St. Louis - 6/27

I normally don’t write on Friday's, but I’ll make an exception.  We went out to the Shanti to celebrate Danielle’s birthday and I met a middle-aged gentleman at the bar.  He noticed I was 27 and looked at me like he didn’t believe it.  A compliment I never get tired of.  After exchanging a couple of pleasantries he asked me “So, what do you want to do?”  I explained that I want to help people, that I would love to continue pursuing a career in disaster relief but I am still entertaining the thought of being a nurse.  The man gave me a stern look and said, “No. I asked you what do you want to do.  Stop dancing around the question.”  I was a little taken aback.  I then shortened my answer to simply being a nurse on route to being a doctor—judging from his attire I figured the add-on would satisfy him.  He then proceeded to give me a lecture; the bar was too loud to pick out all of it, but the summary is as follows.  If you don’t have a solid foundation and plan in place by the time you’re 30 you’re screwed, in this world it is all about who you know so spend more money to get into institutions with recognizable names, and be respectful.  The gentleman said every time you ask for something say please, and after you receive it thank the person for the item or service.  In addition, he said to do something nice for someone every day.  When I pointed out that I was a Boy Scout and that I still follow the slogan to the best of my ability, he smiled but his eyes betrayed that he didn’t care.

I do not know the man’s name, but he is a business manager for several restaurants in Michigan and Wisconsin (and, I suspect, the Shanti here in Missouri).  I feel like he is pretty work-oriented, but this has allowed him to be successful, travel all over the world, and lead a comfortable life.  I’d love to travel as he has… but I need to find the ambition.  The man provided me with some tough love as far as advice goes; 30 is just a blink away and I have yet to muster the courage to just charge down a particular path for my future.  Maybe it’s time to do that… but on this particular night, the talk really brought me down.

I went out to join my friends on the patio and was blown away by the atmosphere.  The building was worn and had a western saloon look to it, there were colorful lights hanging everywhere, an assortment of people...  This scene was something you’d find in the Firefly universe—and as I made that realization, I discovered that is exactly what AmeriCorps St. Louis is.  The program is Serenity and we her crew: the Fellows find the crew, find us jobs, and we keep flying.

As I looked around I was nearly brought to tears by the camaraderie.  Due to the nature of our work we rarely are able to gather in groups as large as this.  Everyone had a trying week but there were smiles all around and just being together to celebrate this special occasion brought us all renewed energy.  A friend, Dathan, bought me a drink and as we were exchanging stories both good and bad (my raccoon encounter was a hit) the man who I talked to earlier that night made an appearance.  While he may have been in a foul mood at the bar he showed no signs of it now—he cleaned our table for us and had the barkeep pour Danielle a birthday shot.  Whether or not he was providing me an example for what we had talked about earlier I couldn’t say, but I was very happy that he helped make Danielle’s night. 

Oh life, why do you have to be so short?  Why do things have to get harder as you get older and professions favor the young?  Guess it is a good thing I have a youthful appearance!  Anyhow, good night friends.  

Big Creek - 6/26

Clad in nothing but my boxers and armed with naught but a tent pole I managed to save most of our food from a gang of raccoons and a stray opossum.  I heard rummaging around 3am last night so I had the mental image of Dan going for a midnight snack as all of our food was ratcheted shut.  Then I heard the growling.  So I did the sensible thing and scared the raccoons off.  The opossum sought to get in on the turf war with its rivals gone, but I just shined my headlamp at it until it backed down.  This was the second time I saved the day this week (first was me saving all of our gear from the rain).  I’m on a roll!

That was probably one of the more exciting parts of the day, accompanied by a close game between the US and Germany in the World Cup (we lost… but we’re moving on!)  and riding a battery dead UTV down a hill on the highway. Life is good and despite the hardships we endured this week I’m glad we powered through.  This week was all about problem solving so I even forgot we were spraying at times.  Hope all is going well in your respective parts of the world.  Until next time!

The last photo was taken by Dan Burch.

Big Creek - 6/25

Happy Birthday to my awesome fiancée over in Chicago!  Sorry I couldn’t be there to tell you personally, but I’m glad to hear your students and peers made it a special day!  As fate would have it, today is also the birthday of my roommate over here in St. Louis.  We took Dan down town to celebrate after a complicated day of spraying.  We had some ice cream, BBQ Pizza, a couple of drinks, and a lovely viewing of the fading light on the river’s edge.  On our way back to the campsite the light had all but left us—in its absence though there arose hundreds of fireflies to illuminate our path.  It was pretty cool.

As for that tricky work day, I can’t remember if I told you or not, but due to the frequency and severity of the UTV mishaps earlier in the year only 2^nd years and Fellows are allowed to drive the vehicles and use trailers.  This leaves poor Dan having to shuttle everyone around even though I am certified and—from what I hear—one of the select few to not have had an accident.  So when the UTV battery started dying out today Dan had to pretty much do everything on his own.  He did wonderfully, I give him major props, but I think this current policy is really hindering the progress of this project.

