March 22, 2011:Just over a week ago, the Shuffle Round began and all of us Corps Members began our two month journey with other members of other teams. I got the opportunity to join Sun 6 in Williamsburg, Missouri, alongside of TL GG, and several members of my former team (Sun 7).
We are just outside of Columbia, MO working alongside of the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) at the Whetstone Conservation Area, as well as several other conservation areas throughout the middle of Missouri.
We have been tasked with Invasive Species Removal, Seed Collection, Trail Maintenance, as well as Controlled and Prescribed Burns.
On our first two days here in Missouri, we took a Chainsaw Safety course (an abridged version of S-212, the National Certification) and took the Missouri Level 1 Wildland Fire course (a one day race through the S-130 and S-190 courses that Sun 3 and the other Fire Management Teams took to be Red Card certified).
On Monday (21 March) we headed over to Eagle Bluffs Conservation Area, in Columbia and right next to the Katy Trail State Park, to help check and clear wood duck houses in the morning.
Basically, we all put on waders, jumped into canoes, floated off into the different pools and channels, and opened up wooden boxes, checking for evidence of use (egg shells and / or a nest) and make sure no other animals had decided to use them.
After spending the morning clearing out a number of boxes, we took a quick lunch break before putting on Nomex and setting selected fields on fire. With very little instruction, we were handed drip torches and told, literally, “Walk that way.”
We ended burning three different fields, using roads, pools of water, and green grass as our fire lines. No digging to bare mineral soil. No Pulaski or shovel. Not even a McLeod. A Fire Rake, Flapper and Drip Torch is all you need (but the 4x4 Polaris with a water tank behind it is also useful). It’s the easiest fire work that I’ve ever done (given, my experience has been limited). I’ve found the difference between fighting fire in the East so different than how it’s fought in the West. Different tactics, different fuels, and different landscapes. It’s all been extremely fascinating to me, though I think it may be driving my current team a little insane.
Though this project is not a ‘Fire Management’ project, being able to burn 60+ acres in an afternoon is awesome, not to mention the 15 foot flames and the raging head fire that I started. And in case you haven’t noticed, I am enjoyin’ myself.
God Bless and PEACE
STKerr
April 5, 2011:
I thought Crown King was secluded. This round, shuffle round, I have found myself in the middle of nowhere! But trust me; this is far from a complaint. I was originally scheduled to be a part of Sun 3 again in the Denver Metro area working for Habitat for Humanity. However, sticking to the AmeriCorps mentality, things changed drastically and quickly for me. I was informed I had switched teams to join Sun 1 on their project working on the Paria Plateau.
When I refer to seclusion for the description of this project, I mean really secluded. We have no cell phone service for miles, no refrigerator, very little running water and electricity. And this is only on our days off! Otherwise, when working, none of these luxuries are available. Despite the living conditions, this project is incredible. I really feel I am learning a lot and have become to appreciate nature environmental conservation even more than I already had. In addition to long work days and work weeks, our team has long weekends. With our team’s outdoor personality, we have already begun to utilize our location in this beautiful part of the country. Such activities have been hiking around our cabin, visiting Lake Powell, and enjoying magnificent Zion national park. We have already begun to plan great addition trips our future days off.
Our team is looking forward to working with Grand Canyon Trust for the coming weeks and exploring this beautiful part of the country.
-Nick
Wildlands Restoration Volunteers- Boulder, Colorado
Once I was assigned to my permanent AmeriCorps NCCC team I was extremely reluctant to be "shuffled" into a new team for third round. Over the first two projects I have become comfortable with our team- learning everyone’s strengths, pet peeves, breaking points, and commonalities. I was nervous to get thrown onto a new team with a new Team Leader, mostly new team mates, and a completely different team dynamic.
