A bunch of us participated in an ISP that Adrienne scheduled for today. We worked with a wildlife restoration group, reclaiming an big old gravel mine and turning it into a sustainable wetland. There were a lot of muddy, flooded areas so we broke up into groups with a bunch of volunteers that showed up and we planted marsh grasses and other wetland plants in those areas.
It was a great time, but it was really tiring. It’s starting to hit me more now. We left the bunkhouse around 7 and we headed back around 4:30. The most challenging part was wearing big galoshes and constantly getting stuck in the mud. It was really difficult to move, which made the whole process move very slowly.
It was another really good day. I got dirty, fell in the mud at one point. But it was all good fun.
Oh! Hehe. So, on the drive home from ISP, we were approaching the road that takes us up the mountain to Ned and you won’t believe what we saw – a mob of naked or scantily clad people on bicycles! John was driving and he almost stopped in the middle of the intersection we were driving through. I mentioned it to a Forest Service person later when we ran into some of them in town and they were like, "Oh! It was Naked Bike Ride Day! I totally forgot!" I guess it’s a normal thing. One of the reasons I really like Boulder – it seems anything goes here. (Well, anything of the liberal persuasion, but I’m not arguing with that, call me biased.)
Yesterday, another three of our team went down to the airport to mix retardant like I did on Thursday. Apparently things were crazier than when I was there, though – they were mixing just to keep up with all the planes that would fly in to fill up.
The rest of us spent the day at the work center. We did a six-mile run for PT. The Forest Service people call the route Gates of Hell, but I’m not sure why – I really enjoyed it. It was the most pleasant run and I felt really good during the whole thing. After PT was over, we had a class on different ways to do things like burn fuel or do prescribed fires. We had a mini field demonstration after the class portion in which we went to the bunkhouse parking lot to play with drip torches and fusees. They also set off a fire grenade. We’ll be finishing it up next week.
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Oof, another long day ...
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Coolest. Day. EVER!!!
But first, let me start with Wednesday. Monday and Tuesday consisted of swamping and chipping, as per usual. On Wednesday, we finally did something different with Open Space. The two teams split up and Earth 5 went off to do trail work. We helped reroute a trail by cutting the edges and starting to even out the trail surface. It was pretty challenging, but it was definitely nice to do something other than swamp. Swamping for Open Space is a little different than swamping for the Forest Service, the main difference being that I don’t mind doing it with the Forest Service. Heh.
After work, we had dinner and then a bunch of us headed down into Ned to one of the local pubs because there are some Forest Service people celebrating their birthdays this week. So we went to wish them Happy Birthdays and to hang out. It was a good time. While we were there, Ervin showed up and told me that I would have to get up early the next morning because I wasn’t reporting to work. Instead, M Squared, Harrison and I would be going to a local airport in Bloomfield (a town just outside of Boulder) where we would be helping out with tanker airplanes. Well, say no more!
So the next morning, we left around 8 am and headed down to Bloomfield. We managed to find the main airport, but it took another half an hour to find the office we were looking for. Once we finally got there, we immediately got to work. We spent most of the day tearing open 50 lb buckets of powdered retardant – made up of diammonium sulfate and ammonium phosphates (yes, I had occasion to look) – and dumping them into a giant mixer that added water to the whole thing. Once the mixing tank was full, we pumped the mixture into 11,000-gallon holding tanks (there were two that we could hook up to at the time). I texted Nikki at one point during the day to see how the rest of the team was doing. Apparently we missed a PT hike. That’s the third week in a row that I haven’t gone on one; the first time was because I was on break, the second time we skipped it because of the weather. I am so screwed for next week.
Now, if Mike Rowe wants a Dirty Job, I definitely have one for him. First of all, that retardant tastes and smells terrible. Even with a mask on, it gets up into your nose and eyes because it creates dust clouds every time you dump a bucket into the mixer. It was also a bit windy that day. I was pink by the end of the day. My arms were so red that they looked like I had second degree sunburn. My face felt like I had three layers of dollar-store make up on and my hair was a strange tinge of pink. My Nomex are filthy.
That being said, it was all totally worth it when, at one point, we heard this loud rumbling and turned around just in time to see a fighter jet buzz the airport (sorry Dad, I don’t know what kind it was and it was so obviously fast that I didn’t get a chance to get a picture). We also got to help load tanker planes with retardant every time they flew in. We loaded one plane five times! We filled another plane once when it finally arrived from Albuquerque. As we were leaving, both planes came back to fill up again. So that’s eight fills in one day. They were going to fires in Pueblo, CO; some of the crew we were working with said that apparently the fires just blew up overnight. Dispatch might be a possibility, but we’ll see.
