Skimmer Says... Gratitude!

'Tis the season to be grateful! Join us this month as we talk about what we are grateful for at DNERR. We are grateful for you!

To contact the education team about an education program or volunteer event, email us at dnerrprograms@delaware.gov. 

You can follow us on Facebook at @DNERR or Instagram at @delawarenerr.

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Welcome to Skimmer Says, an estuarine podcast hosted by the Delaware National Estuarine Research Reserve. I'm your host, Laurel. And this month we're doing things a little bit differently. So we're going to have a little bit of a rotation of our people on the couch. You get to see all, not quite all, a bunch of the staff from the reserve. So today first thing, we have Christina and Mollie. You've both seen them before. You all. You've seen them both before. So welcome back to the couch. Did you guys want to reintroduce yourselves? Hi, everyone. My name is Mollie Yacano, and I'm the research coordinator here at the Delaware National Estuarine Research Reserve. And I'm Christina Whiteman. I'm the stewardship coordinator here at the DNERR. So we are going to talk a little bit about fall and gratitude. It’s November. One of my favorite months of the year, because I love fall. I'm a fall girly. So I have our game time. Today is kind of it's less gamey. It's more cozy questions. So the cozy question that I have for the two of you is what is your favorite fall cozy activity? Doesn't even have to be a fall activity. What's your favorite cozy activity? Do you want to go first? Sure, I can go first. I love to crochet. Yeah, I like doing cute things like I've been doing a little Halloween themed, I know, it's like, you know, November. But little ghosties or cute little characters. It's like one of my sayings, just hang out and be on the couch and crocheting a little bit, having something on in the background. And then if you remember from my podcast episode back in March, I did forget sun protection out in the marsh in favor of needlepoint. If I was stranded there. And so I would say my favorite cozy activity is definitely needlepoint. And that is true regardless of the season. I like to read a book, but I also like to cross stitch, so I think cross stitching is a good one. Since you all went with crocheting and needlepointing, I think maybe I'll pick cross stitching. Because I can watch a nice fall movie, drink my hot cocoa and cross stitch at the same time. You can also always listen to an audiobook while doing all of these activities. Or a podcast! Or listen to a podcast like skimmer says. I love it. So I said that we were going to talk a little bit about gratitude, and I am always grateful for the two of you, no matter the month of the year. I love to spend time with both of you. So I have three questions for you. So the first one is, what have you been grateful for over the last year at the reserve? You can take this one first, Mollie. Yeah. I think one thing that I've been grateful for is that I started here about two and a half years ago. So the last year at the reserve, I've really settled into my position. I've gotten to know a lot of the researchers that we work with externally, and gotten to know a lot of the projects that we're doing internally and really gotten to grow in my role. And I think that's been really fun to to work with everyone, but also make the program my own. I agree, I think you've become really useful in the last year. Thank you, Laurel. You have really grown into your position and it's been really wonderful to see you blossom. Christina, what have you been grateful for? For me this year, it's been interesting. I've been getting a lot of, contacts from previous interns, so it's been really great to see when we started having interns in 2016, what they're up to now. And them just giving me life updates and keeping in contact, seeing how we're doing. So for me, it's really been the growth of people that I've mentored in the past, seeing them come back and say I really love the reserve, I really being involved. It really helped me developed what I wanted to do. So whether it's they're traveling or they're going on and working on like a PhD or their advanced degree, it's been a great thing to see this past year. I agree, I always like to get these updates from the interns. So my next question for you if you're ready. What's something that you've learned about that you no longer take for granted? It doesn't have to be reserve related specifically. It can be. What's something that you've learned about that you don't take for granted anymore? That’s a hard question. I didn't write it. That is a tricky one. You know, like we're always learning something new. Now, do you want this to be more work related or just. It's up to you in general? Could you repeat the question? What is something you've learned about that you no longer take for granted? It's tricky. I've learned about. I feel like something that I learned about about marshes was the carbon cycle. And I didn't know that before that the carbon