Life of a Go-Getter

Howdy!!
  This week I feel like I have been super productive, on the go, and more social!  It feels great!  I think I was kind of getting into a slump where I worked, went home, cooked, watch TV, slept and worked again.  While I need that some nights, it should not be every night.  So lately I've been trying to break that rut!

I've gotten into a lovely Tuesday habit of hiking the dunes with my girlfriend.  This has been a great Tuesday evening activity to not only get me outside, but off my butt from working all day.  It has also been leaving me with nice endorphins to get through the rest of the week! It is so nice to have a friend to work out with, to get outside, and best of all to get the best views of Lake Michigan once I've reached the top of that big dune that winded me!  My calves are sore from yesterday... :)

Since I moved to a new location, I've been dreading moving all or some of my doctors to my new area.  But this morning when I threw out my old contacts and realized I only had one right one left in my cabinet, I reached a limit.  I can't wear my glasses to a huge rock concert Saturday, they might fall and break or get lost!  I need contacts for my concert Saturday! Crap!! so I first whined to my mom, but quickly realized I wouldn't be in Kalamazoo to get them from her before the show.  So I sucked it up, called the Niles office of my eye Doctor and they let me pick up one contact for each eye and make a new appointment for my annual eye review.  While in the calling doctors office mood, I also called a general doctor's office in Niles and started that process of getting my medical records transferred.  Mind you, my last normal Dr. was a pediatrician... that is how long it has been since I've been in for a check up....

The training i drove to in Lansing today is soooo cool!  I'm so excited to try out what I've learned.  A colleague and I drove to the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality in Lansing for a few hours GIS mapping lessons.  After only those few hours of training, I can now do what normally we have to pay someone to do with maps!  I can't wait to put it into action by creating maps of our conservation easements and preserves, or create maps to help us plan what properties we want to protect by picking out certain features of the data and mapping that.   This will help our little organization out immensely!! and it is also a really good skill for me to have acquired!  People respond more to maps than to hard data or statistics.  Something about the visual appeal and its spread through an area is so powerful to the human brain.  I can't wait to organize the data the FWS and DEQ had gathered to move people to see the importance of my work!!

besides cooking a fabulous dinner (I will post on that next), tonight was more me re cooperating from over 5 hours in the car today and my butt kicking and toning yesterday.  I hope this can inspire someone to get some things off their checklist done that may have been procrastinated!  It feels amazing and gives me momentum to get more off that list done!

Take Care!
<3 Sue

El Nuevo Ano!

Happy New Year to all my followers and readers!!
I'm not big on resolutions, although I do think they are a good thing for people to do, if they actually stick with it. I fall more into the school of thought that I don't need 1 day a year to set goals to improve myself.  But if you have resolutions, more power to you and I'd love to hear them!
There is, however, something I have been wishing for for the past few months.  Usually it shows up in this area around this time of year but for some reason the weather does not want to deliver my wish.  I am  one of those "snow lovers"  a rare breed of people who love the cold, the snow and all the fun activities that come with it!
Yes, I got snow on Jan. 2nd!  Up at my lake house in northern MI we got about 8 inches. unfortunately i was leaving to drive back to southern MI the same day and didn't get to ski, but I did get to run around in it, play in it and  watch it fall!

This is the view of it from the back door of our cottage!!! It started snowing on Jan. 1 at night!  So my sister her boyfriend and I went for a walk!

This is how covered I was during that walk!  Still hugging trees of course!

Then the next day I had to leave but snapped a few stunners!

Gorgeous stuff!
So now my tiny new car is LOADED up with ice skates, cross country skiis and my snowboard.  I'm ready at the drop of a hat to do some sort of activity, only it will all melt on Thursday :(

Hopefully we get slammed again soon!

Tonight my school plays football!  I'm heading over to the local bar right now to watch it since I don't get it on my rabbit ears...
GO BLUE!

Hope everyone is having as lovely a new year as they hoped for!  Keep up the positive energy and enthusiasm this year!

<3 Suz

First Snow!

