When Marsh Attacks

Hello friends and family! Today is my 3d day on the Nahant Marsh in Davenport, Iowa. This is our first mini spike which I was semi disappointed about. This weekend was Halloween and I was super excited to dress up as a lion and go out with the friends Ive made on campus. We found out very last minute that we were going to be traveling to davenport and not coming home till Monday night.

It was an awesome experience. A great transition and taste of what kind of work will come in the future. We arrived on Friday morning, about 9am. Two of the head marsh guys gave us a slight orientation of what we would be doing and why we would be doing it. This marsh is quite beautiful as you can see in the picture. The other picture is where we would be staying. We all sleep on the floor of this center. There is a little kitchen area and a little shower/bathroom. So much fun with my team but any longer than this I think I would go crazy. Unfortunately I think I'm going to have to get used to these living conditions.

The marsh is slowly turning into a forest. Our job was mainly to clear the dogwoods out of the area. The dogwoods are NOT native to the area and are invasive to the marsh. They would like to keep it prairie land and these trees would be turning it into a forest. Our job was to pull these plants/trees and then hall them to the road using a John Deere Gator which made me feel bad ass. Not only did we pull Dogwoods but not too long ago there was a huge storm which knocked down a butt load of trees so we cleaned all the trees up too. After Friday night we had PT and it was torture. Keep in mind it's 20 degrees here.

Saturday we worked 8-5 and then went out to Rock Island. This area is called the "quad cities". We went to a bar/restaurant and watched the game which was lot of fun. Today we explored the town on our day off and went to an awesome museum called Figge. I am exhausted and have a full day of work tomorrow.

I miss my family and friends alot and keep on having dreams about my sister's baby!!! Myself and a few of the Jersey boys have talked about driving home for Christmas. Probably the most logical thing to do. Thanksgiving will be spend with my bff from here, Lauren and Rob Thomas, and her family in Minnesota. Close by. Wish I could go to Taos but I cant afford it. : (

Hope everyone is enjoying reading about my travels, more exciting ones to come!