lucas, Sam, and Samuel.

And some various pictures of the Rx burns we did in Cape Girardeau:

I also think it's worth mentioning that while I was watching the fireline one morning, I wrote a poem about how thorns (i.e. the worst plant ever) should burn in a fire. It's based on a poem that Will wrote in the second grade about raccoons, and it goes like this:

 

I hate thorns, thorns I hate

But only I know their true fate.

On a hillside steep and smoky

Is where these thorns will give their last pokey.

See that fire? Holy cow!

Those thorns will burn, and they'll burn now.

And when all is said and done,

The score will be, Thorns: zero and Liz: one.
   

Wednesday of this past week, my teammates Lucas and Samuel and I went scouting a new project with our contact, Bob. We spent the day driving to a glade we’ll work on next week, seeing the housing we’ll stay at (and seeing the Education Team, staying there during their spring break for a retreat! What a cool surprise!), and later blowing some fireline on Russell Mountain.
  

At one point as we were driving through the town of Pilot Knob on the way to some McDonald’s for lunch, we passed a little fire up on the hillside. It didn’t seem to serious and already had some attention, so we drove on to Mickey Dee’s. When we got there, the power was out and the restaurant was closed. So was Sonic. We started to think, maybe this has something to do with the fire we saw... so we drove back. Bob got out to talk to the policeman there, then after a few minutes motioned for us to grab a few backpack leaf blowers and hike up the hill. We were on a wildfire!
   

We quickly grabbed the blowers and got them gassed up and started, hiked up the hill, and blew fireline around the perimeter. It was so smoky, at one point I thought I’d pass out! But I kept hiking up and up and eventually made it to clearer air. It ended up not being a huge deal - only about a quarter of an acre - but lucky that we contained it since there was a house nearby and a lot of blown-down trees just up the hill. The fire department and policeman there thanked us several times and one guy even tried to pay Bob for his time. He pointed to the MDC logo on his shirt and just said, “this is my job.” It was a pretty neat experience.
   

After that we went back to McDonald’s, truly hungry now, but they were still getting everything back on-line. So still no food for us...
   

So now I’m a real firefighter! Of ERT’s three foci (conservation, disaster, and fire), I think disaster might still be my favorite, but fires are certainly fun and adrenaline-y too, and conservation just become therapeutic after the stress of the other two!
  

xoxo,

Liz
   

P.S. One other update: my roommate Kat got a dog!! (Ironic, yes?) Huffey is a stray rescue pup, about one or two years old, and she is the sweetest girl. This is the ideal situation for me. I don’t have to be responsible for a dog (especially since at least five days a week, I can’t be), but I get to play with one! Yay!

Huffey!

Crazy Times for a Crazy Girl

Dear Internet,

I just looked back at my last post and it has been a WHILE! Apologies... allow me to tell you what’s kept me busy not posting here.

For a few weeks after I came back from Joplin I did normal rotations, mostly in Potosi, MO with the Forest Service. I was based out of St. Louis for four days, working in the office on our website (http://www.americorps-stl.org/our-teams/education-team/meet-the-education-team/meet-ert/) and reviewing applications for next year.

The website was a lot of fun and it was cool to see potential members for next year - it surprised me how much I felt like I could tell about a person just from their application. After reading through their statements and references, I could usually tell immediately whether I was excited to work with this person, or if ERT was not going to be a good fit for them.

Also, update! During that week in St. Louis I finalized the move from my apartment in Shaw to another apartment in Soulard, where the AmeriCorps office is and most of ERT lives. I moved in with a member of the Education team, Kat, as well as two ERT girls, Amelia and Ali. I’m living in Ali’s room, which is pretty tiny, but she’s great so it should be fun.

I’m excited that I now live close enough to walk to everyone’s apartments and the office, as well as the grocery store, nightlife, restaurants, etc. One thing I looked forward to with city living when I moved here in September was not driving so much anymore, and now I don’t have to!

After moving the last of my stuff to Soulard, I flew to Greensboro, NC to present at a conference on international law at Elon’s law school. It was awesome to get a chance to present my thesis work on international humanitarian law in Sri Lanka again, but SUCH a change of scenery! It was a little funny to be back around not just non-ERT people, but academics and lawyers to boot. I was a little rough around the edges from living out of a sleeping bag and a backpack in the woods for the past few months.

Nevertheless, the conference bought me really nice dinners and a lot of wine two nights in a row, as well as paying my airfare and hotel bills. Plus, my research mentor-slash-conference-setter-upper, Dr. Crowe, mentioned that he talked to the dean of the law school and that I could probably get a free ride to go there, should I so desire. So that’s something to think about (By the way, a shorter version of my thesis was published in The Dialectics, a scholarly magazine out of Penn State Abingdon in the fall).

