Returning

"Did anyone visit Calypso last year?"

In my life I've had a few opportunities to visit places that I've loved and left. Leaving home for college and returning after graduation, visiting Cortona Italy with my family after high school and returning during my junior year of college study abroad, going back to DC for Obama's inauguration after graduating from George Washington University and currently my return to Calypso Farm to help with their fall field trips.

My first experiences in all of these places were ones of growth. Each place taught me about myself and the world around me. It is because of these initial moments that returning to these places feels like coming home. There is a familiarity with the culture, the surrounding environment, and old hang out spots. But in returning, I have found that I need to be aware of the changes that have happened since I left. Most times these changes are small, almost unnoticeable until looked at more closely.

These are the feelings I've been working through since arriving back at Calypso. Nevertheless the past few weeks in Alaska have been great. I have reconnected with the amazing Calypso community and hurtled myself back into the large, and sometimes hectic, field trip coordinating routine. The garden here is just past it's peak of production and large carrots, kale, potatoes, beets, lettuces, Brussels sprouts, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, zucchini, squash and more are being harvested. I am constantly amazed by the amount of produce and the variety of vegetables that can be grown together in one place.

I am also still learning new things about the Ester community. Last summer I discovered the gold mining operations in Ester gorge, and I saw the gold mining dredges. I knew that Ester had been founded by prospectors searching for gold during the gold rush. But last week, for the first time, I got to see a prospecting operation up close! Judy, a beloved Calypso volunteer, invited us to tour her husband's gold operation... right in their backyard! Judy and her husband are both retired from their full time jobs but her husband keeps busy following his own gold "vein" (as miners call the streaks of amethyst where gold can be found). The day we visited it was raining, but Bob brightened the dimness of the weather with his jovial explanation of how he found his "vein" and how one sorts through rocks and mud to pan for gold.

"you can't pan in the river, if you ever go panning in a river you know it's a fake operation. You gotta have a bin to catch anything that falls out. Then you can just re-pan instead of it flying off in the current."

Bob took us through the archeology of the site, how he found his vein, and the long... painstaking process of finding gold dust, gold nuggets and gold lines. He also explained how his operation is different from the big mining operations.

"if you're like the high school kids around here, you know that to pay for school all you have to do is go search through the old dredge piles."

Apparently, gold dredges are only built to sort for gold dust-anything bigger like a gold nugget the dredges toss out like a rock because nuggets are so rare to find. By running a small prospecting operation, Bob is able to catch all of the above.

As Fall rolls in and the trees change to yellow, I only have a month left in Alaska. I still don't know what will happen after I am done at Calypso. The uncertainty is exciting, but I am also fighting a slightly nervous feeling. I'll keep you all informed as I know more about my next steps.