The three day weekend was much needed after the exhausting week of work and camping! On Saturday (5/26), Ben and Bill were working, so I had a nice day to myself. I finally had time to unpack and clean up the house a bit. They guys were really busy while I was gone, but I also think they somehow forgot how to use things like the dishwasher, laundry machines, and trashcan. On Sunday, Bill left to drive to Kansas for work. Ben and I had a big shopping day! We went to REI and had a fun time looking at all the gear we are pining for. I got a few things that I figured out that I will need for work this summer (like nice hiking socks to help avoid blisters!) and Ben got some new shorts. I still have a few things on my list that I want, but they'll have to wait until the next paycheck I guess! We spent forever at REI and then eventually made it to Target to get lots of other odds and ends for my work/camping and home.
Monday was a beautiful day! It was nice that we Ben and I had off to go hiking! We met up with Ashley in Boulder, and she treated us to an awesome and crazy delicious lunch at a sandwich shop called Snarf (what a funny name!). After that, we drove around in the mountains for a while until we got to Walker Ranch Park, near Eldorado Canyon State Park. It was the first time Lucille (a new name I came up with for our new car- after Lucille Ball. Both are quirky and cute, and the car is the color of her hair! What do you think?) drove in the mountains, and she handled it pretty well. We did an 8 mile loop trail which was exhausting, but very worth it. The park was very beautiful, and Ashley got some great pictures of all the wildflowers blooming with her new fancy camera. It was cool to see all different wildflowers than we were used to! I think we are still adjusting to hiking at high altitudes, but we made it!
On Tuesday I had to be at work at 6:30 to help see off all the crews! With an hour and 15 minute drive to work, it made for a very early morning! It was great to see everyone in uniform and ready and rarrin' to go! I helped everyone pack up and get ready to go. I particularly helped with the grocery "shopping" that each crew had to do to because I had made the shopping lists, done the shopping, and set all the food up! It was a little hectic, but I think everyone eventually made it out with only forgetting a few things!
The rest of Tuesday and all of Wednesday I had a new focus. Now that those 3 crews were out, we had to prepare for the new crew that is starting in Pueblo next week! It is a special crew because there has never been one based in Pueblo before. Their orientation is going to be longer, more intensive, and hopefully I can help make it more fun! Not only did we have to plan and schedule a whole week of orientation, but there were still people to hire! I spent lots of time making phone calls and setting up interviews. Most of the time, however, I was setting up the orientation schedule, planning field trips, and planning activities to do! I have a lot of ice breaker/team building games planned, but my biggest accomplishment was designing a community mapping project. I got a few basic ideas online, but I came up with everything else myself. I am really excited for this project because it is the first thing that I am designing and leading myself. It will also probably stay in the curriculum for the future, so it will be able to be used for years and years. How cool is that!? Aside from the paperwork and games/activities, we will also be doing a museum tour that I planned, watching an environmental movie (Bag It) and having a discussion about it (that I am leading), and doing a service project at the Nature and Raptor Center (that I coordinated). Ok, so I am feeling a little braggy, but I am so excited to have a job where I can actually make decisions and be important- it is very new for me and it feels great.
On Thursday we drove down to Pueblo. Pueblo is a smaller city about an hour South of Colorado Springs. (My commute all next week is going to be very early and long! At least once I get to CS I'll be on company time.) In the morning, we had 8 interviews set up to do. It was pretty cool to be in on interviews- I even got to ask a lot of questions, which was really fun! We narrowed the candidates down to 4 people pretty easily, but we only have two slots to fill! Nancy and Ryan (my bosses) are making the decisions today (Friday), which is going to be very tough! They even mentioned that they hope someone drops out next week so that they can hire more of the people that we interviewed Thursday.
In the afternoon we went to a tiny (and I mean very tiny- the whole town was essentially a cul de sac!) that has a big and beautiful park that one of the crews is being hired to work on later this summer. The town is Brookside, CO and is West of Pueblo. It is findable on google maps (I was a little surprised!). We conducted a "Site Visit" and got a very in depth tour of the park and trails. The trail was built a long time ago and is a little worse for wear. There is going to be lots of reshaping and rebuilding areas of the trail, but most of the work is going be putting tons of big stone steps throughout the trail because it is incredibly steep. It was cool to see this part of the planning process. Now that I got this introduction to the planning and contracting the work, it will be cool to come back and work on this project later in the summer and see the big changes we are going to make!
After lots of driving, I finally made it home after 7! Luckily, today (Friday) I am working from home. I am working on refining my activities for next week, so it wasn't imperative that I come into the office today. I have them all planned, but I am typing everything out and adding more to the schedule. Although it has been a short week, I am very glad to have a bit of a break today!
