No update for now :(

Sorry folks, I can't update this week. There are pictures and thoughts ready to be put down, but unfortunately the pictures are with my boss currently, and they may not even work (my camera got sassy with me and the pictures kind of got screwy.) So next week for sure there will be a post but also this weeks post.

Thanks!

Week 7: End of Lake Tahoe

October 14th, 2007

Day 1: Probably the most barren lot we've ever worked in, and there were 2 fences to put in to keep out the neighbours. They went in like butter, and even though we were tired and overall not willing to work hard, we got a lot done.

















Jen, our project partner from the US Forest Service is absolutely amazing and surprised us with lunch! Homemade pizzas! It was delicious... we took quite a long lunch break because we were so full, and there was so little work to do at the end of the season like this.
























Soo full! But there was still work to do.













There were fences to finish, and we were there to do it. We only split one pole, which we marked and went back the next day to finish...











Night/Morning of Day 3! Holy Wah there was more then 2 inches of snow on the ground! It was outrageous, and totally chilly...











These were taken at 6 am, so by 10 am or so it was much clearer and we were able to do normal work.











Instead, we spent our Wednesday morning sharpening tools and doing overall cleaning of the bays that we keep the Forest Service tools.











Wednesday afternoon almost all of the snow was gone and it was much warmer. I took off like 3 layers, completely ridiculous. We built this sweet little diddy of a fence. The neighbour we were building it because did NOT like that we were there. He was taking our pictures and we had to be very careful not to walk on his land.







Magically, our project partner, Jen, is not only hospitable with her food but also offered us her house because of the extraordinary cold. So Thursday morning, we took our sweet time getting ready for work, and by 9 am we were on our way up an educational hike outside of her neighbourhood in Christmas Valley in South Lake Tahoe. These are the views from the small mountain/hill we climbed.



















We got a little frisky and decided to have some fun with pictures. The girl in red, Stephanie (not my roommate) is actually standing on a rock below, but they wanted it to look otherwise. I feel as though we pulled this off...









Group shot! From left to right starting in the far back: Our new supervisor, Matt (standing), Nick, Stephanie, Eric (our current sup), Jen (project partner with Jasper the puppy in front of Eric), Lara, Colton, Becky, Stephanie, Kate, Andrew (our crew leader) and myself.








That afternoon we got to some actual work and finished cleaning up around the bays. Behind Colton is our pile of wood that we harvested 3 weeks ago... it is practically gone. We used an impressive amount of wood in 3 weeks.









Jen's boyfriend (who is an artist), while we were staying at their house decided that it would be a great idea to shave a star in my head. Who am I to say 'no' to an artist? So there is my starfish named Gordon. Unfortunately you can barely see it now because I trimmed the rest of my head but for a while Gordon was prominent.







Instead of cleaning, some of us went to another site to fix a very bashed up fence. It took us an hour and a half to do something that shouldn't have taken so long but there was a lot more work then the Forest Service knew about. Being a thorough crew we couldn't leave something half done.





















Like I said, there wasn't much work for us this week, so we went on another educational experience to the salmon spawning grounds a ways from South Lake.










These are the salmon. They aren't normally so bright red, they turn from a sparkly blue to this vivid red to pick up the ladies during spawning time.










This is our drive home this week. We were far to the West side of the Lake so we went past Emerald Bay which is probably one of the prettiest places on the Lake.









Next week begins our treks down south, beginning with Ash Meadows. This will be a new experience for most of us because it's 8 days out, and we have a brand new supervisor and new kinds of work. So be prepared for a new kind of work and pictures!

Week 6!

October 4th, Week 6

Lots of fences to build, and only 4 days to build them. Not to mention the heinous neighbours we were going to have to deal with. *sigh* It only got worse as the week progressed as to the rudeness of the people we were attempting to help.









This is the first lot we worked in. We actually only had two places we were going to be working in, but we were literally fencing in all side of the lot. It was sad how badly these people had encroached on the land.


















Part of what we do is just try and keep ATV's out of the lots, so it's not always necessary to build fences. Thus sometimes we actually just move large boulders into specified areas. This one took us all 4 to move it 100 feet. It was HUGE.






Those are rocks bars, they used to shove underneath the rock and then lift in order for the next person to do the same. It takes a special rhythm within the group to make this easy, so most of the time it's just hard.




Day 2: We still had to finish the fences from before, so it was kind of a rough week for us when we are used to seeing lots of new things.
The reason we were building these fences was because of one neighbour who decided that their fence could be on our land as well as their watering system. Added on to that, the angry neighbour that we got to talk to had kids that liked to ride their bikes and build race tracks in our land. He was upset that we were taking away their space on land that wasn't theirs to begin with...


This is the finished fence on the front. It was about 100 feet long. This is the place that I realized my favourite job thus far... using a lead pole to bash the rebar down to the wood poles. It's a tough job, but somebody has to do it.







That's the other finished fence. There are 3 more fences on the other side that we spent the third day doing. For some reason there are no pictures of this. This is also the sight that I cut down a tree. Because of the houses and the tight quarters I had to be very specific about where it landed. I nailed it! I was ecstatic!


At the end of day 2 we decided to fill up the trucks for the next day really really big fence. It was over 150 feet. There are 50 bricks and 40 logs in this trailer...








40 more logs in this trailer....











and even more logs and steel rebar in here!











This is the pile after all that... it has quickly diminished.









This is the site, and it's a corner lot that needed a fence covering the entire area.








































Almost irate, but not really neighbour. He was the nicest of all them for the week. Unfortunately, he tried to help us, and we can't have that, especially when he doesn't have a hard hat or gloves on. Unlike the other angry people who told us we should remove all of the pine needles and duff (actually illegal) because of the "fire hazard" (it is not the fire hazard, the ladder fuels in the trees are the hazard) and the other lady who told me the fence was ugly, this man just liked to talk about his dog, Daisy. She's a bear-killer.



Finished fence. Finally.












Because of the angry neighbours, on day 4, we actually had to break apart part of the fence to make an opening that was small enough that an ATV couldn't get through, but people could. It took an hour for 4 people to do. We also had to decompact the whole lot, seed it, and then cover it in duff. We had an hour to do it, and it was intense. We were all exhausted afterwards.






This is one of the two other fences that were on this lot.












Then our project partner with the US Forest Service suggested taking a picture of all of us. She couldn't figure out the camera, so I tried to help... guess she got it on her own.










This is our crew leader/supervisors last week as our supervisor, so he was super-duper excited that it went so well despite the angry other people.











This is Jen, our project partner! She's way awesome, and I will be sad to move on from the Forest Service work in a week...

Week 7 here we come!