burnin' ring of fire.

Heading to Boise on our own airplane!

Phoenix 3 at our fire camp in Idaho.

Burnout operation to protect the town of Featherville. Our job was to "hold the line" which just means watching to make sure no fire heads to the "green" (the stuff we don't want to burn)

Green Limabean. Our bus for the two weeks.

Trees starting to torch outside of Featherville, Idaho.

Photo by Ben taken on our last day of work.

 Hello! Here are a few pictures of my crazy adventure out West. Per usual, I have limited internet access but I figured a few fire photos might hold you folks over for a few days. Overall, the trip was a whirlwind of long days, late night, little sleep, TONS of food, hilarious moments, blisters, dirt, ash, smoke, fire, smelly bodies etc etc etc!

More to details and photos to come!
I'll leave you with the quote that pretty much sums up the whole fire experience... 

"We came as boys and girls... We left as men." 
- Phoenix 3


Over and out,
Liz

west bound

   Some of you may have seen my facebook status or new profile picture so it's no surprise to you that myself and my seven other teammates are heading west! There was a resource order placed Sunday afternoon (meaning they needed firefighters) and at the drop of a hat we are en route to Boise, Idaho. Right now Phoenix 3 is at wonderful Hilton Hotel in Nashville, TN with about 50 other wildland firefighters. They fed us a feast, I have my own bed, AND I only have ONE roommate for the night. That hasn't happened since before AmeriCorps started; usually have between three to five other gals to distract me from sleeping.
  So the details: We don't know much yet, and the things we do know are likely to change. As of now all firefighters are being flown to Idaho tomorrow on our own aircraft so we can make our way to the Trinity Ridge fire. Last I checked it was a 35,000 acre fire with over 600 people on the "intial attack". Our crew should be there for about 14 days once we hit the fireline. It will probably be the most physically and emotionally exhausting two weeks of my life. Crews usually work about 12-14 hours days digging line, felling trees, pumping water, hiking through woods etc etc etc. This is all with our 45 pound pack and firetools. AH! I suppose it's now or never for that six pack I've always wanted.
  All-in-all, I'm excited. This is something that if you told me a year ago I would be doing, I'd probably chuckle because I'd have thought there was no possible way I was capable of this. And maybe I'm not. Maybe I'll cry every night in my tent because my body hurts, the food sucks, and I want a real toilet. But as the founder of the Keystone Science School once said, "Dare to fail." If it's the worst two weeks of my life then maybe all I'll come away with is a six-pack of abs and a really great story.

Send me good thoughts!Catch up with you all in a few weeks!

- Liz

kids on the run.

WooWhooo AC!

Although we broke the "No Teamcest" rule, we had a quick wedding before work.

Found millions of termites... awesome. 

Emily is a true cat-lady.

Dressing up for dinner. Our other housemates got a real kick out of this. 

Reba during chainsaw training.

Pretty cool, huh Dad!?

Washing puppies should not be considered work.

Cute little buggers

Steal-toe boots go good with any outfit.

Platonic lovers. Notice the awkward sunburn behind us.

Giving Erick a ponytail.

What a good sport.

Beach babes

It was that kind of day.

Hard at work :)

Love these goofballs.

  
Things are going just peachy down here. This round is flying by. We spent the last week at Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge which happens to be right on the ocean. We tore up an old, wonky boardwalk and cut down hundreds of pine trees bordering the park. Apparently these pines aren't native to the area and are taking over, sucking up nutrients from the local plants. So there we were, hatchets in hand, chopping down per-adolescent pines for hours. I felt like a true lumberjack, sans the iconic red flannel. By the end of the week, poison-ivy rashes, bug bites, sunburned noses, sore muscles, and sleeping on the floor of the administration office made for some exhausted bodies. It is really funny when everyone starts getting loopy around the same time. Hence the video above.

Everyday after work we'd change out of our disgusting uniforms and make a beeline for the water. We'd spend a few hours ocean-side- jumping waves, making sand moats, or, the most popular activity, beach napping.