Big shout out to Team USA for tomorrow’s game against Germany!  A win or a tie and we move on in the FIFA World Cup—a loss and we’re not necessarily out of it, but our chances of advancing would take a large hit.  A Ghana/Portugal tie or a narrow Portugal win would also do it, but I’m not that familiar with the tie breakers.  Regardless, go USA!

Now to retire to my oven of a tent.  Talk to you all tomorrow.

Big Creek - 6/24

Last night I was surprised to find that my tent had acquired a moat.  Water was leaking in from the bottom of my shelter so I unzipped the fly to tuck the tarp in further only to find that I was transported to the open seas.  With how heavy it was raining it was kind of like something out of Deadliest Catch with me trying to correct the riggings of my tent.  Anyways, I did a pretty good job; there was some water that managed to seep through the bottom but with how crazy that storm was I’m very fortunate it wasn’t more.

Our service today was… service.  Having been on a number of spraying operations I was able to problem solve and help the team move forward a couple of times.  Nothing out of the ordinary to report on the highway other than the Knapweed has bloomed, which makes it a little easier to spot.  It is kind of pretty actually…pity.

Since returning we’ve headed down to the river and are enjoying a moment of Zen.  I’m going to go take a little dip to refresh myself.  Later!

Big Creek - 6/23

You know the scene where Frodo and Sam are at the base of Mount Doom and Frodo can no longer remember the Shire?  Well, I’m Frodo, Dee is Sam, and the Shire is Montana.  We’re closing in on the end of our journey but the final climb is daunting.  Dee played her role well—motivating me by reminding me of the place where our quest began.  There are no ticks at that elevation and poison ivy is nearly non-existent.  It almost sounds too good to be true!  Montana truly is a magical place. 

This week I’m being sent back to the front lines to combat the invasives.  It sounds like things have taken a turn for the worst while I was away—seeing how our contact told us that Sericea is a lost cause.  Entire fields and hills have been overrun by the weed and we’d risk erosion issues if we were to tamper with it.  Instead, we will focus on Knapweed and Teasel before they reach equally dangerous proportions.

There is one major difference about spraying this week though: we’re camping.  This made all of us a little nervous as we have no means to rinse off stray chemical and it is supposed to storm throughout the week.  The campground they put us in is pretty nice though.  There is a shower house and the grounds are well kept—very few ticks or mosquitoes, buggers that plagued my last camping experience.  I’m currently sitting in our UTV watching an approaching storm.  The temperature has cooled, the wind is picking up, it feels like rain… this is my favorite weather.

Well I’m going to go watch the storm and pray my Macguyvered rainfly holds out.  Dan took our truck to switch it out since it almost died on the way here, but I think I got enough tape to get the job done beforehand.  Later all!

Shawnee - 6/19

Prayers go out to our contact, Brian, who hit a deer on his way to meet us today.  All I know is he needed stiches and for a fellow who has retired from the military after 20 plus years of service, you know the incident had to have been more than a mere scratch.  We missed you today Brian, but never fear, we completed the switch backs on the Hutchinson’s Creek Trail and are aiming to finish the rest tomorrow!

We have been beyond blessed to stay at the Grassy Lake Hunting Club.  The hosts have made out stay one to remember—and they keep on finding ways to make us feel like we are on vacation in paradise more so than work!  They put up a fight when we said we were going to clean.  They insisted that we leave it to them, but after they refused our money for letting us stay there we decided to sneak in a couple chores around the lodge when they weren’t looking.

Collin, Tom, and Rascal; thank you so much for letting us stay here and treating us like royalty when you barely even knew us.  I can say without a doubt that this was the best housing I have had all year and Dee, a Fellow who has been in our program for 3 plus years said it was the best she’s ever had.  That’s saying something!  Brian, your work ethic and strength is awe-inspiring.  Thanks for giving us all the tips on cross-cutting.  Here’s hoping we will be back next week to put our newly honed skills to use for certification!

Going to go play with Rascal then gets some rest.  I don’t think we’ve had a day under 95 degrees and all of them felt like the temperature was in the 100s with the humidity.  Talk about a taxing week!  Good night friends.  Until next time!

Trails completed in the last 2 weeks:

King’s Hollow

Rainbarger
Hutchinson’s Creek
Godwin

Clear Springs

Just 2 more to go!

The first photo was taken by Kelly Kaufmann.

Shawnee - 6/18

I’ve always considered myself to be a sword guy, but if a spear is anything like a pole saw I now view the weapon in a new light.  It has range, versatility, and it is deceivingly light—a good fit for someone like me who doesn’t have a ton of strength.