But the absolute best was that at the end of the day, we were going to leave around 8 pm but we waited for another tanker to land so they would take us up inside the plane! It was so awesome. The plane’s mechanic said it was from 1954-55, and most of the plane was still original, right down to the seatbelts. It was so awesome, we got to sit in the cockpit and everything.
It really was the coolest day ever, especially for me because airplanes are one of my favorite things in the world. I love watching them even more than flying in them. I hope to have pictures up shortly.
After work, we had dinner and then a bunch of us headed down into Ned to one of the local pubs because there are some Forest Service people celebrating their birthdays this week. So we went to wish them Happy Birthdays and to hang out. It was a good time. While we were there, Ervin showed up and told me that I would have to get up early the next morning because I wasn’t reporting to work. Instead, M Squared, Harrison and I would be going to a local airport in Bloomfield (a town just outside of Boulder) where we would be helping out with tanker airplanes. Well, say no more!
So the next morning, we left around 8 am and headed down to Bloomfield. We managed to find the main airport, but it took another half an hour to find the office we were looking for. Once we finally got there, we immediately got to work. We spent most of the day tearing open 50 lb buckets of powdered retardant – made up of diammonium sulfate and ammonium phosphates (yes, I had occasion to look) – and dumping them into a giant mixer that added water to the whole thing. Once the mixing tank was full, we pumped the mixture into 11,000-gallon holding tanks (there were two that we could hook up to at the time). I texted Nikki at one point during the day to see how the rest of the team was doing. Apparently we missed a PT hike. That’s the third week in a row that I haven’t gone on one; the first time was because I was on break, the second time we skipped it because of the weather. I am so screwed for next week.
Now, if Mike Rowe wants a Dirty Job, I definitely have one for him. First of all, that retardant tastes and smells terrible. Even with a mask on, it gets up into your nose and eyes because it creates dust clouds every time you dump a bucket into the mixer. It was also a bit windy that day. I was pink by the end of the day. My arms were so red that they looked like I had second degree sunburn. My face felt like I had three layers of dollar-store make up on and my hair was a strange tinge of pink. My Nomex are filthy.
That being said, it was all totally worth it when, at one point, we heard this loud rumbling and turned around just in time to see a fighter jet buzz the airport (sorry Dad, I don’t know what kind it was and it was so obviously fast that I didn’t get a chance to get a picture). We also got to help load tanker planes with retardant every time they flew in. We loaded one plane five times! We filled another plane once when it finally arrived from Albuquerque. As we were leaving, both planes came back to fill up again. So that’s eight fills in one day. They were going to fires in Pueblo, CO; some of the crew we were working with said that apparently the fires just blew up overnight. Dispatch might be a possibility, but we’ll see.
But the absolute best was that at the end of the day, we were going to leave around 8 pm but we waited for another tanker to land so they would take us up inside the plane! It was so awesome. The plane’s mechanic said it was from 1954-55, and most of the plane was still original, right down to the seatbelts. It was so awesome, we got to sit in the cockpit and everything.
It really was the coolest day ever, especially for me because airplanes are one of my favorite things in the world. I love watching them even more than flying in them. I hope to have pictures up shortly.
Monday, June 09, 2008
I'm still here!!
Ooookay, so it's been a while since my last post. For this I apologize. Things have been busy, though not very interesting. I'll elaborate ...
I got home from break on Saturday. On Sunday, I did my usual grocery shopping. We're now splitting the budget between Sam's Club and a super Wal-Mart that we found. Things have been under budget for the last two weeks, so that's good.
Monday through Thursday of last week pretty much all we did was swamp, even on our day with Open Spaces. I dropped Tree #2 at some point (I forget which day). It was big, I didn't realize how large it was until it was down and we took a look at the stump. It wasn't huge, but it was a little more than a foot in diameter. On Friday, we actually got a change in our routine. Earth 4 went elsewhere, while Earth 5 ended up going to a prescribed burn to mop up. They had burned piles the day before and we were there to turn the ashes over and make sure everything was cold and out. It was different, thankfully. It was also a good experience, even though I'm sure we'll mop up so much that we'll get sick of it. We had an engine with us that had water, so that made things a bit easier. The last spot we mopped was big, with about five of us on it. While we were checking for hot spots, I found one next to a burned stump. I dug around it, got it a little wet, mixed it up and then felt around it again. I continued to do this and the spot continued to get bigger. I ended up pulling out about three or four big rocks buried in the ash. We dug until the spot essentially became a ditch and even then it still didn't seem to want to cool down. And the deeper I went, the hotter it felt. It was a bit baffling. We had to wrap up though, so we just left the ditch open to cool off on its own.
