The end!

I've been home for nearly a week already!

My term of service with AmeriCorps NCCC closed with an unexpectedly strong prescription of graduation goggles. I knew it would be hard to say goodbye seeing as I had spent the last nine months of my life living and working with the same beautiful humans, but I was shocked by the abruptness of the end.

We all expected it and in many ways, we were all ready to go home. I missed my partner and my bed and my books and everything else that means home to me. I was prepared for the bandaid rip of graduation and a flight home in the same 5 hour span, but I guess I wasn't necessarily prepared for the actual implications of what we referred to - like so many things by acronym - as LAA. (...Life After AmeriCorps).

In the corps, you're constantly surrounded by a community of people who share - sometimes in unknowable and unclear ways - your desire to make the world a better place. Not everyone joins the program for the same reason, many leave, but those who graduated last Thursday: we were a unique collection of people in the same place for the same reason. Basically, we didn't know what else to do with our lives... just kidding, but also seriously, I think many of us saw AmeriCorps as a beautiful way to connect with that part of our childhood selves that wanted to save the world, even if our adultish realism and possible cynicism fought back the entire time.

Things were not always perfect; but in the end, I had traveled to some incredible, awe-inspiring places, worked alongside passionate and inspiring people, planted my fair-share of native and vegetable plants, improved some soil, helped build a house, lived in a yurt..in a forest, camped on an island, bunked in the honors dorm with the California Conservation Corps ladies, and - most importantly - I had made some lifelong connections with people who will always make me smile and people who taught me new things everyday.

My whole life, I've heard: "college will be/is/was the best time of your life." I disagree. I think I will always look back on my experience in the National Civilian Community Corps as the best time in my life. I hope to use my experiences along with the lessons I've learned to continually make the world - if only my own community - a better place.

Thank you to everyone who made my journey what it was.

Typical two months later post...

Greetings from the magical land of Sandy, Oregon! I realized this morning that I've been neglecting this blog over the past couple of months and I wanted to update the internet world about my current project. 

My team is working with an incredible organization called AntFarm (http://antfarm-international.com/), which is a community center/cafe & bakery with a 1.5 acre organic garden space and a million other things  all centered around community power and individual well-being. I'm learning from a handful of visionary souls and seriously enjoying the experience. As for living situation, I'm glamping (glam-camping) in the middle of a forest at the base of Mt. Hood and I live in a yurt surrounded by chickens, dogs, and amazing humans. I work in a garden all day long and am basically living my ideal life. I've found that I'm happiest when surrounded by plants and covered in soil.
This round is very different from my last round. It's incredible to think that just four short weeks ago I was on a construction site trying my hardest not to cut my fingers off or get hit in the head by something falling off of a half-finished roof (one of my teammates almost got hit by a falling human!). Working with Habitat was interesting and it taught me a lot about tools and construction techniques. It also taught me that construction is not my field. But I loved Wyoming and I really had a great time in Sheridan. We met so many incredibly nice people who welcomed us into their homes and made our experience very memorable and beautiful.
My term of service with AmeriCorps is wrapping up already! We graduate on July 24th and fly home the same day. When I consider all of the places I've been, people I've met, and things I've learned, I can't believe this has only been a nine month program. It feels like this has been my entire life and I can't even imagine what came before it or what will come after. I remember the day I found out I'd be in the Pacific Region and immediately knew I had done the right thing by applying for NCCC. That moment feels like ages ago, but the program itself has gone by so quickly. I'm taking this experience as a metaphor for life: It's so short and there's a lot to see and do... go out and live it! 

"All life begins on an edge"

I've always had a thing for liminal spaces. It started in college when I first heard the phrase in a Gender and Women's Studies course and was curious about its meaning. I came to understand a liminal space as a doorway - an in between that marks a boundary between one world and another. In college, I used this understanding to discuss gender outside of binary terms and my mind was opened to the wide variety of expressions that our culture tries so hard to squeeze into only two cramped boxes. Later, I applied my conception of a liminal space to the region between human and non-human communities. Ecology became my focus and I was curious about the root of human separation from the rest of the Earth's creatures. Is there an in-between, I wondered? A place where humanity blends into "nature" and the division between the two ceases to exist? What does this place look like?