I always look forward to the first snow of the year!  this year it was a little later than most, because we usually have at least one snow in October!  That was not the case this year!  This is from today, Nov. 10th and I would run outside practically every time snow started falling from the sky!  Each time, my co workers would moan about how its already snowing!  This picture, for instance was taken with me outside and my co-worker inside.

Some might call me cold, but I always have said if you don't like winter, then by all means leave Michigan and quit complaining!  The season's are one of the best attributes of the area, besides all the water!

I'm fighting off a cold I got at the beginning of last week...tonight might be the hardest to sleep because all the mucus is draining causing me to cough a lot... I've been living off dayquil, vitamin D3 and tea with some white licorice in it!

I had a lovely weekend last weekend with a lot of great people, as busy as I was!  Wish I could give more details, but not enough time and I'm trying to keep my uber personal life out of this.  

BUT I did cook an amazing meal and I would love to share it since it is also in season!

stuffed acorn squash!!!

cut an acorn squash in half, scoop seeds and guts out and make the holes nice and sizeable!   

In a mixing bowl mix up a stuffing of your choice, below is my stuffing but you have a lot of wiggle room to change vegetables or grains!

couscous

Zucchini

1 egg

onion

minced garlic

dried cherries

salt, pepper, parsley sage

Once you have the perfect stuffing mixed, put it into each hole of the acorn squash!  Bake at 375 in a making pan with water in the bottom and/or brush butter on the exposed acorn squash.  Both these techniques prevent the squash from getting too dry.  It needs to bake for about an hour.  then, enjoy!  I put cheese on the top of mine after it baked for 30 minutes and it added a nice crunchy topping!!

Until next time!

Wrapped up in Fall!

   I've been so wrapped up in fall and integrating myself into my new community, I've hardly had time to talk about it!  I am in one of the best locations for fall, like I've been preaching all summer, due to my location.  I am in a great area to easily obtain local, fresh food!  Last week, to get my pumpkins, I drove about 10 minutes out of my way home from work and stopped at a patch.  I also grabbed some acorn squash, butternut squash for good seasonal cooking!
Tonight I finally carved those pumpkins as a self Halloween celebration, then roasted the seeds my favorite way and made a facial mask with the guts!  Talk about multiple usage of a product!  Also all the ingredients in my home made face mask were from within 100 miles!  I must say, my face does feel soft, but having a food processor would have made the mask more applicable and less messy. Here are the ingredients I used:
Pumpkin
honey
apple cider
milk
an egg
using mainly pumpkin put all ingredients in a food processor and blend,  get it to a think enough texture to apply it to your face without it running.  Leave it on for about 20-25 minutes (or longer if you want) until it is dry, then just wash your face!

Try it, let me know what you think.

This weekend I'll be experimenting with the acorn squash and stuffing it.  Similar concept as stuffing a pepper, but a co worker was telling me about it and just cut it in half and mix up rice and whatever else you want in it then put some cheese on top and bake it!  Yumm! I'll let you know what I find!

On a not to local food note, I bought a harder goat's cheese at Zingerman's in Ann Arbor that I am ecstatic about to pair with a pinot noir that a colleagues son made.   The cheese is from Spain, but well worth the travel....
Last weekend I finally made it to Ann Arbor!!! I miss Ann Arbor desperately and the amazing friends and family who live there!  I will need to be going back more often!  My Halloween costume from Saturday is far superior to my Friday costume.  See picture below.  I hope you can see that I was some sort of abstract, exotic bird

 Below is my flapper costume with my good friends from my dorm hall freshman year!  Love them all!

 Billy and I went to the football game!!! Go Blue!

 If you are easily offended, do not look at this picture of my friends' costumes!  This is me with some of my amazing friends from Nicaragua trip!  Love you all! including those not pictured!

 Billy and John were Zombies for Halloween.  They look super creepy and amazing!

Home Sweet Home!

