Season's Heatings

It happened again...I haven't posted in a month!
I always mean to, but it is difficult when I am rarely home to do so!

Over the last week in July, I went camping with the Pueblo crew. Normally they don't camp, but this project would have made for a long commute so camping just made sense!
It was interesting teaching a group how to camp (according to MHYC policies and practices). Some of the crew members had never even been camping before!
We worked for the little town of Williamsburg. We built the city park a nice little loop trail and helped revamp and set up the new playground areas.

section of trail and stairs in progress

Putting up hoops was much more difficult than we anticipated!

Awesome steps the team built!

We worked 4 10-hour days, which were very hot and long! After that, I said farewell to the Pueblo crew. They only had one more week left, and I was about to head out on a 10 day trip!

My next hitch was with the saw crew. We worked in a state wildlife area near Raton, New Mexico. We were working inside the Colorado border, but just barely! The park was very beautiful- we first did a fencing project on top of a huge mesa, and the rest of the hitch we were deep in the woods building a new trail!

View from our camp site- New Mexico starts at the lake!

Fencing project

View from fencing site

Elk herd on our morning drive

Starting the trail

Huge rock wall/walkway we built!

There were some great views at our work sites. We could see for miles from atop the mesa! One day we also drove alongside a huge herd of elk! The area we built the trail in was also very pretty. There was only a small burned section from a fire about a year ago. Most of the forest was green and untouched- it was a nice change of scenery from the barren burned woods we've been used to working in!
The work was also different from what the saw crew was used to. It was the last hitch of the summer, and the first time they had ever worked on building a trail. There was a lot of learning as we went, but everyone got the hang of it pretty quickly.

On Friday, August 10th after we got back from our hitch, it was the last day of the summer season and the corps olympics! All of the Denver and Co Springs MHYC crews came together for a big and fun day in the park! We played lots of field games, reflected on the summer, and had a big cookout! It was a good way to end the summer, but it was a sad day too- there were lots of people to say bye to!

I love these people

As if camping for almost 2 weeks and ending my summer work season wasn't tiring enough, that Friday night Ben and I took off on our road trip adventure! I had a week off between our summer and fall seasons and Ben took a week off so we could go adventuring! Ben's boss was very generous and gave him permission to drive his work truck- which comes with free gas! We drove all through the night and arrived in Steuben, Wi (by Prairie du Chien) on Saturday morning! We were pretty exhausted (mostly me) but it was totally worth it! We were having our annual "crash at Kamerons' parent's place for a few days to hang with lots of college freinds" weekend! We met up with Kameron, Harris (Sarah Jean) and her boyfriend Brynte, Colton, Steph, Meghan, Nick, and Matt! We had a great time catching up, hiking, watching meteors, and having campfires! I miss all those guys so much- it is hard living so far away from such great friends.

On Monday we headed out to Cedarburg! We got to see my family, all the pets, and all of the other craziness that goes on there (daycare kids, tenants, pet guests, cousins)! And, I got to see my lovely wifey friend Amanda! It was quite the change of pace for us! It was so wonderful to see my family, I miss them a lot too!
Thursday we went to Northfield, Mn to see Ben's family! We saw lots of relatives and ate lots of great food! Somehow, we also ended up with a lot of gifts and other items to take home with us- including beautiful woodcraft made by Ben's grandpa, a camera, Ben's drum set, and an adorable kitten! We have thought of hundreds of names so far. As of now, her name is Nymeria! We think she is about 7 or 8 weeks old.

Thanks for the picture, Tonyia!

We left on Sunday morning and headed back west! Now we are all home, safe and sound, with over 2500 miles behind us! We unloaded the truck, went to bed, and now have been at work ever since (is how it feels, anyway).  Although, it can't all be bad, Ben got a raise and I got a new position and a little raise too!
For the fall crew (only 1 crew in our Co Springs office) I'm going to be the mentor. It is similar to what I did over the summer, but I get to assist the crew leader more and provide education for the crew each week. This means I am going to be even more busy and away from home more than usual! Eep!

I have to go now, kitten snuggles are calling....

The Rest of June

On Monday (6/18), it was back to work for us! I had a very long day in the office with the saw crew, or, sawyers. We were getting trained to spray pesticide. In order to handle the chemicals for our upcoming job, we had to become verified applicators. This training involved 8 hours of reading legal documents, and that was just the first day! On Tuesday we embarked on our epic journey to Trinidad, Co! A very exotic name, for a not very exotic place.  Ben was able to get up nice and early with me to drop me off at the office, which allowed him to use the car for the ten days I was going to be gone. And it was great to have some extra time together before my long hitch. I then hopped in the van with the 10 sawyers and we had a two and a half hour drive down to Trinidad Lake state park where our work site was. At midday we got to our campsite, which was VERY hot and sunny, rather small, but it was least near a lake!

Our campsite

 We set up our tents, and then drove to our work site, which was in a more remote area of the park. Finally, we could begin our task of cutting down and spraying herbicide on tamarisk! Tamarisk, also known as salt cedar, is an invasive species that is very prevalent here. The main problem with tamarisk is that it grows very well here, and loves to drink lots of water! The larger plants can drink up to 300 gallons of water a day, which is a very big deal here, where water is a more scarce resource (especially in this drought we are having!). I had the pleasure of being one of the primary applicators. I had wear one of the sprayer backpacks filled with 3 gallons of chemicals, whoo! After an hour I was ready to take that thing off- it was so heavy and uncomfortable! We made it through the first (half) day, and had to head back to camp and finish up our oh so exciting pesticide training. After another couple hours we were finally done!

