Little Office Project

When people think of park rangers, they picture us standing in front of geysers; talking about bears, elk, and bison; maybe standing around a campfire talking to campers.

One thing that I bet does not come to mind is park mail. Even in this day of websites and technology, we get lots of mail. Especially in my office for the Education Program. We get actual paper letters - several a week, usually - from students all over the country, requesting information, maps and pictures of the park to use in school projects.

My former boss was not in the habit of responding to these letters. But Fawn (the current Education Specialist) and I feel that it's important to respond to these kids/students. When I first got here, Fawn suggested a set of park handouts to be sent in response to these requests. She also suggested I find a way to keep track of our mail - in case we had to prove to Anne (former boss) or other park folks just how much mail we get.

So, like with many projects in my life (don't ask!), I created a database in Excel. Since the beginning of December, 2008, we have received and answered nearly 270 letters. Yes, the pile is sitting next to my computer on my desk! I also have 5 letters that I have not yet responded to - 3 of which will be taken care of tomorrow (the other 2 need a bit of work). We've also received many thank-you notes from the kids that sent us their original requests!

If I can say one thing about this set of tasks, it's that this is an important way to get the word out. These kids are our future. Hollywood knows how to market to kids - and gets lots of support from kids, in many ways.

The National Park Service is trying to find ways to reach today's youth - especially those living in urban areas that might not get to visit too many natural parks. When we have 'city kids' visit us through school field trips, they usually leave happier - but more tired! - than when they arrived. The outdoors is good for kids. And for us.

We need to encourage these kids to appreciate this country's natural resources. I'm attempting to do my part, because these kids will be voters in the future and the parks belong to us all.

What can you do?

A New Week

It's Monday again. Time to fire up the old Mr. Coffee at the office and get back to it.

Except.

The weather is intriguing today. We have a partly cloudy, partly sunny day today. The clouds are big and puffy here at HQ. The sunlight is lighting the trees beautifully.

What's so unusual then?

It's snowing.

Yes, it is snowing. So heavily, in fact, that it looks a bit fuzzy outside. Or if I was watching an old black-and-white movie, it would be the fuzz/interferrence on the TV screen. Interesting effect with the sunshine.

Of course, it's not sticking at all - merely making the roads wet - because it's well above freezing today. And Paradise isn't getting too much of this snow. Check the parking lot webcam: http://mms.nps.gov/mora/cam/east.jpg

I hope this is a sign of an interesting week ahead...

Fun With Doggies

Most of the last week I spent house- and dog-sitting for some coworkers from the park. These folks used to work up at Denali National Park in Alaska, and ran a team of huskies as a means of winter transportation. But these huskies are more than just work animals - they are Mary and Jeff's kids - 9 kids, to be exact! Four of these dogs are permanently retired now, due to age and/or health. Five could still run and pull... if we had enough snow. (Don't get me started on THAT subject.)

Here's Ivar - the biggest of the dogs, being lazy, watching me watch a movie.



And Ritz, trying to eat my dinner.

Gouda and Ritz, posing with Flat Stanley and Mary. Aren't they sweet doggies?

Sunburnt!

I just got back from hiking with a group of highschoolers. It is sunny today (surprise, surprise!) and I think I might have just gotten sunburnt. Goodness this feels nice!!

Down Time

I guess everyone needs some down time. Relax, recharge. Since my down time in November, it seems that time has gone by quickly. The past month or so, I felt more like my normal self, with my normal appetite and all. In fact, I feel like I've been eating everything in sight. For 2-3 months, I didn't eat a whole lot. And what I did eat (mostly) was beans, rice, and veggies. But lately, I seem to be back to my old addictions of coffee and chocolate. ;)

This week I'm house and doggie-sitting for the Wysong 'kids' again. I had Ritz and Gouda in the house with me to watch a movie last night - those girls are just too sweet! Tonight it will be Ivar and Ponzi - maybe we'll watch Disney's Snow Dogs. ;)

Not much knitting gets done; the doggies are good at getting petted. ;) And I'm fending off a cold. It's just me for a field trip with high schoolers tomorrow, so I can't be sick.

Anyway, if you're having a slow time right now, relax and make the most of it!

Train Trip!

The Olympia/Lacey station

This past Saturday, I went down to Portland, OR, with a few friends via Amtrak. For those of you that have never traveled by train, you really should. I rode several trains as a kid. And in 2007, I LOVED the train trip from Anchorage to Fairbanks (and back). Trains really are the way to travel. Americans should embrace this more!

The engine of our train sitting in the station at Portland

Me with my morning coffee (Mika took this one!)

