Latrine duty?

Yep.  That was on my work list for this morning.  At least there were three of us working on that detail.  Remember all those hundreds of kids that have been visiting out at the Chippewa Picnic Area the last couple of weeks and all the rain?  Use your imagination to picture what this does to a pit toilet bathroom with five stalls.  Yuck! 

Add to that the fact that there is no running water there.  We had to haul in two of those big yellow 5 gallon water coolers that you see strapped onto construction trucks so we could wash the floors.  Apparently the mops have disappeared so we had to use a toilet brush and rags to clean the muddy floors.  Did I mention these were pit toilets?  P-U!!  After the picnic area, there was one other pit toilet to clean several miles away.  It was only a one holer, so we thought it would be a breeze.  Ha!  Turns out someone had gotten sick and spewed their guts all over the throne.    Our clean up crew consisted of myself, an intern, and a staff member, but I’m sure glad I won’t have this assignment very often.  It may be hard to believe, but the three of us really made the most of this chore and had a good time.

I had a much more pleasant assignment for this afternoon; driving around to make sure the seven refuge information kiosks were well stocked with brochures.  Tomorrow is National Trails Day, and the refuge is celebrating by having the grand opening of the 14.5 mile section of the North Country Trail that weaves through the refuge.  I’m sure you’ve all heard of the Appalachian Trail, well the North Country Trail will be similar offering over 4000 miles of hiking from one end to the other.  I’ll get more information on it tomorrow at the celebration. 

Because of all of the big wigs coming for the ribbon cutting ceremony tomorrow, making sure the kiosks were well stocked and spiffed up was on the priority list.  That’s my kind of assignment!  I could be that mallard duck in the sign above.  I’m sure glad that Rachel Carson woke up the world to the plight of our wild things.  She is one of my heroes.

Of course, I grabbed my cameras before going out into the rain and driving to the kiosks.  With the dismal skies, the red-tailed hawks were hunkering down.

                                               That is until I stopped to admire this beauty.

                                                It decided to move on to a more remote location.

I also found out where the white pelicans were spending this day… on Height of Land Lake.  This afternoon’s journey covered most of the roads on the refuge, and I was able to now feel comfortable with where things are at.  It takes a couple of weeks to get familiar with each different refuge.

Tomorrow I’ll be attending the National Trails Day celebration, and helping with the Photo Hike in the afternoon.  It’s supposed to be only in the 50’s with a brisk wind out of the north, so I’m really hoping the rain gets out of here over night.  I’m yearning for some warmer temperatures and sunshine.

                                                                              THE END!!

Thanks for stopping by… talk to you later,  Judy