Big Branch - Day Two & Photos by Niki2

REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

Big Branch - Day Two & Photos

POSTED BY: NIKI2
UPDATED: Friday, October 1, 2010 09:05
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Tuesday, September 28, 2010 4:42 PM

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...

Got the photos uploaded last night,then went to post 'em here and the internet went down. They didn't get someone out here to fix it until today. So here's photos:

Some of my first day photos didn't come out--the camera got turned on "video" rather than "photo", dammit, but luckily I get lots more days to replace them!

Before it got switched and after I fixed it, I did get a few shots.

Here's Kat, Bonnie and I at the meeting place:

One of our three airboats:

And me with the famous Jennifer:

That's all that came out that's of any interest yesterday. Bonnie got a GREAT shot of me stumbling out of the water at the end of the day, covered in grey mud, but she doesn't have her connection cord along, or a card, so Kat was able to upload her stuff to HER laptop...but the two of them had a bit to drink, so they were giggly and pretty useless. Wish I had some dope, I'd be just like them! Will get that and better photos uploaded tonight.

Sky over the Causway--which goes right across Lake Ponchitraine...it's a mutherhumpin' BIG lake, from the middle you can't see land in any direction! The clouds reminded me of Star Wars, that floating city. FLAT on the bottom, "popcorning" out into big cumulus above. Purty!

Today we hauled a lot of the grasses out with us. They apparently cost $1 per plant, and NOAA paid for most of them.LOTSA plants...so far we've planted about 14,000--they figured 10,000 every two days, so we're ahead of the game. Ken said we might even finish early, and have a couple of days to play!

We went out, five people and asmuch grass as the airboat could carry each trip.

Forty or so people today, fewer yesterday, so it takes several air-boat trips to get us out and back. Wanna take an airboat ride or two, see what it looks like:

http://s25.photobucket.com/albums/c94/Nikovich_/Misc/gulf/?action=view
¤t=004.mp4

http://s25.photobucket.com/albums/c94/Nikovich_/Misc/gulf/?action=view
¤t=003.mp4

Those puppies are LOUD, and bounce right over reeds and hillocks and everything...it's a gas! Kat was wrong, I'll NEVER tire of airboats!! But man, you gotta stay away from the back when they take off, they spew sand and water and everything else REAL strong! We have to wear ear plugs or headphone things, they're so loud.

This is Ken: He'sFish & Wildlife, which manages the Reserve (about 1,100 acres) drives one of the shuttles and works with us out there. He doesn't think it's as much fun as we do, hee, hee, hee...but then he does it all the time!

Bonnie and I have told him he's "hot", which made him blush, but we always make sure we ride HIS shuttle...he's a mine of information and we're learning a lot from him.

Here's a few from the site...we have to slog out through mud to get to the water...

...so our feet end up looking like this:

It's not from WORKING in the water,that washes off, it's just getting to land FROM the water...and when this stuff dried, it's HARD to get off!

The dry land where the "dry" folks work and camp is set up is ALL shells and sand...and I'd bet the sand is ground-down shells:

Here's a360-view of today's site--we plant a different one each day. If we fill up one site too much, they moove the tents, food, etc., further down and we fill THAT up!

http://s25.photobucket.com/albums/c94/Nikovich_/Misc/gulf/?action=view
¤t=002.mp4

That's about it for today...yesterday I was with the last five out of the water, but today was warmer and I'd "pinked" (I rarely burn, just pink and the next day or the day after it turns brown, then I don't burn or pink fromthem on).

Woke up this momrning stiff all over and sore shoulder from sticking the PVC pipe in the mud...my arthritic left shoulder. But the things I was worried about are doing fine (my bod). Had to work without sunglasses as much as I could today--Kat said I looked like a "reverse raccooon" because I'd tanned all AROUND my sunglasses, leaving two un-tanned white spots where my eyes were. Got rid of it, and wore my halter top today...I was getting a weird tan, nothing above the sleeves of my t-shirt, and the shorts I've been wearing left me white from mid-thigh up!

I went to the local WalMart (hate the place 'cuz of their politics, but it's the only thing close and cheap!). Got a regular two-piece swimsuit, 'cuz the shorts get heavy from mud and water, among other things! I'm one of only two who sit in the water, plant one,then scoot backwards for the next one...most people either stand or sit on their heels or knees. But it's so easy this way...all I have to do is push off and I glide three or four feet backwards. Only trouble is, my pants get full of mud and slide down my backside, and I've been getting mud up my ass and crotch (!). So the two-piece swimsuit will be much better, and hell, for $3 per piece, can't beat that!

Also got a one-piece swimsuit, since the shorts and halter top aren't working well, and I haven't owned a swimsuit since the '80s--we can't swim in our lakes (watershed) and I HATE chlorine pools! The hotel pool is salt-water (!), a lot of places do that down here rather than chlorine, it's neat.

