Academics

Hello, Dear Readers! 

I hope everyone had a fantastic summer. It’s a new year, and things are starting to ramp up. The heat has been real, and let me just say it is far more intense working in the blazing sun than frigid cold. There were several times over the summer that I attempted to work outside but decided this wasn’t going to be doable for me. So I decided to shift my focus.

Right now, I’m working on the artistic side of my project. Every day, I am adding to my mosaic in the shade of my garage. I’ve been collecting random trinkets and old dishes and smashing them (and letting out pent-up anger) to add to the art piece. I’m learning about different methods for concrete mosaics, such as laying it out dry and spraying it with water gradually. For more intricate mosaics, this is a better option because it gives lots of time to lay out the design.

My plan for the rest of the year consists of small additions to my greenhouse, and I will use grow bags to start mushroom planting. I also aim to focus on research this year so that not only can I learn the growing process but also how it can be used for common health issues.

I’ve also been trying to focus on the sole reason why I joined this program: to do something I love and am excited to learn more about. I’ve been distracted with meeting deadlines and completing assignments. I was treating this as a chore that needs to be done. Whereas, half the fun is the journey leading up to my goal. I’m starting to let myself have more fun with this. I play music and listen to podcasts while doing my art and take dance breaks in between getting my hands a little dirty. 

In the next few weeks, I will continue adding to my mosaics and plan on starting my mushroom research. See you then!

Hello, dear readers!

I hope everyone is doing well. It is officially Autumn now, and sweater weather is just around the corner, which means cozy time, candles, and pumpkin! I feel like I am at a good place in my project. Things are running smoothly, and I’m excited to share my progress. 

In terms of my building, I finally finished the roof. I cut pieces of wood to use as support beams to prevent the roofing panels from sinking, and I installed the corrugated plastic sheets. I did this in perfect timing, too, because we have been getting lots of rain in the past few weeks! I will be going back and forth between building and doing research, and this month, I did touch on some of that.

I decided to dive into research by watching a documentary. It's a Netflix docu-series called How To Change Your Mind. I chose this because I wanted to hear the direct words of neuroscientists, psychologists, and other experts in the field directly. I went in only interested in the psilocybin episode but was so captivated that I had to continue watching. It discussed how these psychedelics may help us connect to the divine, show us that there is an interweaving of all things, and expand our consciousness and view of the world. I learned that for people with mental illness or cancer, having a supervised session with these substances may be highly beneficial. For cancer patients, they say that they no longer fear death and are relieved of existential distress. This is something that can help keep them strong and not give up. For those with mental illness, it can help give hope for the future. I will continue watching as well as furthering my greenhouse progress.

This docu-series has piqued my interest even further, and I am excited to continue this journey. This coming month, I plan on installing shelves in my greenhouse as well as some light mushroom research. 

Well, that’s it for now. See you soon!

Hello, dear readers!

Another month has completely flown by! I’m getting to the point where I seriously need to pick up the pace. The further I go, the more tasks seem to be popping up. I didn’t realize how many little things there are to do, and each task seems to take ages for me to finish. While I have been getting a lot done, I still have much more to go. Especially if I want more time to spend researching mushrooms and actually getting a chance to use my greenhouse. 

The past few weeks were spent preparing my shelves, sanding windows, and mosaic work. Before actually installing the shelves, I have to clean them, sand the surfaces, and then either paint or stain the wood, so that’s exactly what I did. I was happy to spend more time getting the shelves ready, though, because honestly, I was just happy I could use repurposed wood. I got these from cabinets we removed in our house! Since I already had the sander out, I took some time to sand down the window in my greenhouse as well so I can re-putty the glass panes and apply a new coat of paint. I also finished one of my mosaics (the one on the ground). It didn’t turn out exactly how I wanted since it was a very new process to me (using concrete), and the ceramic pieces I used don’t look very vibrant. All in all, I’m happy with everything so far. 

This weekend, I plan on continuing work. I will take a trip to the hardware store to get various materials for the rest of my project. I will put up my shelves (finally) and will also be getting a visit from a video marketer who works for Sandia Prep, who will be filming me as I make headway on my greenhouse. 

Well, that’s all I have to report for now, but be sure to come back next month for more updates! Oh, and Happy Halloween, everyone. (:

Hello, dear readers!

I hope everyone had the most fabulous Thanksgiving this past week! It was great getting some time to catch up on things. I got some much-needed rest, and now things are back in full swing, getting ready for finals and such. 

