It's crazy to think we are always through half of November and Thanksgiving and the holidays are approaching fast. I haven't had much time to sit down and write, so I thought it would be good to give a few updates about work and life in Tucson!
Watershed Management Group
Since November started, I have been working and participating in a variety of events. WMG is doing a binational beaver survey along the San Pedro river south of the Tucson basin (near Sierra Vista), and I get to be a leader for one of the day-long events (Dec 3). So on November 5th, a group of leaders went down to a stretch and did a practice round and began to train our eye to beaver activity, We were looking for beaver lodges, chews, slides, dams, tracks, scat...really just any sign that a beaver was present/or not along the flood plain. We did a 4 miles stretch over most of the day, and it was such a gorgeous day to be along the river! I'm excited to have volunteers along and share the beauty of this area.
Another aspect of my job is working with the Santa Cruz Watershed Collaborative. SCWC is a partnership launched in 2017 representing organizations and agencies working on water and watershed issues in the greater Tucson portion of the Santa Cruz River watershed. They have biannual forums, and for most of the fall, I've been working with my supervisor on organizing the forums that happened on November 7th and 15th. This was the first major event that happened that I was planning, and I was pretty nervous about it, but overall, it was a great success! It was fascinating to see all these partners in the Tucson area come together and have conversations about water and other topics that are important to the collaborative. We were along the Santa Cruz River, as well as Sabino Canyon and Tanque Verde Creek and it was, again, another beautiful time to see a unique side of the desert. I swear people that live in the desert get so giddy about seeing flow and water.
What's next for me is organizing my main event initiative at WMG. I've been organizing a recurring monthly trash clean-up initiative, and the first event is in a few weeks! I've been learning the process of making an event, permit processing, outreach, and general coordination to make an event successful! I look forward to sharing more in a few weeks!
As I've transitioned into this job, I've become more comfortable and confident in my abilities to organize, plan, and coordinate events and people; that's exciting to see flourish and I'm eager to see what comes next.
House Life
Since coming back from our Border Delegation, life in the house has gotten back to the normal lifestyle. We've had some fun momentous events; from camping at Catalina State Park to Friendsgiving with other volunteers. Shalom Mennonite Church had its annual campout on November 11-13th, so we found some tents and sleeping bags in our shed and had a great time in the beautiful desert. We hiked up to Romero Falls, which had some wonderful pools. It was the perfect spot to sit and eat lunch after hiking through the desert. While it was only 75 degrees outside that day, the sun is quite powerful and can make you tired quickly.
Down by our campsites, we spent time with Shalom community members with a potluck and sitting around the fire. The night brought extravagant stars and nighttime beauty along with some howling coyotes. The night also brought really cold temperatures and I definitely snuggled up with all my layers as the temperature dropped below freezing and there was frost on our wet socks the next morning. Overall, it was a great change of pace and a time for bonding and being in nature, which I always enjoy.
A highlight of the past few weeks was that Michaela's friend from Kansas managed to get Taylor Swift tickets (after waiting on Ticketmaster for 8 hours) for Michaela and me, so we are extremely excited about that concert in July. It's crazy to think that we are some of the 2% that managed to get Taylor Swift tickets through the pre-sale fiasco. We are pretty excited for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
We've also had dinners with many people from our church and new friends, so our evenings have been filled with good food and laughter. We are all thinking about Thanksgiving and what the holidays in December entail. We are spending time with some Shalom members, and I'm getting excited to put up lights and our Christmas tree (we have some "nothing till after Thanksgiving" people in our house, so I've had to wait). We also finally turned our furnace, so we are not longer freezing in our house throughout the day.
Some fun random photos of chickens, our rearranged front porch, and our new purchase!
I'll be traveling to Bakersfield, California for Christmas time to see a college friend and her family, and I'm really excited to travel outside of Arizona since arriving in Tucson. I'll be hopping on the Amtrak train again, but only for a 16-hour travel time, compared to the 80 train ride from D.C. to Tucson. I'll be traveling alone this time, but I'm eager to see my friend and connect with her hometown and family.
Thanks for sharing this update Andrea, it's exciting to hear about the work you are doing and it sounds like it's right up your alley too! The beaver survey sounds awesome! I hope that goes well when you take your group of volunteers out for that! Also Taylor Swift tickets!? Wow, nice snag! And so exciting you get to go visit Hannah soon! That will be so fun!