Life Saving Station Tour

As yet another fabulous perk of the job, I went down to Hatteras to check out the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum and also the Chicamacomico Lifesaving Station in Rodanthe. The Graveyard Museum was really interesting- they have lots and lots of artifacts found on sunken ships and stories about ghost ships that are said to have crashed into the Outer Banks but no sign of the boat or crew has ever been found. They say the reason there are so many shipwrecks here is because it is very shallow far out to sea and it is also where the currents collide from north and south, creating very dangerous waters. Each little blurb on the map is a different shop that was lost there and never found! You can see how spooky it is to think about all those remains out there!

The tour at the Life Saving Station was incredible! A little background first is that the US Coast Guard was formed from the Life Saving Service in 1915, so any prior shipwrecks and rescues were made by the Life Saving Service. To man the entire coast, there were Life Saving Stations set up every 7 miles along the coast of the Outer Banks. At all times, night and day, there were be a man patrolling the beach, which is pretty amazing. Here's how they did it: a man would leave from each station and walk towards the other. If there were no ships wrecking or lives to be saved, they would meet each other at about the 3.5 mile mark. There they would exchange a special coin, designating that they had met and therefore had covered that 7 mile stretch of beach, and return to their station. If they did encounter a situation, there were a whole series of things involved in the rescue. They would either launch a boat out to the ship, but of course, this usually happened during big waves and treacherous storms, so another method was to shoot a rope with a weight on the end through a cannon so that it would catch on the ship's mast and a "life saver" would be able to crawl out to the boat, secure the line, and attach a pulley system to the mast so that the people could be brought to shore. They used two different mechanisms for this- one was a life car (above), which looks like something that could be used to go over Niagara Falls, and the other was a breeches buoy (left), which is a life-saver shaped float with a pair of pants sewn inside.

Being able to see the original equipment was really neat. There are only a few Life Saving Stations left in the US (there were over 400 at one time!) as many of them have either washed away in storms, burnt down, or been purchased by private owners. In fact, the restaurant at the Sanderling was originally a Life Saving Station. I would recommend visiting one if you ever have the chance!

Subs and Seals

Sarah and I had a really fun time at the Mid-Atlantic Marine Educators Association Conference in Virginia Beach! I had never been there before so it was neat to see a new city. I met so many people that are doing the same kinds of things that I am and actually live in this region (North Carolina to Delaware) which will be really helpful! As you can see, we got a little silly at the live auction, where the Baltimore Aquarium donated a prop that they used as an exhibit and a friend of ours bought it to use with her husband and cats for their Christmas cards this year. That is Sarah on the left, then Chris, the silly auctioneer, a giant fish that someone won in the auction, and then me, feeding a beer to the fish. Like I said, a very good time!

I also got an opportunity to go behind the scenes at the Virginia Aquarium and talk with the mammal trainers about the seals on display! It was really cool and we even got to pet them! They were so smart and reminded me of my doggie at home- the seals wear their emotions on their face, just like Maverick! We even went into their exhibit and participated in a feeding exercise with them! I learned a ton of info about the Harbor Seals, which is good, because I hear it is almost seal time here at the beach. Apparently, several seals that lose their way from their icy waters end up on our beaches here and we have to go out and rescue them! As much as I don't want the pups to wash up here... I'm very excited to see one and make sure it stays safe. More to come on that subject!

Its Always Sunny...

We've had the Aero Garden going for a little while now and we're seeing great progress in the baby plants! However, the UV light that makes the little salad greens grow is incredibly bright... and is on for incredibly long every day. It automatically goes off around the time we go to bed but then comes on, bright and early, quite literally, at 4:30 am! For the past week, poor Ben has been coming up with inventive ways to cover up the "sun" as we call it and we finally moved it into the other room and closed the door!

All that light makes the house feel warmer, which was one reason we put it in the other room at first. With the windows open, the house was a comfy 76 or so. That was a few days ago... its now so cold and windy outside, that the house warming gift (haha) feels good! With the windows closed and no A/C or heat, we woke up to a temperature of 65 inside! Poor little Otis, he was all curled up in his shell under his heat lamp and Maverick didn't want to get out of bed (our bed!) this morning!

It should only be another week or 10 days before we'll be able to harvest the salad! This machine is the easiest thing ever- you just add water to the fill line, and the lights on the front tell you everything you need to do. If it needs water, a button lights up, when its ready to pick, another button lights up.

While its cold and windy outside, we'll be making bread and harvesting salad greens inside. So cozy :)

Lost Baby Sea Turtle

We were on our way back from the mountains when we got a call that there was a baby sea turtle that had been disoriented and beached itself near our house. Our staff picked it up and turtle-sat all afternoon at the office. They asked if we could return the little squirt to the ocean after nightfall since we live so close to the water!

