Workamping

Just Another Day On The Job

May 9, 2011 Karen 3 Comments

Today was my first day of work for the season. We did the usual stuff–saying hello to everyone that came back from last year, meeting the new people, telling what we did on vacation. (or in this case, over the winter). The weather up here at the North Rim has been sunny and gorgeous every day since FabGrandpa and I arrived back on April 25. But today? It snowed!

snow at the north rim — Snow at the North Rim

Can’t tell much from that photo, but it did snow, off and on, all day. It was cold out there, too. Walking back and forth from the RV to the fee office was a brisk adventure.

I got mail today, too. Lots of it. Bills, magazines, and Mother’s Day cards from the girls and Seth. And these loverly socks that Becca knitted just for me:

hand knitted socks — My loverly new socks

Does that girl take after her mama or what? Look at that cabling–she is one smart cookie!

In the afternoon, one of my co-workers and I walked over to the emergency services building to pick up the golf carts that belong in the campground. They weren’t charged up, so we plugged them in and walked back. While it was sort of chilly out, and snowing, I really need to get out and walk more. Don’t know that I will do that again tomorrow, but for today, yeah.

Tonight, I made some home made gluten free banana muffins to take to class in the morning. There are two of us who can’t eat wheat. Today, someone brought biscotti to eat with the coffee, which we couldn’t have. So, tomorrow, we’ll have something, too.

banana gluten free muffins — Gluten Free Banana Muffins

You know, when something like that happens, the person who brought the goodies always feels like they need to apologize to me (and others) because I can’t eat whatever they brought. The way I see it, is that I am the one with the special diet, so it is up to ME to make sure I have something to eat at times like that. It is MY responsibility to make something to take. I always share whatever I have, because most times it is good, even if it IS gluten free, and I can let my friends and co-workers see that I am not being deprived because I have to eat something different. Something that is not doughnuts or biscotti. And this recipe is so easy and quick to make.

Pamela’s Muffins

1 1/4 cup Pamela’s Baking & Pancake Mix

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 cup sugar

1 banana, mashed.

1/4 cup water

Mix all ingredients well, spoon into a muffin pan, bake for 22 minutes at 350 degrees. Done, and it makes 6 muffins.

Tomorrow, we’ll have a goodie too, to go along with that B.O.R.I.N.G training.

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What Makes People Do This?

February 28, 2011 Karen 3 Comments

volunteer on public lands — A truck load of trash

Last week Rob and Belinda (the other camphost couple here at Payne Lake) and FabGrandpa and I went over to the shooting range on the other side of the county for a clean up day. This shooting range is on Forest Service property, and has no use fee. People can just go there and shoot at targets.

Joe, the resource manager was there too, so there were a total of five of us working. We picked up FOUR truckloads of trash from this property, that was maybe 1.5 to 2 acres in size. Joe said the last time they had a clean up day there was two months ago. Now, I know that this place is probably used mostly by hunters, but what does this say about the people who live in this area? I just don’t understand why they feel like they can just trash the place. It is public land, and belongs to all of us. Shouldn’t we ALL do our best to keep it clean?

volunteer clean up day — Another truck load of trash

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Just Another Day At The North Rim

June 23, 2010 Karen 2 Comments

Yesterday was my project day, and since there was nothing to do in the office, I took a drive up to Point Imperial and Cape Royal. The drive up was gorgeous, as usual.

DSCN4347 — The fork in the road: turn right to get to Cape Royal, turn left to get to Point Imperial.

DSCN4342 — Still on the way to Point Imperial.

When I got there, my objective was to walk around and talk to the visitors there. They always have questions, and if I can answer them, I do. Yesterday, everyone wanted to know about the fire in Flagstaff. Point Imperial is one of the most visited viewpoints at the North Rim. I can see why:

After about an hour or so, I left, and headed out towards Cape Royal. I wanted to go to the geology talk given by the Interpretive Ranger up there–it started at 2:30. I had enough time to stop by Greenland Lake. Greenland Lake is the only “lake” here. It is created by melting snow. By August, it will be dried up until next spring.

