This week was a good one. Believe it or not, it started off with a snow day on Monday. As you may have been able to guess, Oklahoma does not deal with snow nearly as well as Minnesota does. They also don't get nearly as much as we do back home.
Tuesday and Wednesday were spent preparing for a 6900 acre prescribed burn. Everyone on my team has our fingers crossed we don't get rain and we're able to take part in this burn before we leave. We spent time raking around snags (dead trees) near the road that could potentially fall into the road if they were burned. We also dug line for 1/4 of a mile down a STEEP slope where the dozer couldn't reach.
Digging line is quite the experience. My team of ten gets in a line, each person with a tool in hand. For this particular line, the first two people had pick axes, then a couple of shovels, some council rakes, and we ended up with two leaf rakes. Our goal is to get a line about 3 feet wide dug down to mineral soil, all while trying not to fall down the mountain. Good times. The purpose of the line is to cut off the fuel for the fire preventing it from burning. Usually we'll walk with a drop torch along the line at the beginning to start the fire so it's not too big and won't jump the line.
You never know what you'll find in the middle of the woods.
Laura was brave enough to open the freezer chest in front of this 'cabin.'
Luckily no dead bodies, just empty beer cans.
Thursday and Friday we spent working at Sandy Lake Campground. We had cut down some dead trees previously and it was dry enough to be able to burn the brush from them.
Fire #1.
We spent almost all day on Thursday raking up this darn beach and moving the piles.
Not so much fun.
Friday was excellent. It was a beautiful day out and Alex, Amanda and I were in charge of sitting next to this pile all day to make sure it was stoked and burning well.
Our fire tending tools.
Another week down.
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