cycle in general that I didn't know about. But like the importance of the carbon cycle before I started working here. And now it's like one of my favorite things to talk to people about. And the importance of our marshes, especially as we deal with things such as climate change. So I think that it's something that beforehand I'd be like, oh my gosh, it sinks. But now I really see the importance, and I don't take for granted that I just work in a really beautiful place I don't like. I, I appreciate the fact that I learned that, and that is something that we can share. We went on a hike recently and we were talking about the carbon cycle on the hike. I swear our hikes are really entertaining. And this guy said, I never thought about that before. I thought they were just wet, stinky places. So now I know that they're really important. And so I think that's something that I've taken for granted that I learned. I’m trying to think of something like, I am really excited that this year we've been able to start our soundscape program. That's been something that's been of interest to me for many, many years. And I guess going kind of off of what you were talking about, taking something for granted. Like, I know that I can hear a lot of sounds, but not everybody understands. Like when I am with my nieces and nephews or family or even just you all, I'm like, oh yeah, did you guys, like, hear that sound over there? And it's like, no, I'm like, well, that makes up like our ecosystem and how things are sounding and how they're all connected. And I feel like it's something that is really interesting, important. And I'm excited to see like where not just the project goes, but how we can share, like what we're finding with that. So like, that kind of is a cue like hearing unique bird sounds. You know, from the last time I was here, we talked about birds. So that's a big thing with sound and learning. I think maybe building off of that a little bit. One thing that I've learned just in my time here is that, like there's been different pilot projects that we've started, there's been different pilot projects that we've ended in terms of monitoring. And I think when you come into the reserve system, you think about like a lot of these projects have such longevity and like have always been there. But that's not true. There's things like the soundscape projects where we're piloting things, we're testing things, we're seeing what does and doesn't work. And so I don't take it for granted that with our longer term monitoring projects that have been in existence, that that took a lot of that work to get there. But then also, like there is a lot of things that we can do and like get to figure out how to do. Yeah, it's kind of like getting a peek behind the scenes of like, yeah, in terms of when Christina was talking about like, you're never in a quote unquote quiet place. Yeah. Like there's always something else. There's life everywhere whether it's the wind or like, you're hearing cars in the background from a highway really far away, or just like the grasses rustling, stuff like that, like it's. Yeah, right. And then for Mollie's example, like, things don't just happen and there's a lot of behind the scenes work and effort that goes into creating something. I think that's something that we really saw with, Kyle in the last episode, talking about the Tea time project, that it's not just something that like happens overnight. There's a lot of time, dedication, passion that goes into a lot of these projects. And I think that that's something that not everybody realizes. The amount of effort that it takes. So yeah. No. And then my last question for you both is how, and this does not have to be work related at all, how do you show your gratitude? I keep a in my bullet journal, just personally a little two blank pieces of paper each month in it for whatever that is. And I just write random things I have found like exciting or I'm grateful for like throughout the month. Like I got to be in a room. I heard a really cool bird. I wrote that down. Or my husband and I, we did a really cool event. I'm grateful, we could go do that and spend time with family. So that's just something simple. How I show that I'm like grateful for things just that happen that may not be the most amazing, but it's just something small. And then I can look back in my bullet journal throughout the year and see what had happened. Then there's sometimes I look back like, oh, I forgot that happened, that once. That was cool. Yeah, I think I, I tried to say it in the moment when I see something that like, I am grateful for, like I try to like tell people when I appreciate something they've done. I try to like, express that. And sometimes like when it's more of like something like seeing a cool bird or something like that, that's more of like a I take a picture. But if there's not someone to tell in that, I can't tell the bird, I'm grateful for it. But you can. I have done it, I have said thank you. Like thank you for being here. Yeah, I think those are probably the