Scotchbroom, Manzanita and Madrone Oh my!

Sorry

I have no excuses, especially now that we have internet at good ole Fire Station 87.
We have had a few weeks of work here, and I’ve already learned a LOT. I’m on my way to being chainsaw certified and very much enjoy pole saw work! It’s a little tiny chainsaw at the end of a large pole. Because of work with the chainsaws, and also swamping (aka hauling brush and trees away from the sawyers-people using the chainsaws) and the basic, general clearing, I’m getting arm muscles! Working hard feels great.

First things first: what am I doing? Defensible space clearing, and wild fire prevention. After we arrived, the very first day of work was actually in a class for Defensible Space Advising, and I am proud to say that we are all officially Defensible space advisory certified! As a team, first we go visit Special Needs Assistance Program clients and evaluate their properties and record the work to be done, it then gets processed at the office and we return the next week to complete the work. Making their properties a defensible space is really important for two reasons mainly: the fire department cannot come to fight fire and protect their homes unless it is deemed a defensible space, and many times they cannot have home owners insurance either without a defensible space home. What we are doing is very important as wildfires are a real threat here. In fact just recently there was a fire in Reno-which is not too far from here-, EVEN though its technically not fire season. It was a 2000 acre fire in which 32 homes were destroyed.

We have also been educated on different types of weeds, bushes and trees which are either invasive species and or highly flammable. I have learned to treat these plants as evil. Currently my arch enemies are scotch broom and manzanita. Loppers and weed wrenches have become extensions of my arms, I never go anywhere without proper PPE (Personal Protective Equipment): hard hat, safety glasses, ear plugs, gloves and steel toed boots, and I always smell like evergreen trees, cedar and pine. My clothes are always dirty, but so are everyone else’s. I’m frequently exhausted and sore, but it’s a good feeling.

Our sponsor, the Fire Safe Counsel of Nevada County, is crazy awesome. When we arrived at our new home, the Fire House, we were greeted with TONS of food they already bought for us, and the next day they arrived with a tv, vhs player, and two bikes! They constantly ask what we want or need, and get it to us almost immediately. Because we are so close to Lake Tahoe, they arranged some work for us in Truckee (on the lake), got us a cabin there, and sent us with some “fun money” for the weekend. Recently they went on another food run for us AND gave us a gift card to the local movie theater for us all to watch a movie and get popcorn and candy. They treat us like KINGS! It’s kind of ridiculous. Our leader, Amber, keeps warning us that no other project sponsor will be this generous and wonderful.

I suppose that’s enough for now. Loving life as a lumberjack in Cali. I love the forest and the hills and the work and my team and the weather and everything.

I like Silver 3 and I cannot lie

This past weekend we had the pleasure of being at Camp Mendocino, a beautiful Boys and Girls Club of Sacramento camp in the Coastal Redwoods of Northern California. About a four hour drive away. REDWOODS!!! It was so restorative; being in the middle of a forest, surrounded by majestic trees, away from civilization with no cell phone reception or internet or television or anything to distract me besides the trees, the river, and my AmeriCorps (Silver 3!). Its times like these when I can really be thankful for God’s creation, when it isn’t so bogged down with human pollution and garbage. And the smell, THE SMELL, so wonderful and fresh and piney and clean and pure.

Silver Unit was at camp Thursday through Sunday morning, and we overlapped with green unit the first two days. The other units Blue and Gold had been there earlier in the week. This was a weekend filled with team and unit bonding: low ropes courses and high ropes courses, games, talks, AmerOlympics, campfires and bonding over the cold. I’m ashamed to say that I complained rather a lot about the temperature at camp, having gotten used to sunny and warm Sacramento in the 70s, the 40 degree temps at camp felt a little harsh. We were sleeping in open air cabins so things did get quite chilly at night. In spite of the cold we had a fabulous time. A girl on our team has the most beautiful singing voice and another team leader Joe from Silver 2 had a guitar and what transpired around the fire was nothing short phenomenally beautiful. Every night before bed there would several groups heading out to some open area in the middle of majestic redwoods for stargazing. The stars were stunning, and we saw many shooting stars! Definitely worth the cold.

When the time came to leave it was bittersweet. We weren’t sad to come back to warmer temperatures, and a comfy bed, but we would certainly miss the redwoods, and the freedom of being away from civilization.