Was working today and a guy caught up with me doing his "row" (rows like drunken sailors we joke)...he didn't know the Pacific was COLD! Imagine that! He said "what about all those surfers?" I said hasn't he noticed they're all wearing wetsuits?? "Then what about all those people on the beach in LA? They're not there to swim?" Hell, no, they're there to get tans and look pretty! He was astonished.

We're learning all about other places in the country, so many of us being from out of state. We pass one another or plant rows alongside and conversations strike up. It's fascinating.

That's it for me...I call Jim and Choey on the cell daily...joked to Jim that we're probably talking more than we ever do at home! Not surprising, thirty-five years,you run out of stuff to talk about when your lives are quiet, and he won't even TALK politics anymore, he's so disgusted, so I can only talk that with you guys here and Choey. It's really neat to be able to talk to him for so long free, and he's googled Big Branch and says he was shocked at HOW flat it is here. I learned that from Katrina, and it sure explains why everything got so devastated. It is amazingly flat!

Okay, I wanna send these pix off to Jim and Choey, so I'm outta here. I think of you guys when I'm sitting out there in the water and kinda picture you here with me, and occasionally shake my head when I look around me and think how you made this all possible!

Oh, hey, big wigs coming in tomorrow--head of NOAA, press, etc. So we have to get out there at 7, work until they arrive 9:30 or so, get out and gather so they can officially "thank" us...the usual photo op hooplah.

Jennifer is a kick; she said she'd pay anyone five bucks if, when they thank us, someone will disguise their voice and holler "great, then let us get back to it!" Hah!

AND Bonnie says the news is reporting a hurricane out Cuba way which should hit us tomorrow afternoon or evening! Guess I get my quasi-wish that I'd like to go through one, but I hope it's a little guy, doesn't get in the way of our planting or cause any serious problems. Experiencing one is one thing, devastation is another!!!

So I'm off to send pix to Jim and Choey and hit the hay, morning will comem all too soon!

Hippie Operative Nikovich Nikita Nicovna Talibani,
Contracted Agent of Veritas Oilspillus, code name “Nike”,
signing off

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Tuesday, September 28, 2010 5:05 PM

CHRISISALL

I love that you are in the (sorry) thick of things, and helping- I wish I could be there too.
You're helping to stop the "Earth-that-was" timeline, and for that, I salute you!

The laughing Chrisisall

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Tuesday, September 28, 2010 10:16 PM

MAGONSDAUGHTER

yay Niki. How long are you there for?

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Wednesday, September 29, 2010 11:32 AM

NIKI2

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...

Two weeks all toll, Magons...last Sunday through next Friday, with next Sunday off. Ken told me they're doing a cleanup day on the bayou on Saturday, after which they're going to canoe the bayou. I said "but we're working Saturday", and he said six of one and half a dozen of the other, so I could swap the marsh work for that, and get to see their bayou! I still want to take a "proper" tour, but it might be neat to see the reserve.

Today we had to be out there at 7am so we could break at 9:30 for a visit from the "brass"--the head of NOAA and the press. Whoop-tee-ay. It was mildly interestinbg, apparently this is the 10th anniversary of NOAA working on "estuary restoration" around the country, and she said they hadn't missed the irony that their tenth year coincided with the Gulf spill! I forget all the facts and figures she gave us--I'm kinda rummy from getting up at, what for Bonnie and I, was the equivalent of 3am! I wish I could remember what all she said, lots of interesting facts about environmental activities by them and Fish and Wildlife, but brain's not working.

Jeeez, Chris, I wish you could be here too! This is a once-in-a-lifetime experience for me; aside from never being able to afford to pay my own way for stuff like this, I don't know that I'm healthy enough to do most of this kind of stuff!

Jennifer Kaylee, as I'm calling her, doesn't believe in sunblock...she prefers mud; cheaper she said, and more effective--

These are the four tents slung together where they keep the food and ice chests. Lunch consists of bread, sliced chick, turkey or ham (market stuff), bottles of mayo and potato chips,and all the sodas you can drink...takes a couple of sandwiches, but there's plenty and we get filled up.

This little guy was spotted by someone and they brought him in so Jennifer could stick him on her finger to show us. Forget what she said he was, but he's tiny and very calm--probably never seen humans before so didn't know to be scared of us...

I'd planted about half my bag when they yelled at us to come ashore. Couple of us ignoed it, but they kept yelling. I only had a few plants left so another guy working a ways away from me and I decided to "plant our way back". It's a bitch to haul a heavy bag of plants way out there and push it along, then haul it back to shore!

Next thing I know, Jennifer's hollering at us to come in...he eventually did, but I only had 15 or so to go, so I ignored her...I'd also lost my t-shirt. Went to Wal-Mart yesterday and got a two-piece swimsuit, 'cuz the shorts I've been wearing weren't working out too well and my halter top was giving me a really strange tan. But I wore one of my Serenity t-shirts over it until I got out in the water...I'm too damned old to be running around in practically a bikini! I'd kept careful track of it until the very end, and it floated away.

So Jennifer sends a guy out to haul me in...he got there JUST as I was putting in my last plant, and he found my t-shirt for me. Yay!

