1/23/2009

1/23/2009
Last night we moved into a new house. (The water in the other wasn’t working). Is it possible that this house is even better than the last? Yes, yes it is. (five bedrooms, four bathrooms, two ovens, two dishwashers! Four refrigerators, a HUGE common area, and a laundry room that doesn’t flood!)

My tree kill count is up to 7. Yesterday I really honed my skills. I no longer cut through the hinge wood while felling trees! Yay! I’m ready to be certified as a Type A Sawyer, but we ran out of time yesterday, so Ayla, Benn and I are not yet certified. And since Monday we are traveling to the Comanche Grasslands, chances are we wont get a chance to have Russ test us until we return to Woodland Park in two weeks.

Working outside everyday is so awesome. It’s tiring, but exhilarating! Not only is using the chainsaws, and swamping out the limbs exhausting, but I’m weighed down with all the clothing I’m wearing. In addition to our heavy fire jackets, and boots we are wearing copious amounts of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) including chaps, helmets, glasses, earplugs (ok the earplugs aren’t heavy), and gloves. I’m deliciously sore at the end of every day; currently stiff in my arms, legs, butt, abs, and the part of my lower back that earlier this week had love-handles. Then after returning home from work we do some awesome PT. In the first house we had a weight room and Josh designed a weekly workout routine that gave us a full body rotation. And Thursday after work the team went on a short hike carrying our fireline packs, to get us used to traveling while carrying a lot of extra weight. Last night I had the sound, sound sleep of exhaustion.

Today, Saturday is our first day off since we arrived in Lake George. So we are going to do some Community mapping, and discover local facilities, and needs in the area. Lake George is tiny…the one restaurant (a pizza place) is also the local wi-fi hotspot…so if you are reading this, chances are I visited it.