During my second round in AmeriCorps NCCC, liminality caught up with me again. In a guest lecture on water conservation during our stay in San Luis Obispo, Regina Hirsch of the Sierra Watershed Progressive, proclaimed that "all life begins on an edge." She was talking about estuaries: places where salt water meets fresh water, encouraging biodiversity found no where else on Earth. This edge...this liminal space - between the salty seas and the freshwater streams - is integral to the life cycle of diverse species from amphibians to fish to algae and innumerable types of vegetation. These spaces are constantly in severe danger. Why?

Think of this, every drop of water humans waste is one less drop of water in the stream or the river or the aquifer. Every chemical that we spray, dump, excrete, etc. is one more chemical added to the soup already floating around in our seas. Every area of land drains into a body of water and every body of water is connected to every other through the cycle of evaporation and condensation. The world is linked by water. Condensation happens on an edge; rain forms when water molecules condense around the edges of heavier elements in the atmosphere. Rain falls and we send it to the ocean along with all of the eroded sediment picked up along the way. Into the estuary it goes. Into this liminal space, all of our junk - the chemicals (agricultural, pharmaceutical, industrial, etc), the waste, everything - leaving the land and entering the water where freshwater meets salt.

You may be asking yourself, "what the heck is the meaning of all this??" And to that I say, "excellent question. I have absolutely no idea. But wait, I feel like there are answers here..." So far, my answer is this: In the United States, we have very little respect for the in-between spaces. We are all about boundaries, but we value what's on our side of the fence 1,000 times more than whatever is on the other side. This threshold is a way of remaining ignorant and allowing environmental degradation without feeling personally responsible. "It's not on my land, why should I care?," We say. In Germany, storm water is not legally allowed to leave urban properties, whereas in the U.S we funnel storm water as quickly as possible off our land and into the ocean. This disallows infiltration (and facilitates future water scarcity by not letting water sink into the Earth to re-charge aquifers) and speeds up erosion, which decreases the fertility of the land. We worry about flooding in our basements more than we think about how to save the water for use in the dry season. If only we could come to value the threshold - the estuary or the boundary between what we perceive as "our land" and the rest of the natural environment - then maybe we wouldn't be destroying the planet at quite as quick of a rate. If we valued the estuary for its life-giving power and thought of the entire Earth as our shared land where every individual action is connected like drops of water in the water cycle, then maybe we'd be less destructively imperialistic. Hmm...

This post hasn't told you much about my actual experience this round, but it tells you a lot about the lessons I've learned. On Catalina Island, my team planted native species to help restore habitats that have been destroyed by agriculture over the past century. Here, I learned that I'm very passionate about ecologically sustainable landscaping and want to turn every yard into a native-plant paradise. The second half of our round was in San Luis Obispo working with the California Conservation Corps on a variety of water conservation initiatives. I helped build a greywater system that diverts laundry water from the septic system to a residential yard for native plant irrigation. I also had the opportunity to learn about rain gardens and rain water catchment systems that "plant water" on site instead of funneling it somewhere else where it will be less useful at a local level. All of our work this round has helped me develop a goal to establish a sustainable landscaping non-profit that utilizes permaculture techniques and principles to produce food for people, conserve water, and reduce our negative impact on the Earth.

Okay, wrapping it up. My next round will be in Sheridan, Wyoming and my team will be working with Habitat for Humanity! I've never worked with Habitat before, but I'm very excited about the potential landscaping work that we might be completing this spring!

If you've made it this far, thank you for reading my rambling! I love you and you're beautiful.

P.S: If you've read this and want any landscaping done in your yard, get in touch! I'd love to help :)

Mid-point check in!