two biggest ways that I do it. Yeah, I have like a little self-care app that I write down what I'm grateful for every day. That was a good one. Yeah, yeah. And I really like. So it's like one of the things that I do before I go to bed so that I'm like, okay, what is something good that has happened to me today? What is something that I'm really grateful for? And I write you guys down every once in a while, because I do appreciate all the time that I spend and work with both of you. Well, we appreciate working with you and all the hard work that you and all of the reserve crew to, to keep this place going. Yeah, I'm really grateful for our group that we have here, not just ones that are here with us in the room, but everyone here. Yeah, we just can't fit everyone in this room. That would be chaotic. We don't have enough mics. The couch is a little small too. Maybe not on the same couch. Yeah, but I think that you guys are wonderful. And you are a maximum importance to me, so I appreciate you for joining me on the couch today. Thanks. Thanks for having us. See you soon. Bye. today I have two new and familiar unfamiliar faces on the couch with me today. We have Alissa Sutton, she is our new assistant education coordinator, and Zoe Scruggs, our new community engagement specialist. For those of you who are returning visitors to the pod, they are taking and filling the roles of Sadie and Akshay. So, we wish them both the best of luck. But we're really excited to have both of you on board today. Happy to be here. And for the foreseeable future. So did you guys want to say anything about your jobs? Anything you want to add? So I am working as the assistant education coordinator with Laurel right now. Before that, I was a casual seasonal maintenance employee. That's about it. Yeah. So Alyssa has been around the reserve for almost six, six to eight months. Yeah, a little bit. Yeah, I started in May. Yeah. I don't know what time is. It’s kind of an illusion. I guess. That's okay, who is counting? And Zoe has finished her first month. Yeah. Yay! Yeah. Awesome. So it's November, and I like to be grateful year round, but I especially love to be grateful in November. So I figured that we’d do our podcast on gratitude this month. Love it, love it. So I'm going to start with a game time now. And in November. It's cold and I love to be cozy. So we're gonna start with some cozy questions. All right. So the first one, what is your favorite cozy beverage? My favorite cozy beverage is either warm apple cider or just hot black tea with lemon. Okay. All right. Solid okay. Yeah I agree warm apple cider. And then I like a hot chai tea latte with oat milk. I love a chai tea latté. Mine would be hot cocoa. I'm a big hot cocoa girl. I do like hot cocoa. Yeah, yeah, with a little bit of marshmallows on top. The best. What about whipped cream? If marshmallows are not available. I have been known to fill up, like the hot cocoa in half the cup and, like, the big like, I'll put marshmallows for the rest of the half of the cup. Do you use like the little ones or like larger size? I don't discriminate against marshmallow sizes. Like I use whatever is in the house. Sometimes I have those flat ones for like making s'mores. And I'm like, you know what? What? Marshmallows. Yeah. They're like more compact. They're like a square so that you can put it on a graham cracker better. And I'll be like, that sounds perfect. I can just sit on the top of all of my chocolate. And then I. Yeah, that sounds like a delicious treat. Hot take, I make mine with water. Oh, I don't make it with milk because I'm scared of boiling milk on the stove. It's just not for me. Me either. And so I add extra, like, hot cocoa powder to make it super chocolaty. That sounds good. And then the hot. I feel like the marshmallows add the creaminess that you need that you wouldn't have gotten. You would have gotten if you had the milk. But I don't have the milk. I don't like the milk. Yeah, I don't like the idea of milk. I'm glad we're on the same page about that. All right, so I have a couple questions for you all. To talk about gratitude, which sounds like a fake word the more that I say it. So what have you been grateful for over the last year? At the reserve. At work. At work? Well, over the past year, like. how we discussed, I changed positions. So I'm grateful for both opportunities that I've received. I'm grateful for all the people that I've met here and all the things that I've learned and that I continue to learn every day. I love that answer. For work, I'm grateful to have a job. Yeah, I'm grateful that I came from parks to here, and it was a smooth transition. I feel like everybody was nice to me. And yeah, I'm glad that I get to learn about the environment through all these smart people, because that was not my background. So I'm absorbing your knowledge from all of you. I think that's the one thing that the reserve has going for it is that like, there's a lot of people that know a lot of things and they all know a lot of different things. Yeah. And they're happy