2/2/2010

2/2/2010
Yesterday we moved from our house 8 miles outside of Springfield to this new bunkhouse, over an hour away. This new housing site is closer to our work destination (we could hike there if it becomes too muddy to drive) but it is farther away from any other signs of intelligent life. Yesterday Jeremy and I did the grocery shopping for the week while the rest of the team started the project for the day. However when we returned we discovered that the group finished all the days work in an hour. They fixed and leveled trails, and rerouted drainpipes. Then we had a while for extra PT, and we hiked around and saw some really interesting Native American carvings on the rock walls. Then we traveled to our new bunkhouse, which involved a great deal of offroading, and a bit of sliding around the muddy paths.

Today was awesome. We started the day with some exhilarating PT. We hiked through the rocky terrain surrounding our lodging carrying our full fireline packs. It was a great workout! The hills were steep, rocky and covered with cacti. I wasn’t EXHAUSTED afterwards, which proves to me that I’m getting stronger. PT really highlights individual characteristics for people. For myself it really shows that I have short legs. Today was not the first time that Jeremy has asked me “how I’m doing with my stubby little legs.” I’m keeping up, even if I do have to run a few feet every couple of minutes. Today before dinner Clay and I hiked up to the top of the hill to see the sunset, and on the way down he offered to help me navigate a rocky area. He assured me that he wouldn’t let me fall. I had just maneuvered sporadically to avoid a cactus (which are particularly nasty here), so I expressed my wish not to fall onto a cactus. To which he of course replied “you don’t have far to fall anyway.” Best short joke I’ve heard all day.

We spent the day cutting down, and piling up tamarisk trees. The tamarisk trees are a noxious weed brought over from the Middle East, originally as a decorative plant. However the widespread root system is killing the plants indigenous to the area, such as willows and cottonwoods. The tamarisk also grow really fast. Brian, one of our supervisors, said that if the stumps aren’t sprayed with the herbicide they grow back 6 feet in one growing season. The herbicide has to be sprayed on the stumps within five minutes of being cut, so today’s tasks not only included cutting down the trees and swamping out the area, but spring the stumps with this blue chemical mix as well. (Its blue so you can see it, and see where you’ve sprayed already).

Our team has a family tradition. Every Tuesday we have tacos for dinner. Even in New Orleans we had tacos for dinner every Tuesday. There has not been a Tuesday yet that we have not had tacos. However that does not stop nearly every person from asking me throughout the day what we are having for dinner. I need only to remind them that its Tuesday to bring great joy to them. Today during lunch it brought cheers to the whole group when I told them that taco Tuesday would include lettuce and sour cream tonight. Great joy was experienced by all. Brendan is our traditional taco Tuesday chef, and it was as always, amazing!

After dinner we have a new activity on Tuesdays. One that’s slightly less loved by the group. “Teambuilding Tuesdays.” Tonight we sat around the campfire and we had to tell the group three things about ourselves that we hadn’t previously shared. One of my things was my middle name. Now mom, it’s a perfectly lovely middle name. But its girly, and not something I readily admit to people. I feel like I was peer pressured into sharing that confidential information. Then we shared things that we had in common with other members of the group. And we ended by sharing things about the group that we think are awesome, and things we think could be improved. And we discussed ways to improve them. One thing mentioned several times was “complaining.” And we all know who the comment was directed at…personally whenever I feel like complaining I sing Brendan’s complaining song to myself: “No complaining, complaining makes your fingers cold.” Which he made up while we were taking down the barbed wire fences last week.

After dinner I prepared tomorrow’s meal. The great meatloaf experiment. Thanks for the recipe, mama. We invited Russ, our boss over for dinner tomorrow. So hopefully it isn’t a fiasco. I also made mashed potatoes, and there’s mixed vegetables, as well as red beans as a vegetarian protein option.