Good evening friends and family! I'm currently sitting at the Coffee Cantina in Frazier Park, CA sipping some hot cocoa and thinking about my childhood visions of California as one big sunny and warm state. We've been working indoors around a big cozy fire all week due to freezing temperatures that give even my Wisconsin blood a chill! California is definitely one big state and I learned that its size accommodates at least 24 different climatic zones (most states have less than four, according to Allan Schoenherr's book A Natural History of California). Working in the mountains, along what's known as the Tejon Pass, has taught me how to be flexible and pack many layers! We have already passed the mid-way point for round one and are starting to wrap up a couple of different projects. Over the past few weeks, we've renovated over 30 outdoor windows and stairwells on the original adobe barracks building and on the reconstructed officer's quarters at the fort. We've also applied wood sealant to several indoor floors and have spent the colder days inside fixing up reenactment clothing and polishing weaponry and accouterment. Today, we worked with another team to weather-seal a new fence at a state natural area called Tule Elk. The park is open to the public and preserves land for a herd of tule elk, a species related to reindeer and endemic to California. (pictures hopefully coming soon) Exciting news: we recently learned the details of our round two spike! After winter break my team will head even further south to work with the River Park Conservancy on various conservation tasks. I couldn't be more pumped for this project! I'd like to work with native species preservation in the future, so I'm really looking forward to gaining some hands-on experience. Time to go. Thanks for reading and happy December!! :)

Infrastructure Improvements at Fort Tejon State Historic Park

Hello and warm greetings from California's Grapevine Canyon Region!

I'm currently sitting in a cramped Starbucks - the only Sunday internet access available within 30 miles - listening to countless drink orders as they are shouted from the counter. Just a brief update...

My team has moved into our first Spike housing near the small towns of Lebec and Frazier Park California. Both towns are small, friendly, and seems to possess the mountain spirit of all high-altitude places. We wake up every morning for physical training and arrive at work by 8:30. Yesterday, our first official workday, we chipped and scraped old paint from the windows and doors of an original adobe building that once served as the barracks for dragoon soldiers posted at the Fort back in the 1850s. Original adobe. I don't know if any of you have ever touched 150+ year old adobe, but you better not have because it CRUMBLES. As we strip paint and apply primer, we work desperately not to breathe on the building. The slightest touch causes clay particles to fall: pieces of history hit the ground and mix with today.

My favorite thing about this Spike is living in a desert-like climate. I step outside every morning as the sun is just beginning to warm the frosted land. Day-time temperatures reach the middle 70s, but as soon as the sun goes down the temperature drops at least 15 - maybe 20 or more - degrees. The nights are quiet (except for the constantly busy highway 5 traffic in the near distance) and the desert seems to sleep. We hear reports of mountain lions, bobcats, and bears in our area. The mountain lions are known to stalk humans and we see their big tracks in the dusty trail outside of our home base. I hope to see one.. from a safe distance, of course. Most of all, I love the smell. There are large yellow shrubs that cover the soil around us. Whatever they are, they smell like the most heavenly smell you can imagine. Mixed with the beautifully potent scent of sagebrush, my body is always reluctant to exhale. Each breath in is joyous. I could never live in the desert because I am a child of water and winter, but I do find great pleasure in the unique spirit of the dry and ever-enduring land.

I've also found a potential career path. At Fort Tejon, we're working with a couple of park rangers. One is a Peace Officer - an actual law enforcement ranger who serves to protect the park and carries a gun. The other one is an interpretive ranger. He serves to teach and preserve the park's history. Both rangers know a lot about the area and work with school groups and park visitors, but the non-law enforcement folks are employed for the sole purpose of learning and educating. I can definitely see myself in this role.

Time to head back to camp. Thanks for reading and take care!

Game on!

Day 4 in sunny Sacramento! As many of you already know, I made it to California a week after the government shutdown ended. My first day was Thursday, October 24th, but I feel like I've been here for multiple months! I'm settling into my dorm, meeting tons of new people, and have even completed a full day of service working in community gardens in the Sacramento area!

