Glacial Heritage

This was the second stop on our field trip yesterday. There were more, smaller mounds here, but there was also prairie with a riparian (water) strip through the middle. Here, Frederica (the one with the brown hat closest to the tree) is keying out some of the plants. This was right before we flushed out a pheasant and someone stepped on an ant nest.

I love these field trips...

Mima Mounds

This was the field trip my class went on yesterday. It's about 30 mintues from campus but it's so totally different from Evergreen. No one knows what or who made these mounds... we think it was aliens, and one of the "experts" in geology thought it was giant gophers hundreds of years ago.

What do you think?

New Door Quote

"The rich would have to eat money, but luckily the poor provide food."

What's up With That?

This picture is worth a thousand words....

Door Quotamundo!

"An intellectual is a person who has discovered something more interesting than sex."

- Aldous Huxley

Geoducks in the NEWS!

Today's Door Quote

"Small things amuse small minds."

Goes with the last quote doesn't it?

Our Little Desert Friends

This little froggy found its way into the 5th stall of the girls bathroom at Camp Delany. I walked in there at about 6 before we went on a hike and found this little guy staring at me as if I was the one who didn't belong in the bathroom. Like true natural historians we sketched the little amphibian, took some pitures and tried to scoop him out. Unfortunately he had other ideas and decided to swim down the pipes like the little Nemo fish in Finding Nemo. I hope you made it to the ocean little guy!
This is a Jerusalem Cricket someone found. It's huge and looks everybit like it's a giant, wingless bee.

Trees

This tree was amazing. It's part of the Birch family but I'm not sure the exact name. It's been introduced to the park but the leaves were the most stunning part of the trip. They're bright yellow as you can see but the underside is pure solid white and fuzzy. The hairs help the tree keep moisture close to it's leaves and withstand the extreme heat but it felt very much like felt. I wish this picture really did the tree justice...

Door Quote

"Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved through understanding."

Camp Delany/Sun Lakes Park

5:00 am

This is Table Rock.

Rabecca, Jillian and I decided to climb to the top to see what kind of plants were growing up there.

And that's exactly what we did.

This is the path we took to the top. I'm using the term "path" loosely. This is also the huge bit of rock that I broke my new hiking shoes in. THANK GOD for those hiking shoes.

This is the view from half way up. Beautiful day, 70 degrees and sunny.

This is a picture of the lichens that grow on the shady side of all the rock formations in the area. They're a very neon green that isn't showing up well in this picture. Stunning with the black rock and blue sky when we turned the corner.

Jillian's most of the way up.

These are bones in an owl pellet that I found on a ledge most of the way to the top. There are great horned owls everywhere, you can hear them at night but only two of 41 people on this field trip actually saw one.

This is the view of the valley we stayed in for three days from the top of Table Rock. We're about eye level with the red tailed hawks that we could see from camp as little specks in the sky.

The top of Table Rock wound up looking much like the valley we stayed in. But really, that's not the point. After two hours of climbing, sliding and swearing we were pretty proud of ourselves. Plus we did find a townsend's solitaire bird at the top that hadn't been on the bird list for the park so we were pretty excited that we'd made a new discovery. Jillian again!

Sun Lakes/Camp Delany Field Trip

On the last full day at Camp Delany we went around Table Rock to Deep Lake to study the change in vegetation from riparian woodland to sagebrush steppe.

Jillian and Oren taking a vegetation survey and trying to figure out what kind of bush they're looking at (SOOOooo not an easy thing to do).


A praying mantis...
We finally spotted some ducks in the lake and Jillian and Rebecca are trying to identify what they are. We think they're female mallards, but we're still not sure.
Rebecca...
Bird spotting, this time it was a pair of red tailed hawks.
Grass inventory. This is a ravine off of the main lake that we stumbled upon. The ravine is a large salt flat. The water is super inundated with salt, dries up, and leave a bed of salt that looks like ash. The plants around it were salt grass (clever name, I know) and greaswood, both adapted to the intensely salty conditions.
Noah and Oren are trying to figure out what type of soil is in this ravine the high tech way. All you do is take some dirt in your hand, mix it with some water and see what consistency it becomes. This was clay.
That's my shaddow on the salt.

