Coming to a Close

Hello. So this will be my last post for the summer. I just finished my internship resulting in the best Conservation Committee Plan EVER..lol. It will become a part of the Mahussc Land Trust and Androscoggin Valley Council of Governments reports, and also a stand alone plan to help on the local level with individuals that are interested in setting and planning a conservation committee. After 6 revisions, lots of meetings and coffee it is DONE...17 pages later :) I'm going to have to say that I will miss this town, the people I have met will be forever in my mind and the lessons I have learned I will try to carry with me. If anyone ever gets a chance to visit Maine..along with the many places such as Acadia National Park, Booth Bay, ... Bethel should be put on the list. This town is literally the "beautifulest mountain town ever!" I will admit that blogging was kind of fun...when I had the time. I am continue with another blog while I'm at school. Remember to BE GREEN and REUSE, REDEEM, RECYCLE! Hope your summer was fun and that you continue to love life and most importantly LIVE IT :) Bye-Bye!

EPIC Adventures!!!!

Hey! Sorry its been a while I have been extremely busy with meetings, the conservation plan, working at Rite-Aid, and HAVING FUN!!!! This past weekend the Androscoggin Watershed Council held the opening event to the TREK ACROSS MAINE! The trek is a program designed to raise awareness of the Androscoggin river. It is a month long trek that goes from one end of the Androscoggin to finish in the Atlantic Ocean! I of course can not participate in the whole trek but I did do the beginning! Needless to say it sounds a lot easier than it looks....canoeing for 4+ hours. But it was fun because we got to see loons, moose, blue herons, fish, etc. I also got to talk to and meet a Senior Biologist who works for the Loon Center of Biodiversity; he talked to us about what his job consists of....catching and banding loons. After we finished canoeing I then drove three hours that night to go camping and canoeing with my friends. We went rafting in West Forks...and it was AWESOME!! I almost fill out of the raft twice but it was sooo much fun! I got to jump out of the raft and ride the rapids with my life-vest!!!! We spent about 4 hours rafting and then I drove to see more friends and than later that weekend drove home to work at Rite-Aid!!!!

Rite-Aid life is okay. It gets kind of boring doing the same thing everyday and week..but it is money. I just got my background check back and it was cleared....which I knew it would do since I haven't done anything wrong. So now I have to fill out a form to get a licence and then 3 weeks and I BECOME A PHARMACY TECH!!!!!!

Thurmond the cat and Page the mouse are doing good. They stay away from each other which is good given that I don't want the cat to hurt Page. Ummm...other than staying busy with my internship, Rite-Aid and having fun....I'm just reading a lot....42 books so far this summer!!!!!!!

New House Adventures!

So I moved yet again this summer. I am now in charge of house sitting and taking care of a lovely cat named Thurmond! I'm still living in Bethel but I'm closer to the actual town now than I was before. Since moving in two days ago...I have seen some much wildlife it is not even funny. I walk out of the front door and like ten squirrels look at me and then run...lol..Since they have bird feeders I'm seeing all kinds of cool birds. There is a river behind the house...haven't been down there..yet!

But I'm sure it will be nice. The view of the backyard is to die for...literally. Mountains are all around me..ITS AWESOME!!!!! Page is not doing so good however...I don't think she likes Thurmond one bit. Which makes sense since she is a rat and Thurmond is the cat. He doesn't seem to mind her though...but then again I drove up for the first time to find him eating a dead rat that he had in his mouth!!! But all in all it is quite peaceful here..I like it a lot. I have the day off tomorrow first day off since a week ago but I have internship stuff to do so not too much of a day off. Meeting at 2pm and then GIS and Map work before and after the meeting.

Rite-aid is going well...I seem to be working there more and more each week...which is a good thing I guess. It keeps me busy and its money. This weekend I'm going to see my friend Amy for her twenty-first and to have a cookout with her family. 'm excited cause I haven't seen her in a while. So nothing much going on besides work :) Until next time enjoy your summer!!!

NEVER ENOUGH TIME!

So needless to say..cause the title explains itself...I'm EXTREMELY BUSY!!!! I'm working 40+ at Rite-Aid and trying to get a new copy of the Conservation Committee Plan revised. Its 23 pages long at the moment and keeps getting longer. Also I'm moving out of my cottage this Tuesday to house sit for a partner in my internship. Her and her husband are leaving to go rock climbing in Cali. and they want me to house sit and watch their cat for them. So that means that I have to pack all my stuff up and move...again. This week and I don't have a day off till this weekend..sooo this will be interesting to say the least. I'm also still fighting with the GIS program to add layers and understand whats going on and lets just say the GIS program is winning. If you have an tips you wanna offer me about the 9.2 program let me know...lol. My life at Rite-Aid is going a lot better...people remember me and aren't asking if I'm the new girl anymore, which is nice. Also I'm waiting for my back-ground check to get down so I can start training for the pharmacy tech position. But other than that...not too much going on. This weekend I'm going to see my friend Amy and spend 4th of July with her and her family in the Sabago Lake Region which should be nice. Until next time...enjoy your summer!!!