Turned out, we had been TOO efficient and had planted so much there wouldn't be anything for the next day's crew! Not too surprising, as there were about 50 people out there (no doubt for PR purposes), as opposed to the 25-30 we've had the last two days.

Given people come from all over the country, have flight and hotel reservations, they didn't want to cancel them, so they told us to knock off for the day: at 11:30!! What a waste!

Then we were told it was a miscommunication; we could use up all the plants we had, more were coming in for the next day's crew,but there were still going to have us knock off. Kat gave me a a ride back, but Bonnie hasn't showed...we both have a suspicion they let some people go on working after they'd hauled a few boat-loads of us back, dammit! Oh, well...

This is some houses on the way out to the boat ramp. Everything around there is on stilts, for obvious reasons...it looks weird!

http://s25.photobucket.com/albums/c94/Nikovich_/Misc/gulf/?action=view
¤t=018-1.mp4

I guess I can use some time off...tho' I'd probably appreciate it more if it were NEXT week. But I'm headed off to have a nap; had a swim in the salt-water pool and uploaded my photos, so this is the only other thing I wanted to accomplish. See 'ya!

_____________

Oh, SHIT! Bonnie just came in, blasting away nineteen to the dozen. Today was a royal fuck-up, it turns out. The guy in charge gave the word for the volunteers to go home...best guess is he thought they had to leave plants for the next day but there are more plants coming tomorrow, so we could have kept going. His EXCUSE for pulling the voluntters was "the heat". Bullshit--yeah, it's hotter than the last two days, but not THAT hot, and if they didn't think we could handle the heat...eh, that was his excuse anyway. He was covering for himself.

So we're all sent home, but it turns out legally they have to plant X number of plants each day, so they MADE the Fish and Wildlife guys (who normally run the airboats) go out and finish the job!!!!

Bonnie was there, and Brandon, and by the time they heard all about this, they both said they'd go back out and help, and of course Bonnie said she had two other people who'd jump at the chance to go back out (us)...but just then Ken got a call on his radio from the Fish and Wildlife guy saying they were finished and coming back in.

What a fuck-up! We had more people out there today than we had the last two combined practically, and they make the poor F&W guys finish the job! It shouldn't surprise me; in nonprofits, sometimes the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing, and they cover their asses.

But I'll tell 'ya--the story is going to spread like wildfire among the "long timers" (those of us here for more than a couple of days) tomorrow. They won't be able to DRAG us in again, unless they do it forceably and for damned good reason!

Those poor F&W guys...they're dressed in their brown khakis, and out where I was you hit a mudhole and you're in it up to your waist with no warning, and it IS hot! Pisses all three of us off big time, and there's gonna be a lot of pissed-off volunteers tomorrow. Bah!

Now I'm too awake to take a nap, guess I'll go call Jim and bitch at him! ;o)

Hippie Operative Nikovich Nikita Nicovna Talibani,
Contracted Agent of Veritas Oilspillus, code name “Nike”,
signing off

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Wednesday, September 29, 2010 1:15 PM

WHOZIT

OK I'll tip my hat to ya, but while you're down there Al Gore is getting a back rub in a fancy Hotel

It's a good thing I'm not there, I'd most likely smoke all that grass AHHAHAHAHAHAHA!.....no really, I would smoke all that grass.

Those arn't boobs, they're lies! - Stewie Griffin

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Wednesday, September 29, 2010 1:56 PM

MAL4PREZ

Niki, you rock! This is so cool. I'll be telling my students about this, just so they know that they can do things like this too.

-----------------------------------------------
hmm-burble-blah, blah-blah-blah, take a left

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Wednesday, September 29, 2010 3:39 PM

NIKI2

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...

Good on YOU, Mal!! By the way, as I said, the press was out there today. Kat just chased down the story on the news: it's at http://www.wwltv.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/Northshore-restoration-projec
t-could-help-southshore-oil-spill-affected-marsh-104025374.html

The Bonnie Blomberg pictured, by the way, is the Bonnie who is my roomate (her bit starts with "The fact that I'm not cleaning up oil right now really doesn't matter"). That will show you much better than my little videos and pictures have...the text is typically "talking head", but there are no incorrect facts.

Hippie Operative Nikovich Nikita Nicovna Talibani,
Contracted Agent of Veritas Oilspillus, code name “Nike”,
signing off

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Friday, October 1, 2010 8:44 AM

KANEMAN

It all seems photo-shopped.

****Note****(I am well aware that most of the Muslims in my example are most likely Indian and not Islamic at all, however I choose to ignore the propaganda that there is a difference and clump all rattled tongue speaking sand dwellers together....for the sake of arguement ...You know, If it looks like a duck...)

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Friday, October 1, 2010 9:05 AM

PIZMOBEACH

... fully loaded, safety off...

Love the shot of you in the Serenity t-shirt w\Jenn. Nicely done Niki :)

Scifi movie music + Firefly dialogue clips, 24 hours a day - http://www.scifiradio.com

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