2/23 A Mixed Day

The photos for today's blog is of the forest before the ginger has been pulled and treated and then after - quite an amazing difference. Eventually, native plants will fill in the empty spaces.
We woke to a glorious, sunny day. It was quite chilly to start, but the sun warmed things up quickly. Kyle and Mapu are out sick today, so Dave and Eben went up the hill (about a 45 degree slope) behind the Museum and killed guava for the morning while I was stuck in the office again. I entered more data sheets into the computer (boring, but easy on the hand) while Katie continued to work on grant writing. The boys came back just before noon and we ate lunch together. After lunch, Dave and Eben and I went to the Discovery Center to meet a different class of fifth graders. We walked with them through the forest as the environmental instructor (Billy) pointed out a variety of native flora. We again divided into teams and the kids attacked the ginger with shovels. By this time, we were hearing thunder so we cut the session short. This class was even more into digging out the ginger than last week’s class. In less than an hour, they dug out over 2000 ginger – pretty impressive! When the kids had gone back up the trail, Eben poisoned the rhizome piles and then we carried the buckets and shovels out another path to the truck. We washed the tools and then hopped into the shower. We just had dinner and Dave will re-bandage my hand shortly. We have had a few showers associated with the thunder, but right now (6:45) the sky is a mix of clouds and blue sky. The sun is setting and some of the clouds are pink. We have one more day of work and apparently on our last day, we get to choose. We have chosen to finish the fencing project that we started. They have gotten the last of the fencing we will need and this will prevent the pigs and deer from eating all of the natives that we planted last week. If it should be pouring tomorrow, we will have to come up with a plan B.