A Busman's Holiday

(Saturday, February February 6, 2016)

I used one of my off days from volunteering at Alligator River and Pea Island National Wildlife Refuges to volunteer at an Oyster Feast put on by The North Carolina Coastal Federation.  My friend, John Thomas, first invited me to come down  to Hatteras and eat all the oysters I could hold for only $15.00, then mentioned I could even do it for free by volunteering to help out.  After I also negotiated that he would pick me up and drive me down, I went over the the Manteo office of the Federation and signed up.  I told the lady, I'd be happy to do anything, but would particularly like to do whatever John was doing.  She said we would probably be washing the oysters and to bring my boots.

Their banner was already up when we arrived

I packed up my boots, camera, water, and a snack and got in my morning walk before John picked me up near the Bodie Lighthouse.  I found that two more of John's friends had hitched rides to come help. We enjoyed about an hour of conversation on the way down Highway 12 to Hatteras.

When we got there, about eleven o'clock, people were just starting to figure out what needed to be done to be ready for the feast to start at two o'clock. People were unloading items needed for the party, including, tables, drinks, and ice.  I stood around a lot, because there were no oysters yet, then helped ice down drinks. This seemed to be a little excessive, since the day was going to be mostly cloudy with temperatures in the forties.

Decorating the table where the tickets would be collected and bracelets given to the participants

Bill, another of John's friends, waiting for a job

Fellow workers meeting up

I stood around some more,  then noticed some loons in the marina and went back to enjoy the birds. Then all of John's group were assigned the job of hauling oysters shells off after they lost their oysters. The Federation had made some very interesting shell collectors that consisted of big PVC pipes, about thirty inches long and eight inches across with holes  drilled in one end to add rope handles.  We stretched tubes of nylon netting that were tied at one end over them, with the tied end at the bottom.  When the pipes were full of shells, we just pulled them out of the netting and replaced it. Then we tied a knot into the top of the shell-filled tube and hauled it off to the waiting trailers.  John was one of two people who brought trailers so, after we finished cleaning up, he pulled it back to the headquarters and unloaded all his load to be stored until this summer when they will become part of a new oyster reef.

Finally decided these were both common loons

A volunteer sets out cups of lemons  - an oyster shell collector is beside her

As soon as the oyster soup was hot, I grabbed a cup to keep me fed and warm over the next few hours. Then it was time to monitor the many shell collectors and keep the shells moving to the trailers. We had a band that made eating, waiting, and working all more enjoyable.  And I had time to snatch some pictures.

People turning their tickets for bracelets

This group played for about three hours straight without a break

The drink and dessert table

I was able to climb some stairs to get pictures of the early crowd and the drink/dessert
and soup/cornbread tables

The drink and dessert dispensers

The crowd got bigger and tighter as they waited for the appearance of the stars of the show

Oyster shucking time

Not sure, but this woman might have gotten so excited over finding a little crab in with the oyster. These were considered great delicacies by some of the diners.  

This was serious business - the biggest affectionados brought their own oyster knifes

At our peak, we had more people waiting to eat oysters then we had oysters ready, but as the numbers started to die down, the volunteers had time to grab some oysters for themselves. Near the end of the day we still had ten bushels of oysters and when everyone was full, there were still about five bushels left. All the volunteers that wanted them got to take home oysters. John filled up two bins of oysters, then gave me a big pot full when I got home. I think I had about six dozen.  I had them for a late supper, then for breakfast, midmorning snack and afternoon snack before they were finally gone. John planned to shuck all of his and then make an oyster stew with them.

Bill doing his job

And me doing mine - after first putting new nylon tubes over the PVC pipes

This was a little less than half the ultimate oysters- and 5 or 6 bushels went home with volunteers

After the people were mostly gone, I helped clear the tables, wash them and haul them to the trailers for their trip back to Manteo.  I also gathered up the PVC tubes as soon as they were no longer needed.

It was a fun day, even though we had high winds, cool air, and clouds.

As I was writing this up, I received a message from the Nature Conservancy with this picture that helps explain the important work oyster reefs do in the ocean.  So this summer those oyster shells will go back to helping to produce fish and seafood. 

Got the Gold Ring - Assignment to Clean Toilets

I's been a long time since I've had to do much cleaning of public toilets on National Wildlife Refuges, in fact not since I occasionally got got the chance to go clean one porta potty located on the Sacramento NWR auto tour.  I felt that I needed to make sure other volunteers understood the  procedures involved to have a really clean bathroom for our patrons - while, of course, making sure the job was fun to do.  For that story, click here.

