Day 2 (visiting the Spokane fishery and playing in the dirt)

 Day 2.

My morning stared at 5:30, I woke up earlier than our wake-up time to avoid being woken up and to take a morning shower, I didn't take a shower I was too tired. I was up and ready to go for the day, we had a quick breakfast and packed our lunches for the day. After lunches were set we all did our morning chores, mine were dishes.

After camp was clean, we made way for the Spokane wildlife fishery. We arrived around 8 and did a quick lesson on the salmon life cycle. Along with the quick lesson we were shown a fun activity for the kids, we were making bracelets. I love making bead bracelets, it's something I do on my free time a lot, but I call them Kandi. We moved over to our station when the buses started arriving. Our activity was to teach the kids about the 7 stages of the salmon cycle (Eggs, alevin, fry, parr, smolt, marine adult, and spawning adult), while making a bracelet that shows the cycle. We started our booth at 9:30, it was so fun connecting with the kids and helping them make/ tie their bracelets.

We took our lunch break at 11-11:30, and right after we took a fun tour of the fishery. I got to see so many different salmon in early stages and we were shown different machines that would sort the fishes by sizes.

we got to look inside of their lab and saw the machines that filter the fish by putting them through a mock stream and then filter them by size.

After that we got to see the fish swimming in tanks separated by sizes.

We returned to our station at 12:00, connected with the rest of the kids and helped with more bracelets. I love making these bracelets and is a fun fidget for me, so I ended up making extras for the kids that run out of time or break theirs. I love children, they're so cute and full of fun and innocence, I talked to a few kids about games🎮, a little girl told me about a pride fair💪😤, and another kid mention he would be going to California ... because his parents are divorced and his mom was going to pick him up 😭. The kids were definitely my highlight of day 2 😂, I just love the blunt things that kids say they're so funny.

We took our leave around 1:30, did a quick stop at the grocery store for a slushy after hot day. We took a quick break and then began our field study on soil moisture. The goal was to collect 6 samples of soil using a soil auger, 3 from a shaded area, and 3 from a non-shaded area. in theory this was simple experiment however our terrain said otherwise. The area we were limited to was filled with roots and rocks blocking right where the good stuff was 😭😭😭. After long treacherous hours of fighting the elements (like an hour out in the field). It was feeling a little frustrating with all the terrain issues and the step on my soil auger would loosen up from all the bumping into roots and rocks. ultimately after lots of trial and error and helpful advice from my peers I was able to get my samples💪😤. After that I had to test the soil with a thermometer and returned to camp.

[insert soil auger picture]

when we returned Jessica told us we had to speed up the process and get our samples finished up because we had to start prepping for dinner in less than an hour. doing the math that about 1.23 minutes per sample if everyone does it at the exact same speed, but with proper sequencing all 7 of us we were able to finish weighing and storing our samples into containers in quantities of 50 grams and stir them with 30 ml of water with a limited workspace and one scale 💪😤. And we finished with time to spare.

For lunch we had chicken alfredo pasta, and although I felt too exhausted to eat the food was amazing. After lunch we all decided to do our chores before it got too late because if we're just going to relax then have to get up for chores, we may as well just do them now and then enjoy the rest of our daylight. After a long humbling dishwashing session, I got to take a shower, make a call to some loved ones at home and finished it off with completely random group hang out where we watched some anime and played card games.