With regards to my greenhouse, after a long year, I finally finished! It’s been a year of procrastination and troubleshooting, but the product definitely made it worth it. I finished off by finding my last materials from Habitat for Humanity and installing the last touches. I owe my dad a huge thank you because I wouldn't have been able to do it without him. He found the door for me and helped with nearly every step. With that done, I can now put all my focus on the next step: mushrooms. 

To kick off my learning, I went to visit the New Mexico Fungi facility for my community observation. I had a little tour and got to see how they grow some of their functional mushrooms. I took notes and pictures while they explained, and I will write a reflection on it this week. I feel like I learned more in this 30/45 minute interaction than I do spending hours researching. It’s straight to the point and reliable when talking with professionals. He told me about proper growing conditions, fruiting periods, and humidity levels. I also learned that heating/cooking your mushrooms breaks down the cell lining, which is how we absorb their benefits. 

I’m in the final few weeks of the semester, which means lots of assignments will be due. I will be holding off on research for now and working towards getting all my other work wrapped up before the holidays. Thanks for the continued support, everyone. See you next time!

Hello, dear readers!

It’s my last blog of the year and I want to finish off by sharing my experience from this semester. I started off in August still having not gotten to the halfway point in my greenhouse building. From the start of the school year until November, I added the door, stained and installed shelves/a work table, finished the roof, and sealed all the openings using up-cycled corrugated plastic with my dad. I finished just in time to spend a good month getting a huge chunk of fungi research done before all the papers and presentations come up to finish off the year. 

I came across a few challenges over the past couple months. I’ve learned how important it is to be efficient with your time. I procrastinated a lot in my first year, and it came back to bite me this year because now I won’t get to spend as much time learning about mushrooms as I want to. This year I found it was really difficult to find the time to hone in on the building aspect. For example, putting up shelves in my greenhouse took me several hours (and that was with help). This made it hard for me to find motivation because I knew each step would be long and tiring. It’s also been a struggle to stay inspired. I spent so much time working on the things that didn’t make me excited, and now that I get to focus on the fun part, I’m starting to lose steam. I think after a long break though, I will be able to find that spark again. While these things have been hard, I feel like I’m becoming better prepared for life because there won’t be people constantly telling me to get my work done, that responsibility falls onto me, and I’ll face the consequences if I try and do everything last minute.  

I also started to become disappointed with how things were turning out. The mosaic didn’t turn out the way I had envisioned it to. This was mostly because the concrete was really hard to work with and I didn’t have time to place my mosaic tiles in the artistic way I had imagined.  

Once I finally finished my greenhouse, I began spending more time researching and learning about the scientific reasoning behind a mushroom’s power. I learned about different types of bio-active compounds in fungi which includes β-glucans and polysaccharides. These are the compounds that are responsible for boosting the immune system and possess anti-tumor and anti-cancer properties. This is because of their ability to trigger the body’s immune response and natural killer cells. When patients with breast cancer were given high doses of turkey tail mushroom pills for 4 weeks after chemotherapy, the results were outstanding. One specific patient was given 3 months to live with stage 4 breast cancer, and after taking turkey tail, she had no detectable cancer. These are the kinds of stories that make me excited about furthering my research so I can share it with everybody. I want people to understand that there are natural medicines out there that have outstanding health benefits. Yes, more research and tests need to be done, but we know that mushrooms work. Just by hearing the success stories, it’s obvious there is great promise when it comes to natural medicine. I feel like I wasn’t smart with the way I did my research this year. I should have been doing bits of reading here and there starting in August, instead I waited until November. Now my head is just cluttered with information. I feel like this won’t be a problem next semester though, because I don’t have as many tasks to get done.

Learning about the scientific side of mushrooms was surprisingly interesting. I’ve never necessarily been much of a science girly, but this was just so fascinating. With Odyssey, I feel like I am given the opportunity and space to branch out and learn about things I might not spend time on otherwise. I didn’t realize, going into this project, how much of a science growing mushrooms really is. I’m excited to continue my journey further. Next semester I would really love to grow my own and give family/friends doses of mushrooms so I can analyze any changes in mood, health, e.t.c. Well, that concludes my project for the semester. 

Happy holidays, everyone. I think we all need the rest (I know I do) after a chaotic few months!

Hello, dear readers!

It’s the last semester so I’m going into the final stretch. I honestly can’t believe we’ve almost reached the end. It’s crunch time, but since starting this project, I actually feel like this is the first time I have everything under control. The New Year always brings this desire to start off strong. I feel like I am doing that by continuing to persevere. I have already set up an interview and started on my mushrooms. 

