Final week at United Plant Savers

Sunrise on my walk up to the yurt

Kind of speechless this time.. This internship officially ended this Thursday and I’m filled with emotions of all kinds as I type this. I’ve already said some goodbyes which was difficult, but I know have developed bonds that cannot be rivaled.  More about our final week as spring interns at United Plant Savers Goldenseal Sanctuary. 

Cave on Paul's Property 

Paul and his super cool saw mill

Monday was spent over at the neighbor Paul Neidhart’s place, he runs a custom saw mill here in the community, and actually used to work here at the Sanctuary in the 90’s in the early days of United Plant Savers (or maybe before UpS was founded?). We ordered some custom cuts of wood from him for the floating dock we’re going to build for Heart Pond, so it was time to pick them up! Paul’s property used to be a large medicinal plant distributor, so he has lots of beautiful acreage. He typically uses trees that have been affected by a pest, or disease, so the lumber we picked up from him was from salvaged Sassafras and Black Locust trees. We got to take a nice walk through his woods! Paul, being a saw miller, has sooo much knowledge, especially about the trees and fungus, but the local plant species in general. He’s got a great family too who we got to spend the morning with. We picked up our lumber and went back to the sanctuary to begin making measurements and cuts! After we did some basic measurements and straight line cutting, we were released! We went up to the pond and had a great afternoon! 

We spent the whole day building our dock on Tuesday! Black Locust is a really dense wood, so it was pretty difficult to get some of the pre-drilling done. But, we made it happen and once we got in our groove there was no stopping us! After lunch we were ready to measure and cut the decking! 

It Floats!!!

Wednesday morning came the task of getting the dock up to the pond. This was quite the feat, but we pulled it off! Strapped to the tractor bucket, and angled up, Chip hauled it up there, us following behind with the decking and barrels in his truck. We got it up to the right spot, attached the barrels with ratchet straps, and then it was time to test her out. We eased it down into the water….. AND IT FLOATS!! WOOOO!!!!!!!!

 The last part went quick- we nailed the sassafras deck boards down in the order we planned, then did some finishing sanding of the sides and corners! I am so proud of the work we did, and happy that this beautiful dock was completed quick and successfully. Glad to leave our mark on the sanctuary in the best possible way! If we had had this deck during our whole internship, we probably wouldn’t have gotten much done in the afternoons. Hahah. Lazy pond floating, sunning, and diving off the deck are the best!!!  We did see an Eastern Copperhead up at the pond Wednesday, pretty close to the entrance of the pond, but we let them have their space, and they paid us the same courtesy to us.

"Pose how you want to be remembered forever!" hahaha- We're all sooo Happy!

That afternoon we had our last get together with Bea Wood. She had us over to look at old pictures of this farm, and made a delicious cake for us!!! She is quite the character; she truly is everyone’s grandma around here. We talked a lot and got to see several old newspaper clippings about Equinox Botanicals, and a bunch of old photos of Big Lee, her family and Paul Strauss, the farm back in the day, and a bunch of hunting pics of her family from over the years! The Woods kids were really big into frog giggin, so her and I shared some stories about that the last time we visited, and she was sure excited to show me the frog giggin album!!!!! So cool. Great memories.

Bea Wood and Paul Strauss at UpS' groundbreaking- early 1990's

Thursday, the last day of our internship, snuck up on all of us so quickly. The feeling that morning was a little different, all of us thinking to ourselves, “Today is it? Over so soon? Can we just stay forever?”. Sappiness hidden behind excitement (since no one was leaving until this weekend), we got to take a tour of a local greenhouse and medicinal herb supplier Companion Plants in Athens that morning. They’ve got so much cool stuff!!! Mostly culinary herbs, and native medicinals, plus a few tropical plants you don’t see too often.

Most of their business is actually mail order, so that is good to know for when I want to attempt to get some of these beauties started back home in Texas! I did get some seed packs so we’ll see what happens with those!
Thursday afternoon we had our last few hours hearing stories from Paul Strauss! Lots of info about the reclamation of the strip mine sites, and what Meigs county was like back in the 70’s. Paul is the best story teller I’ve ever met, and has great insight on just about anything you can think of to ask him. We followed Paul home to pick up some stuff from him- some of his famous Golden Salve, his new book The Big Herbs, and an Equinox Botanicals t-shirt. Paul was happy to sign our books and write us all individual “Thank Yous” for keeping the Green Spark alive.  Thursday night we all went out to dinner as a group to spend some quality time as interns and mentors together before we all split off into our different directions. Our Executive Director, Susan Leopold, also came down for a few days this week and it was great to meet and talk with her! I feel like somewhat of a broken record, but these are some of the greatest people I’ve ever had the privilege to meet and befriend. I truly have made lifelong friendships during my time here. I love all these folks!!!