In regards to my strength or lack thereof, a couple more weeks of trail maintenance and I will be swinging broadswords with ease.  I chopped through a couple of fallen trees today with an axe—a feat I was hard-pressed to accomplish on my own last week.  It feels good to be doing work that involves the whole body again.  Our service combined with these crazy hot sauna temperature days is giving me the work out of my life.  I always feel like I want a couple days off to recover by day’s end, but hey, if this stuff was easy everybody would do it.

Another day has come and gone and another trail is done.  The name of our latest victim evades me, but we’ll see if I can get a head count tomorrow.  For now, it’s time to sleep.  Night friends!

Shawnee - 6/17

We are a stone’s throw away from finishing the Godwin Trail.  There were several downed trees, many of which took complex cuts to clear out.  It was great practice because as it turns out our cross-cut certification has been pushed back to next week. This is a fortunate turn of events as if the week continues to play out as it has we will all be experts by the time the test rolls around.

                     

Our hosts, Collin and Tom, are incredible.  They took us to the Blue Boar for dinner; the restaurant is a much hidden yet very popular spot somewhere around Cobden, Illinois.  The landscape surrounding the structure is gorgeous—so much so that I could see it being an ideal spot for engagement photos if not for the wedding itself.  Fountains, waterfalls, flowers, it has it all.  The inside of the building looks like a well-kept lodge with all sorts of sporting paraphernalia.  Sadly I forgot my camera on this particular occasion, but I would strongly urge you to look it up online or, if you are in southern Illinois, go take a gander for yourself!

Oof, I’m about to go into a food coma.  I ordered the “Home Wrecker,” which was a hot dog as wide as a better-than-average brat and as long as at least 2 hot dogs.  Cheese, chili, green onions, French fries, this plate had the works.  Collin and Tom have gone above and beyond giving us accommodations and then they go and pull a stunt like this.  You guys are the best.  Thank you so much!

Shawnee - 6/16

Surprise!  We’re not out camping this week—we’re staying at the Grassy Lake Hunting Club.  We have AC, plenty of beds and couches, a kitchen, a tv with satellite (we watched the US beat Ghana in the closing minutes)… the place is just perfect.  The cherry on top of it all is the owner and his dog, Rascal.  The man running the lodge is as nice as they come and Rascal is a fully grown Saint Bernard.  The loving animal stands up to my waist!

So yeah, we’re really excited about our housing.  Work, on the other hand, is going to be tough.  Same work as last week only this time we will be serving during a severe heat warning.  Being way out in the wilderness we will need to take extra precaution as there is no easy means to get in or out of the forest in a hurry.  That about wraps things up!  Stay cool and I’ll talk to you later!  …cool, like temperature… because… night!

Shawnee - 6/12

My team surprised me again!  Before I went to bed the majority of them came in from the back porch and sang me happy birthday while presenting 2 cartons of ice cream and 2 lighters.  The lighters were just for show and were a piece of cake to blow out, but the ice cream was delicious (Neapolitan, if you were curious).  Thank you one and all for a great birthday!

As for our service project, we went back to the Clear Springs trail and finished it.  Unlike the Godwin trail, this one has not been used in over a year, which explains all of the overgrowth.  It is also primarily for horses and there is no easy access point to bring and park a trailer.  Still, after 2 days of clearing fallen trees and brush by hand the Clear Springs trails are once again open for business!

I did sustain a semi-deep cut right below my elbow, a slight miscalculation on my teammate’s part, but it didn’t hurt that much.  It bled nicely for a couple minutes and then stopped on its own accord.  Hopefully it will heal well as it is in an awkward spot.  I also got that floss wad out with a lot of patience, persistence, and a lot more floss.  So I guess I traded maladies and I’m ok with that.

I’m going to go hang out with my fellow trailblazers and enjoy the cabin while it lasts.  It looks like we will be going back to camping next week.  Here’s hoping we have access to some showers!  Later all!

Shawnee - 6/11

You know that scene where Harry Potter is drawing his birthday cake in the dirt because nobody remembered or cared?  Well my birthday was nothing like that.  I went out to the back porch to gather my things and when I returned I found that the cabin had been vacated.  Everyone had crammed into the bathroom to surprise me… and it worked!  They sang me the birthday song and asked if I was trying to keep my B-day a secret, to which I replied no.  Is it weird not to advertise your birthday?  Felt wrong to me, but I did drop 2 hints earlier in the week!  Anyways, it was a nice way to start the day.

We worked on the Godwin trail yesterday and a new one today.  Today’s trail was in really bad shape.  There were times that the trail was completely reclaimed by the wilderness and we had to guess where the path was supposed to be.  Aside from the sea of poison ivy we had to wade through it was a good day.  I had my first couple of shots at using a crosscut saw and loved it.  Rumor has it we may be getting certified next week.  Regardless, I think I actually prefer the cross cut to the chainsaw!

