Hello all,
I am going to share a little something Kelsey wrote about todays work;
Today on the river was windier than it had ever been. Even the anchored canoe fell victim to the wind’s powerful grasp. As Jaime weeded from one side of the canoe I took the other. I went closer to shore so as to keep my kayak from drifting, but there were not many water chestnuts there. Once I finished plucking the last of the shallow-water chestnuts I inevitably had to go out to deep water again.
The wind was waiting. It maliciously pushed me as I reached for and missed the painfully close cluster of water chestnuts. Disappointedly, I looked around for another cluster. As my concentration was being spent pulling up the weeds, I did not notice how far the wind had pushed me. But then suddenly, I was surrounded by water chestnuts littering the water’s surface. The wind had dragged me right to them! I quickly piled them into my bucket and paddled the overflowing load to the canoe. I decided that as annoying as the wind could be, I would use it to sail to the same area and then get a workout fighting it on the way back.
Today WAS difficult. The wind makes it nearly impossible for us to use the kayaks to hand harvest. The buckets on the front of the kayaks give the wind something to grab on to, and let me tell you, I was flying down that river (although I didn’t want to be). My arms are quite sore today from trying to stay in place. The great thing about the wind, however, is it keeps you cool. There was no cloud cover today so I found it difficult to be fully mad at the wind. Thankfully, we were still able to get a full load and head in once the wind became too much to handle. Tomorrow, we will tackle the area again and hopefully finish it before the wind picks up!