I’m getting used to driving the big 15 passenger van named Kuna, currently I’m the only driver except for Amber our team leader. Soon two other boys from our team will have their driving records sent in so they will be able to drive as well.

Now we are just preparing to leave on Thursday morning for our first spike! Trying my hardest to take care of everything I can before we leave, go internet hunting and buy my tickets for winter break and the REUNIONS that will be taking place during!! A South Africa reunion in Chicago and a Bike & Build reunion in Denver. And of course a family reuion back home in Michigan. I should be home between December 22 and 28.

OH I almost forgot why I titled this post in this way. At camp each team had to come up with a chant to perform at campfire. Ours went like this: (to the tune of “I Like Big Butts”)

I like Silver 3 and I cannot lie
You other teams cant deny
When we walk in with our steel shinny boots
and the swagger in our suits
We GET THINGS DONE, son!
SILVER THREE awwwwwwwwooooooooo!!!!

Chainsaws

I FOUND OUT MY FIRST SPIKE PROJECT!!!!

fun fact: the term "Spike" comes from the CCC (FDR)and refers to the spike used to secure tents to locations.

ANYWAYS....my team, Silver 3, will be doing fuel reduction and fire management in Nevada County and Lake Tahoe National forest. We will be staying in Grass Valley, CA but traveling around the region, clearing brush, trees, invasive species, doing prescribed pile burns, etc. Essentially, we are trying to prevent wildfires specifically in the homes and properties of the elderly and disabled.

For this job, whoever wants to will be chainsaw certified! I am quite excited to have the training and be working in the forest in the shadow of the Sierra Nevada mountain range for the next five weeks. We leave November 3 after our initiation.

Thanks for feeding the fish and for following this journey! I apologize for not posting often, the internet is worse here than in South Africa!
peace and love
k

AmeriFamily

Every once in a while I find myself with several hours to kill in the middle of a day. During this time I’ve been reading, watching Band of Brothers, and decorating my room. I figured that perhaps I should also use this time to blog and update you all on my AmeriLife.

First things first, I found a building with reliable internet, so if you want to skype we can definitely make that happen. Second, is anyone playing with the fish to the left here?! I thought they were so cool, they follow your mouse and if you click you can feed them!

OH MY GOODNESS I DIDN’T EVEN TELL YOU THE MOST EXCITING NEWS!!! I FOUND OUT MY TEAM AND AM ON SILVER 3. Silver Unit is the wolf pack so Awoooo awoooooooo!!!

Thursday evening we were given our units in a fun creative way, and then we were split up once more into our teams with a scavenger hunt to find our team leader. Once we found our team leader (after several clues) she had set up a dinner spread! My team leader is Amber and she is awesome, it will be a good year. I also really like all of my teammates, which is a good thing because we will become very close over the next ten months.

It was strange, meeting everyone for the first time, awkwardly introducing ourselves, and my knowing that we are soon to become best of friends. More than friends, but a family. This is the third time in the past year and a half that I have found myself in this situation and I’m extremely excited to have an AmeriFamiy.

Friday was a training called “Hands of Peace” which was actually really interactive and beneficial. A lot of team building and just learning about each other and become more comfortable around each other was involved. It was my favorite training thus far.

Saturday I did my first ISP (Independent Service Project), of which we need 80 hours to graduate from this program. It shouldn’t be a problem. My roommate Molly set up this ISP with the Salvation Army Women’s Auxiliary. Twelve of us spend the day standing behind purses and handbags during their annual Helping Handbags auction and luncheon. We helped run the silent auction portion, they fed us lunch, gave us a chocolate purse and then we helped clean up after the event. I was happy to actually get out and serve after sitting in classes and trainings for so long.

Moving day was Sunday! I was lucky enough to only have to move from my old room into the room we share a bathroom with, the room Molly was in and she ended up not having to move at all! This was nice because we were able to help our other roommates and suitemates move. It was utter chaos. Just imagine, 300 plus people, all moving out and into new rooms in two different buildings, all at the same time. Three floors each, no elevator and one stairwell in each. Insanity, but it got done! We celebrated with a trip to the Thai restaurant just across the street from campus.

