Japanese Knotweed Pie!

On Saturday morning I attended an invasive weed talk about the unfortunate prevalence of the non-native invasive plant variety known as Japanese Knotweed.  I learned a few important things, first that this stuff is really nasty and tough to get rid of, seriously seriously persistent (complete removal can take up to and often more than 5 years of concentrated efforts) and second, that it is edible, has a flavor comparable to rhubarb, and makes a mean piece of pie.  So naturally I had two immediate reactions: First, I should sign up for a site to try to do my part, and get rid of some of this stuff.  And then second, and perhaps more obvious, I should make a pie.

So today, first I walked the site that I "adopted" and learned that this time, I might have bitten off a bit more than I can chew.  This stuff is everywhere man, well maybe not everywhere, but where it is, there is a lot of it, and it's well established.  I walked the rail trail in Johnson today, from Parker and Stearn's just to the ball park, and in that short strip I found 4 large and established patches of Knotweed.  After that I checked down the bank at the back of the ball field, where the bank slopes down to the Lamoille River, and there I found a Knotweed forest the stretched almost the entire length of the park.  I don't have ARCGIS but I ripped off a little scrap of satellite photo from google maps (so thank you google, and please don't sue me!) and made myself a map of my little infestation, to help me keep track of what needs to be done (and maybe to recruit some volunteers...anyone wanna help?) so here's my map, complete with photo points, because I'm a dork, and I love this kind of thing and I haven't had the fortune of using this side of my brain in a long time!

(Click to enlarge)

Photo point 1: Patch of dried up stalks of last years knotweed (and plenty of hard to see new babies) on the rail trail facing Railroad Street and Parker and Stearn's

Photo point 2: Another patch on the side of the rail trail overlooking the park

Photo point 3: Patch of knotweed on the side of the rail trail abutting a private property.

Photo point 4: Patch covering both sides of the rail trail at the entrance to the park

And this ones not on the map, but its the patch from the last photo continuing along the drainage ditch on the other side of the road.

And finally, photo point 5: The bottom of the bank.

So there's that whole depressing story, hopefully I can do my part to cut these guys down to size.  Now on to more positive topics: Pie!  After my reconnaissance mission, I collected a few of these frightening looking stalks to bring home and clean and make a pie!  I used this fabulous recipe from Yankee magazine, which I of course edited slightly because I can't leave anything alone.  I used about 2 cups of peeled, chopped, knotweed, 2 to 2.5 cups of sliced strawberries, and one peeled, cored, and chopped pink lady apple (because it added extra volume, cut down on the strawberry costs, and allowed me to cut out a bit of the sugar) and here is a collection of photos of the resulting pie:

 

  Yummm!

And the hardest part of making this whole pie: not throwing the scraps in the compost (remember, these little buggers are invasive, and they'll invade your compost heap too!)  The pie was delicious, not as tart as rhubarb, a not unpleasing texture (I was concerned because the uncooked knotweed had it's "slimy" moments).  All in all I'd say it was a success!  

For more information about the problems associated with invasive weeds and best management practices for their removal, check out the Nature Conservancy's information page for Knotweed or their section on all of the Invasive Plants in Vermont.  And finally, a more comprehensive pdf of all of the different invasive plant species in Vermont is available here for free download.

On taking the FE and the importance of dog noses...

Big news:  My test, the massive, lengthy exam that has eaten up most of my free time for the better part of 2 months, for which I had to re-learn everything I learned in school 4 to 8 years ago and more, is now, as of Saturday, over and done!  This is fantastic!  Fabulous!  Wonderful!  This is freedom!  This is a little nerve-racking because I won't find out my score for up to 12 weeks, but at least it means the practice problems, review books, note-taking, and cramming is over for now; hopefully that means the math problem themed dreams will end too.  For the past week or so, I have spent my nights restlessly solving plume-dispersion equations, anaerobic digestor, and secondary clarifier problems in my sleep.  The night after my test I dreamt of struggling to solve questions that had been on the actual exam, and last night I dreamt of studying on some strange campus full of people that took the exam with me.

Last night was the most distressing dream of them all, because I was walking at night to a place to study and a friends dog had followed me.  In the dream the dog belonged to a friend that I knew, but don't know well in real life anymore.  While we were walking I kept trying to get the dog to go home, but she kept following me.  Just as we rounded a corner, a very big and angry looking dog came into view.  I tried to get my friends dog to come in another direction, but I was unsuccessful and the two dogs began to fight.  I was screaming and no one was around to help me, and right before my eyes the bigger street dog bit the nose off of my friends dog.  Now I don't just mean the little button nose on the end of a dog's snout, this dog removed the entire snout of my friend's dog.  I was screaming and crying and trying to get someone to help me, and people were just walking by, no one stopped to help.

