Week 3: South Lake Tahoe

September 16^th, 2007

Pictures have arrived, and because of the timeliness of the night, my lack of sleep this weekend, and the fact that I just ran out of time, the pictures are going to tell my story this week with small paragraphs in between. Enjoy!

Off to work, it's in the 40's and we are loading wood for our first fence of many for the week.

This is our dwindling pile of wood. Next week's adventure will involve cutting down more in order to restock.

This is our first site, and the white line is where we are building a worm fence.













Finished fence numero uno! That afternoon, we went to pick bull thistle in a lot that we had been to the previous week. There was so much more left over that we still aren't done.
























This is one of the outer-lying ridges of the Tahoe Basin. I look out at this every morning when we leave the US Forest Service parking lot from Myers, California.










This is our campsite, we eat here, sleep here, and chase away bears here.


























This is Roland, he is the trail builder's crew supervisor. He stopped playing soccer long enough to let me take a picture.

















This is Adam, he is the crew leader for the trail crew. He says that there is no Captain in him, but pictures speak louder then words....

















Corn meal mush. You let it sit overnight, and then fry it for breakfast. Despite it's lack of taste, it has a great texture and it was really nice to have a hot meal at 6 in the morning.









There are very few places where you can have campfires, and luckily we are allowed. Apparently, based on the other crews that my roommates are in, we are living large because of this.























Day 2, and there is one fence to fix (the one to the left, it's already finished in this picture), and two more. In comparison to past weeks and our track record for not finishing fences in a timely manner, this is crazy amounts of impressive. 2, 90 foot fences, and the fixing of one 40 foot fence. Holy wah!







Fence No. 2: I used the chainsaw this day, so all of that fancy work is my fault. When we cut off the tops of the posts, you have to attempt to keep it as even as possible, not as easy as it sounds.









And fence no. 3: This one went in like a dream. Only one split post, and we knew we could fix it the following day when we came back to the same site to build yet another fence on another lot.









Day 3, and those two blue hard-hatted guys are our crew leader and supervisor discussing the state of the second fence that we had built. This cute 20 foot fence that they happen to be leaning on was built by yours truly and one of our English internationals, Andy. It was almost perfectly proportioned and overall very well done if I do say so myself.






Fence no. 2: These people had a fence built because they were encroaching on Forest Service land. They had dog training equipment over the line, and that's just not allowed. We were extra careful because the lady of the house was not happy that we were making her move her training equipment.







Ahhh, Lake Tahoe. We camped less then 1/2 a mile from this spot, so it was our nightly hang out place. We learned Korean games, played soccer and volleyball. It's such a beautiful lake, and you can honestly see 60 feet down it's so clean and clear.








Day 4 and we are tired. 5 fences, and lots of weeds picked and it's time for more weed picking in the Tahoe Keys. This area was once entirely a marsh-like land and so many people moved into the area that they concreted over it, and many a rich person moved in. It's a beautiful view for picking weeds though, this I will say.

Thus concludes this weeks installment, and I think the pictures are a nice touch; they definitely help me remember what happened, and I hope they give you a clearer view into my time here.