While I was gone in North Carolina, most of ERT left on fire rotations, so by the time I got back to St. Louis there were only about four of us left. Consequently, Abby, Lisa, Steve, and I served for the first few days of the week in Forest Park, St. Louis’s biggest city park.

This was pretty cool for a couple reasons - first, I got to sleep in my own bed (well, kind of, as I’m still camping out on the floor of Ali’s room until I move my bed over) and work on organizing my stuff in my new room.

Second, we got to go get coffee over our lunch break! Forest Park is in a cool area with a lot of neat restaurants and cafes, so it was a nice change of pace to actually go somewhere over lunch.

Third, the project we were actually working on was pretty fun. We were clearing a hillside of the growth that had developed over the last ten years or so (including invasive species) because some grant money had just come through to replant it with native species to create habitat for birds, etc.

A lot of the work was just hauling the debris to a woodchipper, but I got to use a chainsaw for probably about a day and half of work, which usually isn’t that much fun for me - I’m not a very good sawyer and I hate being bad at things, especially when people who are good at them are watching me - but I got to do a lot of the work on my own, without feeling to watched, which made me a lot more relaxed. Basically I got to just run around with a saw and cut down anything that wasn’t flagged to stay.

Fourth, the weather was great. That’s all. Beautiful, warm, sunny weather makes everything better.

About halfway through the week - early Wednesday morning (29 February), a storm went over St. Louis, and, unbeknownst to me when I woke up to it at 2:00am, passed into southern Missouri and wreaked a quite a bit of havoc (it’s convenient when storms happen on holidays because it’s easier to name them; this one became the Leap Day Tornado). The four of us served like usual that morning in Forest Park, waiting for a call that we were needed to respond to the disaster, until about lunchtime when we were asked to return to the office so we could get ready to go.

From there, we got what we needed from the office, packed our personal gear, and headed south to Branson and Kimberling City, MO that night. We met with several other groups who had been out on project (including one just finishing up a ten-day rotation and looking forward to going home... sorry, guys!) and two guys up from Joplin.

The next morning we split into groups for Kimberling City in Stone County and Branson in Taney County. I stayed in Branson, and while my teammates set up a Volunteer Reception Center (VRC) like the one in Joplin (which basically matches up homeowners needing help with volunteers willing to help), I got a donations center going.

I was set up with a Coca-Cola semi trailer in the parking lot of the Branson RecPlex (the community gym/sports center), where the Red Cross was also running a shelter for tornado survivors. ERT doesn’t run donations centers very often, so there was not a lot of guidance or experience available on how to do my job, and consequently I stumbled through it for the first few days... but it turned out pretty well.

I found this purple wig...
That's how you run a Donation Station, right?

One thing I will say is that the response was overwhelming. Especially during those first days, I was often just overwhelmed by the sheer volume of things coming in and going out. I tried to keep track of everything, which stressed me out, and then I tried to have volunteers keep track of everything, which sometimes stressed me out more... but I think I ended up with a pretty good system.

After the weekend I moved the donations center to a much-needed inside space at the Multi-Agency Resource Center (MARC) set up by the Red Cross at an old outlet mall in Branson. The MARC was set up to provide survivors with all kinds of assistance: legal, employment, paying bills, rebuilding, social workers, etc. It was great being based there and being able to provide that kind of one-stop-shop for survivors looking for help.

I was based at the MARC until Thursday, when I moved operations to a local church, Tri-Lakes Assembly, that wanted to take over as a point of distribution (POD). I showed them the paperwork I had developed and shared my records, finalized some calls and just like that, washed my hands of my Donation Station.

The Donation Station at the MARC!

It feels good to be done with it, honestly. It was a stressful job, and the church has a lot more resources in terms of a permanent space and a large pool of volunteers to draw on with which to run the Station. I did, however, enjoy my time and learn a lot.

First, this was a very different experience than Joplin for me because my role was so different. Not only was I on the ground within 24 hours of the storm happening (there was a lot more adrenalin for me here than in Joplin!), but I was also launched into much more of a leadership role. It was very cool that the donations center was really MINE; I developed it and ran it and knew all the ins and outs of it. Sure, it was stressful, but I love that feeling of ownership over some part of this disaster response. It allowed me to feel like I was helping people much more directly than I had in Joplin.

I also learned a lot about leadership itself. Using trial and error to learn the mechanics of running a donations center was tough enough, but my real challenge became learning how to manage volunteers. One day, I had volunteers working the center while I did other stuff over the phone and on the computer (which I’m sure was necessary, but now I don’t even remember what it was).

