Lightning, Coyote, and Tadpoles

Last night there was an impressive thunderstorm over the battlefield. It hit around 11:30pm and lasted more than an hour. The lightning strikes were both bright and very close to quarters. I briefly contemplated doing as the radio advised and moving the the lower floor of the house, but decided I was too tired to worry about my safety and went back to sleep. The fact that I did not die justifies that decision I think.

This morning on my ride to work I noticed what I first thought to be a gray fox but soon realized it to be a coyote. He had just crossed the tour road when I spotted him and was jogging through the trees and deeper into the pine woods off to my right. He looked fat and content like he was out for a morning jog.

I spent the rest of the morning looking at the ground of a school near Williamsburg that wants to get a grant from the federal government for a school yard habitat. My supervisor and I were dispatched to give them the initial forms, look over the grounds, and advise them on the next steps. The school is new and huge. There are already two ponds nearby full of very large tadpoles and noisy frogs. Its a great site for a habitat project.   

Money

The park service, as part of my reward for working here this summer, has given me $450 to spend for things I will use in class to teach about the Civil War. Yesterday I spent my entire day in the office trying to decide how best to spend that money. The first part of spending federal funds is to allocate the money and having the allocation approved. I succeeded in allocating all $450 and filled out the proper forms. Once the forms are signed by my supervisor's supervisor I'll actually be able to order the stuff.

I'll only give one hint about what I bought.

Appomattox and Farmville

Today I left early in the morning to visit Appomattox Court House National Historic Park where Gen. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia surrendered to Gen. Grant's Army of the Potomac after being forced to abandon Petersburg and Richmond. The morning was very rainy as I drove out, but about the time I reached Appomattox the weather improved just enough to allow me to wander around what has been preserved and restored from the little town that existed there in 1865. The McLean House, where the terms of surrender were officially signed, has been entirely rebuilt and was very interesting to wander around. The park rangers there were happy to see me since they'd had very few visitors and I availed myself of the opportunity to ask a lot of questions about famous people I knew to be present at the surrender. I spent a very happy, if damp, two hours wandering around and poking my head into the two dozen or so restored/preserved buildings. My favorite was the general store. Shelves lined with interesting bottles, boxes, and tools I had no idea how to use. The whole building had the agreeable smell of leather, oil, and packing sawdust. Browsing around the store I could almost imagine I had stepped into the 1860's and was looking for a sack of corn meal and replacement ax handle.

As I left the rain stopped entirely. I am now in the little town of Farmville (yes, its a real place) and I am having drink at a small coffeeshop/bookstore. Farmville seems a pleasant little town and definitely more interesting to wander around than old town Petersburg. In a few minutes I'm going to wander around and see what's here worth seeing now that the sun is starting to drive away the clouds.

I haven't seen anything remotely like this.

The Crater

Yesterday was the 147th anniversary of the Battle of the Crater,  during which the 48th Pennsylvania regiment exploded a mine underneath of Confederate forces at Elliot's Salient. The destruction of the fort was complete and presented a great opportunity for Union forces to take Petersburg. The attack that followed the explosion was mismanaged however and the day turned into a Union defeat.

To mark the day Petersburg had a regiment of reenactors at the sight. They conducted drills and artillery demonstrations. It was a nice hot day so quite a few people visited the park and the Crater in particular.

Entrance to the mine tunnel. The mine was a feat of engineering
that many Union commanders thought impossible at the time.

Infantry company giving a rifle demonstration.

Two Weeks

As of last night I have two weeks left at Petersburg. I'm also going to be a little more lonely for that time. M., who has spent the last two weeks here, headed back home to Pittsburgh yesterday evening. This makes me even more ready to head home when my time here is over. In addition Madeline, my housemate left yesterday since her volunteer internship was over. All of Quarters #34 is now empty except for me. I expect I might start visiting Merlin more often just for some company.

While M was here we did take a trip to City Point so I could work on a geocaching project I'm developing for the park. While regular geocaches are not allowed on park ground EarthCaches are. EarthCaches note places of geological interest and ask visitors to follow their GPS to a location and answer questions about it. Look here for more info on Geocaching and here for EarthCaches. One of the locations I'm working on has invasive rocks from Europe on the shore of the James river at City Point.

Flint Nodules

 The picture above shows flint nodules. They were brought over from Europe on ships bound for the British settlements along the James River. They were used as ballast in those ships to keep them upright and stable during the Atlantic crossing. When the ships arrived in Virginia they loaded up with goods like lumber and tobacco and had no room or need for the ballast, which they dropped into the river. Flint like this is rare in the eastern United States, but the shoreline along the City Point portion of Petersburg Battlefield is littered with such stones.

Hotter than car full of Chili Cook-off Judges

The heat is back. Oddly enough I think I'm beginning to get used to it. heat index readings up near 110 degrees are becoming somewhat commonplace. Yes, it is hot,but as long as I don't do anything too foolhardy I survive just fine. Drinking a lot of water is key. Already today I've had about five pints of water and will probably drink another four this afternoon.

The heat does seem to cut down on unnecessary movement. Even the wildlife at the park are silent and motionless starting around midday until close to 4:30pm.

Ticks

I have learned way too much about ticks this summer. I already knew about dog ticks and deer ticks but evidently there are more varieties down here in Virginia and all of them want nothing more than to latch on to me and perhaps give me lime disease. Among the many type of tick to be found here in Virginia are the very small and sneaky seed ticks and sand ticks. These are almost impossible to detect except by a severe itching where ever they have happened to get hold of a person. Evidently this is a bad year for ticks and they are everywhere. We spray the campers down with bug spray every day before leaving the building. Still some of them come back with clinging pests. I've picked, brushed, and scraped about six or seven ticks off myself since the summer started and I'm usually very careful about where I go and how often I use bug repellent (lemongrass - environmentally safe). I know three people on staff here who have had lime disease recently and one more who has it now. I mention all this now because the kids today went on a scavenger hunt and went into the forest. As always a few of them came back with ticks.