Guess what?! I'm back in good ol' St Louis! I got back from Joplin at the end of January and have had a great time hanging out with the bigger group since then. It was AMAZING to see everyone again! Since then, I've been fire- and chainsaw-certified, so it's been a good couple of weeks :)
The weekend I got back, we all did our pack test for federal fire standards. This means walking - not running - 3 miles in 45 minutes with 45 pounds on your back. The day we did the test was set to be sunny and beautiful, but ended up being rainy and gross. So the dirt track at a local high school was muddy and spongy as all get-out, our feet sinking in as we did our best to stay on pace. I finished in about 44 minutes and 30 seconds - could probably have gone faster, but why bother? - so hooray, just like that, I'm certified to work on a wildfire.
The next week I spent at Peck Ranch, working on fireline. They have a lot of fireline to construct there before fire season starts, but we got a lot of it done! The beginning of the week was kind of rough for me mentally (I just didn't really want to be there) but I had forgotten how great it felt to accomplish something measurable by the end of the day. We completed several miles of fireline - basically we were bucking up trees or debris that would throw fire to the other side of the line and getting it out of the way - and the powers that be at Peck were really happy with us. Marshall, who's in charge there, said we were the best team he'd ever had and requested to have us back again - which is kind of a feat, since he's notoriously hard to please. A good week back, all said :)
This past week was pretty unusual and fun: we've been working as a huge group, about 22 of us. Almost all the first years who're not in Joplin went out to Chesterfield (a suburb of St Louis) on Monday and Tuesday to spray invasive honeysuckle (invasives are always a pleasure... not). Then Wednesday morning we all headed down to Pototsi, MO for a Forest Service chainsaw class and the field test on Friday. We all brought our trees down successfully and are now "A" (and some of us, "B") sawyers! This means that we are certified to cut on federal, as well as state land, as long as "B" sawyers are around. I got my "A" cert with this tree, which is awesome! Hopefully I can get my "B" at some point this year.
And Mom, you will be pleased to know that my friends and I have been playing a lot of Bananagrams since I got back from Joplin. "Eke" is a great word.
That's it for now! I'll give you a more thoughtful update when I haven't just drunk a whole Cherry Chocolate O'Fallon beer (on that note, did anyone see the new Bud Light Platinum? Brewed just down the street from me!)
xoxo,
Liz
