Tied up my dress in the back because it was too bulky to tuck into my pants that I had to wear for lab today! Not the most comfortable but it worked for the morning 🙃
Day Eighteen
Category: Kira 2019
Day Seventeen= Dress-less in the river
I was going to do it. I started the week fully prepared to wear a dress with waders! After having to cut my losses and change(ish) yesterday, I knew today (being hotter & in deeper water than yesterday) was not going to happen with a dress. We sampled macro-invertebrates but unfortunately didn’t find any crawdads.
Keeping with the spirit of the project, I wore a fully thrifted (minus the waders which are borrowed) outfit complete with adventure shorts (under the waders) and two (layers) active-wear tops!
I don’t have a picture of me in the river because I was in up to my chest and focused on not flooding my waders. I think my professor took some so I’ll post them when she sends them out! In the meantime, enjoy these pretty pebbles I found at our first site:
Tomorrow I’ll be back to my dress!
Day Sixteen
It’s a bit hard to see in this pic but I wore my dress hiking in Shenandoah today! Definitely a new look for me but it was nice to have an extra layer in the chilly morning breeze.
Our last water sample site was a fun place to rock scramble 🙂 
Ended up in a whole different outfit than I started the hike in. Layers=lifesaver
The afternoon got up to 70*F. Hiking up and down switchbacks and taking water samples in a dress was not working for me. It was the extra flouncy fabric of my skirt that both got in the way and retained A LOT of heat. A lighter dress that wasn’t black would have made it through my day!
Sometimes I get overwhelmed by the massive scope of human impact on our planet. It’s hard to stop and fully appreciate nature when I know I could be doing more work to save.
I guess I’l just dance to this song and celebrate the irony. Everything can be going wrong but we can still be happy!
Make sure to spend some time outside. It’s so good for the soul ❤
Day Fifteen
Last day with my middle schoolers. I’m very grateful for the connections I’ve made with teachers at Warren County Middle School and the ~interesting~ experiences with students. I can tell you with 100% certainty that there is never a dull day in middle school!
A song for trucking through.
The semester;
People being poop;
half-way through the month;
Toutes les choses (all of the things);
c’est la vie!
Day Fourteen
The hot pink sparkly Crocs make their TDP debut for a rainy road trip day! We/I drove from NJ to Arlington to Vienna to Front Royal in less than six hours 😴
Day Thirteen
Road trip to visit the grands in NJ means a comfy outfit for today! Look completed by my water bottle and in-progress friendship bracelet for mobile hydration and entertainment.
#hydrationnation #hoursoffun #MensXLThriftedShirtsAreMyWeakness
Also shout-out to my grandpa for turning 87! You go dude ❤️
Day Twelve
This picture is representative of my spring: trying to interact with nature while also trying not to ~give in~ to my pollen, grass, tree, dust, mold, and animal fur/feathers/saliva allergies.
I’m with Grace, perfection (or really the illusion of this unobtainable label) is wayyyy overrated. It’s not natural! We’re hUmAnS!!
This song was a staple of my childhood (and current) dance-party playlist. I can’t help but to giggle and start bopping around when I hear it… no matter where I am 🙂
Highly highly recommend dancing around to it if you’re feeling too serious.
Day Eleven
Did you know that in bee hives, queens aren’t born to be queens? For eggs, there is no predestination or decisions on the part of the current queen. It is the worker bees that feed larvae royal jelly and select when and who to make a new queen. The worker bees can kick out a queen, kill her, starve her, or anything else they see fit for the betterment of the hive. Basically, the power is with the proletariat and all of those worker bees? They’re female.
Strong women are #forcesofnature
and
#forcesofnature are powered by strong women
My second outfit of the day included my dress underneath my bee suit!! I’m now compiling a list of strange things I did while in a dress because this is definitely at the top 🙂
I’ll leave you with a powerful song by the ultimate Queen B.
stay BEEautiful ❤
Day Ten!
Another day spent on an experimental farm!
My purple sunhat made its return for an adventure seeing hours-old lambs *SO FRICKING ADORABLE*, a flooffy anti-coyote guard dog, and learning about livestock grazing practices that help restore soil nutrients instead of depleting them!
My blog post for class will probably on sustainable and/or restorative agriculture this week so stay tuned for that! I love that there are innovative landowners and farmers that are experimenting with profitable agriculture that also benefits the soil and surrounding flora and fauna. Cool stuff!!
Day Nine Parts a&b
Today was jam-packed and called for two different dress outfits!
a) My day started with a trip to the Warren County, VA Government Center for a mock public hearing on the issuing of a conditional land-use permit. I chose to play the part of the developer *arguably the villain in a room full of impassioned conservation students* and found reading all the accompanying plans and legal documents to be rather tedious. I did have a ball arguing my position against stakeholders like VA master naturalists and the Riverkeepers (super cool organizations!).
I felt powerful in my dress, heels, make-up, and funky pants circa 1980something that my mom used to wear! After my introduction of the proposed development, stakeholder speeches, and my rebuttal, the planing committee decided to grant a conditional permit for the wetland development (that means I won!). In real life, 60% of the property is in a 100 year floodplain so it won’t be developed.
b) With a quick turnaround, my afternoon was spent over at The Farm at Sunnyside. This farm is unique in that the property backs up to Shenandoah National Park. They employ a full-time conservation biologist to ensure their impact on the park and surrounding ecosystem is as beneficial as possible. *modern mass-production farming plants a single crop (called a monoculture) which drains the soil of nutrients, making it less and less productive and healthy overtime* Their fully-organic fruit and veg farm has measures like riparian buffers (stream-bed protection to minimize erosion), crop rotation (planting a variety of crops on a piece of land over the years to allow for the rebuilding of nutrient contents), and wildlife corridors (tracks of
un-fenced land that allow animals safe passage across the property) that advance both the farm and surrounding ecosystem!
It blew my mind that I went from BOSS to farm/hiker chick with minimal clothing change! Yay for multi-functional wardrobe pieces!
The song that’s been stuck in my head since petting the field of crimson clover. Serendipitously by another girl boss.
The Dress Project 