I got my first mushroom grow kit in this past month (I decided on oyster mushrooms) and have already begun growing. A grow kit is a pre-colonized fruiting block which has been implanted with mycelium (fruiting bodies of fungi). It is an easy way for beginners to test the waters before moving on to growing from scratch. This builds confidence because the chances of seeing the mushrooms grow are much higher. It’s been a few days since I started growing and I am already seeing amazing results. I saw some pinning (first stage of growth) after the second day, and they are getting bigger everyday.

This weekend I will conduct an interview with Laura Robbins at her studio in Placitas. I want to learn more about mosaics to get reinspired. She has done several mosaics around the city including Bosque School and Sandia Prep! I’m looking forward to speaking with a fellow artist and with luck I may be able to get some of her old materials!

As a group, we all visited Cuidando Los Niños which is a school and program aiming to break the cycle of homelessness in Albuquerque. All of us scholars volunteered for a few hours helping with whatever needed to be done, giving the staff the ability to focus on their important work. We also volunteered last year, helping out in the classrooms and playing with the kids. It was beautiful to see the work the staff does and their mission is inspiring. 

Over the next few weeks I will continue to closely monitor and water my mushrooms. I plan on giving y’all more updates on this in my next blog (hopefully some pictures too!). But for now that’s it. Until next time!

Hello, dear readers!

Senioritis has fallen upon me. It has been hard to keep up in Odyssey and school in general. I’m counting down the days until summer! I have been slowing down and I feel like I don't have direction anymore. All of that aside, I have done some things this month. 

I went to Placitas for my interview with Laura Robbins and got a small spark of inspiration back. She taught me how to cut glass, grout tiles, and how to prepare the mosaics so they may last for years to come. I enjoyed this interview specifically because it was very hands-on instead of just talking. She had me cut glass after demonstrating and allowed me to grout tiles outside to get some practice. I went home with newfound knowledge and boxes of materials which she graciously allowed me to take. 

As for the mushrooms, I successfully grew the first batch! The second round didn’t go so well though, because I forgot to scrape the top layer of dirt. This stimulates mushroom growth and is probably the most important part, yet it slipped my mind. Honestly though, I feel like I’m doing too many things at once and I don’t really feel motivated to continue with the mushrooms anyways. However, I’m glad I got to grow some and I learned a lot through my research so far. 

That’s pretty much it for this month, it has been pretty slow. I’m starting to wind down. Okay, see you next time! P.S. see below for a mushroom progress picture.

Hello, dear readers! 

Since the start of the year, I’ve been planning the building process of my greenhouse--or “steps to success,” as I call it--which is a description of each part of construction from start to finish. I conducted an interview with the builder of a greenhouse and gained useful information, which I used when I wrote out my plan. I have also used research to combine different methods to create this new type of greenhouse. 

I am ready to get started on the building process, although I have been experiencing procrastination and can’t get myself to actually start, which is extremely frustrating. Most of us have trouble completing tasks for work or school and wait until the last minute possible. I know I  would rather skip all the boring parts and get into the fun, but unfortunately that’s not how it works. The first thing I have to do is dig out a rectangle the width of my greenhouse. Thinking about this and all the steps following feels so overwhelming and challenging that it’s keeping me from getting going. Because of this, I have decided to come up with a due date plan, whereby I create goals that have to be done by my deadline. This way, my work will be separated into smaller chunks, which feels less daunting. 

Since I’m only at the beginning stages of my journey, I don’t have a whole lot to report, but I’m looking forward to sharing more in the coming months. Thank you for being here and I hope you will join me on my voyage!

Hello, everyone!

 I have finally finished digging after hauling more than three dozen loads of dirt in the wheelbarrow and coming across some bumps under the ground. The problems first started when I hit electrical lines that were not buried as deeply as they should have been. I just decided not to dig as deeply. With the help of my dad and brother, I also dug up a massive hunk of cement that had been left from the previous owners. 

I have also realized that procrastination didn’t work in my favor. I spent a few weeks digging a bit here and there, but that was more troublesome than just working really hard for a shorter amount of time. The ground started freezing as it got colder and leaves started to fill up the hole, which produced more work. Even though I made things harder for myself than necessary, it made me realize that time is of the essence. After all of this, I am now ready to move on to the next step. So I would say things are finally starting to ramp up.  

I will be drilling together twelve pieces of wood to construct the frame of the building (or the “skeleton”), which includes the edge of the floor, the roof, and the walls. This construction will complete the second step. 

Finals and winter break are on the horizon, but I hope to be finished with this before school starts in the new year. I will be talking with an amateur mycologist to make sure my plan will help my mushrooms grow successfully, and hopefully we can come up with solutions if things need to be changed. 

