Day 2

Today was the first day of the real deal. We started out the day like yesterday, by watching a movie about spring turkey hunting. This movie however, was much more well done than the previous one and taught us many new things. This film taught us how to scout for turkeys, learn about all the box calls, and how to stay camouflaged. To scout, it is never safe to call and roam. That is, you can't call a turkey and then walk around trying to find others. To scout, you should find a good place to sit down and call from there. There are a few different types of box calls. There are different mechanisms that imitate the sound, and we will most likely be getting one that you only have to push a rod to create the noise. This film also reiterated the fact that turkeys have very keen eyesight, so it is necessary to have masks and such. Also, it is necessary to be perfectly still until you pull the trigger because they will spook and bolt easily. We should be between 10 and 20 yards when we shoot a turkey, so we will need to be perfectly camouflaged and still to get one.

Finally, we got to start out shooting. We set up the target and starting practicing with the crossbow. We set up the target and then had sticks mark 10 and 20 yards. We started at 10 yards and took turns taking rounds of four bolts. At this point, we were dialing in the scope so that we would hit where we were aiming. After the 10 yard was dialed in, we went to the 20 yard mark. We worked at 20 yards, but our accuracy went down a little bit and we were shooting a few inches too low. We tried to adjust the scope, but it still wasn't shooting perfectly on target. So, tomorrow we will continue practicing from 20 yards and fix the scope so that we shoot accurately.

Day one at Flour Restaurant

Last night when I got into bed, my heels were numb after standing for seven hours.  I got to Flour restaurant at 3:30 and talked to my sponsor about some expectations and other bits and pieces.  Last night was a good night for me to start working on the line at Flour because it was a Monday night, which typically are slower and because it was their second anniversary so everyone was trying out a different job for the night.  For example, my sponsor is the executive chef, but last night he bartended.  Another guy who is the manager at the restaurant cooked the pizzas for the night.

            I started off the night working with a guy named Zach.  He is in charge of making or preparing salads, calamari, fried olives and desert.  When I first arrived at Flour, the dinner rush hadn’t really started yet so we chopped vegetables and herbs to stay on top of our job.  The “line” is a long counter with multiple stations.  It looks a lot like where you get your food at Chipotle.  Instead of the food going straight to the customer, the servers take it.  As people started coming in for dinner, streams of paper started coming out of the receipt printer. Not all of these applied to us as all orders come out of each printer, there are three on the line.  As a order for a salad came though we check to see if it was the first course or the second course.  If it was the first course, we would prepare it right away.  If it was course 2, we would wait for a “fire” slip to come out of the printer.  These “fire” slips came from the servers to let us know when it was time to prepare the second course.

            I stayed until 10:30 to help clean up the line, as it gets REALLY messy over the course of the night.  I was so tired and my feet still hurt. 

Day 1

Yesterday, we started the process to catch a turkey. We watched a film, titled Wild Turkey Highlights: Spring Training. In this film, we watched hunters prepare for and execute a hunt. We saw how hunters scout for the turkeys. They were very calm and patient. This is necessary because slight movements can spook a turkey. By watching the film, we also learned about the different calls. We will be purchasing a call box to imitate the sounds of the turkeys, but Grant can do a good call himself. I am learning the crow call because one can use a crow call to make a turkey move positions.

After finishing the movie, we went to Grant's house to see the gear he had. We tried on some camo pants and shirts, and luckily they fit. Then, we saw the crossbow for the first time. I got to hold it and look through the scope. It was heavier than I expected. This crossbow uses the red-dot scope system. It has three red dots in a vertical line, and each dot represents a different distance.

Finally, we went to Dick's Sporting Goods to pick up the last of our necessary gear. We got a few practice heads for the crossbow bolts and a foam target for practice. We also got some camo face masks and a hat because we need to be camouflaged since the turkeys can see colors and our skin reflects the light.

Kaitlyn Cerne's First Day

Today was the first day of my project at University Hospital. Along with many other high school students participating in the Medical senior Project at the hospital, I was able to review my schedule for the upcoming weeks and review the rules and layout of the hospital. I reviewed the test I had to take before entering the program that consisted of different rules, including confidentiality, patient care, and dress code among other things. The areas of study which I choose to focus on and will be observing include Pediatrics, skilled nursing, Orthopedics and Oncology. In addition to this, I am scheduled to observe a range of procedures in the operating room and women's health. Given each area of interest, I will be paired up with a nurse practitioner or doctor to shadow for the day. I am very excited to work in the Pediatrics section of the hospital. The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit was full of premature babies needing help because of the wide range of defects they had. I was able to observe a small baby boy born a few months early. Because of his premature birth, he was born with a small hole in his heart and is scheduled for surgery soon. Seeing the small baby and the help and care he was beong provided with by the many nurses and doctors allowed me to recognize how rewarding being a doctor or nurse can be.    

I'm very excited for all of the things we have coming up with our project! Today was mostly a preparation day, so there wasn't much going on, but it was cool to see all of our previous work start to come together. We started the day off by watching an instructional movie on turkey hunting in the field. We then did some research on calls and the different types of calls we may have to use. Zackariah is getting pretty good at the crow call, which will be very useful when we actually start hunting. We also decided not to use mouth calls because they are too difficult and there is not enough time to master them before the season in over. After that Zackariah made us a delicious meal over which we had a discussion on gear and what we should wear out to the field. We then traveled to Grant's house where he had a large cache of hunting gear squirreled away. Once we had tried these on, we picked out which items we would wear out hunting, what we didn't need, and what we still needed to buy. Once all this had been completed, we traveled out to Dick's for some last minute shopping

Day 1

Today we were watched a 1 hour and 30 min video on turkey hunting. We learned many things about setting up for success on the hunt. One thing I found very interesting was that you can use a crow call to locate a turkey if it is near you and you cannot see it. This is because the turkey will respond to it with noise, but the turkey will not actively search for where the noise is coming from, as it would with a call. Zack is pretty good at the crow call which will be useful for us as we hunt. The video also talked about what to do while in a stand, and how you should not swing your bow to get a shot. Rather, you wait until the turkey is in front of your bow and then take the shot. If you have to you can move while in the stand, but be sure to move very slowly to that the turkey does not see you.  We also tried on, and organized the camouflage gear we will be wearing. Then we went out shopping and bought things we needed for our project. These things included; target heads for the crossbow bolts, practicing target, face covers and hats.

Ms. Gray Welcomes You to Our Hawken Project Blog!

Ms. Gray Welcomes You to Our Hawken Project Blog!

Welcome Seniors and Senior Project Proctors!

 

Seniors, I hope your projects are wonderful experiences for you! Your advisors and other members of our project group are looking forward to tracking your experiences and progress during the course of your project.

Reminder to seniors:

Post to our blog 3 times per week (M,W, F) providing commentary, updates, and stories about what you are doing or learning. Posts should be approx. 200 words.

 

Also, post a RESPONSE to another person's blog (in our project group but not your partner, if you have a partner/s) once a week.

Feel free to provide pictures, videos, and/or audio from your project.

 

Learn, enjoy, and share your experiences!