Hey my lovelies. I got back friday night from Peck Ranch. It was a very good week. The work sometimes sucked - the brambles and vines are really thick in these Missouri woods - much like the Smokey Mts. I remember viewing over the summer. My arms and neck got really cut up from stumbling through the thickets. Our goal is to eradicate the invasive species autumn olive from the 26,000 acre conservation site - a goal made even more difficult by the vitality of this plant - it is very hard to kill off even with herbicides. So out team was split off into pairs: one with a chainsaw and the other with a back-pack sprayer - some areas we pretty much had to clear-cut the autumn olive was so thick. I know that there is the lingering notion - is this the right thing to be doing from an environmental or maybe evolutionary perspective and I think so. This plant would turn Peck Ranch into something of a monoculture if we didn't curb it's advance, and lack of diversity isn't good for habitats or the ecosystem...or evolution. We found an old radio to listen to the election results on Tuesday - what an exciting evening and joyful too. We were all really surprised when we found out the next morning Claire McCaskill got the seat over Talent and shocked when we heard the stem cell research ammendment for MO passed...you wouldn't believe the billboards we saw on the 4 hr. drive down to Peck: "Vote No on Ammendment 2 and stop cloning" or billboards about forcing women to get abortions so the fetus can be used...wtf? Yeah, it's MO, rural MO. Yesterday I saw the movie Borat - it was pretty good, though he just makes fun of the ignorance and closed-mindedness in the south - which isn't very hard to do as shown by the daily show. And last nite we went to the Venice cafe, a very cool art/hippie bar. Our friend Ron has a brother who plays in a reggae band called dubkitchen, they're really, really good. I got one of their demos, and I can't wait to get their album when it's released later this year. The djembe player is from Stillwater and somehow he found out I was from st. cloud so we were talking for awhile - he also studied in Madrid and now teaches spanish to 12 yr. olds in St. louis - he seemed like a really good guy. I'm leaving for the Pass on wednesday now, a little earlier and I'm looking forward to it. The team that is down there right now is having a great time, and also, the team I'm with is awesome - we're going to have a blast.
Well there is much to be happy about, not the least of which is that my faith in the American people has improved. I can't wait till we don't have to read about Iraq or the Bush administration everytime we check out the news...you too? Peace and Love.
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