Where I live

I live on an island.

Now, before you start thinking that I am some rugged or adventurous person, you should know that a great many people have lived on this island before me, however briefly, and most of them have come away unscathed. Nonetheless, this is new to me. I live here amongst people who know about boats, fish, migratory birds. And this is working out nicely, as up until a month ago, I knew next to nothing about boats, fish, migratory birds.

My island home is a 95-acre piece of rock called Appledore Island, located roughly 6 miles off the NH coast. Its vast infrastructure is composed of 11 habitable buildings, 3 outbuildings, an abandoned navy tower, 3 diesel generators, 1 wind turbine, 10 solar panels, 1 shallow well, 1 reverse-osmosis system, 1 saltwater pump, 2 outdated radio-repeater telephone lines, 1 satellite dish, 1 dirt road, 1 tractor, 2 very old trucks, 2 docks, 2 research vessels, 3 zodiacs.


Appledore Island is home to a marine laboratory, where I work. There's a lot happening here. Researchers in a wide variety of fields come here: ornithologists, archaeologists, air quality experts, and of course ichthyologists. Students come here to take courses in marine sciences, oceanography, meteorology, animal behavior, coastal ecology, conservation, and sustainability. Interns come to learn about seabird habitat restoration or sustainable engineering. Currently, there are about 45 people on the island. In a month, there will be 80 people here, which is almost as many as this little island can sustain.


I'm the Logistics Coordinator here, which means I sit in an office most of the day. But it's not a bad office. I have 3 windows right near my desk, and each one has a lovely view. The west-facing view is shown to the left.







So, what is it that I do here? Like everybody else that works here, my job is quite varied. I am the chief liaison between the island campus and the main office in Ithaca & our support office in Portsmouth (in other words, about 40% of my day is spent answering email). I also do a lot of scheduling. I schedule boats and dock space and supply runs and a million other things. They call me the brain of the island, not because I'm any smarter than any one else here (by any means), but because I'm the one who always knows what is happening here and when. I write all of this down on an enormous & messy whiteboard, that the rest of the staff uses to plan their days. I am also in charge of island orientation for all incoming students, researchers, and faculty, which involves a thrilling speech about fire safety and bird poop.

I am also in charge of student records, running weekly staff meetings, and I act as an ambassador to our neighbors and landlords, Star Island. Sometimes I am a deckhand, sometimes a telephone repairman, sometimes a plant ID specialist, and, on occasion, a teaching assistant. Sometimes I answer phone calls from parents wondering why their kids haven't called them, sometimes I administer first aid to people who have slipped on the rocky shore, sometimes I train work-study students. Every day is different.

In a nutshell, this is yet another one of those jobs that, when visiting old friends and family that will inevitably ask, "and what do you do...", I will have to say, "well, it's difficult to explain". But, I think that my enormous job description could be boiled down to just a few words:

Get the people what they need.

Need a boat to take you to the neighboring island?
Or an all-day fishing charter?
Need a classroom with a powerpoint projector?
A porch to do your smelly dissections on?
Need half a gallon of cod-liver-oil?
Wondering where your box of muskrat skulls is?
Need 50 gallons of gasoline? Some brakelines? A contractor?
Need to know whether your students have all taken Intro Biology or not?
...and if they passed?

I can probably get it for you.

herring gull, wind turbine, Mt. Aggie in the background