Holy cow!  literally... I know it has been soo long since I have blogged, but you might have known that I was moving!  And all of you know how time consuming moving is... especially when it is to your first unfurnished apartment!  and yes, it was a community effort to make my apartment comfortable for me!  for this I would like to personally and publicly thank Chris Thompson, Peg Kohring, George Lucas, Grandma Sue, and of course, my fabulous parents!  all of these people helped me to make this apartment a home, and I'm such a home body that it was crucial to me to make myself a home.  Pictures are not yet up... except of my Michigan bathroom, but once I am finished decorating and cleaning, I will show everyone my quaint yet guest ready apartment!
 Saturday was our benefit for work at Middlebrook farm, a local farm that raises grass fed beef!  This event also contributed to my delinquent blogging.... but boy was it great!  and this event is what I was holy cow-ing!  The cows were soo cute, see the picture below!

Today I got a new computer at work!  I'm really excited because it is a large screen so that I can make better maps and see them a lot better!  My GIS seminar with DEQ was great and now I'm more of a map nerd!  

I love fall in Michigan!  It is definitely one of my favorite times of year!  caramel apples, regular apples, pumpkin, pumpkin flavored everything, sweaters, pumpkin seeds, cider, falling colored leaves!  Where else can you get all of these products locally?  Here!  There is no better place for fall than here!  

So this weekend I'm taking myself on a date to the pumpkin patch!  Then I will carve pumpkins with myself as another date later in the month!  Its nice dating yourself!  hardly any bad dates!

I also need to mention that during this 20 minute blogging process I have had to restart my computer twice, it is freezing up and i think it is the graphics processor or something malfunctioning... I will probably be buying a new laptop soon...along with a car... Feel free to support my not for profit lifestyle by checking out my Etsy! 

http://www.etsy.com/shop/MaizeInnovations

Also anything in my facebook knitting album can be recreated!  It is fall... Time to keep warm with cute hats and scarves!

Also saw the Foo Fighters live and they rock hard!  They played for 3 hours!  Then I met them, Taylor Hawkins, the amazing drummer called me sweety and I almost passed out!  Also shook Dave Grohl's hand!  What an honor!  (for those of you who are unfamiliar with them, Dave Grohl drummed for Nirvana, a 90's grunge band)  I highly recommend everyone to see this band if you enjoy their music because they sure know how to perform and entertain the crowd!  

Apartment pics soon!  Promise to blog more!

<3 Suz

The Last Sunset of Summer

Tonight I went to the beach to watch probably the last summer sunset.  snapped a few photos of the gorgeous sky and lake.  Since I have so much to do after work.... I played around with the colors on the first one.

A very edited, very dramatic photo! I like silhouettes!   

Beautiful sky with some beach debris

I didn't get very tan this summer :(

This is my tribute to goodbye of many things including summer, college, all my previous years of focusing on being educated, and dependent.  

Now I say hello to fall and winter ( <3)  working, a job, being independent, and very self disciplined.
Once I know what this looks like, I will send pictures.  Hopefully soon it will be of my new apartment that I am wishing to find on Wednesday when my lovely mom and and ravishing Granny come to help me look for a new residence for my new life.
Also, Wolverines have a lot of work to do if they are going to continue winning.... train hard boys, you need to!
Can't wait for hockey season!  I need to see my wolvies play a few times, even if I have to go to South Bend to annoy the Lame-o's.
Don't forget to support my organization!  You can purchase raffle tickets even if you can't make it to the benefit, you can also buy them online with the paypal account, just specify that is what the money is for.  Below is a link for more info.
http://chikamingopenlands.org/inside.php?a=NEWS:318

Thanks everyone!