This past weekend was fun. We've been able to hang out with some of the Forest Service people a little. Friday night, we all hung out together down in Nederland. On Saturday, I took Nikki to Urgent Care in Boulder because she'd been coughing all week. About two hours later, we finally found out that she had bronchitis. She got a prescription and got some medicine for it. That night, a few of us went back down to Nederland. She deteriorated from there and spent most of Sunday in bed, the poor thing.
On Sunday, we were supposed to have an ISP scheduled for the whole day. We got down the mountain to the edge of Boulder when everyone got a cell signal back and we all got voicemails from Joanna, a girl on Earth 4. It turns out that the ISP was cancelled. So we turned around and went back up the mountain. I went for a run and then got the grocery shopping out of the way. When we got back, some of the Forest Service guys were trying to set up an Ultimate game. Everyone on my team who wanted to play ended up changing their minds, so that left only four of us. We decided to just throw the Frisbee around in the driveway instead. After that, we all hunkered down infront of the tv and watched Ax Men on the Discovery Channel. That was a lot of fun, just because we all have experience with chainsaws now. The comments from the Forest Service guys were particularly amusing because they've been doing it for so long.
Today was more of the same -- falling trees, limbing, bucking and swamping (but no chipping for once, yay!). I dropped trees #3 and #4 today, so I'm glad to have a little more experience under my belt. I hope to have more just because the more I have to do it, the more comfortable I'll feel.
Well, the library is closing in about fifteen minutes so I'd better go. I hope it won't be quite so long before my next post!
I got home from break on Saturday. On Sunday, I did my usual grocery shopping. We're now splitting the budget between Sam's Club and a super Wal-Mart that we found. Things have been under budget for the last two weeks, so that's good.
Monday through Thursday of last week pretty much all we did was swamp, even on our day with Open Spaces. I dropped Tree #2 at some point (I forget which day). It was big, I didn't realize how large it was until it was down and we took a look at the stump. It wasn't huge, but it was a little more than a foot in diameter. On Friday, we actually got a change in our routine. Earth 4 went elsewhere, while Earth 5 ended up going to a prescribed burn to mop up. They had burned piles the day before and we were there to turn the ashes over and make sure everything was cold and out. It was different, thankfully. It was also a good experience, even though I'm sure we'll mop up so much that we'll get sick of it. We had an engine with us that had water, so that made things a bit easier. The last spot we mopped was big, with about five of us on it. While we were checking for hot spots, I found one next to a burned stump. I dug around it, got it a little wet, mixed it up and then felt around it again. I continued to do this and the spot continued to get bigger. I ended up pulling out about three or four big rocks buried in the ash. We dug until the spot essentially became a ditch and even then it still didn't seem to want to cool down. And the deeper I went, the hotter it felt. It was a bit baffling. We had to wrap up though, so we just left the ditch open to cool off on its own.
This past weekend was fun. We've been able to hang out with some of the Forest Service people a little. Friday night, we all hung out together down in Nederland. On Saturday, I took Nikki to Urgent Care in Boulder because she'd been coughing all week. About two hours later, we finally found out that she had bronchitis. She got a prescription and got some medicine for it. That night, a few of us went back down to Nederland. She deteriorated from there and spent most of Sunday in bed, the poor thing.
On Sunday, we were supposed to have an ISP scheduled for the whole day. We got down the mountain to the edge of Boulder when everyone got a cell signal back and we all got voicemails from Joanna, a girl on Earth 4. It turns out that the ISP was cancelled. So we turned around and went back up the mountain. I went for a run and then got the grocery shopping out of the way. When we got back, some of the Forest Service guys were trying to set up an Ultimate game. Everyone on my team who wanted to play ended up changing their minds, so that left only four of us. We decided to just throw the Frisbee around in the driveway instead. After that, we all hunkered down infront of the tv and watched Ax Men on the Discovery Channel. That was a lot of fun, just because we all have experience with chainsaws now. The comments from the Forest Service guys were particularly amusing because they've been doing it for so long.
Today was more of the same -- falling trees, limbing, bucking and swamping (but no chipping for once, yay!). I dropped trees #3 and #4 today, so I'm glad to have a little more experience under my belt. I hope to have more just because the more I have to do it, the more comfortable I'll feel.
Well, the library is closing in about fifteen minutes so I'd better go. I hope it won't be quite so long before my next post!
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