ROUND 1.1

Again, sorry for not posting in awhile. I had told myself I would journal or blog every other day while in AmeriCorps…I have written in my journal once since leaving Perry Point, MD for my first spike in Dover, DE… and that was a week ago…oops! Yes, I have lived in Delaware for a week and CTI feels like a long time ago.
My team and I are working and living at the Delaware National Estuarine Research Reserve (DNERR). The Reserve’s mission is to preserve and manage natural resources; Provide education and outreach programs; Promote informed coastal decision making; Establish, protect, and manage natural estuarine habitats; Conduct research, provide education and coastal stewardship. So far my team has worked on the “manage natural estuarine habitats” part of the mission in the form of invasive species removal. The Reserve has three properties. We stay at the main coastal part in Dover. We also work at the two sites about 40 minutes away in Townsend. We have spent 4 of our 6 workdays so far at the Blackbird component in Townsend removing Multi- Flora Rose and Japanese Honeysuckle. They are horrible. Multi-Flora Rose is a thorny creeping bush that is rampant on the Blackbird property. By the second day of working with it, my whole team had scratches from the thorns around our hands, wrists, and legs. The second day we started to use chaps that we had brought with us to protect our legs from the nasty thorns. Honeysuckle isn’t as bad; however, it wraps itself around a trunk and branches of a tree so tightly that at times, a tree can be warped because of the vine growing around it. The trees the honeysuckle grows on are still small, but when the vine reaches the tops of the trees it can be pretty hard to get all of it off. We just make sure we cut everything at the roots, so the vine will die.
When we aren’t removing invasive species, my team will be doing a variety of different projects at the DNERR including research and education. We will also be working at the John Dickinson Plantation, which happens to be next door to the Reserve we are staying at. John Dickinson had the distinction of being the only man in the Continental Congress to abstain from voting for Independence from Britain and not signing the Declaration of Independence. Although he believed America could be its own country, he did not believe in the means the rest of the Founding Fathers went about to gain independence, treason and war. Wanting the Declaration of Independence to pass unanimously, he abstained from the vote. We got a tour of the main house on Thursday afternoon with the director of the historical site. The home is presented as it would have looked during the Revolutionary time period of the 1770s. My team and I will work in the Plantation’s herb garden (which is quite large) replanting period appropriate herbs to the time period.
As for my team, we are all getting along really well with each other. For the first week we were here in Delaware, Caleb was in North Carolina for Wild Land Fire Fighting Training. We returned to Delaware on Saturday night. But we still are not a complete team. That morning, Jamie left to join a composite team in New Orleans for four weeks. We are also figuring out shopping for food and eating together. Like I said before, we have $4.50 a day to live on. We shop as a group for the whole week with everyone’s money. Before Saide, Rene, and Caleb went shopping yesterday, I tried to figure out a dinner menu for the week, so we could plan what to eat. So far everything has been going okay. But we did run out of cereal and lunch fixings around Thursday last week, so we had to plan our shopping list around making sure we don’t run out this week. We also have 4 vegetarians on our team, so we have to make sure everyone can eat what we make. They also make yummy vegetarian stuff that I have never tasted like quinoa with onions mushrooms and tofu. Last night I made chicken and potatoes. They made their own asparagus and quinoa and also ate my potatoes. Tonight, I made vegetarian chili with cornbread. It was pretty spicy. I added habaneras and other spicy peppers Maria’s mom got from the Indian store. It turned out really well too.
That’s all for tonight. Hopefully I get into a groove for writing.
In Peace.