Besides work, another exciting (and a little scary!) thing happened this week! There is a restaurant that is being remodeled next to our apartment building. On Wednesday night, it was on fire! We had our screen door opened and smelled smoke. At first, we thought we had left the stove on or something. We realized it was coming from outside and we looked out and saw flames! I was thinking of calling 911, but thankfully a few seconds later we heard the fire trucks coming. We went downstairs to check it all out. We hung out by all the fire trucks for a while, which was pretty cool. There were about 20 fire trucks and more emergency/police vehicles everywhere. They even closed down our section of the street. At one point we heard a really loud bang that we thought was probably a gas tank exploding inside the restaurant. We saw the fire trucks put out their bracers and rise up. We saw hoses on the big ladders spraying water onto the roof of the building where the flames were. It was all pretty efficient and they got the fire out really fast. After we went home to go to bed though, there was still lots of noise while the fire fighters took axes and chain saws to the building to let the smoke out and make sure there were no more flames. I took some pictures of the ordeal, but it was really hard to get them to turn out. I found a website with some really cool pictures- you can check them out here http://5280fire.com/?p=26741 . They are similar to the ones I took- just way better! Today, the building looks the same as ever, as if nothing happened there at all!
We don't have any plans for the weekend yet, although it sounds like Ben is going to be very busy working. I'm hoping we'll get to visit his coworker's newborn son, Hudson. He was born last Friday! We each picked out a little cardboard book for him that was one of our favorites as kids. I picked out Harold and the Purple Crayon, and Ben got him Caps for Sale. It is a little early for him to enjoy reading, but I know he'll love them as he grows up!
I have to get back to work! Have a great weekend everyone!
Friday, June 1, 2012
Phase Two
This past work week was still training, but it was designed to be a little more typical of what I will be doing in the future. We left early on Monday morning and met up at North Table Mountain, which is a recreational space run by the (Jefferson) county. Getting there was very dramatic and stressful, and unfortunately cast a shadow over the whole day. I got picked up by two other people who didn't know to leave early enough to allow for traffic! We got to the rendezvous point late and then had to drive to the work site separately. We basically hit every type of inconvenience, including waiting for a train and navigating past freeway accidents. We made it to the job site just in time and jumped right into work!
Working on a mountain is pretty cool, until you realize how hot, steep, and unshaded it is. For our training, we were helping the county revitalize this area. Our instructors were all part of the Outdoor Stewardship Institute (OSI). We worked on three different projects through the day. First, we helped construct a switchback. Mostly, this involved using pickaxes to dig out the trail, and then building a rock wall along the edge of the trail to support it. Our instructor for this particular project was a cute old man who seemed to take a liking to me. I think he actually picked me out as being the weakest, smallest, and most inexperienced and tried to empower me by making me the group leader. This ended up having the opposite effect. I, with no clue of what I was doing, had to direct a group of people who already knew how to do the work what to do while I was being corrected by the instructor every step of the way. I basically hated every minute of it, but I stuck it through! Later, the instructor was trying to joke around with me and called me a weakling, which was just the icing on the cake.
Our next job was to build a water bar. This job was the least stressful of the three. We dug a big diagonal ditch across the trail, built it into the trail with dug-in ramps, and then filled the end of the ditch in with some large rocks. The purpose of this is to catch the water run off that comes down the trail and redirect it to the mountainside, rather than allowing to to continue down and washing out the trail.
Finally, we went way up the mountain and started digging a brand new trail. A social trail had formed there, and we needed to design a trail that would make more sense and be more healthy for the landscape. Again, we used lots of pickaxes and shovels, although this was much more difficult! Cutting into fresh mountainside isn't easy! I got singled out again here, which was frustrating. At the end of the day, I was very stressed out, hot, and sunburned, but I had learned a lot!
After we got to our campsite and set up, we had dinner and then some more training! It just never ends. We had a two hour session about leadership. At least there were no tools involved!
The next day was a pretty similar set up, although it went much better for me! We were at Red Rocks State Park, which is a very cool place I had never been to before! There are a ton of huge red rock formations scattered through out the park- there is even an amphitheater built in between some of the formations- courtesy of the CCC. Way cool!
Two of our jobs involved closing off social trails. We had to pick and dig away at the trails to loosen of the soil, and then basically rebuild them into a more natural state. To do this, we dug in grooves for water to follow, strategically placed rocks to act functionally and look natural, and seed, fertilize, mulch the area before covering it with slash (tree branches which protect the seeds and also block off the trail). When we were done with those trails, they looked like pieces of (natural) art!
The other project we worked on was a bit different because we actually were working with a social trail instead of taking it out or otherwise working against it. There is a path from the amphitheater to one of the parking lots that a lot of people use and it is very steep! We knew that there wasn't really a way to stop people from using this major causeway, so we decided to make it safer by putting stairs in it. Building stairs (especially 6 foot wide and 30 inch long ones) up a steep path is a lot of work! We spent a lot of time digging and measuring, and then digging and measuring some more! We worked ourselves ragged with those stairs but it was my favorite job we worked on. Our team worked really well together and we got a great, tangible, useful, result.
After work we headed back to camp and I nursed my very brutal blisters. They were so bad that I wasn't sure I would be able to work on Wednesday! Luckily one of my team members was very handy with moleskin and tape, and I was able to wear 3 pairs of socks and take some painkillers to get me through!
