4th of July post!

Hello and happy Independence Day. First off, many apologies for the last post which contained an error of omission- NORAH!! Norah is with us and doing great as a member of Pokemon watch. My fault on that one, should have double-checked the name lists. Anyways, today's post is a joint effort by Bohe and Leilani. They'll be telling you about all the neat stuff we did at Horn Point the other day. Enjoy!

"At camp this morning we had it very rush-free, because today we didn't have to go on the boat. We woke up later than usual, because we had no tents to take down or sleeping bags to be rolled up. This morning we had chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast. Then we left to go to the oyster lab.

Oysters! Woo hoo! Two days ago, we traveled to Horn Point on the Chesapeake Bay. We visited the Horn Point oyster research lab and helped the manager, Stephanie Alexander. The staff allowed us to watch the oysters while they were spawning and gave us tours of the lab. Then they made us work. First, we made shell bags. This task consisted of: pulling apart 50 little black plastic nets, filling them with empty oyster shells, and twisting these bags to throw them onto a crate. In order to make this chore somewhat fun, the LCF staff, along with Stephanie, turned the whole event into a race between the two watches, the Titans and Pokemon. Titans won, but everybody had fun.

When we came back we had grilled cheese for lunch and went back to the afternoon shift.

After lunch, the whole group trudged up to the lab again and we scrubbed. We scrubbed oysters and we scrubbed a filthy, muddy, stinking tub of oyster droppings. We ended the day by watching the fruits of our labor. Our shell bags became the homes of the new larvae on its way to becoming spat, or oysters that have permanently attached themselves to something. The CTY shell bags, created with sweat and breaking backs, gave these little helpless oysters a chance to live.

We came back after the second shift at the lab dirty, hot, and exhausted. We went to the nearest point of sand on the water and went for a long afternoon swim. We came back to camp and played some games, including wiffle ball and a fun game of Mafia. We had a dinner of chili stew. After dinner James rounded us up and we had a conversation about our highs and lows of the day. After discussing our highs and lows we were introduced to the final project that ties everything together. We are going to have to do a skit in groups. The choices are 18th century oyster dredging, 19th century dredging and present-day dredging along with things that endanger oysters. We have to explain about how oyster dredging affects the bay and how it has progressed over time. We had a great day today and look forward to another tomorrow."

- Leilani and Bohe


Thank you for reading, and thanks to Bohe and Leilani for a great post. Over and out! Tune in again to hear about our trip to St. Michael's!

-Jordan