I explained to one volunteer what I wanted done but didn’t really SHOW him what I meant, and then sent two or three more people out to help him and trusted that he would show them how to do intakes and get information from donors and recipients.

This did not happen.

It may be obvious to you that this is a bad plan, but whether I was just busy or really didn’t think about it enough, it was not clear to me that this plan would not go well for me. I ended up with a lot of items that were never recorded and a lot of people who took or gave things without being recorded. So that’s my system out the window.

Needless to say, I tried harder the next day to make it absolutely clear to volunteers what they needed to do. It was kind of neat to watch as each day, volunteers’ performance got closer and closer to what I actually wanted from them... so I guess I started to do something right, or at least better. In general, the volunteers I worked with were awesome, so I knew that any lack of direction was on me. Giving clear directions, especially in stressful situations, is a lot harder than I thought.

Another thing that I noticed: especially when I was busy and stressed, gratitude didn’t really click with me. I don’t like that. Someone would thank me for the donations they received or for doing my job, and my response was weirdly to either try to out-thank them (“No, thank YOU.”) or to almost brush it off. I couldn’t just say “my pleasure” and accept the thanks. By no means did I do this by myself; there are plenty of other people to thank, many of whom had roles much bigger or more vital than mine... but it was weird just the same. I’m not sure what to do about this really, or what I think of it; it was just a weird trend that I noticed in myself.

I’m on my way back to St. Louis from Branson right now, and overall, I’m pleased with how things went on my first real disaster. I successfully found places for all the donations to go where survivors can get what they need for free over the next few weeks. I transitioned the running of the center well and the church seems very competent to keep running it. I learned a lot personally, and I got hundreds of people the stuff they needed when they needed when they needed it most. I met some great people; volunteers, donors, and recipients. I wrote a manual and made up some sample tracking forms so that the next time ERT does a donations center, there’s something to refer to that will hopefully avoid some of the pitfalls that I found. I’m pleased, but it’s good to go home.

Hopefully the rest of the team will be transitioning the VRC to the local community in the next week and be home soon too. This crazy week or so has also made me realize how awesome my team is - they are so good at what they do and I feel like I can totally trust them after all we’ve been through together. It’s good.

It’s been an eventful few weeks, needless to say. Still angry at me for not posting since February?

xoxo,

Liz

P.S. For those of you who’ve heard of Branson before, you know it’s something like the Vegas of the Midwest. We didn’t JUST work while we were there, but got to do some fun stuff, like seeing the Hughes Brothers show (“the biggest family show in the world!”) one night and getting a free dinner at a 50s/60s diner where the waiters and waitresses not only stayed late to serve us, but also sang to us as we ate. The community was very welcoming and thankful, which was awesome to experience.

My new roomie, Ali being serenaded by a waiter

Certing it up!

Dear Internet,

Guess what?! I'm back in good ol' St Louis! I got back from Joplin at the end of January and have had a great time hanging out with the bigger group since then. It was AMAZING to see everyone again! Since then, I've been fire- and chainsaw-certified, so it's been a good couple of weeks :)

The weekend I got back, we all did our pack test for federal fire standards. This means walking - not running - 3 miles in 45 minutes with 45 pounds on your back. The day we did the test was set to be sunny and beautiful, but ended up being rainy and gross. So the dirt track at a local high school was muddy and spongy as all get-out, our feet sinking in as we did our best to stay on pace. I finished in about 44 minutes and 30 seconds - could probably have gone faster, but why bother? - so hooray, just like that, I'm certified to work on a wildfire.

The next week I spent at Peck Ranch, working on fireline. They have a lot of fireline to construct there before fire season starts, but we got a lot of it done! The beginning of the week was kind of rough for me mentally (I just didn't really want to be there) but I had forgotten how great it felt to accomplish something measurable by the end of the day. We completed several miles of fireline - basically we were bucking up trees or debris that would throw fire to the other side of the line and getting it out of the way - and the powers that be at Peck were really happy with us. Marshall, who's in charge there, said we were the best team he'd ever had and requested to have us back again - which is kind of a feat, since he's notoriously hard to please. A good week back, all said :)

This past week was pretty unusual and fun: we've been working as a huge group, about 22 of us. Almost all the first years who're not in Joplin went out to Chesterfield (a suburb of St Louis) on Monday and Tuesday to spray invasive honeysuckle (invasives are always a pleasure... not).  Then Wednesday morning we all headed down to Pototsi, MO for a Forest Service chainsaw class and the field test on Friday. We all brought our trees down successfully and are now "A" (and some of us, "B") sawyers! This means that we are certified to cut on federal, as well as state land, as long as "B" sawyers are around. I got my "A" cert with this tree, which is awesome! Hopefully I can get my "B" at some point this year.