Yesterday we had PT (physical training) in the morning, and trainings in the afternoon. We are at the point now where we split up into specific trainings within our teams. For example: two people are trained on flood response, two on chainsaws, two on volunteer management in disasters etc. Adam and I were selected to attend the volunteer management in disasters training, and I really enjoyed this one as well! I’m glad the less exciting trainings about policies and such were at the beginning, because I’m certainly enjoying the more focused training more. In the evening it was my turn (along with three others-we are dinner group A) to made dinner for our kitchen. Our team (Silver 3) and a FMT (fire management team) Silver 2, share a kitchen, and there are 20 people to prepare food for. It was a challenge but I think everyone enjoyed the baked chicken, cheddar and broccoli rice, salad, and butternut squash we made. The extra-great thing about this is that another dinner group cleans up our mess and does all the dishes! AND all this week we just show up when dinner is ready and we eat.

Today was a short service project with the Water Dept of Sacramento, and we walked door to door handing out information about the recently installed water meters. Now I have another 2 hours until PT tonight.

Still sunny in Cali!
k

Transition.

Wed Oct 12

So, as stated earlier, internet is SUPER sketch.  The good news is I'm getting better at internet hunting!! Sorry about the lack of communication friends and family.  Currently waiting for dinner, tonight it’s going to be grilled cheese and tomato soup! Yum! I’m on clean up crew.  We spent all day today is Disaster response training, and tomorrow will be 1^st Aid and CPR training. Lots of classes and meetings and trainings.  I’m getting anxious to find out my permanent team tomorrow night! Also, I’m excited to start serving.

Thurs Oct 13

Last night was Trivia night and my team was very close to winning. Lost in the Final trivia question unfortunately.  Still a bunch of fun :) Today full day of training again, but it was lots of fun.  I can now (hopefully) save your life if you need CPR. This morning was our baseline test for Physical Training, and I'm pretty ok with how I finished.  We had to do as many push-ups as we could in 2 min, as many sit ups as we could in 2 minutes, a 1.5 mile run and a sit and reach. I feel I was just over average for the group, and have definite room for improvement. Luckily Molly, my suite mate, and I are pretty much at the same fitness level, so we helped each other out.  Soon that won't matter however, because TONIGHT is the night we find out our TEAMS!!!! stay tuned.

things are going great. It's 80 degrees, there are palm trees, and orange trees and good people.

i think i like this

peace and love

k

Welcome to the AmeriBubble!

I’m here!! In McClellan, California (outskirts of Sacramento-or “Sac town”) Myself and over 300 other corps members are based at an old Air Force base, here in the Pacific Region of AmeriCorps NCCC.  But let me back up a little bit…

Thursday October 6 my mom and dad brought me to the Grand Rapids airport to drop me off onto my next adventure! I flew out at 7:45 am and arrived in Minneapolis at about 8 am (time change…so the flight was an hour but I gained an hour!)  There I met up with close to 15 other AmeriCorps NCCC member on my same transfer flight, and we arrived in Sacramento, California at about 11am.  And then began the craziness.  Hundreds of NCCC corps members were arriving, and once we arrived on the campus we were shuttled through in-processing, and then meetings.  We were given temporary rooms which are very similar to the dorms I lived in freshman year of CMU, and next week our permanent teams will be assigned and so will our permanent rooms.  I’m getting anxious to unpack everything and hang up my pictures!

We have all been divided into “pods” for our first week of training.  I’m in pod 27 with nine other names ending in the later part of D….  LOTS of meetings, rules, policies, etc.  We were issued our uniforms yay!! Battle Dress Uniform (BDU) pants and shorts, long and short grey t-shirts, polos, sweatshirts, parka, coveralls, hats, sweatshirt all with the AmeriCorps NCCC logo, sleeping bag and our “red bag” for spikes.  I’m actually quite excited about our uniform, in spite of how unattractive it is on females.  It looks wonderful on all the male corps members, perhaps because they are men’s clothes….

There is quite a diverse group of people here, from all over the United States! For example, my roommate is from Alaska, my suite mates from Seattle, LA, and another girl from Michigan.  Lots of different ages and backgrounds and ethnicities. For some this is their first time away from home, for some this is the first time West of the Mississippi.  Some have graduated high school, and some have graduated college.  Regardless, it’s a pretty great group of people, and I’m excited to get to know everyone better.

The next two days we have off! So there are plans to head downtown Sacramento tomorrow and hopefully reuniting with Raja :)

love and miss you all

k

ONE MORE WEEK

Here we go! Another blog, another adventure, another life inspiring experience ( I hope!)

From my previous two blogs I've discovered (and hopefully if you've read them you can tell) I feel most alive when I'm serving and loving people. So. SERVING. my family, my neighbors, my friends, America, the World.