and willing to share in a way that, like, they don't want to assume that, you know, what it is that they're doing. So I think that that's kind of cool. Yeah. I feel like working here, you're always constantly learning something new, which I love. Yeah. For sure. So my next question is what is something that you've learned about that you no longer take for granted? Like, what are you something you're happy you learned? So you're like, I wish I had known this for forever. Well, something that I have learned that I no longer take for granted is how important the wetlands are to us, how they protect us from coastal flooding and stuff like that. I'm very grateful that I've learned that. Yeah, they aren't just stinky places. No, they're very important to us. Yeah. Okay, so I guess, I've learned that like, all the different parts of our ecosystems are super connected and they rely on each other for their success. And that's something that I've learned from my brief time being here for my one month anniversary. And it's my, like, time working in the state parks before this. I feel like it's a good metaphor for life, where we all need each other even though we're all connected. All connected. Zoe in your first week, well, might've been your second week. Going to what Alissa said and then also like how everything's connected. I remember I want to throw you under the bus here a little bit. You walked in, you were like, it stinks outside. And I was like, that's just the marsh being productive. Yeah, just doing her job. She's working well. And so I feel like everything kind of like connects. So it's like, okay, stinks outside, but they're important. And she's doing her job. So and that's called learning. And that's called learning. Look and sometimes things stink. Sometimes things stink. And it's a good thing that they stink. I guess, and they're connected and they're connected. And then my last question for you all, is this does not have to be work related. It can be your whole life. The whole life. How do you show gratitude? I show gratitude by practicing kindness towards others. I show gratitude by. It's important to tell people that you're grateful for them, like your family and your friends. It's important to state that because sometimes they don't know. So that's what I really been trying to focus on, is making sure to tell the people that I'm grateful for, that I am grateful for them. I think you do a good job with that. I think that you tell Zoe and I all the time that you appreciate us. That's so true. But yeah, I feel like it's like at least a weekly, if not a daily thing that Alissa’s like, you guys are the best. Thanks guys. Yeah. I show gratitude by making my family big meals. I like multiple courses. I like little sides. I love filling my loved ones bellies up with food. I feel like sometimes I'm not the best at being like, I love you. I'm so grateful for you. But that's the way. That's a different way of showing your gratitude and your love. And I think that, like, as somebody that does not cook, I love it when somebody cooks. I agree. Because I can, like you can tell the time that they put into it. And like I am not somebody that has that skill set. So I can appreciate that you do. That's awesome. And they know that it's made with love. For sure. But this feels like a good month for me to tell you guys just how much I appreciate you. I try to tell you guys regularly, but you make it so that I can do my job a lot easier. So for this month and every month, I'm grateful for you two. Oh, we're grateful for you, Laurel. So I'm really excited to have you. This is your first episode on the pod. Excited. Won’t be your last. So I'm excited to have you guys back on the couch. We look forward to it. All right, for now. Bye bye. And today we have two people on the couch. One of which has been here before and one has not. So we have Taylor Beck returning today. Hi, Taylor. Hi. And today we also have Lynne Pusey, our training and engagement coordinator. Hi, Lynne. Hi. Welcome to the couch. Do you want to tell anybody or everybody something about your job? What do you do? So the main part of my role here at the reserve is to provide decision makers with opportunities for learning and collaboration. Awesome. Well, we love having you here at the reserve, and we are very grateful for both of you. So it's November and we're going to talk about gratitude. But first we're going to get cozy. Okay. So my first question is what is your favorite fall activity? Mine is watching horror movies because it is spooky season after all. Okay. That's a good one. I love fall festivals. Oh, I love all the festivals. I love that for me. All the vendors, all the food. Fall festivals are really fun. And I feel like they've made, like, more of a resurgence in the past, like ten years. I feel like there wasn't as many when I was growing up as there are now. I feel like there's any weekend in the fall. You can go to a fall festival and have a lot of fun. I think you also see so many more of them because they're advertised better. Like, it's