The past two weeks have been very different around here as we get used to our summer jobs. Team Kansas has had some changes since Leah left to get her chainsaw recertification for a few days. We continued our awesome job doing surveys at the lakes.
We were lucky to have some visitors while Leah was gone- Mr. Alex Olsen- who keeps everyone smiling and having fun! We also were visited by Ms. Meredith Bridgers from Army Corps of Engineers. She came to watch over at the lake sites and guided us through any problems or troubles we might have been having. Meredith sat in on our site with us a few times and we had good conversations about what we studied in college and where we want to go in the future. It was nice company since we havent had many cars to survey. I think about 2 that came by that day, so we are hoping the summer months start to kick off some interests in going oudoors.
Alex joined in on a conservation project led by Dan removing brush off of the trails at tuttle creek lake. This is a known biking path that was just overgrown and needed some attention. Alex with his brutal strength, and the help of a sharp chainsaw- sawed logs in half that were on the trail while I helped him remove them from the scene. Swamping is a tough job, but someone has to do it. Brittany and Alison used loppers to rid the branches that hung too low and stuck too far out.
Our next conservation day we will go back to where we spent our first conservation day. We helped a lady with an ADA ramp clean up her backyard. We are going to go back and buck up the left over brush that is still there with Leahs recertified chainsaw skills. Then we are planning on bundling all the wood that we removed from her yard to ensure it is ready for the city-wide trash pick-up. Afterwords we will go to a gas station, or somewhere on the way out of town with our generators and fill peoples tires with air. We want them to be aware that they will get more mileage to their gallons if they have full tires! It is also just safer!
We still spend our off days laying about the swimming pool, bouldering, playing table tennis, disk golf, playing music, and enjoying meals with each other. It has been an experience being a part of team Kansas and I tell them everyday that “Team kansas, we’re the best :D”
– Mr. Taylor Hamilton