It's Officially Fall

"Autumn arrives in early morning, but Spring at the close of a Winter day."

Door Quote

"There are some who speak one moment before they think."

I put that one up because I tend to say something and halfway through saying it I realize that maybe that's not something I should be saying, but by then it's too late. Oops!

Good Night Steve

I was minding my own business, walking through the hall when I noticed something out of the corner of my eye. It looked very much like an elbow. I thought "Ha, that's funny, someone's stuck a blowup doll or something up there." But no, not so much. Instead it was Steve. Who knows how he got up there or how long he'd been there and it's really one of those things that's much better when you don't know.

Good night Steve.

Ben's Door

Steve with his (impressive) handiwork. What class is HE in? I want to be able to tape bottles to Ben's door all day too!

Fight Club! I mean... Flag Wars!

Objective: To capture the opponents Flag.

Guidlines:

1. All Flags (captured or not) must remain in building's common rooms

2. Your flag must be present at capture attempts.

3. Each person may only hold one flag.

4. If either the Flag bearers is tagged, that team attack is over for the following 24 hours.

5. You may not bring harm to and/or deface the opponent's Flag.

6. You may however leave a point-mark on the back to confirm the capture.

7. All housing policies still apply and as such no attacks are allowed after quiet hours, no messes, damage, physical harm.

8. After successful capture the Flag must be returned within 24 hours so that a new round may take place.

9. If you feel that there has been any foul play, report it to either Joe, Andy, or Bryce for an official decision to be made.

Noelle, Steve and most of Ben's head...

Katherine Playing in Red Square #3

Katherine Playing in Red Square #2

Katherine Playing in Red Square #1

Red Square WashPIRG

Katherine getting ready to play in Red Square for the WashPIRG event
Erik
Ben
Katherine

Ben
Erik and Ben
Erik, Ben, Corbin in Red Square

Crazy Cool Trees on Campus

Another Door Quote

"Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel."

DANGER Will Robinson DANGER!!

I had to sign a form before I go to Sun Lakes State Park saying that I wouldn't sue Evergreen. Here are just "some" of the possible and impossible things that can happen to me in the four day window... Keep in mind that there has to have been a precedent for all of these, so all of these things have happened at one point or another...
GENERAL RISKS:
Please understand that when you participate in recreational or certain skill-developing activities both indoors and outdoors, you may be risking your physical being. It is impossible, however, to list all the dangers involved in any activity. The eventualities of injuries, death, or property damage are so diverse that no one can second-guess everything that can go wrong. Before you participate, you should become informed, as much as possible, about the inherent dangers associated with the particular activity in which you are to be engaged. Also, you should make sure that you are adequately prepared with the proper skills, equipment, and clothing to minimize these dangers. Here are only some of these possibilities:
You can become ill or die from: polluted drinking water; improperly washed eating utensils; snake, insect, or animal bites; exposure to heat or cold; personal health complications, e.g., strokes, appendicitis, heart attack.
You can also sustain injuries (sprained ankles, deep cuts, blisters, and other wounds) or die from: falling off cliffs; slipping off wet or mossy boulders or trees; being caught in avalanches or flash floods, colliding with a vehicle, boat, rock, log, or tree; being hit by lightening; hit by falling rocks; being attacked by bears or other wildlife; falling and receiving injuries from climbing tools, such as ice axes, crampons, and rope; becoming entrapped in a kayak, raft, or canoe; falling through snow into an underground stream; receiving burns from hot fires, gas stoves, or other instruments; falling into streams or rivers and drowning; flipping boats in rapids; and, with respect to indoor and outdoor, including clock tower, climbing, falling, being fallen on, tripping, landing on uneven surfaces, sprained ankles, abrasions, lacerations, blisters, fractures, dislocations and even death; as well as many other possibilities.

I think the only thing they've left off is "death by hoovercraft".

Diego... Joel's Birthday Present

Steve and James made Diego out of metal scraps from the scrap bin in the courtyard and duct tape. Happy 19th Birthday Joel!

Diego, staring straight into your soul. Don't look him in the eyes! Diego in his natural habitat
Steve and Diego going for a walk
Steve and Diego becomming VERY good friends
Steve, Diego and James
Steve and Diego
Diego and James
Steve, Diego and James