Hitch 5

We celebrated our country’s independence with a four day weekend! Adam’s lady, Abbi, joined us to thank our founding fathers with a series of American activities including bowling, grilling, listening to the Boss sing “Born in the USA” on repeat, and blowing things up. We were also able to watch and hear fireworks coming from every direction because they are legal in Indiana.

We went back to work on Tuesday reinvigorated by patriotism; however, our democracy was soon overthrown by an evil dictatorship led by our first hitch-leader, Rose. Just kidding, she was awesome. We went out to Cowles Bog, where we scattered Carex lupulina, Scirpus pendulus, Aster puniceus, and Mimulus ringens. Project leader Adam wasted no time in giving Rose her first taste of the trials of leadership. We got out of the truck at the bog to discover that all of the tools had been left at the park. Once Adam’s maniacal laughter subsided, Rose quickly came up with a back-up plan and we were able to get back to work.

On Wednesday we received and unloaded a shipment of 10,070 Carex stricta plants. Then we took Carex aquatilis, Scirpus acutus, and Iris virginica out to a new area on the north side of Cowles Bog, just off the Cowles Bog trail. We had more positive interactions with community members than usual – most people using the trails appreciate our efforts to restore the ecosystem. We also saw a larger variety of wildlife than we usually see in the west side of the bog. Despite losing the alliteration, we cured our taco shock (induced by missing Taco Tuesday) with Taco Wednesday.

The end of our three day week came quickly. On Thursday, we built several more pallets for our boardwalk in the west side of Cowles Bog. We also brought out Carex stricta, Carex cristatella, Carex projecta, Carex tribuloides, Mimulus ringens, Aster puniceus, Chelone glabra, Solidago patula,and Zizia aurea to plant throughout the area.

This may have been a tough week, with high heat and humidity, freedom exhaustion, and bouts of taco shock, but we all noticed a spike in our productivity – we planted 4,190 plants in just three days! We agreed this can only be explained by our entrance into the “performing” stage of group dynamics (or maybe it was because of Rose’s super awesome leadership skills???).