not just like your local one that you can go like throughout the state and like, yeah, apples, pumpkins. Yeah. All different types of things. Yeah. I think people are also excited that they can get together again also. So it's really nice to be with people and celebrate the season with people. Yeah, I would agree. So I do have three questions for both of you. So my first one is what have you been grateful for over the last year at the reserve? I think this year especially, what kind of stuck out to me because this is my fourth year working here, is and we've had staff changes, over those couple of years and just having everyone's different backgrounds, like because DNERR does so many different things, from community engagement to just real like hard science and everything. People have a lot of different passions, input and perspectives, and that kind of makes a really nice, well-rounded place to work. And it makes me feel like the things that I bring are unique. It's not competitive. We all have something to like, contribute to whatever our goals are. Yeah. Yeah, there's there is a little gnat flying around. For me, I'm going to kind of build off of that because I really love our work family. Like the atmosphere here. I really love who I work with as well as where I work. And that's so meaningful. And I also love that at the end of the day, where I've sat in front of my computer all day long, I can take a walk out to the marsh. I know that is something that I really appreciate with our like some of our sampling sites are just like, oh, it's just a ten minute walk away from my desk. It's so nice. Zoe and Alissa have been taking group walks after lunch, and they we have the chronolog station out on the boardwalk. So they're like, we're going to go take the chronolog picture and check to make sure that, like, everything is still looking good out there. And I'm like, go, go check the tide. See where it’s at. It's nice to get out. Yeah. Yeah. But I do agree I think we have a really good like, office culture here at the reserve that I don't think you find everywhere. No I agree. I think you also get to work in the back alcove with the education team, which makes it super duper special and entertaining. And it's entertaining. A little more flavor than we do on the what, the West Wing. And so the the East wing. We try to bring it over to you sometimes. Yeah. Research. We have our own little office bubble, and we we chat, we have fun. Yeah. All right, so this one is a little bit longer of a question. What's something you've learned about that you no longer take for granted? I learned hiking. I went on my first backpacking trip, and being outside for that long, a full bladder makes you colder. So you have to be very mindful in the cold and all of that, which adds to like my fieldwork plans in the winter, don’t want to be too cold. Yeah, or dehydrated. I feel like it’s a delicate balance. Like, I don't know if you want to use that one or not, but. No, that that it makes a lot of sense. Yeah. Yeah. Well, this is going to sound like I'm building off of the conversation we just had again. Okay. But, I no longer take for granted that I work with people because for many, many years in the offices and the places that I've worked, we we ate at our desk, we did our own things, and we kind of were in our little silos. But here everybody eats together. We have a space for that. We take the time to check in with each other. And that was very new to me when I started here. And a little bit uncomfortable. I'll admit at first, but this year, my New Year's resolution was to try to embrace that a little more and and really dig in to being part of our work community. And I really love it. So I'm so glad. I’m so glad. So my last question for both of you, and this does not have to necessarily be work related, but it can be if you want it to be. How do you show gratitude? I verbalize thank you a lot, which I know is like kind of the very basic, but I think that if you're intentional and say exactly what you're thankful for, especially in small moments of like, hey, can you hand me that? Or like, I need someone to help me unload the truck, you know, just like the little mundane things, because then no one feels taken for granted. And they know that, like, I appreciate what they're doing, and that I will do the same thing for them. Like, it's mutual. That's great. Yeah. Well, I bring in all my kids Halloween candy for everybody. For that, I'm eternally grateful. But I also think, like verbalizing it. But also, that whole checking in with everyone kind of shows your appreciation for your colleagues and your friends. And, just that that communication that we have, I think shows that we're, we have gratitude for each other. Yeah. Well, I'm grateful every day that I get to work with you two. Me too. You're so glad to work with you as well. Oh, thanks. But I think that that's all that I have for you today. Is there anything else you two want to add? No. Then I think that that's all that the skimmer says. We'll see you next month. Bye.