I did it! I got to participate in a native plant event. Fort Riley is nearby, and one of the biologists who works there got a grant from NEEF to reseed wild areas with native plants.

The reason these areas need reseeded is that the army uses this wild prairie for training their soldiers. Sometimes this means they dig deeply into the ground.

Once they are done with their training, they fill those holes back in, but with the depth of dirt stirred up, it's a struggle for the prairie to come back (a lot of the dirt left on top was originally deeper and does not have many, if any, seeds in it - meanwhile the seeds that were there are buried deeply).

So we visited several sites where they had just replaced the soil. This made for very uneven walking, and since the dirt was "fluffed" up, it also sank when we walked on it. That was tricky. And there were a LOT of rocks also.

We had hand cranked broadcasters, but that was a bit hit and miss because some of these seeds are so light and small, so probably half the time we were using a "feed the chickens" motion and just letting the wind grab the seeds.

It was a LOT of walking. I walked about twice as many steps as I normally do, and I definitely do not get as much uneven ground normally as I did today.

It was mid-forties (Fahrenheit) all day, and there was a cold wind, but it was sunny and I was dressed in layers that kept me very comfortable.

My friend (the one who told me about this in the first place) was there, and she was amazing. She remembered to pack some things I didn't think about. She's a former soldier, and she's been in the field enough that it was second nature for her. Like, I forgot sunscreen. But she had some and shared it.

I know I'm going to be sore tomorrow, but I am so happy I got to do this. I met some really nice people and I did something that strongly aligns with my values. I feel really good about it. Part of that is the ibuprofen, but part of it is I did something I wasn't sure I could do, and I did okay at it. And I got to help the prairie recover.