May Madness

"The reason I do SMACed around this time of year" Meghann had prefaced at our retreat, "is that I know this is around the time everyone starts to get way burnt out."

Truth.

Ironically, it is also around the time that obligations and festivities pick back up.

Naturally, I decided it was also the perfect time to commit to a drastic diet change, which can be followed along here.

However, before sacrificing my dietary freedom, I made some pretty bomb treats to kick off the month.

With the winter tourism season finally ending, May is sort of a Packwood Pride month, finding other ways to reel people in and say "small towns can have fun too!" With the big May flea market yet to come, the month is kicked off with Mountain Festival Weekend, during which we throw our big Chili Feed fundraiser.

Well...our Chili Feed fundraiser. Big is misleading. After a day in the kitchen smelling of meat and beans, our 8 pots of chili mainly went to providing our teammates with go-to meals for the next month. The disappointing turnout had us wallowing in extra food, extra raffle prizes and no extra money. But, the bomb treats:

"Samoa" bars

Vegan Cornbread Muffins

Crazed by Chili

Too much food!

The rest of Mountain Festival seemed to be a success. On Thursday, the little ones from the school took a "field trip" into town. Mary and I chaperoned a group from station to station. We started at the museum, where the kids got hooked on pressing the keys of the old-fashioned type writer and learned about foods of the native Salish people. A native couple told a few stories - the tale of the black and white wolf and the tale of 'little dove' who took one foot off the path she was told to stay on and paid dearly - to teach lessons of following your best self. The kids also got to venture over to the postoffice where they were taken in the back to see how mail is sorted and weighed for postage before being let loose with the many stamps used to mark packages. Each kid felt as though they'd won the lottery as the left with their collection and a mail-order stamp for $1,000.00

"Which wolf are you gonna listen to, kids?"

The adults got a good laugh when one of the kids exclaimed "Look! I'm spoiled!"

Working hard at the post office 

The firehall brought over a truck and ambulance and the sherif gave a tour of one of four huge relief trailers they own for disaster emergencies like floods. Valued over a million dollars, the force had gotten all the equipment through grants and drug seizures. The day ended with popsicles and fire hoses.

We were also asked to clean the open gym up for Sunday's activities and took the opportunity to clean under the bleachers for the first time all year (and maybe more):

On Saturday, the museum hosted a slew of activities from archery to flint napping to crafts. I stuck around for a short time, helping Desiree make painted rocks, seed tape and tipis with the kids that came through but the day was resplendent with spontaneous plan-changes. First, I was pulled away to meet with a local friend named Dean about a job for the flea market. Then about an hour into crafts, I got a text from a family asking about babysitting the next day, when I was originally planning on going to their kid's production of Rapunzel at the Roxy. So I decided to book it over to the theater that day instead.

The play was great. It was far less painful than my previous experience which included drawn out hours due to pauses and stutters and stumbling lines; this one wasn't even an hour long! And the kids were great. Elie, our resident thespian played Which Izwhich and rocked an impressive cackle and stunning outfit. Instead of fragmented jokes, they nailed the puns and timing right on.

Back in Packwood, the evening continued at the Senior center with their big Bingo Kick-off and taco dinner. Peggy had implored our help but we found once we got there, that we might as well be flies on the wall. Mary and Desiree got booted out of the kitchen because of their strict interpretation of the food worker's license and once I got there, all there really was to do was put plastic wrap over leftovers. I left after about an hour to go get ready for a Karaoke night....

A special one, at that! Because Tony made an impulsive decision to come visit again! By the end of the night, he was one of the regular singers, having put in at least half a dozen songs. The line up was full the whole time so I didn't really have to bother singing. And our life of Karaoke, Karl, had finally returned with his friend Ron and they were slowly warming up to me (as I think they'd found me sort of shy and off-putting in the past). Plus we were treated to a lovely serenade:

With me having to work on Sunday, I couldn't entertain Tony but Justin was kind enough to take him up to the last day of the Pass for him to cash in a free lift ticket he'd gotten on his first visit. In the meantime, Mary and I were stuck in the cold and wet trying to convince runners that they wanted water in this weather as they wrapped up their 5 or 10k fun run. Mostly, Mary just yelled "keep it up a lot" while I hid under the trunk of my car.