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| The county is having helicopters drop mulch over areas that were most affected by the fire. One day we were seeding directly next to the area that was being mulched so we had a front row view all day of the helicopters hard at work. |
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| This was from one of the private property sites that we were seeding. You can see just how hot the fire was when it came through this area by the pool of metal that melted and ran out of the car. |
All of the AmeriCorps NCCC teams had a stressful few days toward the end of last week. With the possibility of a government shutdown this past Friday we were all on the edge of our seats to see whether or not we were going to be sent back to campus in Denver to wait out the budget resolution. Thankfully it did not come to that, however we are all still anxiously awaiting the specifics of the new budget to see if our program is going to be completely cut or not. We are all crossing our fingers and trying to stay optimistic. Hopefully we will find out sooner rather than later that we will be able to finish out the rest of our Corps Member year. I certainly hope that our program gets the funding that it needs to continue. It would be devastating to many of the sponsors that currently have teams or are expecting to have teams in future rounds. A few of us from Sun Three have already decided that even if our program is cut before the end of our year that we are still planning to go back to Crown King Arizona to finish out what would have been our fourth round. They have given us so much that many of us feel an obligation to continue our service to them even without the backing of the program. Again, hopefully it won't come to that, but it is good to know that I am not the only one that feels such a strong connection to Crown King to be willing to go back either way. It's hard to believe that my AmeriCorps NCCC year is more than half over. It has been a blast so far and I am very hopeful that our program will be saved so that we can all finish out our year as expected.
-Carly
April 25, 2011
National Monuments in Flagstaff, AZ
Working in the Walnut Canyon, Wupatki, and Sunset Crater National Monuments has been a blast. We have 10 hour days from Mon-Thurs. which means we get to enjoy 3 day weekends! Those 10 hours have been filled with trail work, hauling heavy gear, clearing rock slides, carrying timber, peeling logs, removing tumbleweeds from barbed-wire fences, weeding invasive species, and re-building historic pathways. Those 3 day weekends are spent hiking, exploring, and cross country skiing in places like O'Leary, the Arizona Trail, downtown Flagstaff, and the Grand Canyon. We work hard, and play just as hard.
Life is a little different this round. We live in a little secluded tent community on Forest Service land. Every night after work we have just a few hours of daylight to cook dinner and wash dishes before we have to throw on the headlamps. In the beginning of the round we would head out to the YMCA in the evening for PT and showers. The YMCA was very generous in donating 3 weeks of free membership to our team. Unfortunately, after those 3 weeks we were back to rationing showers and spending our free time in our windy tent homes.
At times it gets to be a struggle to muddle through the tough ten hour days and the pure exhaustion that comes with camping outdoors for 2 months. That is when we remind each other playfully that "We asked for this!" and that our lives are "INTENSE! or InTENTs." It always comes back to a big smile and some laughs. Many an evening has been spent dancing to Backstreet Boys and Brittney Spears, eating ice cream bought at the wonderful world of Wally (Wal-Mart), and sharing jokes around the campfire. Some of my favorite are:"You know you've lived in a tent too long when..."
1. You wash your hands up to the elbows every time you find a public restroom
2. The smell of campfire follows you even after you've showered
3. Saturdays mean sitting in the food court at the mall for free internet and heat
4. You don't mind that there are rocks and dirt in your food
5. You don't remember what color your hands are when they're clean.
We're having a great time and have all learned quite a bit about ourselves and each other. It's a nice change of pace to have a new project with new people. All that said, I can't wait to get back to Crown King and my Sun 3 team!!! Fire season has begun and our team is ready to get in on the action.
-Lyndsay
April 25, 2011National Monuments in Flagstaff, AZ
Working in the Walnut Canyon, Wupatki, and Sunset Crater National Monuments has been a blast. We have 10 hour days from Mon-Thurs. which means we get to enjoy 3 day weekends! Those 10 hours have been filled with trail work, hauling heavy gear, clearing rock slides, carrying timber, peeling logs, removing tumbleweeds from barbed-wire fences, weeding invasive species, and re-building historic pathways. Those 3 day weekends are spent hiking, exploring, and cross country skiing in places like O'Leary, the Arizona Trail, downtown Flagstaff, and the Grand Canyon. We work hard, and play just as hard.
Life is a little different this round. We live in a little secluded tent community on Forest Service land. Every night after work we have just a few hours of daylight to cook dinner and wash dishes before we have to throw on the headlamps. In the beginning of the round we would head out to the YMCA in the evening for PT and showers. The YMCA was very generous in donating 3 weeks of free membership to our team. Unfortunately, after those 3 weeks we were back to rationing showers and spending our free time in our windy tent homes.