Location, location, location

Wow!  September is amazingly busy.  on top of the tons of fun Chikaming Open Lands (COL) events, I also am trying to find a new place to live for a year or more... not easy in a tourist area....
COL had a dedication ceremony on Monday to welcome 6 acres to preserved land.  This wonderful donation put us at over 1,000 acres protected!  We had GREAT turnout!  about 80 people gathered on the side of a street because of their interests in protecting land!  It was to refreshing to see that many people mobilized about this topic, especially because across the street there is 11 acres for sale that we would love to mobilize to protect, but can not commit any funding for it.  A few community figures have offered to actively work with us, but we need to fund raise for it more than anything.
  Made several jars of pickles today, since they are so delicious and the cool weather with decreases in local veggies is on the way.  yesterday I stopped by a farmers market where I was able to get local garlic, edamame, and onions so most of the object in my pickle jars are local ingredients!  I feel so much better about my food when I know it is supporting someone from this community and since I know where it came from.  Not a lot of gas mileage went into moving this food either, therefore it is more sustainable environmentally and economically.
I start my real job Oct. 1, which means no vacation for 6 months starting Oct. 1, but with all the weekends i'll probably have to work, I will hopefully get some comp. time to use around Christmas, since it is my favorite holiday as I am already thinking of it in September.... oops....
  I'm trying to decide what I am looking for in a place to live, and while I wish I was in the position to buy a few acres in the area with a cozy house, that might take a few years.  instead I think I need to find something reasonably priced and relatively close to the office so that I can save up to get a house in the future, pay off my student loans and buy a new car this spring.... YIKES!  all checks can be sent to my parents house.... haha kidding, unless you want a knit hat or a jar of dill pickles!
  at first I was leaning towards living in a youthly populated area, perhaps a more thriving area, but then I realized I can easily drive to Chicago, Kalamazoo, St. Joe, GR when I need some sort of interaction with people my age.  The thing I will be doing every day is working, so being close to that and saving money should be my priority.  I know, for a 22 year old single, I'm pretty much shooting myself in the foot, but I believe in karma and fate so who knows, maybe some sexy farmer will have a stand at a farmer's market, or I'll run into a sustainable forester in the woods? Its a possibility, right?   Guess I'll find out!  But my point is that my living quarters shouldn't be based on a location of being near activity that I would probably only use once a week if even.  I'm still going to frequent Greenbush Brewery with my co-workers and probably be too tired after work to socialize anyways.  I'd rather find somewhere comfortable and economical in a home to work sense.  Too bad stuff out here is priced like housing in Ann Arbor, who do these people think they are? The places here are certainly not 3 blocks from the Big House, or next door to the best pizza in town open until 3 am... in fact many places here close for 1-3 months a year...
Oh yeah, its a tourist area with a beautiful, grand lake, some of the best sunsets in the country and polluted air, big thanks to "The City".

Teamwork

In life we are on many different teams, not necessarily sports teams, or other competitive teams, but groups of people who work together with goals and achievements in mind.  I have been very fortunate to be on many great teams, and will soon be joining another awesome team.
    Today I was offered a formal job offer from Chikaming Open Lands.  While I pretty much verbally accepted this position on Monday, today I was given a formal proposal/job description on my new position as Assistant Land Protection Specialist!  I could not be more happy to have a salaried job in my field of study with benefits only 4 months after graduating.  I am also thrilled to become part of an amazing team, one that I will work with every day and push forward a mission we all are passionate about.   My co-workers, board members, and committee members have all proven to be a varied yet knowledgeable and kind team. They see the major benefits from investing in a young college graduate like me to make me a valuable asset to this team.  I truly believe that I can help this organization forward the mission and get through the transition period while achieving our over arching environmental goal of preserving and protecting open spaces.
      However, I could never have made it to this team without the help, love and support of the teams I have been apart of in the past, friends, class mates, colleagues, club members, other co-workers and especially my family.  These other numerous teams have helped push me to join this team, so I am appreciative of the other teams whom I may not be as close to but who definitely influenced me and worked with each other to achieve our goals.  I hope other members of current and past teams feel like our teamwork has accomplished as much as I do right now!
   Even the bad teams, what hasn't worked, or when you had a sour team mate or ten, teaches you something. and even though bad teams may be miserable, there is still the will to push past them and keep the end goals in mind.  
  So this day, I celebrate successful teams, because without all the people we have worked with in our lives, no one would be where they are now.
  I know i still have many teams to join, but this is a landmark in any person's life: their first salaried with benefits job!
and now that I'm all optimistic and happy.... its time to start looking for a place to live in a VERY rural area....
BLAH

A much needed long weekend at HIGGINS LAKE this weekend, I'm sooo excited to be with family and friends to celebrate this.