GIS = Headache

So today consisted of various meetings with the AVCOG Watershed Council at the Mahoosuc Land Trust building in Bethel. We went over various projects to make sure that everyone was up to speed. I had to introduce myself and present my project. Needless to say I did fine but MAN WAS I NERVOUS. It is quite terrifying to talk to a group of people that know more than you do..lol. I also just installed the ArcGIS program onto my computer with a bunch of layers for the town of Newry. I have been going over the project for the past three hours...and I have the biggest headache ever..lol..people weren't lying when they said GIS was a hard program to understand..it is definitely going to take me a while to get use to. Everyday this week I will be meeting with AVCOG dealing with the GIS component of my internship. I was also just given a schedule for the month of July and its going to be quite busy!!!!

As for my Rite-Aid life is okay. It getting better the more I work there the better it becomes. But nothing much changing there other than meeting people and remember faces and making friends with contacts to people that I need to get hold of for my internship! Life is good just busy which is good..lol..given that when you stay busy time flies..lol..Until next time..enjoy your summer!

Eventful weekend?!

So it has been a while since our last chat. Sorry about that I have been a little busy. I'm car broke down, there was nothing wrong it made no weird noises it just wouldn't randomly start. Come to find out the fuel pump and the fuel tank were messed up so $800.00 dollars later and three days of stressing out figuring out how I am going to get to work I got my car back!!!!! It runs good now but AHHH talk about being stressed. I just got my new laptop in before this past weekend which is always good considering I need a laptop to complete assignments for my internship! So I took a 2 hour drive to spend the weekend in Unity and have my friend Xander "hook" my laptop up with all it needed! While I was there (for one day) I surprised Meredith at her internship with Alicyn Ryan a friend of ours. While we were driving two people in the car ahead of us hit a skunk with 3 babies without trying to stop. And before you start to defend him know that you could see the skunk form half a mile away cause me and Alicyn did and we stopped so he had more than 4 cars worth of room to slow down. BUT HE DIDN'T! He hit the mom and just keep going he didn't try and stop for them. I jumped out of the car and ran over to find the mom died in a culvert and the 3 babies ran into the woods. These babies were as big as little kittens!!!!! AHHh we were angry so we speed 60 mph to catch up to this car! We got his licence plate number and followed him to his house and got his address and call the game warden! JUSTICE! I was just sooo shocked that people could be sooo mean like who do people think they are!!! How would you feel if you were trying to cross the road and someone just hit you and keep going!

On another more happier note. While I was driving back to Bethel on Sunday because I had to work at Rite-Aid. I was driving 65 mph the speed limit..lol..and out of the corner of my eye I see something in a field thinking its a horse I don't bother looking. Well I should have because before I know it I'm slamming and I mean slamming on my brakes to avoid hitting to cow moose that decided that they wanted to cross the road.IT WAS SOOOO AWESOME to see a moose let alone two run right over the road RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME!!!!!! Needless to say I didn't have my camera on me and I called all my friends to tell them..lol..

The internship is going good I just received 7 new beginning of habitat maps for the town of Newry, Maine. And now that I have my new laptop I will download the GIS program and get started with meeting people and getting "layers of importance" established! Rite-Aid is going good working a lot and getting money so that's always a good thing. I talked to my boss at the Fairfield store which is my home store and by mid July I will be training to become a pharmacy tech!!!! Which to me is pretty cool cause it will be something new and more things to learn!!!! Until next time...enjoy your summer!

Meetings = Boring

So yet another wonderful early morning that started with a 7:00am meeting that lasted till 1:00pm. More planning for another project that the Land Trust and AVCOG are involved in. But as boring as the meetings are its always fun to meet new people and to meet people that remember meeting you but you don't remember meeting them :) I will be getting my new laptop this week along with the GIS program to start Beginning with Habitat maps for the Newry area. But other than that the internship life basically consists of sitting in an uncomfortable chair and meeting people...ohh and yawning...lol.




