WCC Week 14 - South Pautzke

South Pautzke

In the heart of the Green River Valley the Pautzke farm has transformed into a naturally vegetated area. Team Humpy worked on the project for months during the previous year. In continuation with the project, Team Sockeye turns to a sliver of land just over the railroad tracks.


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Monday

Alejandro

To begin our project we worked at the Native Plant Salvage Nursery at Duthie Hill. We moved thousands of plants in preparation, mostly Alnus rubra, the red alder. Trip after trip with our wheelbarrows, we slowly emptied the nursery and littered the side of the road with plants.

Tuesday

Mount Rainier

We arrived at the site and cleared the land of debris from a fallen tree in preparation for fabric rolling. Soon Cindy arrived with nine rolls of black fabric. I have never seen so much fabric! To our astonishment. the rolls were not nearly as heavy as we had anticipated. Soon after a brief description of the project we began rolling the fabric out and staking it down. Slowly but surely we got into a groove. After an initial area of rocky ground that hindered our staking, we finished almost half of the site in our days work.

Before

Wednesday

Snow threatened to shorten our day but by the morning the rain had turned it into slush. By mid day all but a patch of snow or two remained. Light at first, the rain picked up steadily though the day. Everyone was miserable and it showed. I think everyone had an idea of how to ensure the fabric was straight. With everyone trying their idea, the line just seemed to get worse. Towards the end, we just rolled it out and staked it down with a little bit more overlap. Overall we used 7.5 rolls of fabric. By my calculations we covered 27,000 square feet!

With the fabric done, the planting began. I almost forgot how to plant a potted plant, but I feel my experience with the bare roots made it easier after the first few plants. On a separate note, we went to Green Valley Meats for lunch where I picked up a pack of Chipotle bacon. Just had it today and it is amazing. While we were there the county sheriffs showed up to investigate a car that was stolen. The guy had left his car running while he ran into the shop. I didn't catch everything but it seemed like a crappy situation!

After

Thursday

Photo day! We were all given a day to organize and label our photos. I picked up Megan to make the commute to Seattle. When we arrived at the King Street office, Alex's camera had fallen off of her laptop case. We began by scouring the streets and local shops for the lost camera. Despite our efforts we could not find it. It must have been picked up by someone and we hope it gets returned. Fortunately Alex had uploaded her photos throughout the year and only lost a week or twos worth of photos.

Looking at the past organization of photos, we were still had no idea how to arrange everything. Michelle told me that everything had to be labeled with the photo date, work site, and description. Eventually everyone had figured out their organization method. Most of my time was spent converting my DNGs into JPEGs. Using Lightroom I was able to rename all of the photos via the metadata making it a breeze. I used the format of YYYY.MM.DD, (Site Name)# - Description. I choose this way because it enables the photos to be sorted by the year leaving things in chronological order. It is first sorted by year, then month, by day, and finally by site name.

I had a good time naming the photos that stood out. I hope that my humor is appreciated! In the end I had some 700+ photos with some that are still located at my home computer. I estimate somewhere in the realm of 900 photos.

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Music to my ears


A train sounded its horn in the distance. It was different from the ones that I had heard previously in the day and I knew that it was headed our way. Our site is adjacent to the train tracks and I was excited to see the train pass us by. The deep rumble of the locomotive made the ground tremble beneath our feet and the headlight appeared around the bend. The train passed us by slowly, navigating the twists in turns around the valley tracks.

The passing of the cars over the track gaps made a distinct clink-clink and I thought to myself... this is the sound of wealth. The train was a Burlington Northern-Sante Fe that is owned by Warren Buffet's Berkshire-Hathaway. With the economy in a downturn, shipping things by rail became a viable transportation option. I heard wealth being made for investors. I heard money being made by those employed by the railroad. I heard the value of the goods being transported throughout the country. It made me think of how I want to invest my time and talents in hopes of achieving the degree of success that I have set for myself. I felt it resonate within myself to keep envisioning the future and take steps towards it.

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On another note I wanted to share an idea I had. I heard some classical music and some western guitar type piece and I could not help but feel the movement of those playing their respective instruments. Their hands in the perfect position to create the notes that harmoniously follow one another.

During my ascension towards my lofty goals, I want to bring others up with me. One way that I have recently envisioned of bringing others up would be to commission artists to create pieces for me. At first it would start out with a handful of money and a loose direction of what I want. This would allow them to interpret and utilize their creativity.

Perhaps I will create a community based on micro-commissioning? Artists serving artists and small businesses. Who knows...

Bird of prey