That was a traumatizing dream, consequently I have spent almost the entirety of this beautiful (85 degrees...in April!) day worshiping my dog's intact nose.  I took her for a hike and watched her nose blow bubbles under water, watched it snuffle around in the leaves, and test the breeze for the scent of something to chase.  We brought a blanket outside and laid in the sunshine, she wiped her nose on my skirt and growled at some menacing leaves, and I just watched and appreciated her noggin in the sunshine.  It was a great day...and this is a great schnoz...

I've hit a wall.

I've had the wind knocked out of me.  I read my horoscope today and it told me this would happen, it literally said that the wind would be knocked out of me soon, but somehow I was still surprised.  I was at the dinner table with my folks, talking about my impending move and dreaming about purchasing a functioning stereo for my car, when I had the nerve to crunch some numbers.  Never a good idea, especially not when you've been keeping a blog called UNEMPLOYED in a small town for nearly 3 years now, but I plugged on, hoping I could find money in my budget to purchase an $89.99 stereo that would let me listen to my i-pod in my car.  What I found was this: I can't afford to leave home.

Lets briefly recap my life, for those of you know who don't know me well.  I graduated from college in 2008 with a degree in environmental engineering.  I turned down at least 2 standing job offers to join the Peace Corps because I "wanted to help people."  I moved to West Africa for 15 months, where I learned more from the experience than anyone learned from me, and was evacuated before my project got off the ground.  (It wasn't a complete loss though, my project inspired my local partners to continue with it even though I'm not there anymore...and I can say good morning in 5 languages!)  Evacuation from Peace Corps thrust me back into the now floundering US economy where I spent 6 months job hunting and eventually landed an AmeriCorps volunteer position that gave me the three things I thought I needed most in a job: student loan forbearance, health insurance, and a chance to pseudo-finish the 2-year volunteer commitment I had made to Peace Corps.  I did that for a year and had a fantastic time; I learned so much, I experienced so much, met so many great people, and I learned all about restoration and environmental conservation work and that went on to inspire me to alter my career goals from engineering to conservation and restoration.  After that I had an opportunity to drive back home to VT with a friend, and since I had no clear career plans where I was, I jumped at the chance to go on a two week road trip across the country with one of my best friends.  Half way home I decided I didn't really want to spend much time there, and neither did she, so she called in some favors and landed us a job in St. Thomas at a hotel.  Six months I lived down in paradise with some great friends and a decent job.  I enjoyed it a lot, but one thing that I struggled with and that eventually drove me to head home, was the lack of meaning.  I need to have a purpose, and I don't feel right unless I'm working toward something that I believe in.  So, once again, I packed my bags and headed for the frozen north, home to my folks, to regroup.  I've been at home since, working at a ski resort and trying to get my ducks back in a row.  I'm planning on staying here until my brother's wedding in June and then had fully planned on moving on, to something undoubtedly new and exciting and as of yet, undiscovered.

For four years now I have been a professional job seeker, adventurer, and often full time volunteer.  I have also been broke.  I never thought it mattered until tonight.  Money has never registered high on my list of priorities, I can live very cheaply when I need to and I am very proud of that.  Today though, I took a step back and looked at my life.  I'm 26 now.  I haven't been to a doctor, dentist, or eye doctor in over a year, I'm still wearing focus daily contacts that I bought a 6 month supply of 4 years ago and have made last until...now, I don't have glasses because I broke the pair I got before college a few years ago and haven't replaced them, I'm running in the same running shoes I bought 8 years ago, a lot of my clothes have holes in them, I wear leggings every day because I can't afford jeans, and there are at least 4 things wrong with my car that I'm just not going to fix.  My net worth, all I own, minus all I owe in student loans, is negative $20,000.

All of a sudden tonight, I realized that money does matter to me.  Not in the way that I thought it would either, the old clothes, beater car, and questionable optical practices don't bother me.  Mostly I just want to stop relying on the kindness of others to keep myself afloat.  I'm not a sponge, and I desperately want independence, because no one should have to pay for my choice to live this way but me.