Below are a few images so you can keep up with my project. I hope my reports on the construction aspect aren't terribly boring. Thank you for coming along, and with fingers crossed, you will continue to read!

Hello again!

If you’ve read my last blog you might remember I had hoped to be done with the main structure by the start of the new year. I went on a big trip over winter break and missed more than a week of school. I’m gonna be honest, I didn’t complete what I said I would. For the past week or so I’ve just been trying to juggle the work I missed and the current flow of neverending assignments. I would definitely say I am more behind on this project than I would like to be. 

I am still working, just at a slow pace.

Currently I am collecting my materials. I will be going to the Habitat for Humanity thrift store to look for old wood, doors, windows, and anything else I might need. As well, I am gathering old marbles, broken clay pieces, and other stones for a mosaic I am creating on the center of the floor.

Oh, and did I mention I am using windows to create my walls instead of jars? I just felt like it would be more doable since this is a time-sensitive project and it will allow for more light in the greenhouse. I have decided that I don’t want to build this greenhouse with the sole purpose of growing mushrooms. I want this space to be able to grow other plants in the future, since I don’t think I’ll be growing mushrooms long term. 

After having a conversation with an amateur mycologist, we came up with a plan. I will put shelves in the building and use blackout curtains/tarps to drape over the shelves. I will most likely grow the mushrooms in bins; that way, I won’t have to make the whole greenhouse habitable for these plants. 

I’ve also realized that this isn’t a one person job. I needed extra man-power when digging and will continue to need that help when building. This means I have to coordinate schedules with my dad, which is a huge setback. The experience has really taught me the importance of patience and good communication.

Well, I hope everyone had a good holiday! See you next month, with hopefully more progress.

Hello, lovely people!

It’s a new month and new things are starting to happen. This month brought lots of planning and prepping. I went to hardware stores and got wood and other materials to move forward. I also got in touch with somebody named Mr. Wigton at the Harwood Art Center in Albuquerque. I measured and calculated and ended up getting about eight old windows from the Art Center, which he said are about 100 years old from an elementary school. 

Throughout this journey I've come to realize that the pre-building prep is a long, time-consuming process and not at all quick like I thought. I’ve had to do research, interviews, sketching, and hunting for up-cycled materials. This has been extremely frustrating because I am not as far along as I would like to be, but I have to keep in mind that planning keeps me from making mistakes later on. I will continue with this bit by bit so I can finally make some headway with the practical work by the end of spring break. 

I have met with two people this month who have extensive knowledge in construction, one of whom built structures in New York City for decades. They both helped me with troubleshooting and the math that goes with building. We were able to create a step by step plan for the next month. I feel like I’m learning more and more every time I discuss plans and work with people rather than struggling to figure it out myself. I have also read a few articles discussing the importance of up-cycling and how it helps the earth. 

If all goes according to plan, I’ll be finished with a big portion of the building by the next blog. See you then! 

Hello, readers!

Things are starting to wrap up as we only have one month of school left. I’ve made significant progress over the past six weeks. I worked for eight hours on a Saturday and got the frames up and the skeleton of the roof mostly done. This first day was a big challenge for me. I had to spend a lot of time learning how to use tools I don’t have much experience using, like a circular saw and hammer drill. 

For my next work day, I installed the windows and added corrugated plastic to create the walls. This time around, things got done much quicker because I already had the hang of things and we could just jump right back in. It was hard working in the New Mexico sun all day, but it was rewarding in the end. 

On day three, I spent time working on the floor. I shoveled about six wheelbarrows full of crusher fines and made a layer of this dirt on the ground. I then used flagstone tiles to make a more finished look. I also set aside space at the entryway to make my mosaic. 

Even though I did procrastinate quite a bit, I knew it would come together in the end, and it has. I still have things to do but I have made extensive progress. I feel like this past month has been a good learning experience for me. I got to dip my toes in the field of carpentry and I am excited to use these skills for future projects. 

To finish up my greenhouse, I still have to install the door , shelves,  finish the roof, put in the glass bottle windows, and add various mosaic design elements throughout it. Unfortunately, though, you won’t get to see this until next year since this is my last blog. Hope your summer goes swimmingly, and I want to thank you for joining me on this journey!  

To finish up my greenhouse, I still have to install the door , shelves,  finish the roof, put in the glass bottle windows, and add various mosaic design elements throughout it. Unfortunately, though, you won’t get to see this until next year since this is my last blog. Hope your summer goes swimmingly, and I want to thank you for joining me on this journey!