From Washington!

Oh I'm Sorry I'm Sorry I'm Sorry!

I've been horrible and I havn't written for awhile but Here I am now, ready to update ya'll on my whereabouts.

Well I arrived safe and sound ( and in one piece) in Washington. The drive up was gorgeous. We were constantly driving up into the mountains and then into some deep foggy valley, just beautiful. We finally made it into the Seattle area, after two days of driving and then took the ferry from the mainland over to Vashon Island. It was breathtaking seeing the island arise out of the mist. The Island itself is tiny. One main road. a lot of back roads, and even more horses. Its pretty cool because the island population consists of rich old hippies so the island is covered with strange art, knickknack stores and coffee shops.

Camp Sealth itself is about 2o minutes away from town and then another 10 minutes down a long winding pot-hole ridden drive to the Camp. The camp is huge! 65 cabins, some heated some without windows or doors and all of them in some array of disrepair. There are about 5 or 6 staff living on camp with us and they are all AWESOME. So nice. All of them are a little rustic a little goofy but they have just been sooo welcoming!

The work we have been doing is pretty routine. We're using the chainsaws to clear ten to fifteen feet of defensible space (no shrubs, no trees, no fire) around all the cabins, the trees we cut down we are splitting for firewood (which is AWESOME!).

We've been going into Seattle every weekend, which is also pretty nice...

Alright I know this hasn't been a very descriptive message but I am exhausted. I will write soon.

Splitting Wood

My House, where we are living (boooya!)

Sacramento Zoo (and a little chainsaw too!)

How well I have learned that there is no fence to sit on between heaven and hell. There is a deep, wide gulf, a chasm, and in that chasm is no place for any man. - johnny cash

I mentioned this before, but, I've been working at the Sacramento Zoo! We've been back here in Sacramento for about a month now and When I have not been in training for fire fighting, I've been spending my time working at the Sacramento Zoo! The sac zoo is a non profit organization that helps support the growth of endangered and vanishing animals, so they requested an Americorps team to come help them with maintenance and animal care. Over the past few weeks we have put in over a hundred hours with them and I love it! I think part of my attraction to the zoo has to do with the fact that I want to go into Animal sciences in school but on top of that EVERYBODY that works at that zoo is ridiculously nice and really cool.

The first week that I was there I was working on a team with the maintenance crew to help build an African Tortoise exhibit in between the giraffe and the Zebra exhibits. It was cool because as we worked, the giraffes became very curious of us and would meander over to oversee our work. A couple of times the keepers brought lettuce out for us to feed it to them. It is almost humbly to be beside such enormous and graceful animals. I've seen them from afar before and on TV but you don't know really how gigantic they are until you stand next to one. We also built a retaining fence for the Bongo yard, and raked all of the leaves in the bamboo grove around the red panda exhibit.

Before After


The next week we were there we actually got to help the keepers with animal care!!! The first day I was in the primate house, in the morning I cleaned out the orangutan and chimp dens as well as helped prepare all of the primates meals. The afternoon was sick because I helped with the 'primitive' primates (not as advanced primates as in lemurs, saki monkeys etc) I LOVED THEM. I got to go inside the lemurs exhibits in order to clean then out and feed them. The lemurs were bouncing off all the branches around me and hanging their tails in my face. I loved the black and white ruffed lemurs because there were so many of them in thier enclosure and they would all wrestle with each other. I also worked with reptiles; I watched the reptile keeper wrestle a dwarf crocodile out of his exhibit so I could climb in there and put in new rubber matting, I worked in Ungulates (hoof-stock) cleaning the stalls and pens of the Attic and Bongo Gazelles. Zebras, Giraffes and kangaroos. These animals were cool because you could pat them and feed them and they would lick your hands and clothes. Bird day was awesome because I was working in cages with birds half my size that looked like dinosaurs. and then of course, Carnivores! My day with the carnivores was a lot of cage cleaning and not much interaction with the dangerous animals but the interaction I did have was impressive. The Lions, Jaguars, tigers, snow leopards and Hyenas were enormous and highly dangerous and gorgeous. When the lion roared the walls shook and the glass in the windows clattered. The tigers when they stood up on their back legs were a good three feet taller than I was.