Once you get to the station, you have the whole day to enjoy with your friends. You have the freedom to sit back and enjoy the scenery while someone else does the driving. You can share snacks, read a book, knit on a sweater (as I did) all while enjoying the view. And poof! A couple of hours later you're at your destination. The round trip cost me just $50.

Once in Portland, we walked around the downtown, window shopping as we found our way to our lunch destination. We ate at Jake's and had seafood. I had an AMAZING dish they called 'Salmon Saute'. I should have taken a picture of it. Salmon and shitake mushrooms. Fine food - so good in fact that Ranger Jim kept trying to eat off my plate. We all shared our food around the table. ;) Oh, and the sourdough bread at Jake's is great too. I'd go back there for dinner in a heartbeat. Note though that the menu changes daily, depending on what seafood they can get in - but I'd bet anything you had there was good.

Tom and Mika... playing with their food :)

After lunch, we went for a walk. Ok, so the walk was long and uphill (sometimes fairly steeply uphill!). We went to the Japanese Garden at Washington Park. Beautiful gardens! The cherry trees were blooming. In another month or so, the azaleas will be beautiful!

We headed back downtown and to Powell's book store. More like book warehouse. Every title known to man and then some. They call themselves a "City of books". Check out the store map - you need the map or you may never find your way out! I love book stores; I could get a coffee and look for hours. But this one seriously overwhelmed me. Don't go there if you can't spend the entire day.

About 5 p.m., we decided to head out and walk a bit more. Window shopping on the way to the train station. We got to the station a bit early and had a bit of refreshment at the pub. About this time, Mika and I decided we were a bit tired. ;)

Union Station at Portland

The trip back to Olympia/Lacey was nice. Lots of chatting, snacks and relaxing after a full day of walking and sightseeing in Portland!

Trains are definitely the way to go. Hopefully I'll get to ride the Alaska RR again this summer. ;)

Slow Monday

I'm really moving slowly today. I've been at work for over 4 hours, and I can't remember anything I've done. I know I met with my boss (Fawn) already, to go over what she missed last week while out of town for training, and what I've been working on. And I finished a set of Plant Cards - visual aides for use while leading hikes (and a good training tool, if my replacement isn't familiar with the plants he/she will need to know here at Rainier).

I had a good weekend, but I didn't get enough sleep. I think that's it.

I must need coffee. ;)

---

Ok a couple of hours have passed since I wrote that...

I think I'm also feeling a bit overwhelmed. I just received a thank-you email from one of our park staff, thanking me for helping them last week while they were using one of the classrooms in our building. (I helped them set up all of their computers and made sure the network ports were working our building... a typical task for me. I sometimes feel like the local tech nerd, but still happy to help.)

Anyway, after the note, her email signature section contained this phrase:

Preservation and Enjoyment -- A Mountain of a Job

I think I'm going to notate that as Universal Truth #215.

One of our on-going projects here at the Education Center is a revamping of our whole operation. How we operate, logistics, program offerings, outreach opportunties on our part, website contents, etc. etc. etc. Anything that you can think of, basically like reviewing and updating our business model and products (to steal terms from the corporate world), is on-going these days since our former boss left. There were a lot of messes to clean up in her wake, but overall, I believe this program is better off now than it was before.

Nearly every day, Fawn or I come up with something that we (read: "the Education Center") should have been doing for the past 10 years or so. These involve:

• training materials for new staff
• process for teachers reserving dates/locations for their field trips
• the types of programs we offer for field trips
• processes for park staff to use our building/materials (second priority to classes visiting us)
• outreach to local schools (many of which were hurt by said former boss)
• materials for use in classrooms - bringing Rainier TO school children instead of the other way around
• website resources (which we get requests for, but are somewhat unable to provide at this time)
• materials to be used by rangers with students on hikes or inside Ed center (on days of bad weather)

I have 4-5 on-going projects at the present time, related to those things listed above. And every day, I come up with a few more things that would be useful/helpful. As I mentioned earlier today, I finished a set of plant ID cards to be used in the field. One of my next *small* tasks will be to put together the type of PDF/handout that we can email to teachers/students who request information for school projects. We will still send out the standard park brochures to students who send us regular paper requests (snail mail!) but for those that email, we'd like to have a set of links ready to go. I'm going to cheat and model ours after Yosemite's Cheat Sheet. In the near future, I will start putting together a training manual for those that come after me - something I wish I'd had when I came here (but, of course, the boss at the time didn't provide any training herself, so my fellow interps trained me as best they could - thanks Julia!!!).

Back to the phrase above.... It is a mountain of a job. Besides preservation and enjoyment, add to the list "education". Because that's what we focus on here in my office.