I'm not ashamed to admit that I found myself crying in my pea soup at the dinner table tonight.  My poor parents, stunned to silence, just watched, with no idea what to say.  And what should they say?  We're sorry that you've selected this life for yourself?  We have let you live here rent free, utility free, even fed you, for the last 6 months (not to mention the first 18 years of your life), but is there anything else we can do?  We whole-heartedly supported you in all of your insane pipe dreams, we held our breath and our tongues when you boarded a plane for West Africa at 22, picked you up at the airport when you gave us 12 hours notice that you were being evacuated and would be on our doorstep the next day, we funded your road trip out on your random move to Cali for yet another volunteer job, we bailed you out when your shitty car crapped out on you in Cali, we sent care packages to you while you were playing in the virgin islands, and we STILL pay your cell phone bill, but how can we make this easier for you?

So when I put it like that I sound a bit ungrateful...but I think I have been a bit ungrateful.  It's not as though I'm irresponsible, I rarely ask for help when I'm not living at home, but I have taken this home for granted, and I have forgotten to be appropriately thankful for it. I have always had this place as my fall back, but I have forgotten to acknowledge how lucky I am to have that.  So tonight my horoscope has won, it said the wind would be knocked out of me and it was, but it also said I needed it.  It said that this would be a good thing, that I would learn from it and move on, no worse for the wear.  Well horoscope, I'm not usually a strong believer in what you have to say, but this week you hit the nail on the head.  I cried, I whined, I felt sorry for myself, I did all those things you are supposed to do when life slaps you in the face.  Now though, I know what my challenges are, I've had my setback, and I'm going to move forward, no worse for the wear.  I'm intelligent, I learn from my mistakes, I work hard, and there is no reason why I can't learn how to be a slightly more responsible version of myself.

So thank you, to everyone who has held me up, helped me out, and reminded me how lucky I am. Thank you to my parents, for doing all of those things, and listening to me whine about it all along the way.  Thank you to my brother, who has done so much for me over the years that I can't even begin to make it up to him.  Thank you to everyone who has ever been there for me when I needed them.  I am so lucky to have such wonderful people in my life, and I am so excited to get myself back on my feet and back out into the world, and to start paying back some of the favors that I owe.

I'm not giving up, I am going to move out.  I can't afford it now, but I'm going to make it affordable, because I'm an adult, and as tricky as it can seem, taking responsibility for your life is not impossible.  I'm going to take a deep breath, find a paying job to get me through the next few months, and then follow my dreams on my own dime.

“Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending.” -Maria Robinson

(this is a repeat photo, because sunrises just make me feel so empowered!) 

Thanks for listening...well...reading.  

April?!?!

Wow...where does the time go?  How is it April already?  I haven't updated this in a while...and not for lack of trying.  I have like 7 drafts started, I just really don't have much to say these days.  I'm at home, I've pretty much been laid off from work, I'm studying for the FE (which is in 5 days!  eeeeek!).  On a more interesting note, I have been playing with photography a bit, in some new fun ways.  Cory suggested the possibility of pursuing photography as a business, and so I have been playing with the kind of photography people might pay for.  There are, of course, some of the usual puppy portraits and landscapes to share:

 My nosey Josey...

Bella-butt

Sparkling mountain streams...

And beautiful secluded meadows.

But then I have also been playing with portraits and editing...and for now, the only model I have to play with is me.  Sooooo as much as I HATE self portraits, I came up with a couple today to edit and share for practice...soon I will be taking some of some other, more interesting people.  Until then, there's me.  

 Me, in color.

More me, less color.  

These would be better if I had Photoshop, but of course I don't at the moment.  Anyway, that is what I have been up to...cooking, eating, studying, sleeping, and always, taking pictures.  Soon I'll remove studying from the equation and add MOVING!  Not sure where, or even how, but I'm outta here!  Thanks for your patience with my lack of posts...more to come soon, just as soon as my test's overrrr and done!  <3 

humbled

Happy New Year friends!  I wish each and every one of you a fabulous and wonderful 2012, filled with happiness and adventures!  While I know that I should not focus on the negative, I have a bit of unloading today, but I promise I will end on a positive note.