Mike with the Bongos


Red Pandas


Me and my joey, Joey



OK I know this is getting long so I'll recap on my week of chainsaw training quickly. It was Awesome!!! Basically we spent two days in the classroom just learning about chainsaw maintenance, safety, and techniques. And then for the next three days we drove out into the mountains and just cut stud down!!!! Here are some images for your enjoyment

I am A wildland firefighter

"Success is having to worry about every damn thing in the world, except money" Johnny Cash

First Off (as the title of this post suggests) I am now a certified wildland firefighter! Pretty sweet huh? I spent this past week in a windowless classroom about 8 hours a day. I took classes on Wildland fire behavior, basic firefighter training, emergency routines, dealing with hazardous chemicals and Fire line tools 101. We basically had a stream of wildland firefighters coming in to teach us how to read the weather and how the weather will effect fires, the different terms in firefighting and so much more. Each firefighter had a whole slew of interesting and scarey stories.

I had to take to written exams, one on weather and fire behavior and one on basic firefighting tactics. Then the final day of the course was a field day. We all drove out to the Tahoe BML, were split into groups of about 15 and then hiked out onto a helipad on top of a mountains. Then were given a scenario.

The Helipad was our anchor and the three teams were in charge of digging 30in fire lines around the 'fire'. The lines had to be down to mineral soil so that the fire couldn't cross it and large fuel items (branches, logs, saplings) had to be cleared three feet on either side of our line. If the hills inclination was too steep then our line would have to become a trench so that flaming debris would get caught in the trench rather than rolling across the line and starting a fire on the other side of our line.

We worked quickly especially because our Crew Leaders (the firefighters that were with us leading us) kept getting radio calls updating us on the changing and worsening conditions of the 'fire'.

We are required to wear a yellow long sleeve nomex (flame retardant) shirt, and green nomex pants along with flame retardant leather boots, flame retardant helmets, leather gloves and goggles. On our backs we are required to carry a pack. Mine was only about 25 pounds but that gets pretty heavy when your constantly hiking up and down ridiculously steep mountain sides and also swinging an ax (0r whatever line digging tool) non-stop for a couple hours. The contained extra gloves, extra nomex clothing, three water bottles, food, headlamp, fusees, firefighting emergency handbook and a 7 pound emergency shelter that I would have to deploy if I were not able to escape to safety and a fire was closing in.

So a couple hours into the drill we were told to work faster because the fire conditions were worsening; the relative humidity was down and the win

d had picked up. About 5 minutes after that order was issued we were told to ROT (reverse tool order, basically to turn around) and MOVE. We started to hike back up this mountain (I'm talking wicked steep) when the orders came to drop our backs and RUN!!!! packs went down, tools went down our emergency shelters got pulled out of our pack and we started to run. It was hot out, we had just worked about 5 hours digging trenches through the forest and we were running our to save our asses (because you need to train like you are doing it for real). I don't know how long we booked it up the embankment but it was long enough for my lungs to be burning, my nose to be running and for a lot of people to be dropping behind or dropping down. The hill was slippery, we were jumping over other peoples dropped gear and then finally we saw an area that our crew leaders yelled at us to deploy in, we grab

bed practice emergency shelters (because the real ones are one time us eonly and cast almost $200) and at a full run we ripped the shelters out of their brick sized containers shook them open and went down inside of them.

We were faced down on the ground inside a metallic burrito throat burning from running so hard and our safety glasses fogging up from how hot it was inside the shelter. It was really exciting and also scary. I started yelling to see who if anyone had their shelter near me ( I had been so focused on getting in my shelter I hadn't even looked around me when

I went down) I shouted and shouted "HELLO, HELLO WHOSE THERE" but over the sirens, wind machines and other yelling no one heard me till finally I heard Christina asking if it was me. We shouted at each other for the next few minutes and then finally they told us we could come out. We were all shaking and I was pumped.

I can't wait to start going into the field... but hopefully I am never in an emergency situation like that haha

Hi Ho! HI Ho! Its back to work I go!

"And the moon’s laying low in the sky Forcing everything metal to shine And the sidewalk holds diamonds like the jewelry store case They argue walk this way, no, walk this way" Bright Eyes

Wow it has been a long time. I've been so incredibly busy I can't find time to clean up my room never mind make my way down to the computer lab. Haha. But Today is my first day off since break so I made may way over to my blog.