While I was at Greenland Lake, the battery in my camera died, so I was not able to take any more pictures. But I continued on to Cape Royal, and met up with Ranger Gaelyn. Even though this is my third season working here, I have not ever made it to the geology talk. I usually have other duties and don’t have time to go. She did a fabulous job of explaining how the Grand Canyon was formed. Next time you got to a national park, make a point of going to the Ranger Programs.

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New Old Friends Visit

May 24, 2010 Karen 3 Comments

I have been friends online with Marcie for quite some time. I found out over the winter that she and her husband were going to be working in Kanab, Utah this summer. So, the first time we went down there, I stopped in one of the places that hires workampers and inquired if she worked there, since I couldn’t remember exactly where they would be working.

They didn’t work at that particular location, but the woman who did knew her, because all the workampers who work in Kanab stay at the same RV park. So, I left my business card, and asked that Marcie call me. The next week, she did–they were coming up to the North Rim to see the Grand Canyon, and we made arrangements for them to meet me at my duty station.

It is always so fun to meet the faces behind the online names, and this time was no exception. Marcie was fun, and nice, and just what I expected her to be. She brought along Chris, who I had run into online some, too. She was just as nice and friendly as Marcie. What a treat on a workday to meet such nice people in person!

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OHHH, My Aching Feet, or The Park Opened Yesterday…

May 16, 2010 Karen 5 Comments

I spent last week in training for 4 days, or in powerpoint hell, whichever way you look at it. A lot of the material we covered was refresher, some was new, but I can’t really say it was interesting. On the last day, Friday, we went out to the entrance station to practice doing transactions and making sure we had all the forms and equipment we needed for opening day. We encountered a mini-blizzard–NOT the ice cream kind, either. Mother Nature decided to bless us with another inch or so of snow. It was quite pretty coming down, but rather cold.

Friday was also dress rehearsal for us. We had to get our uniforms out of storage, brush off the hats, and try on those new boots. I had bought some insoles for my boots, because the last pair of boots I had needed them to be comfortable. I found out that this new pair doesn’t need them, because my feet STILL hurt from that first day. I took the insoles out that night, and the boots are good to go without them. The only other little problem I had was that I discovered I had eaten way too much catfish over the winter–I could barely button my pants. What was I thinking???

So you might ask why I go through the boring training, the snow until July, and the too tight pants? Because this is my commute: I walk about a half a mile through aspens and ponderosa pine forest to get to my job. It beats the heck out of 37 miles one way on I-285 any day of the week!

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And The Winner Is…

February 6, 2008 Karen 3 Comments

Jim and I have been looking for our next job since before Thanksgiving. It is not an easy task, let me tell you. We first have to decide where we want to go, then decide on a second choice of place to go. Then we look at all the places where campground jobs are posted that we know of:

Workamper News, a magazine to which we have a subscription
Coolworks a website dedicated to cool seasonal jobs
Happy Vagabonds, another website that has listings for jobs in campgrounds
Work@KOA, which is exactly what it sounds like

There are many more, but these are the main ones I use. Anyway, this year, we wanted to go to Arizona or Colorado, but it has not worked out that way. None of the job offers we got had enough money attached to even consider. So, even though it was our second choice, after everything has been said and done, we have decided to go to work at Water’s Edge Campground at Table Rock Lake in Kimberling, Missouri.

We have never been to Missouri, except to drive through it once when we were making a delivery to Cedar Rapids, Iowa back when we were driving for a living. But, from the pictures of this place, it looks beautiful. And, my friend Wanda says she has been there and it is very lovely. Now, I have to get online and find out where all the farms are so I can start planning my days off!

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It Must Be Karma

December 31, 2007 Karen 3 Comments

We have been planning to go to Alabama to a National Forest Service campground to work as volunteers for some time now. We have had this planned for months, and even confirmed with them last week. The only thing is, we got an email from the volunteer coordinator at Payne Lake telling us that we would either have a site with water and electricity but no sewer, OR a site with sewer and electricity but no water. We have been trying to decide for a couple of weeks which would be easiest to handle.