As for my other life...my car wont start and for the first time in my life I had to get my car towed..and yes I was hysterical and wanted to car but couldn't cause people were watching. So because I live so far from work and have no way to get to town I will be staying with Regi and Colton in town until my car gets fixed. Work is the same still getting used to how they do things...actually work tonight. Ummm...its being rainy and cold so other than working I stay inside and READ!!!! I'm on the fourth book of the new series that I'm reading and there are seven books!!!! Page (the rat..and yes I have a pet rat) is doing great...she is getting really fat (and no not from baby rats) cause she eats way too much...so we went outside yesterday for three hours. But other than that not too much going on. Until next time...enjoy your summer :)

The Wonders of Hiking

So went adventuring with Jeff Stern who is the part time coordinator at AVCOG. He is doing a project with a professor form Orono to see what is causing the erosion that effects the Sunday River which effects the Androscoggin River. So we went to Sunday River and hiked a mountain (don't ask me the name cause there are so many mountains I cant keep track). We met up with workers that work for the State of Maine Conservation of Parks & Lands. So the point of this was to see if the logging operations going on by the state and Sunday River Resort were effected the river flow. SO we hiked and do I mean HIKED up this mountain to where the river starts off as this small (meter in width) stream that turns into the Sunday River which flows directly into the Androscoggin.

Along the way we saw tons of yards that had piles upon piles of cut down trees. It was a little disturbing to see all the trees but they are cutting the diseased beech so that other trees will have the chance to grow and hopefully created more diversity among the species of trees. So it was about 4 hours later that we found the stream to realize that the logging operations we rent effecting the site at all. So we (Jeff Stern and myself) went on ahead and checked out the hydro tubes that were set in the water to calculate and measure the stream flow through certain areas. This project has be on going for three years that they used a "cut and dump" method that consists of cutting trees and dumping them in the stream to slow down the flow of water and create sand and leaf litter build up in areas where high values of erosion has occurred. So far the project has been quite successful.

On our trip back down the mountain in water boots mind you cause we went in the water and I was too lazy to change back into my hiking shoes, I tripped and fell on my face...yes in front of Jeff...thankfully the other people from the state weren't there. He didn't laugh which was nice, and I learned my lesson. The really funny thing is that not five minutes later Jeff fell and landed on his face too. We both laughed then cause..we just shouldn't have been hiking...ahh the wonders of hiking.

Has for my other life. Rite Aid is going as well as can be expected. The more I work the better it becomes. I recently bought a book that was suppose to be a romance...oh yeah if you didn't know I LOVE READING TRASHY ROMANCE NOVELS!!! But it turns out that its actually quite scary..at night I have to put the book down sometimes I get so scared. But there are seven books out and I'm on book three since two days ago and just bought book four. So most of my down time as been reading and eating :)Until next time...enjoy your summer.

Internship Life

So its has been pretty busy just with moving and getting settled in to my cottage. I'm staying in Newry Maine right under Sunday River Ski Resort, and it is beautiful, huge green mountains everywhere. But enough of me I'm sure you want to know what it is I am doing. So I'm currently now a senior at Unity College and I'm doing an internship this summer with Androscoggin Valley Watershed Council of Governments AVCOG, on the part of the Androscoggin River located in the Bethel Maine region. I am involved in various projects working with the US Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, Maine Audubon, and The Mahoosuc Land Trust. My main project is to write up a Conservation Committee Plan for the town of Newry, Maine. The reason for the Conservation Plan is so a committee can be formed to conserve certain habitat that is of "importance" to the area and the wildlife in that area.

I will be working with Maine Audubon to create Beginning of Habitat Maps that mark the various "areas of importance." To get a better handle on the areas of importance in this region. So for the past week I have been in and out of meetings. Meetings to start the planning for this project. I have a draft of the plan written up and will soon start to gather up the maps using GIS. But until then just busy enjoying my summer.

Aside from my various meetings I have toured the area with my landlord Steve Wight. To say the least...I LOVE BETHEL :) It is the cutest little Mountain town I have ever seen. Since last Friday I have been running, hiking, swimming, and I have driven a boat! It was pretty awesome!! I have some friends that live in the area,
Regi and Colton, and we hangout and go places. Our "hangout" time mostly consists of them showing me around...which is always fun for me, and eating shakes at the local restaurant. Its so funny to live here in this small town cause everyone knows everybody and I have so many people stop and introduce themselves cause they know that I'm new to the town cause they have never seen me before.

So I will try to post more regularly, but it has been hard given my computer is broken and to post I have to come to the public library, which always makes me smile because I love reading and it gives me a reason to get a library card. YES I SAID I HAVE A LIBRARY CARD...I'M SOOO EXCITED! But until next time..enjoy living life :)