So First off my break was great. Flying was a pain. I flew into a blizzard on my way home and out of a blizzard on my way back. While I was home I spent a lot of time with my family, which is always nice and a lot of time sleeping which was really nice since sleep is not always easy to find. It was pretty cool just being back in a place where you know everything. On my way back from Mass, I got stuck in Phoenix overnight because the US Airways flight attendants all decided to go on strike. Which was really inconvenient because I got back to the base a day late, which means I had to use one of my three leave days :(

Though I liked Utah, It is really nice to be back to my home base. The living conditions in Sacramento are so nice, I definitely appreciate them more. I get my own room so instead of sleeping in a room with 10 people Its only my and my room mate Maggie. And Its nice just being able to go out. If I want I can walk to go out for dinner or I can catch the Light rail and go into Sac with my friends. Its really nice that there are ten teams on base because its such a fun variety of people to hang out with. I went into Sacramento Last night for 2nd Saturday with about 10 people from all different teams. 2nd Saturday is once a month Sacramento's stores and art galleries all stay open late and people play music on the streets. Before that, Mike, from my teams Dad brought us all out to dinner because he was here on a business trip. We ate like Kings.

The only Thing sucky about being on campus is that we have Duty about once or twice a week. Which means we have to stay on campus all night cleaning the halls and securing the base, its just like a watch but ours was on Friday night this week and its gunna be on Saturday next week. Bleh!

Oh wow I have so much more to write to everyone! I've been working at the Sac Zoo, which is amazing and I'm starting my training to get my Red Card Certification for Wild Land Firefighting tomorrow, But I'll save those little stories for my next post BECAUSE Dadadaa Da (drum roll please) I FOUND OUT MY NEXT PROJECT!

So On February 8th we take a two day drive from Sacramento all the way up to VASHON ISLAND, WA! Its a pretty big Island in the Puget sound off the cost of Washington. We will have to take a ferry to get there. Apparently we are going to be staying at another Summer Camp, but this one, instead of in the mountains is on the beach literally. I am SOOOO freaking excited. I know its going to rain every minute of every day but whatever!

We are going to be building trails and also building fire lines (huge trails that fires can't hop) around the community for 8 weeks! I can't wait. Its pretty cool because I really wanted to go to the northwest but because we are FRT I didn't think we would be there, But now LOOK OUT WASHINTON!

This is an aerial view of camp Sealth where we'll be living.

And then here is the island!

Ok well that's all for now folks!

On the Road to Sacramento; Reflections

In time the snow will rise, in time the snow will rise- Sufjan Stevens

Driving back from Salt Lake City was like passing between two worlds. In the morning before we left on our first day of road tripping, we met up with Silver 3, another Fuel Reduction team like us, who had been stationed in Wyoming working with Habitat for humanity. We all drove, caravan style, from Salt Lake City to Reno, about 11 hours on the road. It was so strange being back with all my old friends, who during the month of CTI (training) I had become so close with, especially Cody, my old suitemate on campus, and seeing them again seemed so strange but also so comforting.

We had been living in a world where the only people that existed, were the ten members on our team, who I had grown to love and appreciate so well. The only activities that existed were the ones that we could access from our cabin; hikes, snowball fights, and of course our 9-10 hours that we spent working at the Utah Food bank daily. It was like our first project had been a perfect little experiment tucked neatly inside a snow globe, complete with an absurd amount of snowfall and filled with little people that continuously did the exactly same thing every day and smiled the entire time, no matter how good or bad their day was going.

As the landscape around us passed from daunting rock-faced mountains to the hours of painfully deserted salt flats and then into the cozy foot-hills, I sat in the other team’s van and quickly found out that not all team’s experiences were as neatly folded as ours had been. While winding through the miles of snow covered mountains, touched only by the pine trees and railroad tracks, I heard stories of negative fourteen degree days, wearing coats a mittens to bed, using outhouses nearly flooded with frozen refuse and team members at each others throat constantly.