Here is the sock I just finished! now I need to make one to match it!

Liability

Well, these last few weeks, as many people would put it, have made me stronger.  Not only personally, but even work which is usually going great has been testing me.
Last week I was out testing the little streams that flow into Lake Michigan in Lakeside when I slipped down the Smith's wooden stairs and landed right on my butt three times... I also slammed my shoulder blade area of my back into the edge of the theirs three times, knocking the wind out of me and pretty severely bruising my tailbone and screwing up my back.  This was last Thursday.  Today is Wednesday and it is still bugging me after 2 trips to my amazing and generous chiropractor.  It was hard to walk for the first few days, sitting still was not possible and I could barely dress myself for bending over caused the worst pain.  Luckily now I can move around almost like I used to but in the morning and at night my booty still hurts and when I move my arms my upper back is even tighter than it was before...
  Tuesday Emily, from The Nature Conservancy came to conduct site visits of the property's that TNC transferred to us.  Out on the beautiful Grand Beach Marsh, I stepped on a bee hive underground and was swarmed by bees and luckily only stung by two, which today are itching and swollen.
 Luckily stings do not bug me that much, but i really feel like my threshold is being tested by something.  I normally am a fairly careful and cautious person, but I must have bad karma or something (yes I believe in karma... what goes around comes around...) so I guess some things I've done int he recent past might be catching up to me, but hopefully it doesn't result in my fabulous job thinking I'm too much of a liability...
  Last weekend at Higgins was fabulous!  It was sad that i was there for Mark Morley's service, but I'm glad i got to honor his life in a way he would appreciate, by sailing on Higgins Lake.  Going up there is so refreshing for me, I am truly grateful to have that place that has been the only consistent place in my life and added stability to my world.  No wonder I don't want to leave Michigan,  I have my own vacation resort with all the friends and family I could ever want here, why would I move away from that?  I feel like being even 4 hours away from it is too far... who wants to hire me in Petoskey or Traverse City?
New director started this week so I'm getting to know him and seeing our work dynamic.  Also made a friend who I'm getting beer with at the local brewery tomorrow!  I'm excited!!! It will be nice to have someone here and he has already proven to be a good guy (even though he graduated from MSU...) and hopefully a good friend while I am in the area.
This is a panorama I took of an easement we are working on!  I'm excited to be the official great panorama taker!  I'm working hard on this property too!
I'll keep up the writing if you keep up the reading!
take care!

Wetlands

Working extra hours this week to make up for the early month holiday, especially with the student loan and Ann Arbor rent to pay!  Last night's extra hours were pretty awesome though!
  We had our moonlight voyager canoe trip, I worked the later one, at 11 pm 10 of us got into a 36 foot long wood canoe modeled after the ones the French Canadians used to use when bringing furs from Canada to the US.  I felt in touch with my ancestors!  Not to mention it was the perfect night for a canoe trip, clear skies, bright moon, still and quiet.  The moon really was our guide last night though Sima J. Marsh.  It was a peaceful canoe trip, with lots of stars in the sky, Saturn in the southern sky as well.  Fireflies were sprinkled throughout the marsh, adding a sparkle to the peaceful boat ride.  Pat and Kip from Berrien County Parks were our tour guides.  They are naturalists which pretty much means their job is to share their love and astonishment of nature with others, a.k.a. AWESOME job!  We didn't see much wildlife, but we sure did see the marsh in a whole different light and mood.  If you ever have the opportunity to get into a watershed at night, I highly recommend it!
Check out pictures here :  http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.164982786904502.39753.132472263488888
  Tomorrow I'm going to Grand Beach Marsh to check out invasive work that was done on it and a possible encroachment by adjoining property owners.  Got to put that to a stop if it s true!  I'm excited to see another one of our preserves though.  Marshes are great pieces of property, they do so much for the Great Lakes watershed including house a diverse number of organisms, filter out the dirty water from the streams before it goes into the lake (in this case, Lake Michigan), and help prevent floods by soaking up extra water in the area.  The beaches here on Lake Michigan were already shut down 3 times this year for high E. coli levels from houses in the area not even having septic tanks or their tanks are outdated, and agricultural run off.  Preserving the wetlands helps prevent this E. Coli from reaching the Lake and infecting the hundreds of people who use the lake in the area.  Please, everyone, be respectful of your wetlands and remember how much they do for you.