And then the cleansing began. After two days of fasting, I was a miserable blob, trying to function. Fortunately, on my next visit to my Acupuncturist, I was given an actual plan and began to revive my energy just in time for a couple of field trips.

Tuesday's excursion was one of the best thus far, partly because we didn't have to travel 3 hours just to walk around a museum for 1. NorthWest Trek is a little hidden gem just on the other side of Morton. The small wildlife park houses a plethora of roaming NW natives, many of which I think are rescues. I had a great group of kids that seemed thrilled with learning, not just ogling. There was an immediate consensus to visit the big cats first, where we learned that Cougars can leap over 60 feet downward and lynxes, despite their size, don some massive paws. The brown bears were a highlight, putting on quite a show for us. When we arrived, one was making strange, distorted movements with its jaw. It finally got up and wandered back to where another was lying peacefully behind a log and began to taunt it. They both got up and carried out an elaborate dance of some combination between play, fighting and flirting, almost locking their jaws together at one point.


And then at midday, we all gathered at the Tram Station for a riding tour where we saw Big horned sheep, moose, Caribou, Elk, Mountain goats and black-tailed deer. Many of the moose and deer were just beginning their seasonal antlers, which we learned grow at a rate of 1 1/2 inches per day! 

Come along on the tour!

Not exactly the environment I thought I would see my first moose in, but that works.

Then on Friday, we were back on the bus bound for Portland. This was an all-girls trip to attend the 22nd Annual Women and Trade Career Fair. Although we couldn't sample all of the 27 workshops for various professions, the girls still got fed a good heaping dose of opportunity. We began in the exhibit room where dozens of Oregon and Washington trade businesses were set up. The main hook was free goodies and I could tell that some of the presenters had probably been coming for years and had long since learned that many of the girls just want to collect their pencils and candy and water bottles and go. I watched them slip in small tokens of advice like "make good choices!" as the girls stuffed their bags and wandered off, perhaps not even knowing the name of the group that just gifted them. But like all events for this age group, you're going to have many that aren't ready to think too deeply. Still,  those that wanted to ask questions could get a good conversation and just having so many trades represented was planting the idea of possibility. There were sheet metal workers, road sprinkler fitters (never would have thought this was one job), plumbers, floor covering installers, sherifs, forewomen, Department of fish and wildlife, clean energy, colleges and programs designed to offer working apprenticeships. I even collected a few mental notes for myself.

While I was lingering at the Fish and Wildlife table, a girl came over and began to gush: "This is what I want to do! Forest Service!" The woman behind the table offered a kind distinction - that they were more about working with the animals and fish - and the girl cut her off again: "Oh! Yeah! No, that's what I want! I don't care about the trees! I want to work with Animals!"  The woman put in a good word for the trees before launching into her introduction. "Well, you need a bachelors ---"

"Wait? Which one is that? Like, 2 years, 4 years or 6?"

The woman tried to keep up and all I caught was the overexcited teen constantly interrupting "Animals, Animals, Animals! Wolves, Cyotes, bears! I don't care, I'm not afraid of any of em!"

There is a fine line between disinterest and ignorant obsession. But its a start.

The girls were able to do two workshops; the first on how to wire a light and the second on how to plug a mainland pipe. I sort of zoned out for the first one (although I did catch the first bit about all their benefits and lack of debt so maybe I should have listened more closely) but the second was to exciting to miss. The girls got all geared up and four at a time, stood at the ready for the staff to unleash a massive blast of water leakage. Squinting through the drench, they ran in towards the pipes and grabbed wrenches and locked the seals back into place. Mary even took a dive and tried it out.

I spoke to a few of the girls afterwards and it sounded like the booths and workshops had planted some inspiration here and there. In a place like Lewis County, that can be in short supply.