A Cog in the Wheel

I'm a little cog in a big wheel. All my years of living have given me the experience to do what I do really well. I serendipitously found a job two years ago that uses all my skills. Since I live in the desert where water is a precious commodity, my job is to help people save water. I love to talk. I love to talk about gardening. I get paid to talk about my favorite subject all day. I get to influence how people approach the conversion of their water thirsty yards into beautiful conservation-conscious water smart landscapes. I am very passionate about what I do. This is my perfect job.

This is how I got here. We had lived and worked in the same place all our lives. 10 years ago, I decided it was time for a new life, we should retire to the sun. All our kids had graduated from college and moved to warm climates. What the heck were we doing shoveling snow?

Talk about culture shock, garden shock, isolation shock. The first few months were very lonely. I was a Master Gardener in Indiana so I signed up for the Master Gardener program in Nevada. I was back in my element. I had new friends whose eyes didn't glaze over when I wanted to talk about plants. People from that class 10 years ago are my friends today. I started volunteering to work at the Demonstration Gardens, helping give programs at schools, guiding school children on tours of the gardens, presenting afterschool workshops. I've always thought that you don't know what will motivate a child to become interested in something. Give them the opportunity to experience as much of life as possible. All along the way, I was learning as much as I taught. I took a botany class called Plants of the Southwest Deserts, I worked at horticulture conferences. Anyone I met who worked in horticulture was bound to have me asking if I could visit. I helped out at a revegetation project at a gold mine in California, visited a grower of ornamental grasses in Pomona. 5 friends and I went on an Elderhostel trip to Big Sur to study the flora. We visited 5 botanic gardens as well as the Hearst Castle to see the wonderful grounds. Death Valley became a yearly field trip to see the wildflowers in the spring. I was on a roll. When a botanic garden for Las Vegas became a plan, I participated in plant surveys to harvest native plants for the Las Vegas Springs Preserve. I was soaking up knowledge like a sponge.

After 4 years of retirement, it was no longer fun. I got a job, as an office manager, it was fine. I met a lot of nice people. After 3 years business slowed down and half the staff was laid off. So I was on the street, looking to do something interesting. One Saturday, I was volunteering at the gardens and asked my friend who was the education director to let me know if she heard about any opportunities. She said they were looking for people to work on the Water Smart Landscaping program. I knew about that, I had done the conversion at my house about 4 years earlier. This was right up my alley.

I was hired, the only senior citizen I might add. I get a lot of kidding about my age, those young whippersnappers all give me the business. I've been doing my job for over 2 years now and I couldn't be happier. I think I am influencing what is happening in the Las Vegas Valley one person at a time and I want to do a good job. On average, I speak to around 4 people a day, that's 20 people a week and 1000 people a year. I have more than 4 appointments in a day but some folks aren't home and some folks aren't too interested. So I've had a chance to give information to about 2000 people since I started this job. That's a pretty good number I think. When a letter from a customer comes in praising my help, I know I've done my job well. I am a happy camper. What can be better than that?