Going to Ann Arbor this weekend to move out, this will be sad, I have so many good memories in Ann Arbor.  I hope to make more this weekend and see a lot of people whom I miss!  Enjoy Harry Potter everyone!  I'm seeing it Saturday with my favorite Spaniard!
Cuidate my readers!

Week two

I had a great weekend in Kalamazoo, got to spend some time with some good friends of mine and relax the work week off.  Now I'm thrown back into Monday, the real world and the other problems that come with it.  This week at work will be slow because Peg, my mentor, is giving lectures in Kansas City.  Today Johanna showed me what she could access on my facebook even though we are not friends.  This was good for me to see because my controls work, she couldn't see all my photos or my comments, only my profile pictures, my education and friends.
Anyway, the rainy forecast looks like it will delay my strawberry picking :(  But I have visitors this weekend so there is something to look forward to.
I'm soo close to finishing my knit wrap! I'm going to go do that now!  Hopefully someone's reading this, even one person! Sorry if it was more of a rant than a life update.  My goal is to be the tiniest bit insightful but its hard after working all day... as you probably know.
Also you should go listen to the Foo Fighters. Right now!

First Day on and off the job in Lakeside, MI!

Wow, today was crazy awesome!  I started my internship with Chikaming Open Lands today as their land protection intern to protect the Galien River watershed.  I luckily scored a very nice little cottage close to lake Michigan, on a lot where I have permission to access the lake.  This blog is about my adventures working for the land preservation non-profit and living in a several million dollars a house neighborhood on beautiful lake Michigan.
  Work was good, I was kind of thrown into my desk and told to read e-mails to kind of catch up on the active properties we are looking at for easements or are currently making into an easement.  For those of you who don't exactly know what an easement is, here is the definition according to the Headwaters Land Conservancy in north-west Michigan.
Conservation Easement:  a voluntary legal agreement that allows a landowner to permanently protect land and limit future development in order to protect the conservation values of the land, while retaining ownership and the ability to sell.
This is what I will be doing a lot of the summer, working with people and properties to get more easements intact in this corner of Michigan.
Anyways today I was outside half of the day and met a lot of the board.  We were looking at possible easement properties or preservation properties.  One lot we went to today, near the Three Oaks Republic landfill was very pretty but there was  a lot of garbage dumped there not from the landfill.  There was a full fiberglass motorboat there that looked like ti had been there for at least 10 years.  We also helped a painted turtle cross the road.
After work I went on a beautiful bike ride on Lakeshore Drive.  I know why all the Chicago people come here, on lake Michigan, the main drag is Lakeshore Drive, and a lot of the restaurants are just as expensive.  That bike ride was beautiful, cottage after cottage or beautifully constructed and designed summer houses with tennis courts or a gorgeous garden or a wrap around porch.  The cotton trees or whatever are seeding like mad so a few yards of gorgeous homes were covered in the cotton like a morning frost in the spring.
Then I went down to the Lake to watch the sunset....great choice by me!  Sunset was stunning with its reflection on the lake.  The water was warm so I could beach walk with my feet in the water, no better way to unwind after a 10 hour day!  I am so thankful for the big hearted VanNice's who are permitting me to use their cottage and their beachfront.
This summer is going to be great, I can tell, especially if all days are half as amazing as today.  Yes i found a spider in my pajama pants and was at a desk all morning, but the people here are passionate about the beauty of the land and water.  This passion makes working with them much more enjoyable.
As I have been saying, feel free to call me and book a weekend to come stay with me!  I'd love company on the beach or on a bike ride or to go to the local independent theatre!!
<3 Suz