Interns with Chip, John, and Paul after our farewell dinner. Thanks for the pic, Susan!

Bittersweet Friday came and went. Some goodbyes were said that morning. We all reflected on the last few months, our journeys, where we came from, what we’re going back to, and what’s next. Reagan and I spent a great afternoon together, and did some swimming in the pond, and sharing of ideas. Her friends made their way down here from Maryland Friday night to pick her up. They all hung out all weekend and left Sunday morning. 

Saturday Bea Wood invited us over one last time before we left. She ordered several dozen donuts from the Amish family down the street, and made sure to send us home with some. The Wood family are such special people. They’ve seen a lot of changes on this property, and are happy to share stories about anything and everything you wanted to know! Including a red fox that Little Lee watched raise litters for several years on the property, breading and rehabilitating race horses, farming and gardening vegetables in the greenhouse to sell to locals, and eating delicious groundhog steaks, to name a few. We went up to the pond (of course) for a long afternoon in the water, and diving off the dock (!!!) and that evening another neighbor, Hank, invited us over to do a prairie walk! Hank used to run this place with sawmill Paul, and he's got so much knowledge, from botany, homesteading, construction, bee keeping, etc. So much amazing information to absorb, so little time!!! Hank and his beautiful kiddos showed us around their property, several different prairies, sheep grazing land, his pond, and their garden. Before we knew it the sun went down, it was dark, and when we got back to UpS it was after 10pm! What a great way to spend the evening! 

Dusk in Hank's Prairies

Reagan and her friends took off early Sunday morning, it was tough to start to say good bye, but I know we all hold a special space for each other. During a break I took from writing this post, Bailey and I took a long drive through the countryside, just drinking up as much as this scenery in as we could, and reminiscing on our time especially that which we got to spend with Paul. I’m not quite prepared to pry myself away yet, so I’ll be sticking around a few more days for some quiet time with nature and to ease myself out of these Appalachian foothills that I have fallen in love with. 

Some more photos from this past week are below.

Found some Oyster Mushrooms last Sunday while hiking off trail! So happy! Bailey and I went back on Monday to collect and cook them up!

When a tree falls- the canopy opens!

Decimation caused by the Emerald Ash Borer... Hope the Ash trees find a way to survive!!!

Tunnels in dead Ash tree by E.A.B. Larvae

Infamous Emerald Ash Borer. Everywhere :(

About to fly the coop! 

 Dock Construction:

It's coming together!

I want to keep building stuff!  

Frame is done! 

8' x 8' frame- Ready to hike up to the pond. 

IT FLOATS!!! as if there was any doubt. 

Finishing touches... 

We did it!!! Bye!

The prettiest thing I ever did see! 

Again, just for good measure. ;)

New Friend supervising the dock assembly. 

Thursday morning at Companion Plants:

Cute Sheep at Hanks <3 One day they'll be dinner! 

Sunset Sheep

New Friend, Willow. Can't wait to see my Behrs!!

First Day 5/2/16 (Hahah)

LAST DAY! 6/9/16 (Awwww)

Wow, we will never be the same after living these 6 weeks in this magical forest dreamland! Conservation has always been on my radar, and making plant medicine has been a hobby of mine for several years now, but moving forward after experiences like these, I don’t see how either could be anything less than a driving passion.

Big thank you to all of our instructors! I can't wait to apply the knowledge and some techniques I learned from you all in my everyday practice. We learned so much from each and every one of you, and thank you for taking the time to share your information with us! Big shout out to Chip, John, and Paul. You three put the cherry on top of this experience, never imagined how great this was going to be! Hope to see you all soon.

Thank you to my fellow interns, Reagan, Bailey, and Meredith. You ladies impacted my experience more thann I could have imagined. Love all you! 

 Thank YOU for reading! I will be back to reality soon, but for now I'm still devouring as much of this sanctuary as I can. I will be reflecting on this time, and thinking about my next move when I return to the real world. I do hope to keep this up, as long as I can find meaningful experiences to write about. If you have any blog topics you'd like to hear about, please let me know in the comments below, or email me at LindsBlends@gmail.com. I won't let up anytime soon, but once I get back to everyday life I could use all the encouragement I can get! 

Do you want to know more about interning with United Plant Savers or know someone who would love it? There are still a few spots open for the Fall Internship, click here to get more info.  You can also become a member of United Plant Savers for only $35 annually, if you are interested in ensuring that these valuable medicinal plants will be preserved for our grandchildren and our grandchildren's grandchildren, and exclusive rates at regional conferences, and access to this sanctuary! Click here to Join! 

-Lindsay