“Ambiguity Provides Flexibility”

Well, it’s been a quiet week in Kensington, Minnesota, my hometown for the summer, out there on the edge of the prairie. It was my last day along with Will’s today. We harvested sideoats grama grass throughout the roadside along p2 along with p1. This was a rather meditative activity, since the temperature and wind speed was about the most pleasant we experienced all summer. We had an analytical lunch, discussing the analysis of my independent project and best way to harvest sideoats grama in p1. Due to lack of data, we could not decide whether it was best to walk along rows or pick an optimal path to best harvest. We continued harvesting p2 and remnants during the afternoon. After work we ate some great chocolate cake, compliments of Stuart, and discussed the optimal size and shape of a goat fence along with optimal herd size for eating buckthorn. Stuart is headed back to Chicago tomorrow, and he left Scott and Amy with a parting blessing to flush the toilet as much as they want. What a gift.

All jokes aside, it was, after all, my last day, so I’ll leave you with some of my reminiscing about the summer. Throughout the summer, I had the opportunity to get to know some of the inhabitants of Kensington and the surrounding area. If any of you have listened to Prairie Home Companion, you’ll be familiar with Lake Wobegon. Kensington could be this town. It has a baseball team, a Lutheran and Catholic church, a bar, a cafe and lots of good people. The people I got to know were kind and always ready to offer me spare bike parts or food. They were excited to give me the history of town hall and the surrounding countryside. If I could give advice to future team members, I would suggest that they seek to make friends with the residents of Kensington. Who knows, they might get to become vikings for a day too. I’ll miss the town, the people, the prairie and Team Echinacea.

Post Script: If you’re wondering where the title comes from, it’s another great one liner from Scott. I can’t quite remember its context, but it is a wise proverb.

I’m a turtle?

Team Echinacea