Pass the Salt Please

Ocean Salt that is.

My ongoing Project for Seminole County elementary school age kiddo's is updated for the Coastal Systems Module.  This project is being developed by myself and other students in the Florida Master Naturalist classes to be used by adults and/or High School Community Service students to take groups of elementary school age kids out to explore and learn about nature. 

I took Coastal Systems in Volusia County with David Griffis and Linda Evans.  They were both just great.  I love how the extension office folks have been so knowledgeable and enthusiastic about the material they are sharing with us.  I also like how I am getting a broader scope by taking classes in different counties.  I took Uplands in Osceola County with Eleanor Foerste and now Coastal in Volusia County.  I think I will try to take Wetlands with the extension office in either Orange or Lake County.  Then after I've completed all three, perhaps I can volunteer to assist in future classes in the counties I did not attend a module.  That would be fun ...  and educational.

Important Life Lessons

• When you visit the ocean beach, carry out more than you took in.  My gosh the volume of trash is mind boggling.
• Water shoes.  Not sandals -  shoes.  Better yet, water boots with ankle support if you can get them.  Or use an ankle brace.
• Braces and other DME can be put in the hand-wash cycle of the washing machine.  Then air dried.
• Don't leave salty, sandy, fishy stuff in your trunk overnight when you come home in the middle of a hail storm.
• $5 snow ski poles from the thrift store - BEST.FIVE.SPOT.EVER.  And purely coincidental they match my hurriedly acquired water shoes.
• Clearance rack fanny pack?  Zipper fail.  
• Sunglasses.  Not transitions, not coated.  Plain old plastic frame tinted sunglasses.  Tinted dark.
• Put your sun block on your legs BEFORE you put your leg braces on.
•  New knee braces take forever it seems like.  It isn't here yet.  In the mean time, I have to be extra careful to watch for skin ulcers.
• New crutches aren't going to start themselves.  I need to quit talking and start doing.
• Need to check out the Active Ankle braces Ronnie uses.  She says I would like them, and considering my current choices it would seem to be a big improvement.  And I think I would also be able to get use out of them in other places besides coastal areas; for example when I go off to visit and/or work at other gardens.  I feel pretty silly sometimes waltzing in with my pedal-pushers and extreme hiking boots.
• Always, always, always carry mosquito spray, sun block and spare cash with your immediate belongings on all your trips with David.  You just never know what surprises he has in store.

It has been a totally fun 6 weeks.  I feel like I'm only scratching the surface of what all there is to know even casually.  I have lots of filling in the blanks to do just to catch up with the differences in the habitats here in Central Florida as compared to South Florida and the Florida Keys.  In a few weeks I'll have all my gear gathered and prepared to take this course.

Oh wait, it's over already????  Noooooooooo

Tomorrow is graduation day for the coastal systems module.  We will deliver our final projects and wrap up.  It was great having so many people from the Uplands class in this course.  Seeing friends again.  They are all completing the series now, I will miss them.

Maybe David will email us our class picture and I'll post it right here.

Tomorrow is also my six year ADD (After Drunk Driver) anniversary.   I can not believe it has been six years.  In so many ways, it seems like just yesterday.  But the years, they keep slipping on by, and I need to get on out there and do the things I want.  Celebrate each day that I wake up and get out of bed by myself.  Then get on out there and do.  Do it today, so that the today's and tomorrow's do not turn into lost dreams.  Remember The Senator.  That I never saw in person even though it lived for 3500 + years less than 5 miles from our home.  I kept waiting for some more-improved tomorrow before I would venture down the unknown path by myself.

Good Reads!

Priceless Florida : Natural Ecosystems and Native Species

Florida's Living Beaches :  A Guide for the Curious Beachcomber : Blair and Dawn Witherington

Explore the West Coast National Marine Sanctuaries with Jean-Michel Cousteau

A Field Guide to Coastal Fishes From Maine to Texas :  Val Kells and Kent Carpenter

Sandhills, Swamps and Sea Islands : Environmental Guidebook to Northeast Florida:  Heather P. McCarthy and Lynn M. Lisenby