Details for the Rubbish Regatta

I spoke with the Rubbish Regatta's organizer, Larry, last week.

This is a first time event that was planned in response to last year's flood and all the trasht left on the shores of Saylorville Lake. The Des Moines Sail and Power Squadron focuses on education through its water safety classes. This event is an extension of its education arm.

The Rubbish Regatta course will be set in the water, approximately waist deep, with lanes roped off with fence posts. The participants will be in the water next to their boat able to assist without touching -- blowing or pushing waves of water to move the boat to the finish line.

Three age divisions are planned for the race: 0 - 7 years old, 8 - 12 years, and 12 - 17 years. Because Larry plans to have prizes for everyone (bags of goodies from Scheels) and because it is a first year event, he would really appreciate pre-registrations. He doesn't mind walk-on registrations, but the prize bags will be easier to manage on his end if he has registrations.

He has planned for special prizes for entries in categories. Categories will most likely be something like "looks most like a sailboat," "most imaginative" (junkiest looking), etc. Everyone who performs three hours of lake shore clean-up will be awarded one free night of camping in one of Saylorville Lake's campgrounds.

Details: Rubbish Regatta
no entry fee to participate, just your time and effort
Sat., July 11, 2009
8:30 Sandpiper Beach
1 - 2:30 Boat construction
2:30 Boat races
Register with Larry, 515-257-8143 (local call in Des Moines)

CITO, Regattas, and Free Camping

We geocachers practice Cache In, Trash Out (CITO) all the time (ideally). While shopping at Scheel's (a favorite store of mine), I found a flyer at the check-out counter that reminded me of CITO. I think it sounds fun. It would be an Earth Day activity, but during July. If you cannot or do not want to participate, remember that many caches are hidden in the area. You could cache, then watch the regatta without participating. I have been unable to find anything online about this event, so this blog post will have to be the online info source!

Bare bones:

Perform Saylorville Lake shore clean-up for 3 hrs. and qualify for the Rubbish Regatta and one free night of camping in one of the Saylorville's campgrounds.

From after this paragraph until the end of the post, I am copying all punctuation, capitalization, coloring, and wording, etc. as it appears on the flyer. I will add hyperlinks where possible.


Details:

Model Sailing
"Rubbish Regatta"
July 11, 2009

"Come Sailing with USPS"
The Des Moines Sail and Power Squadron, in cooperation with The US Army Corps of Engineers at Saylorville Lake is sponsoring a Lakeshore Cleanup Day.

- Orientation: 8:30 a.m. at Sandpiper Beach. Trash bags and gloves provided.

- Lakeshore cleanup: 9 a.m. to noon. Long pants and sturdy shoes suggested.
** Participation required to build a boat.

- Lunch: noon to 1 p.m. On your own.

- Rubbish Boat building: 1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. Adult and child teams, supplies provided.

- Rubbish Boat races: 2:30 p.m.

- Prizes will be awarded.

Be sure to bring a swimsuit and sun lotion as child will be with the boat in the water!

Volunteers who complete 3 hours of clean up will qualify for the Rubbish Regatta and one free night of camping in one of the Saylorville Lake campgrounds.

Sign up at the Saylorville Lake Visitor Center or any Saylorville Lake campground.
For more information, call 257-8143.

US Army Corps of Engineers Rock Island District

What is a vug?

You have never heard of a vug? Come on, you see them all the time. We've visited very cool vugs at the Botanical Center. There are also scads of them around Rock Hound, GCX7D2, at Saylorville Lake. You probably call them geodes, but when we visited McBride Hall (at the University of Iowa) in the fall, we learned that the proper name for a rock with a crystal-filled cavity is a vug. A geode is a rock unto itself, a hollow, nodular rock, separate from substrate or matrix. Click on the photos, especially the lower one, to see the crystals closer. Pretty cool, eh?

Rock Hound is at a location that my children want to visit all the time. My younger son asks to go there. They enjoy seeing all the flotsam, looking for fossils like brachiopods (did you know that the root brac- means arms? Well, brachiopods evidently had "arms" to sweep food into their mouths.), eggs and animals, and vugs, and having unstructured play. We go to the access point, or trail head, in Prairie Flower campground and have some playground time, but something about the Rock Hound area is more desirable to the kids. And I am OK with that.

Poison ivy phobia

My nephew Tony spent the late afternoon in to evening time with us today. He doesn't get to geocache unless we're with him, so before we left the Saylorville Lake area, we went after cache. Make that, we attempted to go after a cache. Tony excitedly said, "Yeah!" when I said we could try to get one before we left for dinner.

We walked about 0.3 miles on a bike path, then had to turn off the path for less than 100 ft. We braved the tall grass. We ducked in to the understory. Our posture was like walking through caves or tunnels. Things then turned for the worse. Then my older son pointed and said, "Poison ivy!" and headed back to the bike path. Yes, he was correct. Poison ivy was everywhere. My youngest, who is extremely allergic to poison ivy, got scared, bolted from the front of the line to the pavement, saying, "I'm too sensitive! I have to leave." My oldest child was bored, so she went out to join them. My nephew and my younger son, who are age-mates, and I were left in the understory, facing a fence. The cache couldn't have been on the other side of the fence. We looked a little more, but left cache-less. This must have been a winter or very early spring kind of cache for us. My finding average and seeking frequency both took a turn for the lower. At least we got to see an oriole and two bluebirds, and an egg. We think the egg is a kildeer egg. Haven't looked in my identification book yet.

In more positive news, our CSA box is getting fuller all the time. On Sunday, I came home to find: 2 heads of pac choi, two heads of lettuce (Merlot and Speckled) as well as other loose leaves and edible pansies, turnips (Hakurei), four radishes, and two boxes of the most heavenly strawberries a person ever tasted. Driscoll's pales to these berries. I diced the turnips with zucchini and cauliflower, added garlic and basil, then steamed. Once they were done, I sprinkled with shredded cheese, let it melt, and YUM. Great with a turkey sandwich.

My garden also was overflowing when I returned from my Minnesota trip. I cut a lot of lettuce, gave some to a sister-in-law, and kept some for myself. Everything grew well in my absence, and I am sure it was due to Gabe's handy bunny fence. For a photo of the Mississippi River viewed from the banks in St. Paul on Saturday morning, click here.