This past Friday, I was given the day off because I'd volunteered to work Tuesday, first to judge the Folkston Middle School Science Fair, then to work on getting an inventory database set up to put the inventory back in with category numbers.  Bill had invited me to to help him clean up campsites and my boss, Gracie had said I could even count this as work.

We met at 7:30 A. M. and started to slowly get ready.  Bill was not looking forward to the wind chill added to the forty degrees we already had. I hoped that two hats, long underwear,  a fleece top and nylon windbreaker, along with my nylon pants and my boots would be enough.

We loaded up brooms, shovels, bathroom cleaning equipment, a chain saw and lots of toilet paper. Then we set off to go to two shelters, Coffee Bay and Canal Run.  We planned to clean them up and cut anything causing obstructions in the boat trails. Bill also planned to cut some of the fallen trees to give the next campers firewood.

Leaving from the boathouse

This trail, known as the Orange Trail, is open to boats with motors, so it is deeper and wider than are the strictly canoe trails. We motored slowly to keep from totally freezing.  I  can't take pictures with my gloves on and soon couldn't feel my hands.  I enjoyed watching the birds spring up from their reflections and then rise high above them as they flew off down the canal. But the day was cloudy, and most of my pictures of  moving birds were blurry.

View down the canal

We broke up an Anhinga party

Our first stop was at Coffee Bay.The bathroom is the first  to appear,  but it is separated by a strip of land from the actual shelter.  Bill had lots of trees to cut into firewood at this site, which suffered a lot of fire damage in the huge wildfire two years ago, so he didn't get in my way of cleaning the bathroom.  It wasn't until I got finished that I thought it might be interesting to write a blog on how to clean a bathroom,wilderness style.  So I made sure to get a few pictures of the process.

Map showing canoe trails

Over fifty sandhill cranes flew away from just behind the trees when we stopped

By the time I'd finished working on the bathroom, Bill had cut and stacked firewood and cleaned out the fire ring. We probably spent only fifteen or twenty minutes there. Then we headed up the trail to Canal Run.  This is the prettiest location I've seen.  And the shelter is in a good place to be able to do some more paddling from it.

A pretty shelter location with enough land for a fire ring. 

This time, Bill didn't have much wood in the camp to cut up so soon he was butting  in on MY job.

And that job consisted of:

• Sweeping out the porta potty, from top to bottom to get rid of spider webs, leaves and other loose dirt. 
• Spraying the entire inside and outside of the porta potty with Simple Green and letting it sit a few minutes. 
• Scrubbing any supper dirty places with the broom.
• Dipping up buckets of water and throwing it all over the potty. Repeat as needed to rinse dirt down and out
• Wiping out the walls and bench with paper towels
• Sweeping out the water/dirt from the floors.
• Scrubbing and then rinsing the outside to get rid of the green algae growing on it. 
• Pouring a little simple green over the boards leading to it, waiting, then scrubbing off a thick coat of potentially slippery algae. Rinsing. 
• Putting three rolls of toilet paper into a little plastic garbage bag to protect it from the damp, then setting the bag on the bench. 

That's it!

In the sweeping stage

Me whipping down the inside- note my two hats - and note the green boards where I'm standing

Almost finished with the inside cleaning

Bill, stealing my job, and scrubbing down the outside

Bill took what was to be a really excellent picture of me giving the job a thumbs up on the way to add the toilet paper.  However neither of us removed the lens cap before snapping the picture. Hopefully, if you are using this as a guide, you'll be able to manage this final step without the picture.

I made Bill let me help shovel out the fireplace and stack the firewood

And I still had plenty of time to photograph these shelf fungi

With all this hard work, we were ready for our lunch break. 

Compare this picture of the toilet to the picture of Bill scrubbing it -
 he does good work - and note the boards are mostly clear of algae

Heading back - I added the last jacket I'd had as a reserve so I could stand the chill factor

We got back about 1:30 P. M.  I took a nap while Bill did some other chores. He works 40-50 hours a week.

I'll definitely choose cleaning bathrooms over closing out the cash drawer, any day. Can I please clean more of them?

And more good news.  Today I THINK I finished the new inventory database.  And we only have to put new PLUs on the miscellaneous items before we are physically finished.