And Mom, you will be pleased to know that my friends and I have been playing a lot of Bananagrams since I got back from Joplin. "Eke" is a great word.

That's it for now! I'll give you a more thoughtful update when I haven't just drunk a whole Cherry Chocolate O'Fallon beer (on that note, did anyone see the new Bud Light Platinum? Brewed just down the street from me!)

xoxo,
Liz

J-town goes EXTREME

Dear Internet,

The last week or so have been pretty exciting down here in southwest Missouri.

For one thing, some of you might know that "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" did its finale episode this season in Joplin. Seven houses in seven days for seven families - wow! That episode aired on Friday, and all us Joplin AmeriFolk spent two hours that evening watching the show at a bar downtown.

It was quite the experience, seeing the place I've lived for the last month on national television. The families' stories were very moving, but I couldn't help but think of all the other people who deserved the help just as much. There's just never quite enough to go around, is there? The houses that were built are very nice, but it's strange to see them surrounded by... nothing. The neighborhood around them is still full of empty lots and skeletal trees.

Exciting thing number two: a visit from Travis, an AmeriCorps alum from last year! Travis started his year last January and went to Montana with us in the fall (he was one of those eight who stayed late with me), but his term of service ended in November. After spending some time in Florida, he was on his way to Colorado and stopped by to see us. It was fantastic to see him again, even for just a short visit!

Exciting thing number three: three ERT guys, including Will, came down from St Louis to do a lot of tree work (read: chainsawing - some people get all the fun) for us! This is awesome not only because it clears a lot of items off our "tree work" list, but also because I get to see Will again for the weekend. This makes me very happy :)

Exciting thing number four: I tore down a house!! This might seem like a weird statement... it's kind of mean, right? It still freaks me out when people come into the office and thank us for demolishing their houses. But so many of these houses were so damaged by the tornado that they became dangerous to leave standing. If anyone is going to rebuild, the house has to come down. We've been doing a lot of demos lately. 

The house before I tore the rest of it down - Ali did the first
part of it last week.

However, I don't always get to do them! One of our volunteers, Chuck, rigged up his old truck with some chains and hooks, and I got to drive it to pull down this little house on the edge of town. It was AWESOME. I hardly watched where I was going, I was so absorbed in looking behind me to watch as the truck ripped 2x4s and later the cast iron bathtub loose. Eventually, with a mighty creak, the whole house collapsed on itself. Incredible! What an experience.

The house after I destroyed it. Don't get on my bad side.

Chuck, me, Ali, and Warren on the roof of what used to
be a house.

Exciting thing number five: Concerned family members, you might want to stop reading. You won't like this. But I do: I got a tattoo! It's two swallows on my left shoulder blade. Swallows are an old sailor tattoo, they got them after sailing 5,000 nautical miles. It's a land bird, so it symbolizes coming home; or, for me, making a home wherever you are. I've been lucky to travel quite a bit in my life, and it has taught me a lot. So that's what the swallows mean for me. Plus they are PRETTY.

My tattoo. This was a very awkward photo to take, but I'm
pleased with how the tat turned out!

Exciting thing number six: We finally went to the volunteer house featured in that article I posted earlier! It's signed by volunteers from all over, but the weather is starting to get to it so apparently the city is planning to plastic wrap it, transfer it to a tennis court for storage, and eventually put it in a museum. So we got to it first and it was awesome.

Some signatures from volunteers at the Volunteer House

The front stoop

From Katrina survivors

The whole house, from the back

Me, Amelia, and Ali - committed to Joplin

A thank-you for volunteers :)

Then two less exciting things: first, Ali and Cody headed back to St Louis yesterday. My friends Warren, Amelia, and Ivy are here to replace them, and those three are great - but I was glad to spend the holiday season with Ali and Cody and I'll miss them. But, I'll be heading back to St Louis myself by the end of this week, so it's all right. 

Secondly, FEMA has changed the paperwork they want us to do in order to confirm volunteers' hours several times now since I've been working on this project. It's confusing and boring, but worth millions of dollars for Joplin. So we trudge onward.

These last few days have been pretty fantastic, but I think the rest of the week will be back to boring old business as usual. But I have my own trip back to St Louis to look forward to. Joplin has been great but I am really looking forward to getting back on projects with everyone else and seeing them all on the weekends. Can't wait!

xoxo, Liz