Every day we got up at 5 am (or 430 for the breakfast/wake-up crew rotation: we all took turns doing camp chores such as wake-up, tool maintenance, cooking dinner, and doing dishes.), ate breakfast/packed lunches, and then headed to the park maintenance building to pick up some more habitat- our lovely blue liquid chemical we were working with! Then we would drive our to our work site, wade across the river, and  then hike a mile or so to where we were working. We then spent our day cutting tamarisk with loppers (and very rarely, chainsaws), collecting and piling up the branches, and then spray the stumps with the habitat herbicide. The days were very long, tedious, and hot (usually between 95-105 each day and we had to wear long pants and sleeves)! Luckily, we started early enough that we got off a little earlier to beat the heat! And, the saw crew is a great group of people, so we were able to keep each other entertained throughout the long days!
We also saw some cool wildlife, including horny toad lizards and a rattlesnake that was outside out leader's tent!

In the evenings/afternoons we had time to nap, play cards, spend time near the lake, and do lots of reading! One night, we even had a girls'night and watched Pride and Prejudice on someone's iPad! Most of the crew was very interested in reading- especially the Game of Thrones book series. I also took part in the reading parties and read the first Game of Thrones book on my nook! I learned a few new card games, including one called Rook that I really liked and hope to get a deck of my own soon! I also had a lot of fun at the lake! The two girls of the crew and I had a nice time sunbathing and wading in the lake, and we all had fun jumping in and swimming around a bit to cool off a few times (although we weren't supposed to!). Another lake activity I enjoyed  was fishing! I bought a pole and some tackle and went out several afternoons with some other crew members and got very sunburned! We did catch a few fish and eat them, but most were too small to keep. We were catching rainbow trout and large mouth bass. 
The crew consists of 8 great goofy guys and two girls! I think they were happy to have me around this hitch! Sometimes, it was like being back with all my guy friends in college. I even gave a few much needed haircuts!
On Saturday of our hitch we took a half day to have a little weekend! We went  swimming in a (very shallow and muddy) river near our work site, a few of us drove over to another campsite to take showers, and in the evening we went into the town of Pueblo to have pizza and go see the Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter movie! It made for a very fun and much needed break! 


Finally, on Thursday, our 10th day, we drove back to the office! We were very surprised to see lots of smoke as we drove up- several wildfires had started in the area while we were away. We had heard they were happening, but it was totally different to see it in person. Sadly, one of the crew members' houses burned down. Her roommates were able to grab some of her things before they were evacuated, but she still lost a lot. I've never felt so close to a natural disaster before- it was a very powerful experience. 
I got a ride home with a coworker who was headed up to the airport, and she stayed with us over night. It was so wonderful to be home, see Ben, and get clean! And Ben got me flowers to welcome me home! It was very sweet and they were very beautiful.

The weekend after I got back, on the 30th of June, we got to see Ben's family! They were on their family vacation out west, and we were able to meet up for a night. We went to Cold Springs National forest campground near Blackhawk, Colorado and camped with them for a night. We played some games and were able to spend lots of time together and get caught up! We also went on a lovely hike!

Picture stolen from Tonyia!

That Sunday was our one year wedding anniversary! The year has gone by so fast! We voted for a quieter evening to celebrate, and went to one of our favorite restaurants- The Bent Noodle for dinner and went to see the new Wes Anderson movie, Moonrise Kingdom afterwards. It was a very lovely and relaxing date night.

My work week over the first week of July was much more quiet than previous ones! On Monday I was helping around the office and we drove down to Pueblo to check on the crew and drop off some paperwork. On Tuesday I worked from home to do research for educational resources. Wednesday I had off for the 4th of July. Thursday and Friday I worked in the Denver office doing more education research. It was a slow week to get through, but it was made much better by my family coming to visit!
On Tuesday night my family came into town and stayed over night. On Wednesday we went to the zoo for the 4th! That night, we drove to Broomfield and met up with Justin and Ashley to watch the fireworks. It was a very big day and a very late night for a work night! The next couple days my family went camping in Rocky Mountain National Park while we all finished up our work weeks. We were supposed to camp with them on Friday and Saturday night, but it was very stormy! We've been in a drought and haven't seen rain in months, but as soon as my family visits it starts storming all day and night! It was much needed rain, but it was a little disappointing because it wrecked their trip plans a bit. And, I was sad because the smoke from all the fires around was blocking our normally crystal clear mountain views, and on top of that our usual all- day  sunshine was nowhere to be found. At least the temperature went down some with the rain! This past weekend they ended up cutting their trip short and coming back to our house. We played lots of games and still had lots of fun- just inside! We did try to take a hike in Cherry Creek State park, but the clear skies turned very dark unexpectedly and we ended up getting soaked while we were trying to get back to our apartment!
Ben left for Montana early this morning for work, and my family left to go home this morning as well. Bill and I did some errands today (he got a very fancy new car stereo!) and I packed up for my hitch I'm leaving for tomorrow morning!

Phew! This month has been jam packed and went by so quickly! And, I'm leaving the house tomorrow (7/9) at 5 am to leave for my 5 day hitch with the Hayman crew again!
Hopefully I'll be able to find a spare minute to write again this month!