Squad 2

Sorry for the blog absence.  I've been fighting fires in New Mexico.  No time for a full update right now.  We're off to the beach to enjoy our rest, but I'll leave you with a picture of my squad from the detail.

We had the best crew from all over Arkansas.  They taught us so much and I miss them already!

I love free internet!

Our new laundromat has wireless internet.  I'm in love.  Laundry is no longer an hour or two of wasted time, we can get things accomplished while we get clean.  Which is currently what I'm doing in preparation for my weekend away.  I'm headed to Conway, AR to see Leigh this weekend, and to say I'm excited is an understatement.  I'm ready for a weekend away from work and the team, so this couldn't come at a better time.

Work this week has been varied, but I feel like we're actually doing useful things to help the Forest Service so I'm happy.  Monday I felled two trees!  One of them didn't go exactly where I wanted it to go, so that was a bit scary, but I felt pretty accomplished when they were down.  Tuesday and Wednesday we did some aerial photo archiving with the Forest Service archaeologist.  And today and tomorrow 5 of us are working with Eric, the Forest timber guy preparing for a lumber sale.

We had two truckloads of big aerial photos of the forest.

We worked in the office basement, and boy, it got dusty down there.

Our finished product.  The photos are no longer in a work center shed, but instead they are organized and laid out nicely in the basement.

After two days we got a little crazy and started hanging from the rafters though.

Today we marked a boundary for a timber sale.  The forest sells lumber to make money, so we helped out a bit.

We followed the laid out pink ribbons and painted the trees on the boundary with bright orange paint.

Max and I.

I was in charge of scouting out the ribbons out in front.

And this is what has been getting us through the weeks.  Starbucks iced coffee packets!  So tasty.  Except I just broke my cup :(  I'll have to look for a new one in Little Rock this weekend!

Pictures

My new home!  

The top bunk is mine!  

Just about all of my belongings fit in this chest of drawers.

Our humble little kitchen.

The girls' food for the week!

The 5 boys have two campers to live in.

Instead of long horns, we have goats in our backyard!  3 in the pen behind out house and 4 in another pen nearby.

Yes, we have an outhouse, but no, we don't have to use it.

We also have dogs next door.  The little one's name is Princess.

The older one is named Dutchess.

They're awfully friendly.

Our beautiful garage accommodations last week.

I've moved!

I'm writing to you from Idabel, Oklahoma.  We moved, yesterday.  Coming to Oklahoma this round we knew we were going to be camping the first few weeks, with the AmeriCorps NCCC requirement that we would moved to an air conditioned location in a timely manner.  The temperature keeps rising and with the possibility of us going on fire, AmeriCorps wanted to make sure we had an air conditioned place to sleep at night.  I'm not complaining!  I was sick of going to sleep and sweating in my tent.  Our last week has been eventful, not necessarily in the work, but in everything else.

Tuesday night we had a storm!  Living in a house, I maybe wouldn't have even woken up for it, but living in a tent is a different story.  I woke up to Alex shining his light through the screen door on my tent telling me to wake up, that Nick (my TL) wanted us all in the camper.  I headed down to the camper and saw the radar on Nick's phone and knew we were in for some not-so-fun weather.  About 30 minutes after he had us all corralled in our itty bitty camper we got hit with rain, thunder and lighting that lasted for 2 hours or so.  The thunder was so LOUD!  Around 3:30 it subsided and we all ventured back to our tents to assess the damage.  I had some water in my tent, but nothing too bad, so I went to bed and work the next day.  When I got back from work on Wednesday, Melinda and I realized we were definitely hit the hardest.  Both of our tents were soaked.  And we were two of the people that prepared the most for the rain, we had tarps tucked under our tents and our belongings in bags.  Some of my team mates didn't even have tarps and their tents were dry.  We were definitely jealous.

Wednesday we were supposed to get another storm (this time with hail), so Nick decided we were packing an overnight bag and getting out of our tents.  We went to one of the work centers and parked our sleeping bags in the garage where the Type 6 Engine usually resides.  It was basically a team sleep over.  We played cards and had made the best of it.

Friday (yesterday) we moved!  We are now in Idabel, about 90 minutes south of our prior housing.  We're still in the Ouachita National Forest working for the USDA Forest Service, but now we're focusing more on working with the south office.  We've met and worked with all of the south employees previously on prescribed burns so it's basically just a new location to us.  We report Monday at 10 am for a staff meeting, and we'll see where the week takes us from there.  We still have our team in the computer system to go on a detail, so it could happen anytime.  And with the way wild fires are going this summer, I feel like we could get that call any day.

Internet is much more accessible now.  We're a 5 minute drive to it, as opposed to the previous hour drive so I'll do my best to post a bit more frequently.  And I'm going to try to remember to put my camera in my pocket every morning to spice these posts up with pictures!