Working on October 25th

Ok, Mrs. Pitts was absolutely right. Communication is very important in a project like this. But I thought that would only apply to communicating with my classmates for the project, but I was wrong. And it's not the first time right? For a prime example, on Friday evening I asked my mom if I could use her Honda CRV, and she just asked me why. So I told her that I needed it because the pressure washer would not fit in the Corolla that I normally drive (I needed to take the pressure washer to Bledsoe to blast out culverts and such). Her reply totally is what hit me and made me realize that I need to communicate a little better. She asked me if I had asked my Dad if I could use the pressure washer yet. And of course, I hadn't. Opps! So I asked her if Daddy said that I could use the pressure washer if she would be willing to allow me to use the CRV, and she said that was fine. The moral is don't assume, and that communicate not only with the others that are involved in the project, but with others (like parents) as well. Oh, and I forgot that my Dad had just left town, so another moral is to ask early, and don't wait until the last minute.

After I got done with my Personal Health class meeting Saturday morning, I headed on over to Bledsoe State Park. Yes, I followed the speed limit. ;) he he. My first impression was shock. I absolutely could not believe how much everyone had done so far. Most of the tilling was done, underneath the side walk had been dug out and they were in the process of installing the PVC pipe underneath it, and there were so many people from my class there, I actually went to help the 001 class! I must say I am very proud of 002!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I worked for two hours and by then I think that every one was getting tired and starting to go home, but overall it was a very productive weekend! Yay!

I am having fun changing my blog template!

I know, this isn't technically part of my "reflection process" to be changing my blog background, but I thought that it needed more personality and the deer on the template remind me a lot of when Sharon A. was talking about how the park belongs to the deer. And that we need to be mindful of their space. I just thought that this template was a good park, woody, deer reminder template.

This is part of the area that we will be working on including the rock ditch, and the pvc pipe by the sidewalk.


This is how the water currently drains and we don't want this!


So...

This is how we want the water drain after we are done with our work.




Here is where us students will need to install a PVC pipe underneath this sidewalk.




This is Mrs. Sharon A. (president of the Friends of Bledsoe) on the left, and Mr. Bill (a park ranger) on the right.

What I Thought About This Morning's Meeting

Before we decided to reorganize our plan, I felt good about what we were doing, and I have to say it, Mrs. Pitts is very well organized. I did feel like all of us students were being stretched over a large area, and I was a little afraid of our communication being stretched aswell due to the fact. But now that we will all be working on a smaller task, sort of in a central area, I think that it will seem like we are more on the same page. At least it feels like that to me.

Also, one thing that Mrs. Sharron A. (President of the Friends of Bledsoe) said that stuck out to me was that "Even if you haven't acheived what you came to do, you have helped and not hurt". Just knowing that made me feel good because us students can't mess things up. Although, some of us students were talking about how some kids that are camping will block up the culverts with rocks, and that they can be destructive. And someone also mentioned that "they clearly don't know some of us", and I was thinking too, that some of us college kids are nothing more than big kids!

Leader's Meeting at Bledsoe

Wow! Yeah, wow definitely covers everything that happened in the meeting this morning at Bledsoe. Originally, the COMM 002 class was going be responsible for the culverts 1, 2, & 3. But now, after the meeting this morning, we have decided that the project of 9 culverts was a little bit much, and that one particular area needed more attention than others. So, we totally restructured our plan of action. Now, we are splitting the picnic area around shelter #1 between the three of Mrs. Pitts classes. Here is the map of the new plan; our class is COMM 002 in the yellow section.

I'm a Little Bit Frustrated

Ok, I am a very reluctant to say it because I don't want anyone to get the wrong idea, but this a communication course that I am taking right? And this is my reflection blog of the project right?I am frustrated. Maybe I shouldn't say it, but I just wish that everyone would at the very least sign up for our Wiki that way others can talk to them. And it would be really great if everyone would put their name on the team lists. Don't get me wrong, I'm not mad or angry, but just frustrated. Maybe disappointed is a better word.

Our Group Meeting this past Wednesday

This past Wednesday (yesterday) we had group meetings in class. This was a good start to uniting teams together to generate ideas. Honestly, I didn't think that there was that must to discuss at first, but it seemed to go by too quickly. April (our 002 service team leader) is da girl! She went out IN THE RAIN to take pictures of the problem of the clogged culverts in action. Although, she said that the rain was absorbed because of the fact that we haven't had much rain lately. That makes our project seem ironic for a moment doesn't it? But from the pictures she showed us, we could also see that the galvanized steel drainage pipes were bent. This is not going to be easy to fix, but our class' support team said that they would hunt down a tool to fix that. This issue also came up about how we are going to get all of the debris out of the drainage pipes, and using a pressure washer seems like a great idea, but from some of the research that our teams have done, I don't think that this is very good for the surrounding environment due to water contamination that the debris would cause.

Doin' Dirty Research

I was looking around on "Google" for some information on drainage ditches, and I found some information about maintaining drainage ditches. And I didn't think about it before, but a plan has to be implemented to keep these drainage ditches that we are going to clean out maintained. I think that we can at least present the information to the park after we have completed our task. Maybe that would keep the situation from reoccuring. The site I found is actually for the city of Portland, but nonetheless, it still has good preventative information. Here is the link. http://www.portlandonline.com/TRANSPORTATION/index.cfm?c=47254

All of the people on The Bizzy Beezz Service team

Here are all of the people on the Bizzy Beezz team!! (That are on our Wiki so far.)
RebeccaCampbell, Vic Bogle , April Johnson , and there will be more on there when they join our Wiki site.

The Bizzy Beezz! YEAH!!

This morning in Comm class, we all picked our group names and our team leaders. I am on the Service team. So all of us "unnamed" service team people we all sitting around in our little group, blankly thinking about what we should be known as. Hmmmm...... April came up with "Worker Bees" at first, and most of us liked it OK. I know I did. But for some reason it didn't stick. So Someone suggested "Busy Bees" I liked this more. Plus, It looked really neat the way that we decided to spell it. Ok, ya ready? We call ourselves....... "The Bizzy Beezz"! I love the "Zs". Yup, It's a splendifferous name. And the best part is, April is the "Queen BEE" (group leader)! Uh huh! At first, it was implied that I should be the team leader. But I am more of a initiator, a follower that pushes! ;) However, I was the only one on our team that was able to go to a certain meeting that we have at Bledsoe for the leaders of all the groups, so I am going to go as a "second in command". Again, the girls got it goin' on!