Our First Volunteer Day

Well we had an interesting day on our first day of volunteering at the nature refuge. We started off bright and early and met Ms Kristi at her home. We followed her there, I didn't know how to get there. On the way we saw a big, beautiful Bald Eagle. It was eating something dead in the road. We didn't have the camera ready, nor did we expect to see one, so we didn't get a picture. It was still amazing to actually see one.

Then we got to the refuge, met Ranger Pam, filled out some paperwork, and were given our assignment. Garbage pick up on the nature drive. As you probably guessed that means we would drive. It was like nine miles long, so good thing we drove. The two younger boys decided to walk a bit of the way. It rained a bit, and then got hot and humid. DJ snapped the Turkey Vulture high up in the tree. His friends flew away and he didn't feel like posing. Turkey Vultures are large birds, but you can't really tell way up in that tree. We did not see one snake, no disappointment there, but we did see what DJ thought was a Gator head. It did look like it too, and it was big, really big. We didn't get close and I didn't let him stare long. I really don't think gators mind staring, but to me it is menacing so I made him move on, LOL! How silly! The pictures below are of Pond 6, and what a pretty little pond. You could see something big moving in the murky waters, but couldn't tell what it was. Our friends said they have seen a very large gator sunning itself in this very spot. We saw a spider that none of us had seen before. It looked like it had a skeleton image on its back. It was weird. Then we ended up at the observation deck, but again only saw shadows in the water. We saw tons of butterflies and some birds. After we got back to the car, you had to walk to the observation deck, Ms Kristi's van would not start. Upon examination one of her belts had come off what appeared to be the alternator. Since none of us knew how to put it back on, we all jammed into my car, and returned to Ms Kristi's home so she could contact her mechanic, who is also her husband. We had lunch, visited a bit, and headed for home. We did get quite a bit of garbage picked up, mostly at the pond. I was disappointed people still feel the need to litter, but was glad we could help. As stressful as that was, at least we had a second car, and Ranger Pam informed us that she would be holding classes in the very near future. So, we are excited for that. We decided that we would go once a month to volunteer, as with everything else, it just seems the best to do. Tomorrow is catch up time for all lessons missed the past two days. Next week is a full week of school as well. What did you do today? Oh the one picture is of Caitlin doing her best Saint Bernard impersonation, LOL!