Is It Really Almost July Already?

I realized yesterday that I haven’t posted anything in
several weeks. The same thing happened around this time last year. It’s a
combination of getting really busy once the weather finally straightened out
and feeling like my summer routine is not that interesting to anyone. We are
past the first round of family gatherings and the star of the summer, our
oldest grandson’s wedding. I spent my 54^th birthday this year
beaming at them and choking back a tear every now and then as I took pictures
of them getting things ready the night before and moving through their big day.

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  The Happy Couple

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  Sydney's Birthday in April

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So far, the summer has been a pretty steady stream of time with grandkids, watching Hunter play baseball with his Little League team, helping out with summer daycare for our four year old grand daughter Nora and of course several visits to gardens and greenhouses with my friend Joyce. We’ve hosted several evenings at our campsite and then there is the bird watching. As I learn more about birds I notice new ones each season we are here. We’ve even managed to pull out of our digs here in Volunteer Village and go camping with our old group two weekends so far this year. It makes us feel normal in a way, but also reminds us how different our life is. On Sunday morning when everyone packs up their rig and returns to their house and we pack up the 'house' and move it back to Saylorville. It’s hard to explain and we still have moments when we realize that our minds are still not quite fully converted even after three years. We were driving up to Little Wall Lake to join our friends and family at the campground when I wondered to myself if I remembered the check book to pay for the site. I was in my old life for a fleeting moment. I chuckled and reminded myself that I had everything I own with me because we were driving the house! Where else would it be but with us?

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  Hunter fielding a line drive

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  Just like the old days at Little Wall

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  Marshmallows with Conner

I was out working with Judy yesterday, cleaning up flood debris from a hiking trail, when I spotted a Bobolink. (That’s a bird for you non-birders) I have only seen one twice since I started paying attention to birds. Then a few minutes later we stirred up two Osprey from their perch in the top of a dead tree. I have been really enjoying working with the Natural Resources Team this summer. I am getting to mow a lot. Yes, I said ‘get to’. I enjoy the solitary time on a mower looking at everything around me, thinking, smelling the grass and the blooming plants. It is one of those times when I find inspiration. I’ve helped in the butterfly gardens, though not as much as I would like. Champ has officially been dubbed “The Playground Guy”. He is really loving his job here. He is out and about, talking to people he meets and best of all gets to climb around on the equipment as he checks it and gets some workout in the process. I marvel that at 67 years young, he can still do chin-ups. He’s made that a part of checking the Hanging Bars of the playgrounds. Most of all I think he likes knowing that he has a hand in making sure the playgrounds are safe for the kids.

Workout as he tests monkey bars

What I am realizing the most about how I am evolving in my
early retirement and work camping life is that I am immersed in things that I
love. Nature, the outdoors, land stewardship and conservation. My very life has
become a canvas that allows me to share my love of these things with my
grandkids when they come to spend time with me. I am in tune with all the free
activities at the parks designed to introduce kids to the natural world and all
the wonders it holds. Maybe I will plant a seed in one of them that will
germinate later in life and bloom as a hobby or career. My daughter has been
cultivating her own interest in learning to garden and is working to establish
some pollinator habitat in her own yard. I love the time we get to spend
together in her yard and smile inside as I watch her develop her own love of
plants and flowers and see her own satisfaction when plants thrive in the space
where she has placed them.  Saylorville
is my home turf and I’m learning more about it every year that we live and work
out here. I’ll take anyone who wants out with me and show them what I have
discovered. Maybe they don’t get as excited as I do but it’s fun time spent
together.

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  Nora loves flowers

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  Nature Tales at the Visitors Center

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  Isaac birdwatching with me

The summer calendar is full of events I want to take the grandkids to, socializing with our volunteer friends, seeing family and friends as much as we can and of course all the time I get to spend tromping around behind the scene’s here at Saylorville. I take some of the inspiration and things I see here and turn them into articles for the two newsletters I write for the park and the summer is ticking by along with my publishing calendar, perhaps a little too fast.

Until next time...

The Weather Factor

In our third year of work camping we are realizing the biggest threat to  sustaining a continuous workcamp arrangement isn’t so much whether one can find work, or whether the job and accommodations will be intolerable, as we encountered in Georgia with NPS last winter. It is a matter of dealing with extreme weather or environmental conditions. We came in on the heels of hurricanes and damage the past two winters. We were lucky the job was there to go to both times. Friends of ours found themselves in the midst of massive wildfires last summer in the southwest. This year catastrophic flooding is affecting campgrounds and parks in the Midwest that are the summer home to many RV volunteers like us. As we watch Saylorville Lake rise and fall and threaten to encroach volunteer village we keep our fingers crossed. For now, it looks like we will be high and dry for the foreseeable future.

Unfortunately, that is not the case for places in the southeast and west corners of Iowa and northern Missouri this summer. As both the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers that form the West and East borders of the great state of Iowa swell with the influx of water from all the rivers in Central Iowa that flow toward them at the southern corners, central Missouri has turned into a sort of funnel for all the water as it makes its way to St. Louis where it will all end up in the Mississippi. Central Missouri is inundated with historic flooding that is destroying everything in its path and drowning entire towns. I wonder to myself how many workcampers have been displaced along with the residents of the areas as muddy, debris filled river water continues to flow and mercilessly destroy everything.

Meanwhile it is snowing at Saylorville. Cottonwood that is. The giant Cottonwood trees are blooming and releasing their cotton. It is always pretty, yet a nuisance. This year, we have all commented that there seems to be much more than usual. Maybe the extreme weather has had an affect on the trees. Maybe all the rain has helped them bloom more. Whatever the case, they are releasing their seed readily. I’ve never paid much attention accept when I clean the screes once it finally stops around late June. As my friend and I strolled through Red Feather Prairie yesterday, we came upon one of the majestic 70’ trees in full bloom and saw the cotton balls on the tree poised to be released into the breeze. Down the path a bit I found a lower branch and for the first time got a close look at the seeds. They hang on the tree like clumps of grapes. Thousands of them. It is no wonder there is so much floating around in the air and accumulating along the sides of roadways and lawns, just like early light snowfall in November. I wonder if the Native Americans or Pioneers of centuries past collected this for pillows and mattresses. Here in the 21^st Century we sneeze, curse it when it sticks to our contact lenses, and clogs the AC Units.

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  Bell pepper plants covered in cotton

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  Cottonwood seed pods

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  Full blooms ready to release

We’ll get up each day, sweep the cotton off the patio, watch
the lake level and carry on, thankful that we aren’t fleeing from a major flood,
wildfire or hurricane---yet.

Until Next Time…