01 Aug Organizing for the Future

It has been a beautiful week here in Ventura. Everyday has been between 70 and 80 degrees. It makes me feel lucky that I am not at home right now. It has been over 105 every day this week back home. I do miss being there and around family though. The temperatures are perfect for working in though and there was plenty of work to do. On Tuesday we headed out to Santa Cruz Island to do some work out there. It was a beautiful day to be out and about. We arrived at Scorpion Anchorage and disembarked. The island is huge. We had to take a truck over to Smugglers Ranch where we were working. When arrived we had a quick lunch. Our take was simple; we only had to change an electrical outlet. We finished it fairly quickly. Once it was done, we had to drive all the way back which was over an hour drive due to the hills and climbs. On the way back we stopped at a little piece of history. It was the equipment and site where they drilled for oil. The islands history would be totally different if they had found any. From there I hiked back to the harbor and it was amazing. The island is very beautiful and it makes hiking about a great experience. One of the highlights was seeing the endemic Island Fox. They are only found on the islands. For the rest of the week, I was at headquarters. We had a lot to do at HQ. We needed to reorganize the shop. This entailed Lonnie and I putting the tools and power tools in plastic water tight boxes. After that was finished. I was put in charge of writing the names on the boxes and labeling the shelves so the crew could see where everything goes and if anything was missing. I also got to put together a few machines through out the week. It was tiring work surprisingly but it will help the preservation crew for years to come.