In the meantime, Jim’s Mom called and asked us to come up to Unicoi State Park for a little while to be close to them. Unicoi is the park where we have volunteered for the last two winters, in north Georgia, in the mountains. Since we have been there before, we know what the volunteer responsibilites are so it wouldn’t be hard for us to do it again. But, the day that Jim’s Mom called, I hung up from talking to her and called the volunteer resource contact at Unicoi and reached her voice mail. Since we had not heard back from them we just assumed they didn’t have a need or a space for us there. We were both wanting to go to Alabama, but also wanting to go to Unicoi because that would be the right thing for us to do.

Today, we got a call from Unicoi saying that they do have a volunteer space for us. And Ellen, the resource person, said that even though she has had other people call wanting to volunteer, we were her first choice, since we had been there before. So, tomorrow we will be going back up to Unicoi until the end of March.

Now, the karma part. We have been applying for jobs out west since before Thanksgiving, and had not heard back from anyone. Not ONE. Until about 10 minutes after we agreed to go to Unicoi. Then, the phone rang and it was a park near Bryce Canyon in Utah. As soon as the man started telling me they were “very interested in hiring us” I told him that we had had a change in our plans since I sent the application last week. We would not be able to come the first week of March because we had just committed to someone until the end of March. And he said, “That is even better for us, because we don’t need you until the first week of April” Is that Karma or what?? We don’t have a confirmed job yet, but we are closer than we were before that phone call. As soon as we get a firm offer, I will post a link to the place. It is gorgeous!

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I’m Working With Teens, Ya’ll!

April 15, 2007 Karen 4 Comments

In my working career, the only time I have had the pleasure of working with teenagers is when I was one, it seems like a hundred years ago. Until now, that is. The job I have this summer at the campground is offically called Night Shift Supervisor. All that means is that I am the only adult working until closing time.

I have been on this job for a little over a month now. Until Friday night, all was going well. The young people who have been on the job with me have all been very mature and concientious about their work, and very pleasant to be around. But, as we all know, there is always that one person in every bunch who will try our patience, no matter what age they are. So, let me introduce my PITA for this season.

Let’s call her, oh, Kelly, just for the sake of giving her a name. She is seventeen years old. She was hired to run the register at the candy counter, which we have in an attempt to keep the flood of sugar hungry kids away from the front desk during check-in time on Friday nights. This was her first week on the job here.

She is a friendly girl, but she probably told me sixty times how “cute” my accent is. I am a fifty four year old grandma from Georgia, working in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Yes, I do have a very accute southern accent, with a long drawl, which I can not help because I spent fifty years living in the south. But I do not like to be singled out for the way I sound. I find it rather embarassing when people point it out. And it could have possibly been the way she said what she said that offended me. And, it might possibly be because of the fact that this is the first time in my life that I have been north of the Mason-Dixon line, and in a place where the Union Army won a major battle in the Civil War. I kind of stand out here ANYWAY. It’s not that I am trying to hide the fact that I am from the south, but I am not so sure I want it pointed out to everyone.

The first time Kelly made a comment about my accent, I very graciously thanked her, and told her I liked HER accent, too. The second time, I told her, “Oh, honey, I don’t have an accent–YOU do.” Which usually works with other people. Usually, other people get it when I say that, but this girl kept up with the remarks about my accent all night long. Every time I had a customer at the front desk and had to speak to them in the course of the transaction, she would say something about the way I sound when I talk. It was very distracting, because I had to go through all the baloney about the southern thing with every person who came in that night. After a while, I just ignored her, but it did not stop her from doing it.

I am trying to think of a nice and proper response to give this young lady next week when she comes to work and starts this up again. I personally think it is rude to point out peoples differences, even if it is such an obvious one such as my dripping sugar accent, maybe especially if it is. I have tried to NOT sound the way I sound, but why should I have to? And, if I were Kelly, and my Night Shift Supervisor had asked me very kindly several times to knock it off, I would have.

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