Max Frantz

On October 21, my biology class took a field trip out to the old fort ord to do a nature walk as a class. My lab group walked around and identified the different phylum we saw. We walked for close to two hours and saw animalia, fungi, mosses, and plantae. That evening I made myself some trader joes pasta that did not include meat, which took care of my meatless meal for the day challenge.

On October 16th, my roommate and I walked up to the main quad to get burgers. I got a veggie burger which took care of the meatless meal of the day. We noticed that in the main quad, there was a school event going on that had activities for students to paint wooden objects which my roommate and I took part in. It was very nice to have something to do on campus with music and activities. After my roommate and I finished our paintings, we walked around and asked others whos was better. Having things to do within a walkable distance was a really nice change.

October 13, I started the day to some oatmeal as always. I tried a new brand and dont like it. I much prefer the Goods and Gather Organic oatmeal brand than anything. Anyways, today I went out by myself to explore the Elkhorn Slough again to go birding. I walked for a total of I think up to 3-4 hours, stopping every once and a while to sit and watch. On my walk, I encountered two stripped racers and multiple chestnut backed chickadees. The racered definitely spooked me a bit.

On October 12th, the washer in our appartment broke so my roommates and I went into Marina to go to a laundromat. We had a lot of time on our hands since our clothes were washing and drying so we walked around. One of my roommates knew of a cafe that was near so we walked to the cafe. There were strange rusted towers out in Seaside that my roommates and I grew curious about. I theorized that they were used during the 70s for military purposes but I have no clue. In total, we walked around for about an hour and a half.

On October 26th, I began my morning to a small breakfast of a banana because I had an early morning volunteering with the Bureaucracy of Land Management for Public Lands Day. I ended up walking 2.5 miles for 40 minutes by accident because I parked in the wrong spot. It made me half an hour late to the event but on my walk, I took photos of the Old Fort Ord trails and it was beautiful. I was there for 4 hours, working with a crew on dispersing barley seeds along an old path. Later that night, I made myself a cheese pizza which counts for the meatless meal. For this challenge, I have stopped getting pepperoni pizzas and started getting just cheese pizza and the switch hasnt been too different in my experience.

On October 30th, I began the day with another meatless meal of a banana, apple and oatmeal. Looking back, I definitely could have upped the amount of meatless meals per day from 1 to 2. Since starting this challenge, i have been starting my day to oatmeal which already gets a meatless meal taken care of. Finding a meatless meal for lunch and dinner is the challenge. Another day of walking around campus was nice, i appreciate looking and listening to the birds while trying to identify them. That adds to the challenge which makes it much more enjoyable

On the morning of the 29, I woke up to oatmeal and an apple to start the day. For dinner, I had a veggie burger from the burger restaurant here on campus. Probably not the greatest thing to eat ill but it will do. I find it difficult to find a meatless meal to eat while sick, much of the soups that I bought from the store had meat in them. Walking around campus today was nice. It's been overwhelming thinking about midterms and assignments so every little chance i get to go outside and walk is very much needed and appreciated.