Blog 15

On Friday, Will, Taylor, and I went to Castle Hill to help out Ramona once again with her field trip. It was another middle school field trip and we were supposed to be doing the same thing as last time. It was another beautiful day so it made it very pleasant to be outside in the salt marsh. This time the group of kids were a lot more interactive with the three of us so it made it more fun than last time. I think the kids were kind of shy last time to talk to us but that was not the case this time. Again, Ramona split the kids into three groups so they could learn about the different parts of the salt marsh. The three of us were in charge of taking pictures of the kids learning and manning one of the stations. The station we were at was the most exciting because it was learning about the animals that live at the salt marsh. We had a bucket filled with small fish and crabs that the kids could look at. This other helper at our station, Holly, would give the kids little booklets with the different species of fish and crabs for the salt marsh so the children could pick which ones were in the bucket. After the salt marsh scene, we all had lunch again on the lawn then proceeded to go to the roof of the mansion. These two field trip days have made great score days because they have been really interactive and have taught us a lot. 

Blog 14

On Tuesday, Taylor, Will, and I were in for a special treat for score. Ramona was leading a field trip for the Ipswich middle school at Castle Hill so we were able to tag along and help her out with the expedition. It was a really nice change of pace to go and visit a different reservation besides Ravenswood and Coolidge. The agenda was to meet at Castle Hill with all the school kids then walk down a path to go explore the salt marshes around the area. When we got to the salt marsh, the kids spit up into three groups where a Trustees employee was leading each group. I was with Ramona’s group for a little of the time and while I was with her, she was teaching the kids about salt-water marshes. She explained how there are three parts to a salt marsh; lower, middle, and upper. The lower region has the most water, the middle is drier than the lower region, and the upper part is the driest of them all. Ramona truly knows a lot about the salt marshes and she continuously surprises me with her endless knowledge of nature. After exploring the marshes for a couple hours, we walked back up and all ate lunch on a nice lawn at Castle Hill. The best part was saved for the end, and that was when Ramona took all of us to the roof of the mansion at the property. The view was amazing from the top and this was the cherry on top for another great day at the Trustees. 

Blog 13

On Monday, Taylor and I went to work at Ravenswood Reservation. Ramona was not going to be there but she had left us some work to do. She wanted us to do some trail maintenance on some trails that we have not been on yet during score. She also wanted us to fill out some brochures for her that she would use to hand out to visitors. The brochure part was really easy and the trail maintenance was pretty fun. Although it was fairly cool, it was still sunny so the weather was almost perfect for being on the trails. There were some sticks and small logs that were on parts of the trail so we just moved them off to the side and made sure there were no other obstacles on the trails. This is some of my favorite work that we do with the Trustees simply because we are outside on the trails and it is cool to see the different aspects of nature. I have learned a lot more about different plants and animals just from being around Ramona and being on the trials. I have also learned a lot of manual work techniques from Dan and Alex that will be very helpful for when I grow up and have to work around the house myself. So far, I have been very pleased with my score internship and am excited to see where it goes from here. Ramona has some fun plans for us in the future that even could include taking a boat out to Missouri Island and exploring a little bit.

Blog 12

On Thursday, I had the pleasure of going to score by myself for the first time since Taylor and Will had their AP English test. Usually we would be with Ramona on Thursday but she said that she was out and that she had told Dan some stuff we could do at Coolidge Reservation. When I arrived, I worked with Sam for a little while filling in some new soil for these decent sized bushes. The other week all three of us tore up a layer of grass so we could fill the surrounding areas with new soil. After a little while, Dan asked me to do a different job for him. I was to eradicate another type of invasive species that was starting to sprout up on some of the Coolidge property. This invasive species is called garlic mustard, and it has green chutes that bud little white flowers. In this one area, there was an abundance of garlic mustard so I could see that it would take a little while to de-route all of them since it was just me working. It was tedious work and the dull weather did not make it that much of an enjoyable time. I am used to always having company while doing this type of manual labor for the Trustees so the solitude was not to my liking. After a little more than an hour, I had cleared this one section of all the garlic mustard. I filled up three trash barrels with routes, which showed me that there was a lot more of this species there than I thought.

Blog 11

On Wednesday, Taylor, Will, and I were set up to work at Coolidge Reservation with Dan since Ramona had the day off. Usually when we are at Coolidge Reservation, we often have to do some hard work around the area. When we arrived, all three of us reported to Alex and Sam on what we were suppose to do for the day. They explained to us how around this time is when we really need to focus on cleaning up the surrounding areas so it can look nice for the rest of spring and summer. A lot of the cleaning up was just clearing out all the leaves that were on the ground and mixed in with the plants that are about to start growing. Before we arrived that day, Alex and Sam had raked a huge amount of leaves and put them in a line across the Great Lawn. Our work for that day was to haul all of the leaves from that line away from the Great Lawn. It seemed like a pretty useless task at first because all we were doing was moving piles of leaves. In the end, you could see the difference it made because the surrounding areas where the leaves were before looked a lot cleaner and nicer. If we had not moved these leaves, it could have damaged the new plants trying to grow or even keep them from growing at all. It was a day full of manual labor but it was labor that had to be done and benefits the reservation in several different ways. 

Blog 10

On Tuesday, Will, Taylor, and I were reporting to Dan since Tuesday was one of Ramona’s days off. Usually we would be working at Coolidge Reservation since that is where Dan is most of the time but instead we were told to meet at Ravenswood. When we got there, Dan told us that we would be working to clean up the areas around the base house at Ravenswood. With plants starting to grow, it is really important to make sure their soil is clean and rich so they can flourish. The three of us had the job of raking and cleaning a chuck of land near the driveway. This job looked like it would go by pretty fast but that did not turn out to be the case. On the surface, it did not look like there were many leaves to rake but we soon found out that the layer of leaves were pretty thick. For a large amount of time, the three of us raked all these leaves into big separate piles so we could eventually haul them out in a wheel barrel. Unfortunately, Will had to leave early to attend one of his AP classes so it left Taylor and I to finish the job. The hard part had already been done so all Taylor and I had to do was load up the wheel barrel and clear the leaves. It probably took eight wheel barrel runs to get all the remaining leaves, which shows how many leaves are in a small area. After we were done, our area looked much cleaner and more appealing to the public.