I had a bad day at work today.  That is rare for me, but sometimes it happens.  I should explain that my vocation of the moment is hostess and bar tender at a family restaurant at a ski resort.  Today I was hosting and it went badly, not because we were overly busy or overly slow, not because of anyone in particular or any one thing; today was bad because a lot of factors were working against me.  I am over tired from working noon to 1am yesterday, and to make matters worse I spent my morning on a (much needed and well enjoyed) 2 hour hike straight up a mountain.  At work everyone was tired from the crazy holiday week we just worked and everything was that much more difficult because we were all feeling a little burnt out.  So there we all were putting on happy faces and greeting hungry customers while in our hearts we all just want to be in our beds having a quiet and relaxing Sunday night.

All of this, added to the fact that things were not as busy as they have been in the recent past, created a bit of negative energy in the dining room.  You see the hostess (myself on this lovely evening) is the one who determines who sits where, and ultimately which servers get tables and when.   Now if I make a mistake in my rotation, or if a group requests a different table than the one I have in mind, or if there are a lot of large parties that can't fit just anywhere, or if families don't want to sit in the pub, or if everyone wants to sit in the pub; all of that effects the flow of restaurant traffic.  And tonight that happened, I sat someone out of turn on accident, and then when I tried to seat the next server no one wanted to sit in the pub, people moved tables, we had several huge walk-in parties, and in the end the numbers were wildly uneven and several servers were very grumpy.

Grumpy servers have only one person to blame, because they can't blame the guests for wanting to sit elsewhere, and they can't blame their manager for putting them in one section or another, so they blame the host.  I remind myself frequently that it is not a personal attack, it is just a venting of frustration; but still at the end of the day, it hurts when it feels like someone is attacking your ability to perform your job.  When I left tonight I spent my 25 minute drive home reflecting on how the night went and I realized that being a host is a more difficult job than I had thought.  It seems so simple and straight forward but the happiness of not only the customers, but also the servers and even, at times, the kitchen, depends on how you do your job.  This realization was very humbling for me.  Hosting was supposed to be a cake walk for me.  It was supposed to be my easy job to fluff up my paychecks in between bartending shifts.  It has instead become the stressful half, and worse, I can justify that stress.

I'll just come right out and say it, tonight some servers made me feel like I am bad at my job - which hurts because I try so hard to be good and proper about how I distribute the tables.  I thought about it and decided that the servers just might not know how hard it is to tell people where to sit and expect them to stay put, and that in turn made me feel as though I could have at some point made someone else feel as though they were bad at their job because I had written their job off as easy when I didn't really know.  So here I am, humbled by the fact that I might not be the greatest at hosting but also learning that not all simple jobs are as simple as they seem.

It's a new year and I'm not going to make a resolution I can't keep like finishing my one photo peer day project or losing 10 pounds, but I do resolve this: I will do my best in 2012 (and beyond) to never criticize the performance of a person whose job might include complexities that I don't completely understand.  Everyone has their own hurtles and making someone feel small or inadequate is not going to help them perform better at work.  Kindness and understanding are infinite resources with much more power than many people have ever realized and I promise to be generous with both.

Happy 2012 everyone!

Taiwan and belated thanks givings...

Here I am, home again, after a whirlwind of adventure in Taiwan to celebrate the engagement of my brother, Cory, and his girlfriend (who is now his fiance!), Hsaio-Han.  I had a great time on my trip and I learned a lot about Taiwanese and Chinese culture, which I have had limited experience with in my adventures thus far.  We had many family meals with Hsiao-Han and her extended family, including lots of authentic Taiwanese food, Japanese food, Thai food, and more.  I continue to be blown away by the hospitality and generosity of each new culture that I experience.  I had a wonderful time getting to know everyone and was very glad for our gracious hosts who translated for us, showed us around, and right from day one, treated us like family.  We'll have some big shoes to fill this spring when it is our family's turn to host them.  It is customary in their culture for members of the family, such as uncles, aunts, and cousins, to want to treat the guests of their family members to a meal during their stay.  We were spoiled, truly spoiled, during this trip and when it was time to leave I had no words that were worthy of the thank you I wish that I had been able to articulate.

In my travels and adventures through life thus far I have seen families in Africa host friends and family members to the point that they could barely afford to feed themselves, go miles out of their way to walk me to work when they had only to walk half that distance to get to their own, give up their own plans to help keep me safe in mine.  In Taiwan I watched family help family by loaning an apartment for us to stay in, loaning our hosting family a van for our transportation, treating us to dinner, helping cart us all around, and most of all never making us feel like an imposition.  In Saint Thomas friends brought me fresh fruit and veggies while I was working the desk, gave me rides or allowed me to borrow a car to get anywhere I needed to go, treated me to many meals and drinks when money became tight for me, and generally appreciated and treated me like family, all by people I had known for all of a month (and also by Nicole, whom I have known and loved since we were assigned to be roommates freshman year in college...love you apple-bottom-whiskers!)  In California I was offered several different home-stays while searching for a place to live, I was picked up and put up by friends when my car broke down in the middle of the road, I was given rides and places to stay, taught the area and shown around by almost strangers just because I was new and had no one else to rely on.