It was easy to think at a first that my team would never get to the point of fighting but I guess when you are sleeping on canvas cots in an unfinished basement versus sleeping snugged up in a fire-heated cabin in the mountains, then things are different. I am still as enthusiastic about Amercorps as I have always been, but I have no Idea what we will be waiting for us on the other end of January.

For now I am just so excited to go home for the Holidays, to see my family, and dogs and my friends. The more time I spend away from home; backpacking and road tripping this summer to all my travel in Americorps, the more I appreciate and love my roots. Massachusetts has got some solid people.

The Turkey.

If you don’t want to sink, you’d better figure out how to swim – jeanette walls

Seeing that we are living on $4.50 a day for our eating allowance, we have become a bit like gremlins. Its really not that bad because when you combine 10 peoples living allowances than you get $45 dollars a day for shopping but then you factor in again that I live with 7 boys between the ages of 17-24 and you begin to understand why four gallons of milk is always gone within 2 days.

Now, when food comes into the food bank and it is improperly labeled (aka no label or in plastic baggies or what have you), or it is damaged beyond help (cracked, opened, broken) it gets weighed and thrown away. This is where the gremlin part comes in, we scavenge that food like no other. Daily we take home boxes of opened cookies, unlabeled cans, and cracked jars of salsa. Which is why when we found out about the turkeys we were so ecstatic.

The Turkeys were pre-cooked, expired, and re-frozen. There were thirty of them, give or take and they needed to be eaten immediately. We waited for a few days and asked multiple times about the turkeys and Finally were given the green light, that yes, we could take one home because they were not going to be able to distribute all of the Turkeys in time and already some of them were questionable.

The pre-cooked part was essential; we don't have a kitchen in our cabin, only a microwave and refrigerator. We let the turkey thaw in our house for a full 24 hours and when the meat was ready. Christina and I methodically and carefully as possible carved our prize ( well as carefully as we could with pocket knives). It was amazing. It was the first time we had had meat in the cabin that wasn't Walmart deli meats or canned meats. I think I ate at least 20 turkey and cranberry sauce sandwiches. The plates of dark and light meat were gone in days.

Well now we back to no Turkey but what can you do. Back to spam and rice.

On the 22 day until Christmas My true love gave to me....

I can gather all the news I need on the weather report- Simon & Garfunkle

Wooooohhheeee well it has been a little while since I have last written but I have been In a whirl wind. Thanks giving was really nice I took a chunk out of my day to call both my dad’s side of the family and my mom’s side of the family and I basically talked to everyone in the fam which was really nice. Everyone sounded great so thanks for that guys.

The warehouse has been really hard lately we have been bringing in about 25000 pounds of food a day more or less which is sweet but boy is it tiring. We found out that per week we have been collecting and sorting a little more than half of the food that they intake. Yay Americorps!!!.

We had a pretty sweet Independent service project the other day, we helped out at and animal shelter!!!! Which, if any of ya’ll know me, would realize that that is right up my alley. I basically spent 4 hours cuddling with cats. It was great. They had this one big room just PACKED with cats, it was CAT CITY 2009! And as soon as you walked in they all surrounded you. So cute. So cute.

For all ya’ll that haven’t heard yet, I’m coming home the 22^nd! I’m really excited to see everyone. I’m going to do an Americorps recruiting event at the High school that day too, which will be pretty cool. I hope I get some H-Dub kids to join up.

Today Instead of working in the warehouse and driving around doing pick-ups, I worked in the 2-1-1 Call center. Which is a referral and information center for people to call if they want to get a hold of volunteer opportunities, need information on addiction help support groups, are looking for financial help for he holidays are anything non-profit really. It was interesting but actually really sad. We got a lot of calls from people who had multiple children and were looking for a place that they could get free winter jackets for them because all of their kids had no jackets. Or we would get calls from 14-year-old girls who needed a place to contact for teen pregnancy classes. It was really deep but I felt like I was doing a lot of good and the people I worked with were really cool.

Once again running out of time to write but you guys are probably getting bored of this novel anyways. On a closing note I did a 24 hour fast a few days ago to better understand hunger and poverty in the working world because I am seeing with it so much especially with the food bank and all. It was really difficult to work a 9 hour day with nothing in my stomach and it really made the work I’m doing have some meaning.

OK well I love you guys, happy Holidays.