I think that all baby animals are always so cute, but this little guy, ahh, it was almost breathtaking! It was probably only a day or two old and so tiny! This little loggerhead needed to get to the ocean since its survival rate is about 1 in 1000. That means for every one-thousand eggs that hatch on the beach, only one will make it back to that same beach to lay eggs, about 50 years from now. Maybe this little guy is the one?

We patiently waited until it was dark enough and then took the little guy to the water's edge. When we put him down in the sand, he knew just what to do. And in a few moments, he was gone into the surf. There were some people walking down the beach that were so excited to be part of our release. Be sure to watch the (very short) video and see for yourself :)

Trip to the Mountains!

Another great perk of the job is the annual Educator Retreat, which this year happened to be hosted by the Pisgah Center for Wildlife Education, in Brevard, NC, just outside of Asheville. We traveled 8 hours to get there but it was so beautiful that it was definitely worth it!

First we visited Vanessa, who took care of Maverick while we were at meetings. It was neat to be in South Carolina again and to see where she is going to school. And Mavie had a playmate all week long- he demonstrated his approval by eating every single meal!

Then we traveled though Asheville and up into the mountains, quite literally, we camped at 4000 feet! Our campground was along the Blue Ridge Parkway and was amazing. The leaves were all changing in the higher elevations and everything was crisp (and cold- I wore a hat for the first few days!) We took a workshop on birds in a little place called Elk Knob State Park and did some sightseeing outside of Boone. A few stops for eating, shopping, and even a tour of a cavern led us to the bed & breakfast where we met up with all of the other educators across the state.

We spent a day in the field with the biologists (I went out with the salamander and turtle biologist, while Ben did electrofishing with the trout biologist) and another day at the Center, teaching school groups with their staff. I had a bunch of pre-k kids and we taught them about vermicomposting, or composting with worms. I'm working on an adult workshop for the winter on that very topic so it was fun to talk to the lil' tikes about worms!

The Center is located in the Pisgah National Forest and actually has a trout hatchery on site. It was very informative for those of us from the coast! They raise brown, brook, and rainbow trout here to stock in the region. I asked how long the trout live and they said they keep them in the raceway tanks until they are 10" long (2 years +) and expect them to survive about 2 weeks in the streams before they are caught by fisherman! Seems like a lot of work, but fly fishing is a serious sport in these parts.

Overall we had a really great time and actually learned a whole lot. Now its back to the grind for a little while!

Excursion Day

While I'm not really into hunting or fishing anymore, that's a lot of what we do at work... and Excursion Day was actually pretty fun! This is an annual event where the county invites all of its residents to see our center and enjoy free activities, like climbing the lighthouse and visiting the Whalehead Club (both of which are normally $7 each) plus they provide a free picnic. Ben and I took full advantage of today's activities, I mean, when in Rome...

We competed at archery, where neither of us actually hit the bulls eye but had a fun time trying to out shoot each other. We put about 10 arrows each in the kill zone, so I guess we're pretty decent. **Notice the new hairdo in this picture!

Ben tried out the laser shot program, which is basically a bigger, fancier version of Duck Hunt for Nintendo. You stand in front of a screen and "shoot" the wildlife with a play rifle. He was really good at shooting clay pigeons!

To top off our day of work- we posed next to Grave Digger, yes, that is a monster truck. Parked right in front of the Whalehead Club, which is so funny because its very fancy over there. Who knew Currituck County is home to the famous Grave Digger?

New Age, New Haircut

Its all chopped off! Ten inches from the Sarah-hair farm will be sent to Locks of Love to be made into wigs for kids with cancer. Ben was a good sport and took pictures while the stylist and I chatted and laughed. It feels much MUCH lighter and only requires about 1/4 the shampoo!

**Sorry we forgot to take an "after haircut" picture... will post one soon :)

Happy Birthday To Me!

I've been having a wonderful birthday celebration- for days! I guess that's an only child thing, to celebrate your b-day over and over again :) Ben orchestrated a surprise dinner party at a tapas restaurant, you know the kind where everyone orders several little appetizer-sized entrees and you pass them around the table sampling everything. It was WONDERFUL and very thoughtful of him to invite 9 of our friends to join us! As if spending gobs of money on dinner with friends wasn't enough- he also showered me with gifts! I'm very excited to get started with my Aerogarden! In just 3 weeks, it should look like this picture. Combined with my breadmaker cookbook (thank you Mom!), we're set for a long cold winter on an island, haha! Thank you to everyone for all your kind wishes, I feel so loved :)