Traveling never fails to remind me how lucky I am in all ways - I have fantastic parents who will take me in whenever I run low on money and want to live without rent for a bit.  I have fantastic family members who will get up at 4 am to drive us to the airport without batting an eye.  I have fantastic friends who have taken care of me so many times and in so many ways I don't even begin to know how to list them all.  I have had the opportunity and the freedom to go to college, get an education, find what I am good at and find what makes me happy.  I have the freedom to live at home and bar tend on the weekends for a few months in order to be able to turn down high paying jobs that bring in to question my moral values.  I have created a life for myself that allows me to move and travel and try new things whenever I want to, that has allowed me to find my passion, and to work my way towards it.  Sometimes I take that for granted, I try to reach beyond my means because I am so used to being caught before I fall, so its important that every once in a while I stop and take a look around and realize how much I have been given, and how much I should be thankful for.  This Thanksgiving I was on the opposite side of the world, so far removed from all the "normal" Thanksgiving traditions, and yet the day still managed to remind me to give thanks for all that I have.  So thank you, to my hosts, my family, my friends, and to everyone who has helped me along my way.  I know that I never hesitate to ask for help from friends and family when I need it and I hope none of you will ever hesitate to ask me for anything either.

Some pictures of my fabulous trip to Taiwan:

The Mother Land

So here I am, home again.  Back in Vermont for some R&R followed by who knows what...the world, once again, is my oyster.

I had a fantastic time in Florida, we went parasailing and watched dolphins play and got fake tattoos.  We visited the sponge docks (like little Greece!) where sponge harvesters collect sea sponges and hang them from their boats to bring in and sell.  We had lunch at a Greek restaurant that was DELICIOUS even if I did pronounce everything on the menu incorrectly.  We went out to see Footloose at the movie theater and I tried to wear Becky's high heels and failed miserably ("You look like a dinosaur!") and then got a little footloose myself and walked out of the theater barefoot.  The whole trip was amazing, I'm so glad I got to be there for Becky's birthday and hang out with her for a whole week!  I miss her terribly again already though...maybe I'll just have to move to Florida!

Next on the agenda after Florida was a night in Plattsburgh (my old stomping ground!) and I got to spend the day with Miss Jillian, whom I love dearly and really enjoyed seeing, but I wish I could have spent more time with her.  I met up with my lovely friend Jen in the evening and we met our other wanderful friend Merry out for dinner that night.  Then Jen, Merry, and myself attempted to do some dress shopping, I failed miserably but Merry, who had no occasion to buy a dress for at the time, found a beautiful red one that she HAD to get because it looked amazing on her and was on sale....so thus came about my formal Christmas party!  I'm going to have to throw a party this year so that she can wear her dress and I can wear mine, and hopefully so that I can see all my friends.  Plus, I can bake up a storm and we all know how much I love to bake!

Anywho, after Pburgh I headed back home to good old VT where I have been job hunting, semi unsuccessfully...yeah, I did get some positive responses, yeah, they are unpaid.  Why is it I can always land the jobs that don't pay but somehow can't get a well paying job for my life?!  You'd think with all my volunteer work I would have earned one by now...although I guess I did get one almost without trying and I pretty much turned it down because the good money is in the work I just can't see myself doing.  Case and point: oil field work.  Nope.  No thanks.  Not super interested.

So here I am, at home, taking pictures, baking bread, walkin dogs, applying to schools and jobs, and getting ready for a trip to Taiwan.  I'm so excited, this is going to be a blast!  And I get a sister (in-law) out of the whole deal so that's exciting...I've always wanted one of those!  Anyway here are some pics from VT so far, Taiwan pics coming soon (early December, when I get back!)

Full moon, long shutter speed, sweet tree!

Dog's head falls, where the dogs and I spent the 70 degree day we got this week.

Josey, cooling off after our 6 mile trek on the rail trail.

Rail Trail!

We've never been this far before, so many new places to explore!