Stuff I'm Learning in Oregon! (written Monday, November 8, 2010)

Today was our first day of work! It was pretty awesome but pretty challenging. Our task today was to construct a path leading from the Oregon Garden Resort down across a green lawn to the Axis Fountain (one of the fountains in the OG). It basically consisted of using shovels to shovel 4 inches of dirt along the future path, which is about 5-ish feet wide. Then we load the dirt up in to Gators (little 4-wheel drive trucks) and drive the Gators down to the dump pile. Once we get all the dirt out of there (we got about half of it done today) we’ll lay some cloth covering and then lay down woodchips for the actual path. We’ll do that tomorrow! Today was quite an adventure… here are some lessons I learned today:

Although it might not seem like a great idea when you think about it (or when you first wake up), waking up to do 5:45am PT is a blessing in disguise. It is hands down the best way to start the day!

8-hour workdays spent shoveling dirt around all day are long and exhausting! We only did half a day today and it was pretty brutal. But we are going to be so super strong by the end of this round, it will be awesome.

The work is much more enjoyable when you play games! We played this game where we pick a letter and then we go around the group and everyone has to name a movie starting with that letter and if you can’t name a movie then you’re out… so for example, we picked “M” and people went around with “Mulan,” “Mrs. Doubtfire,” “Men in Black,” “Man with the Golden Gun,” “Mission: Impossible,” “Monty Python,” etc.

Weather in Oregon is unpredictable. Seriously, the only predictable thing about it is that it is unpredictable! It will be sunshine and blue skies and then twenty minutes later you are caught in a downpour. And then once you have scrambled for shelter and gotten all your raingear on, it’s sunny again. Funny stuff, seriously. As a general rule of thumb: always have your raingear with you. We learned this the hard way today!

The upside to the perpetual cloudiness and showers in Oregon is that when they finally clear you are treated with gorgeous rainbows. At least one awesome rainbow per day, I’d say!

As the Team Leader, managing work progress and effort is something I will be learning a lot about this year. It’s a tough balance to find between getting the work done and maintaining team morale… especially when everyone is working in the rain shoveling muddy dirt!

I need to eat constantly to sustain my energy levels… snacking on 3 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches a day seems to be sufficient, haha.

The best way to get work done is to get work done and have fun at the same time!

Driving a Gator is a ton of fun. It’s like a little car with no seatbelts and even though you’re only going like 10 miles an hour it feels like you’re speeding!

The most effective way to dig a shovel into the ground is to stick it in and then jump on it. It’s a lot of fun, too!

Wearing wicking synthetic baselayers can be a lifesaver when you get caught in a downpour without your raingear on!

I really don’t mind being dirty. As long as I’m not the only one, haha.

Even days that are cold, wet and muddy can be a blast.

And it’s much easier to have fun doing tough work when you’re with other people!

Oregonians are some of the most friendly, likeable people I have ever met!