Laverne and Shirley

Day 6 and 7
Yes I know what you may be thinking but I am not talking about these gal's:


The real Laverne and Shirley are on the Tamposi:

This is where a majority of our project will be done. We are Group Vernal and it just seemed to be appropriate for our two pools to be named Laverne and Shirley.

These last two days we have had some really great facilitations. We got to sculpt stumps out of clay, take a tree tour of UNH, and meditate out on the Tamposi at the Beaver Pond (with lots of mosquitoes too). We also have gotten a lot accomplished with our pedagogies and I am really pleased with the direction my belief went. I do have to admit that my outline took a few more hours then I had expected but I am still alive.

It was really great to go to our vernal pool site on Wednesday to take all our pool measurements and note what is living in the pools. We saw some green frogs, a few tow biters (yuck), water scorpions, and much more. It was very cool. Also, it seems the area is a sort of moose highway since the last two days we have had fresh tracks! Very exciting and hope we get to see him or her...from a distance!


Mr. Tow Biter (Giant Water Bug) and a Green Frog!

The Big Day!

Day 5

Today we chose our projects! I am very excited to be part of Group Vernal! We will be studying one particular vernal pool that is right off the Tibbets trail and taking what we find and looking for other vernal pools in the area.

We began this morning with three really great facilitations! We started out using our creative side to describe a special place that is dear to our heart and makes us feel like we have a sense of place. I really enjoyed listening and seeing other people's places. For me it was hard to describe but I did my best. In the end it actually made me kind of homesick. Below is the poem I wrote about my place:

Paradise Cove
There is a spot we cherish,
Tucked away by Point Dume.
Where if by land or by sea,
I feel like I'm home.

The smell of salt is in the air,
And the kelp beds are quite abundant.
Just below the surface you enter another world,
A world not belonging to us,
but a world where tranquility resides.

A place I call home where I may not rest my head,
A place that reminds me of my life as a child,
A place so beautiful it will take your breath away.

The great aspect of this class is that you are allowed to be you. Your thoughts and ideas are never wrong or dumb, and I love that. We are connecting physically and emotionally with our surroundings and what I am learning in this class I want to take with me in my next journey.

Quote of the day:

If you don't know where you are, you don't know who you are.

-Wendell Berry

A Wet Day

Day 4

The morning found us learning and exploring the wetlands on Tamposiland. Our guest speaker, David, teaches the wetlands ecology and management course at UNH. In just the few hours we spent on wetlands ecology I had a million ides running through my head about our project. I have to say I have a connection to water, fresh or salt, and I just always want to know what is under the surface. Beaver creek (picture to the left) has a beautiful edge with many aquatic and terrestrial plants. Oh and there is a beaver lodge but nobody home. These beavers worked really hard and are considered a keystone species because there damning allows for a wetlands teeming with life. This wetland continues to be an important ecosystem in Tamposi although the beavers may have moved on to setup camp somewhere else.

The afternoon was spent with a facilitation and brainstorming our project ideas. There are so many great proposals that is difficult to figure out what I would like to work with. Ultimately, I would like to do a project that benefits the public. I would like the public to appreciate and care for what could literally be in their backyard. My strong interests, once again, would be to do something related to aquatic species or with the history of the Tamposiland.

See you next week!

Tracking and then a Farm.

Day 3

We met at Tamposi this morning with Dan from the White Pine nature based learning center who was very educated in animal tracking and identifying. IT IS TRUE! There are moose around which I am thrilled about since not many of them roam Los Angeles. Throughout the morning we would come across scat and identify to whom it belonged to. This morning we saw deer, moose, coyote, fox, and some type of bird, possibly, turkey scat. Along with analyzing poop we looked for other signs of animals in the area. We saw some deer and moose rubbing's, signs of foraging animals, and squirrel "bites," which I never knew existed. It was very educational and once again my knowledge of New England forests are growing!

The second part of the day was spent with Randy Warren of Warren Farm. His farm property borders some of the Tamposiland and he is rich in history. The information we were told was very descriptive giving us a picture of the New Hampshire farmland through the years. Just listening to how dependent farming was to how uncommon it is today for the community to buy local makes me want to buy farm fresh produce only! You all should too!

From College Woods to Tamposi!

Welcome to my first New Hampshire summer! My next four weeks will be an adventure as I explore a new world to me through the summer institute. ENJOY!

Day 1
I have to admit that I spent most of the prior week bouncing back and forth from nervousness to excitement. Driving in Monday morning I felt that this was a very positive change of direction. The minute I entered the classroom my nerves settled and the urge to learn kicked in. During the introductions I learned that although we all have different backgrounds we have come together for the same reason. To educate in a manner that is associated with the nature around us. Our first trip outside landed us in College Woods observing a forest that has been alive for hundreds of years. In just a matter of a few hours I had learned more about the composition of a New England forest then I had known. As an activity we were to pick a tree of our own and describe the tree and it's surroundings. We were also to give the tree a name. The location of my tree was in a very moist area that gave way for shrubbery to thrive and an opening to the sky. My tree was the tallest in this opening, thus naming him the Towering Terror! He was identified as an American Elm and actually living in an unusually wet area. What I learned from the observations, activities, and ideas from the first day opened up my primarily marine biology-thinking mind to new ecosystems. I thoroughly enjoyed being immersed in nature the first day (but safe from the downpours)!

Day 2
Today was our first visit to Tamposi where we will be spending a majority of our next four weeks. To get orientated with the 1300 acre watershed we were sent on a scavenger hunt which sent us 2 miles into the conservation area. There were five points along the path and each one was associated to some natural or human disturbance. All five brought on great conversations and thoughts to our observations. The one that I found quite interesting was an old house foundation, or possibly two old house foundations. To be standing where hundreds of years ago a family had lived harmoniously with the land makes one think how simple life was. In the area that looks like it may have been a cellar was a baby's headstone. We weren't sure if she, Alice Chote, had been buried there or across the path where the family cemetery is located. It is great what you will see when you stop and take the time to look at around. You will see more then you originally thought existed!