On my first day, I was exhausted and a little nervous. I departed from the Dane County Regional Airport in Madison at 5:50am and landed in Sacramento before noon west-coast time. It was a very full morning of travel and by the time I arrived, I just felt like going to bed! It was surreal getting to campus after all of the delay and uncertainty. I think everyone felt the same way. I spent my first afternoon feeling a little awkward and shy. I was also worried that I had made the wrong decision. I missed home and I missed Kelly and I just felt out of place. That evening, however, we had a community meeting where the region's director, Jose Philips, spoke passionately about our program's mission and our place within that mission. He really made me feel hopeful and inspired about this year. I remind myself everyday that I'm here to get things done for our country. It's totally a personal journey, but it's also a personal challenge that I willing gave myself: work with and for the team to make a difference. Since then, I've been enjoying the unique experience of living and working as one small part of a larger unit. It's not necessarily easy for me, but I love the intentionality of the challenge and I keep in mind that this is a 10 month commitment to service...not a vacation :)

Yesterday, my team spent the morning at a beautiful horticulture garden. I learned about so many cool Californian plants. Did you know that pomegranates grow here!?? It was beautiful. There were herbs and flowers and fruit trees everywhere. There are also so many hummingbirds all around here! I've seen at least five of them and I've also seen a couple black phoebes, which are pretty spectacular little birds! After the horticulture garden, we moved on to spend the afternoon at a church where members are working incredibly hard to develop a huge community garden space. We hauled decomposed granite all afternoon to make wheelchair-accessible paths through all of the raised beds. My forearms are burning as I type this from all of the wheelbarrow loads I carried, but it really felt good to do some physical labor with my team. I love community gardens. It was amazing to see how a dry, empty, gross-looking lot can be completely transformed by a few garden beds full of vegetables. The space looked beautiful and welcoming. I want to return to the church for a service someday just to meet the community that will work in the gardens. It was also very touching to know that if I ever return to this area and drive by that church, I will know that my  steel-toed boot prints are in the granite pathways forever.For the next ten months I'll be traveling around this region doing similar projects and I love knowing that I'm leaving a piece of myself at each site just as they are sending a huge part of their selves with me.

I'm getting kicked out of the computer lab in a minute so I have to cut it short, but thanks for reading and I'll try to update again soon...at least before we leave on our first spike on November 14th!

Titles and Shutdowns

Naming intangible things has always been a challenge for me. A puppy, a car, a person...easy: Edgar, Sheila, Francisco. Simple as that. But a blog. I can think and think for ages and never decide on a clever title to catch the eyes and minds of readers everywhere. I've been wanting to start this Americorps blog to chronicle my 10 month term with the National Civilian Community Corps (NCCC) for many months, but the first step in creating a new blog has postponed the operation until this very last minute: "Title:" 

I decided to go the simple route. I'm one of many young adults who choose a year of volunteer service before, after, or instead of college. I'm one of many who will serve our nation and address various community needs to the best of our abilities. One Americorps journey in a sea of others. Some of us will come from similar places. Some will be as different as squirrels and birds. Fortunately, both creatures spend a significant amount of time rustling around in trees, eating, and squawking amongst themselves. None of us are all that different, after all. We've joined the same program and committed – at least for a year, but maybe a lifetime – to the same goals and guiding principles.

One other thing we all have in common: this government shutdown is messing up our plans!! For the Pacific Region Class XX of Americorps NCCC, October 9^th 2013 has been a countdown date for months.  We have received our duffle bags, said our goodbyes, and mentally prepared to leave our homes for the great unknown. With eight days left on the countdown clock: SHUTDOWN rings across the nation from local Daily Heralds to the New York Times. We wait. Americorps is a federal program that can only afford to help the nation if it is funded by the nation.

We’re beyond party politics at this point. We have become an ungovernable nation pulled into a wildly burning building by a small group of old hypocritical white men (and Michele Bachmann) who would rather destroy our country than not get their way. Are you reading the news about the World War II Memorial? The very same republican (sorry, I know I said this was beyond party politics but there’s no denying that the republicans are to blame for this disaster) congressmen (and Michele Bachmann) that – for years – have been celebrating the possibility of shutting down the federal government are now posing for photo–ops with World War II vets saying that the shutdown “SHOULD NOT close their Memorial: Cut that tape, gentlemen.” Hypocrites, the lot of you.

In many ways, I’m sick of this country and would like to leave it for a more normal place that takes care of its citizens and actually has a working democracy. Yet, in my heart, I know that there are more beautiful, wonderful places and people here than there are bad. “Love it or leave it,” the long time slogan of so many close–minded individuals could not be more ridiculous. Love it. Be critical of it. And FIX it, I say. Now open up the government so I can start to do my part with Americorps, please!