I'm exactly one week away from beginning AmeriCorps NCCC Pacific Region! wooo!!! Starting October 6, I will begin my AmeriCorps NCCC term. I will be stationed in Sacramento, California and will be volunteering and servicing in the Pacific Region of the United States. I’ll be traveling throughout the states in the region from community to community for 6-8 weeks at a time; serving in whatever way is needed. Education, disaster relief, nature conservation, affordable housing, etc etc. My housing, food, and uniform will be provided. I will receive a living stipend every other week and at the end of my term (ten months) I will receive an education award which can be used toward paying off student loans!! This is really the perfect opportunity for me right now: volunteering, traveling and paying off student loans while I figure out whats next. (Grad school? Real adult job? PeaceCorps??? Who knows?!?!?) Perfect.

Sooo once again, I am going to try and blog my experiences the best I can. Thoughts, stories, things I'm learning, places I'm seeing, people I'm meeting. I have my suitcase ready, a folder filled with important paper work, and am rapidly making plans with all the people I want to see before I leave. I've happily checked the weather multiple times for Sacramento, and am shipping my bike out this week.

OH I already have and exciting story to tell involving my bike, AmeriCorps and Sacramento and ALSO Bike & Build and South Africa. (big surprise, I'm talking about b&b and SA again...) Lets go ahead and tie everything together.

The story begins in South Bend, IN about a month ago, where I meet up with my dear friend Kate (who also happened to be in South Africa the same time I was). It is nice to reminisce about SA with her. Kate had so kindly invited me along with her to Indianapolis where she had a wedding to attend, knowing I had two Bike & Build friends who were currently living there! Unfortunately shortly down the road Kate fell sick with a migraine :( I drive us all the way to Indy, where we are so kindly welcomed by my dear dear b&b friend Britt and her new puppy Mia. Britt welcomed us into her new apartment and even gave Kate her bedroom to rest in. Britt and I had a very lovely visit, complete with a fabulous dinner cooked by Britt, watching the Food Network and The Notebook, a BIKE RIDE (Raja and Jet were so happy to be reunited), visit with THE Jen Hunt and skype with Raleigh, Laura and Will!! I made South African Malva Pudding and custard for everyone to eat, and Kate had made homemade doughnuts.

Come Sunday afternoon and we are on the road back home. About an hour away from Kate's house (where I have my car parked) we hear scraping whenever we go over a bump. Soon it's scraping ALL the time, as we drive down the road. We wisely pull over to look under the car and discover that there is a pipe of some sort hanging down in the middle of the car. After trying to call Kate's parent's for help and getting no response, we tentatively get back on the road, deciding that we will as far as we can until whatever it is that is hanging falls off. Luckily we ARE able to reach Kate's parents and they so kindly leave the concert they are attending in order to come rescue us. In the meantime we keep refuge at Kate's mom's friend's (Kelirae) house and we are greeted with ratatouille and quinoa. Naturally, Kate brags about my Bike & Build trip last year as she very often does, and Kelirae herself is interested in a cross country trek by bicycle herself so I happily oblige to talking about Bike & Build for 30 minutes.

Kate's parents arrive and Brian (Kate's dad) goes outside to temporarily fix the car. Tracy (Kate's mom) joins Kelirae, Kate and I, talking about biking, South Africa, and then AmeriCorps, this next adventure of mine. I'm asked if I'm bring my bike with me to California, and my face falls. This has been one of my biggest challenges in AmeriCorps preparations: can I bring my bike? How can I get it there? Where will I store it? Will I even have time to ride it?  I had recently found out that there wasn't anywhere for me to store my bike. I would be moving around often anyways so maybe it wasn't even worth it to bring it out :( The thought of 10 months separated from my Raja brought me much sadness. I definitely had separation anxiety while I was in South Africa, using a used mountain bike instead of my own beauty. Anyways, I tell Tracy, Kelirae and Kate all of this, and in a wistful voice say, "I think the only way I can make it work is if I make a friend with someone in Sacramento before i get there who has space to store my bike" As it turns out...Tracy has a library friend in Sacramento! She puts me in contact with her friend, and today I printed off the shipping label to send my bike to its new home: Kate's mom's librarian friend's grandma's garage. Crazy how things work out

So I'm quite excited to be amongst mountains again, to bike amongst mountains again, and to be VOLUNTEERING!