Not much fire activity as of now. And fingers-crossed that it stays that way at least until Friday. Mumford and Sons will be waiting for us Thursday night :)

Before I sign off, I must mention how great Phoenix 3 really is. Sometimes I forget I'm in AmeriCorps! This group has become extremely close. I speculate it has to do with our age. Everyone is 23 or older, which is rare for an NCCC team. We've had some good times in the middle of nowhere Virginia.


Over and Out,
Liz

birds of a feather.

Bobby and I scouting out the Swamp

It was THIS hot.

Happy birds.

Erick, Bobby and myself at the lake

Hello Phoenix 3 minus Maddi

I did, in fact, just pour water down Ben's pants.

Fire Tower!

Aren't we government property?!

Maddi and I

Andre, Rebecca, and Erik

Practicing with the engines. What the picture doesn't show is how scorching hot Virginia is! 

Crew quarters at the Swamp with our other housemates.

Sometimes we find ourselves in the middle of absolutely nowhere. 

 

Life is going great at the Swamp. No fires this week so we have been keeping ourselves busy doing other environmental projects, working at Habitat for Humanity, and hanging out with some sassy Bingo players in downtown Norfolk. Plans are brewing for a weekend at Virginia Beach and a soon-to-be Mumford and Sons concert. This round has thus far been a wonderful break from the routine "Ameri-life". It feels more like eight good-humored friends on a bizarre summer road trip.

Happy Sunday, ya'll  ;)

jungle love.

I’ve been officially lacking on my Blogging duties. Time for quick catch-up… Round two ended with a great sense of accomplishment and a twinge of sadness. The work my team did is still hard to wrap my head around. I calculated that individually I worked on 45 and 47 Chambers Street houses (our Blitz Build homes) for 327 hours! Being that Moose 4 lost two members due to personal conflicts and switching teams near the end of round 2, we invested over 3,106 total labor hours on these homes. Putting that into a different perspective, it would have taken an individual person about a year and a half, 78 weeks, of 40 hours per week to equal the amount of time we spent on those townhomes in just two months! Ah, the power of national service!

It is a mind-blowing number that helps explain why it was so hard to leave that place.

I really started to get attached to all the great people at Habitat, our Newburgh friends, and that feeling that I was doing something that really mattered. It was an absolutely wonderful, humbling experience. But life in AmeriCorps doesn’t let you sit stagnant and daydream about past projects for long. Phoenix 3, my new fire team is already busy making new memories down in Suffolk, Virginia. We arrived Thursday at the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Reserve and got settled in the crew quarters, which we share with a few other seasonal employees. The housing allows for room to sprawl which is unheard of in AmeriCorps. There are four bathrooms, real beds, and a huge kitchen! We are living like royalty compared to our other teams. (Moose 4 is living in a “lean-to” in the middle of the woods, no electricity or running water with a 10 minute walk to the kitchen…so yea, I’m spoiled right now)  I adore my Phoenix teammates and love the new energy we have together. 

Maddi and I forging the river, returning from our firefighter duties in good spirits :)

Our first full day on the job there was a small wildfire on the 111,000-acres of forested wetlands where we live. By small, I mean miniscule. It was basically a smoldering tree, most likely due to a lighting strike a few days prior. But non-the-less it was still exciting! We suited up and headed out, bushwhacking our way through the hot Virginia jungle. Several hours later, absolutely dreaded in our own sweat, there was a "clear" path and a hose line laid out. The tree was doused in water and our work for the day was done. Now it is the weekend and we are in town catching up on internet and phone service... 

More stories to come.

sending my love.

 

a little look inside life

Squid for lunch?

The contents of my purse... slightly embarrassing

Habitat friends at our cook-out

Sarah on our last day of work

Our hilarious site supervisor, Brady and his pooch

In the warehouse there was this incredible pulley system that we liked to frequently ride.

On the pulley in between two floors 

Moose 4 by the new mural in Newburgh. We ended up befriending the artist  during spike :)

Rainstorm!

Layla decided to embrace Newburgh's culture and sported cornrows for a few days!

Grass Queen

Ohh AmeriCorps.

The team at the end of spike.

So here are a few photos from Newburgh.  I can't find the motivation to get my thoughts onto a page at the moment so those to come later. Life update: I'm back at campus in Perrypoint, MD and will be sailing off to summer break in T-5 DAYS!!!

Happy sunshine.

- Liz