At times it gets to be a struggle to muddle through the tough ten hour days and the pure exhaustion that comes with camping outdoors for 2 months. That is when we remind each other playfully that "We asked for this!" and that our lives are "INTENSE! or InTENTs." It always comes back to a big smile and some laughs. Many an evening has been spent dancing to Backstreet Boys and Brittney Spears, eating ice cream bought at the wonderful world of Wally (Wal-Mart), and sharing jokes around the campfire. Some of my favorite are:"You know you've lived in a tent too long when..."1. You wash your hands up to the elbows every time you find a public restroom
2. The smell of campfire follows you even after you've showered
3. Saturdays mean sitting in the food court at the mall for free internet and heat
4. You don't mind that there are rocks and dirt in your food
5. You don't remember what color your hands are when they're clean.
We're having a great time and have all learned quite a bit about ourselves and each other. It's a nice change of pace to have a new project with new people. All that said, I can't wait to get back to Crown King and my Sun 3 team!!! Fire season has begun and our team is ready to get in on the action.
April 27, 2011:
Hey guys,
I’ve been alive and kickin’ with my project in Denver. Working with Habitat For Humanity has been great. I miss the original Sun 3 fire squad a ton…but here’s what the current Sun 3 (shuffle round version) looks like at a glance.
The role for my team on this project has several different parts. Obviously we play a big role in the home construction – we get to go to several different build sites throughout the 2 months here and work on finishing these homes. That’s priority #1 for Habitat. But, they also run these big housing supply outlet stores (just like a Home Depot). Here’s the catch – all the materials and appliances in these stores are donated. Stuff gets dropped off by generous Denver samaritans (or picked up by me in my awesome flatbed truck) and then resold (Habitat profit!). And you don’t have to “qualify” or anything to shop at the Habitat outlet stores. Anyone can come purchase cheap, usually used housing supplies. So my team gets to help out on the actual construction sites and also help run the outlet stores.
The biggest misconception about Habitat is they just give away houses out the wazoo. Wrong. The families that are given habitat houses meet very specific criteria and qualifications. They are extremely deserving of the benefits they receive from acquiring a habitat home. Homeowners are selected based on their need for housing, their ability to repay a mortgage and their willingness to work in partnership with habitat to have a finished home. In other words – The family/household chosen to receive a habitat home may be in desperate need, but they play a major role in how the housing goals are accomplished.
They pay a no-profit, interest-free mortgage based on their job/financial situation and stability, which is incredible. They also are required to put in a certain amount of sweat-equity hours towards the completion of their home. This can be through a lot of different ways including office work, planning, organization and direct labor. The level of involvement and personal accountability instilled in each client is what really makes Habitat such a meaningful and effective organization.
The majority of my time (aside from construction days) has been spent driving the flatbed truck around Denver picking up furniture and appliance donations! The flatbed is awesome. She’s no Engine 2 from Crown King but at least I get to drive this one, haha.
These past few weeks I constructed about 20 garden boxes which were sold at the Earth Day event at the outlet stores. They’re made out of recycled doors! It’s a really sweet idea - we collect donated doors and reuse them to make these planter boxes. Who knew. It was a real busy couple of weeks, but I’ve still had time to do all the other jobs like donation pick ups, construction, deconstruction and store work. I had a pretty awesome experience at one of our construction sites this week. I worked directly with the soon-to-be homeowner of the house being worked on. Like I explained earlier, Habitat homeowner’s put in a specific amount of “sweat equity” hours into their home (either manual on-site labor or office work). I worked alongside a very nice single mother and we finished priming the interior of the house to be painted later in the week. It makes you really appreciate the work you’re doing when everything you touch, change and create will soon belong to the person standing next to you. It’s a whole new level of dedication and pride - and you can see how much it means to them. I heard the words “thank you” at least 50 times when all I did was put the priming paint coat behind the toilet her 3 year old will poo on in about a month. She was so sweet.
All work aside, I’ve also got to go have some fun with friends close by in Boulder and people back home. Went and saw two of my original teammates currently on a project in Boulder (Shout out to Duster and Squad Boss Carly). Such a blast. They also came with me up to Fort Collins for a weekend. Love it.
Also, finished up my Independent Service Project Hours working at the Denver Children’s Museum. I did some outside landscaping – pulling mulch and grass, moving rock and tearing up old dirt liners. Saw a bunch of little tots playing on a fire truck playground and it made me think about Crown King and the approaching fire season. Can’t wait!
Chris-
