The lost post Week 4

Hiking, Mapping, and trying to work hard in this great landscape. This is what I do on a daily basis out on The End Montauk Ny. Well there is a fifth member in out group, Erin, we picked her up from JFK Last Friday, since her flight was delayed we went into the City for a couple of hours and went to central park, and times square, where we had dinner. The parking was limited, with garages charging on average 12 dollars per half hour. luckily we parked after 7 pm which is the start of being able to park on the street, for 2 dollars an hour. and i also hope that i never drive through time square again it is the most annoying place to drive a vehicle. Anyways, we picked up Erin who is a pretty cool girl, shes fun to hang out with and this past week when has been fun to work with, so she is a good addition to our team. This past weekend, we had the luxury of attending The Nature Conservancy's Beaches and Bays Gala, which was a Hampton specialty event. Full of caviar and open bars, and very rich persons in attendance. It was a lot of fun, and I'm very lucky to have gone since the tickets started at 600 dollars. so this weekend, i went on a 14 mile bike ride in about 45 mins, and another 3 mile run down the beach, but hiking all day has worn me out too much to do any more training, hopefully i can do something tomorrow, before the big weekend, I might still be going to the city, but i won't be staying with Maggie, since she has more important social events to attend. Instead I'm going to another SCa house and we may go to the city, and stay with my roommates aunts, this is a big maybe, either way it should be a good weekend.

Last Week in Montauk

The End is here in Montauk. My last week living in an unpopulated retreat for the poor and the rich and everyone in between. The past 5 months have been an exciting new experience filled with special occasions, exciting trips, and new friends whom I've enjoyed getting to know while living and working with them. As my time living in this cottage and working in outdoors for The Nature Conservancy comes to an end i feel that this has been an important chapter in my book of life. An as this chapter ends a new one begins as I head back to Indiana and the Holidays are celebrated. But this life of mine by the sea really does come to and end I reflect on the good times I've had out here.
The first day in montuak, exciting and new, strangers who would become friends, Devin and Kate, and disagreements to be had.
The early trips and SCA events which grow our understanding of each other as we begin our 6 month journey.
The friendships formed with Jordan and Kaley from the brookhaven site.
The trip in to the City for the Fourth of July, while Erin comes and goes within one week, due to flies.
My mom comes out for 13 days to enjoy the Hampton lifestyle, and the Montauk busyness and oceanic natural landscape.
Fishing Trips on Bruce's Boat
Trips to Brookhaven to see Kaley and Jordan, along with a taste of the real life with normal stores and prices, along with fast food restaurants.
Then my Birthday came along and a small celebration at the Fite House filled with turtle cakes, and fun friends.
Celebrating The End With Friends as they Depart.
Someone new who became an important part of my life Meg
Halloween celebrated in New York City, along with the Marathon

Soon it will be my turn to leave just to return two weeks later for a special birthday and Thanksgiving, Macy's Style but for now i am saying goodbye to Montauk, The End.

TS Hanna

So the first week of September was after the Labor Day weekend which out here signifies the end of summer, but more importantly to us living out here the reduction of crowds. Labor Day Weekend was a long wekend of beach fun. This wek for work we went up to the North Fork and mapped areas the TNC calls Pipes Cove. This area is many different pacels in the Southold Town which most have many invasives all over the parcels. But it was four days of taking the ferries up there through shelter island, which is an interesting way to go to work. Now this weekend there was Tropical Storm Hanna coming out our way, so we decided to have a Hurricane Party, which is highlighted in one of the Hamptons Magazines as oe of the best things to do out in the Hamptons this Summer. The storm had also brought 18 foot waves to the beach over night, and we went out before the storm and saw the 7 foot waves, and now the data reads 9 fet sso i'm off to the beach to enjoy the gorgeous day today.

August

August was a fun month out here in Montauk, it started off with the first weekend to celebrate my birthday with my new found friends. The month for work was pulling barberry and out at cedar point county park, for three weeks, and then the last weak making our way out to Montauk State Park where we mapped the park and around the Lighthouse. It was a really fun and nice area to be outside and mapping, an area which is enjoyed for its beauty of a lighthouse and seaside cliffs, and lunch on the rocks in the ocean. also in August we received a new teammate Meg who is from Rochester NY and she is enthusiastic about working with GIS.

Maps

So I said there would be maps and there are actual maps that I have been creating, these maps are what I have been creating out here in Montauk for The Nature Conservancy. So more background on what I'm doing out here is, I as well as three other team members walk\hike around in the woods, and parks around the south fork of long island. While walking around these parks we search for invasive plants which TNC wants to eradicate in the near future. We do a couple of treatments about ever other week, but for the most part we use handheld GPS units to map out invasive plants. Another thing we are doing is creating trail layers which are placed on the maps to better identify where certain items are, and so that there are actual trail layers available for the parks we go to, since most don't offer maps for users. So without furthur ado, the maps.

Hither Woods Complex with assessments, which include areas with multiple invasive plants located within them.

Treatment areas in Cedar Point state Park, this is where we use tools to dig out the invasives.

Weed occurances in Hither Woods, where each symbol represents a plant or/and area where invasive plants exist.

Shadmoor State Park, a cool place to go to the beach at, as well as an area where we manage the invasive plants.

Theodore Roosevelt County Park, where Teddy used to retreat to in the old days, no full of invasive plants.

The end in July

So, it's been awhile, and i have a lot of catching up to do before we head into August. so i left off by saying my mother was coming to visit, well she did, for a little over a week, and it was a good time, she took me out to dinner, for 3 course meals, which i miss now, and I'm back to the basic do it myself dinners, but oh well. My mom got to see a lot of the areas that i am and will be working in around Montauk, and she got to see the beaches and surfers, as well as some good size waves, which have gone down to about 2 feet, and it looks like a completely different ocean now than it did when it had 6 foot waves, and even 8 foot waves as it did last week during some intense rain storms that passed by. My mom enjoyed the visit to Montauk although she wouldn't want to live here, due to the small village and mass of people that come here over the summer, and weekends especially. I myself have gotten used to it but i have also left many of the weekends, since being here, and when my mom was in town we went to the City, NYC that is, for a Sunday which as the tour guide I was we got to see many parts of the city I have seen plus some new areas such as the heart of Chinatown and pier 17, I believe she enjoyed that visit also, but NYC is quite overwhelming for a Midwesterner from Jasper. The only thing I don't like about the City are the people, the tourist that is, even though I am technically one when I'm there I don't see myself as one. And I wanted to go back this weekend, but it seems that i my not be able to, oh well, I'll spend my time in Montauk and at the beach.

Week of the 11th

So my Mom has come to visit, which is a good thing, I hope she has a good week of venture around the area Parks that I work in. she had a god trip over through Wheeling WV, through PA and a visit to the Statue of Liberty and off to The End, Montauk. The waves here are become larger, apparently due to the hurricane out in the Atlantic, they're at about a 5 foot peak, which is larger than any waves I've seen in Miami. I'm trying to do more things out here, I've gotten caught up in watching TV online and movies, so I've been going to the beach more and ride my bike more. Erin has left, one week after we picked her up to join our team she decides to leave with her boyfriend who came to visit, it sucks because she was a fresh face, and she enjoyed doing things other than sitting around here. But all is well, and we may get a new fifth member, this would be the 4Th now, we'll see if that happens or if they leave like the rest. But work is going well, we are mapping and pulling the invasive plants in Cedar Point County Park we were pulling Japanese Barberry last week a popular landscaping plant, which I have planted when worked for Buschkeotters, and now I am killing it out here. But all is well with me and I continue to adapt to this different lifestyle and unique world.