I was on dinner crew that night and I helped make some very great burritos that really hit the spot! After dinner, we had two more hours of training!
The next two days were filled with a myriad of different jobs we worked on! We carried fencing up the mountain and built three big fences with it. We built two sets of stairs in some really steep parts or the trail, and rehabilitated a bunch of trail and eroded areas. I didn't get to take too many pictures, but I did capture one of our fence! I'm looking forward to going back and showing people all the awesome work we did.
After work on Wednesday, we had spaghetti for dinner and then some more training! The rest of the night was a bit dramatic as there was a huge thunderstorm, complete with lots of pouring rain, thunder, lightning and hail! Not so fun to camp in! The storm eventually dissipated and we ended the night sleeping in very cold and slightly damp tents. Thursday was a half work day and we were able to pack up and head home a little early.
I was hoping we would have Friday off to recover, but there was lots to do in the office! The crews were all heading out on their official first hitch on Tuesday (Monday was off for Memorial day) so we had a lot to prepare for. We did lots of planning, cleaning, organizing, packing, and shopping! I especially helped with all of the food shopping- we went to Costco and got 3 flat carts piled high with food! It takes a lot to feed 25 people for 5 days and 12 people for 10 days!
Finally, we got to head home for the long weekend!
Working on a mountain is pretty cool, until you realize how hot, steep, and unshaded it is. For our training, we were helping the county revitalize this area. Our instructors were all part of the Outdoor Stewardship Institute (OSI). We worked on three different projects through the day. First, we helped construct a switchback. Mostly, this involved using pickaxes to dig out the trail, and then building a rock wall along the edge of the trail to support it. Our instructor for this particular project was a cute old man who seemed to take a liking to me. I think he actually picked me out as being the weakest, smallest, and most inexperienced and tried to empower me by making me the group leader. This ended up having the opposite effect. I, with no clue of what I was doing, had to direct a group of people who already knew how to do the work what to do while I was being corrected by the instructor every step of the way. I basically hated every minute of it, but I stuck it through! Later, the instructor was trying to joke around with me and called me a weakling, which was just the icing on the cake.
Our next job was to build a water bar. This job was the least stressful of the three. We dug a big diagonal ditch across the trail, built it into the trail with dug-in ramps, and then filled the end of the ditch in with some large rocks. The purpose of this is to catch the water run off that comes down the trail and redirect it to the mountainside, rather than allowing to to continue down and washing out the trail.
Finally, we went way up the mountain and started digging a brand new trail. A social trail had formed there, and we needed to design a trail that would make more sense and be more healthy for the landscape. Again, we used lots of pickaxes and shovels, although this was much more difficult! Cutting into fresh mountainside isn't easy! I got singled out again here, which was frustrating. At the end of the day, I was very stressed out, hot, and sunburned, but I had learned a lot!
After we got to our campsite and set up, we had dinner and then some more training! It just never ends. We had a two hour session about leadership. At least there were no tools involved!
The next day was a pretty similar set up, although it went much better for me! We were at Red Rocks State Park, which is a very cool place I had never been to before! There are a ton of huge red rock formations scattered through out the park- there is even an amphitheater built in between some of the formations- courtesy of the CCC. Way cool!
The other project we worked on was a bit different because we actually were working with a social trail instead of taking it out or otherwise working against it. There is a path from the amphitheater to one of the parking lots that a lot of people use and it is very steep! We knew that there wasn't really a way to stop people from using this major causeway, so we decided to make it safer by putting stairs in it. Building stairs (especially 6 foot wide and 30 inch long ones) up a steep path is a lot of work! We spent a lot of time digging and measuring, and then digging and measuring some more! We worked ourselves ragged with those stairs but it was my favorite job we worked on. Our team worked really well together and we got a great, tangible, useful, result.
After work we headed back to camp and I nursed my very brutal blisters. They were so bad that I wasn't sure I would be able to work on Wednesday! Luckily one of my team members was very handy with moleskin and tape, and I was able to wear 3 pairs of socks and take some painkillers to get me through!
I was on dinner crew that night and I helped make some very great burritos that really hit the spot! After dinner, we had two more hours of training!
The next two days were filled with a myriad of different jobs we worked on! We carried fencing up the mountain and built three big fences with it. We built two sets of stairs in some really steep parts or the trail, and rehabilitated a bunch of trail and eroded areas. I didn't get to take too many pictures, but I did capture one of our fence! I'm looking forward to going back and showing people all the awesome work we did.
I was hoping we would have Friday off to recover, but there was lots to do in the office! The crews were all heading out on their official first hitch on Tuesday (Monday was off for Memorial day) so we had a lot to prepare for. We did lots of planning, cleaning, organizing, packing, and shopping! I especially helped with all of the food shopping- we went to Costco and got 3 flat carts piled high with food! It takes a lot to feed 25 people for 5 days and 12 people for 10 days!
Finally, we got to head home for the long weekend!
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