Man I’m tired.  My body must be working pretty hard to keep out all the toxins we’re coming into contact with.  Good night friends, thank you for all of the birthday wishes!

Shawnee - 6/10

The Hummingbird Cabin that we are staying in is aptly named.  While the rain was taking one of its intermissions I saw as many as 8 hummingbirds at a time from our back porch.  They seemed particularly interested in our Gatorade, but we were too busy replenishing to share.  We hiked close to 6 miles by the time lunch rolled around… that’s more than many of my recent projects have done in an entire day!  I’m glad the storms came to offer a reprieve as my body has not transitioned over from the spraying lull.

The place we’re working in is part of the Irish Wilderness, which has some interesting rules.  For instance, no power tools are allowed.  No vehicles, no chainsaws, nothing.  We can only use hand tools to prep the trails so it is a lot of work!  We’re holding strong though!

My only issue so far isn’t even tied to our service here; I was flossing when my teeth caught and shredded the string.  As it wouldn’t go upward I tried pulling it out through the side, but that just caught the majority of the shredded floss between my teeth.  It hurts, but the pain isn’t debilitating so I’m soldiering on.  I’m hoping to buy some picks to try and poke it out next time we’re in town. 

Night all, hope you’re all doing well!

Shawnee - 6/9

Shortly after debriefing the week’s objectives I have come to the conclusion that we may be working in the most dangerous place in Missouri—then I realized that we weren’t in Missouri.  Reassessment, me may be serving in the most dangerous place in Illinois: Shawnee.  Plant-wise we have poison ivy (which is waist high) and poison oak in abundance.  These towering poisonous obstacles are manned by ticks and chiggers with an equally menacing air force consisting of mosquitos and buffalo gnats patrol the skies above.  Oh, it is also worth noting that they are not afraid to use their biological warfare either: Rocky Mountain Fever, Lyme’s Disease, and West Nile Virus.  For heavy artillery they have water moccasins, copperheads, and rattlesnakes that grow up to 7 feet long and for their special forces they have a variety of arachnids—namely black widows and brown recluses.  So…what I’ve gathered is that we are working in a hostile poisonous forest.  Pretty sure when nature goes to such extremes to say “keep out” we should listen, but hey, a gig’s a gig and the show must go on.

The good news is that they gave us a cabin to stay in after the crazy storm we endured last week.  After spending a week outdoors I’m loving the access we have to a kitchen again.  Cooking while camping is so much work!  Totally worth it, but dishes and everything is a hassle.  Anyways, the not so good news is we have 10 hour shifts here… Truth be told last week we averaged 11 a day so it’s not that big of a deal—it just means more time in a volatile environment.  That about wraps things up!  I’m still glowing from a visit from my wonderful fiancée.  Thanks for stopping by love; it was a great weekend.  Here’s hoping I live to see another!

Poplar Bluffs - 6/5

Last night was one of the few times I can say that I honestly feared for my life.  The thunderstorm carried on for over 5 hours—for 1 of which the lightning was so intense that it was like a strobe light.  It wasn’t the light that terrified me, it was what I couldn’t see.  The thunder boomed and lingered so long that it sounded like a freight train—a noise associated with tornadoes.  Thankfully the tornado watch never escalated and we just got an insane light show.  A big thanks to the camp hosts who came and warned us about the storm; without any phone or internet service we would have been blindsided by it.  Thanks to them we were able to move our camp to a marginally safer area.  Thank you!

As for today we did more work on the bike trail.  Another thunderstorm rolled in while we were out, but I heard it coming from miles away and warned my team well in advance.  Even with the rain delay we finished the portion of the path that we were assigned.  Go team!  Bad news is poison ivy is EVERYWHERE.  I just applied some Technu to be safe.  Hope everyone is safe and sound.  Good night all!

Poplar Bluffs - 6/4

We’ve been set loose on a bike trail.  Our task is to clear the overgrowth and widen the trail.  I did a bit of chainsawing but my lopping skills were top notch so I was sent ahead with the hand tool.  I think we prepped 3 miles today.

Ugh, so hot… going to just write what comes to mind.

Ticks galore.

Rascally raccoons.

My cousin is a guitarist for Florida Georgia Line.

Seriously, he just got the gig, it is pretty. Awesome.

Refreshingly cold river water.

Ok, I got my mind back temporarily.  We’re on a tornado watch until 3 am.  We were making S’Mores when the camp host gave us the warning so we did about the quickest pack out ever.  We’re staying under a pavilion and a bathroom is our shelter if the time comes.  The thunder also is nonstop.  It’s pretty cool.

Well I think I am going to go enjoy the spectacle and stop assuming the Jeff Goldblum pose (the one he is in on the table in Jurassic Park)—it’s my writing pose here. I may be distracting my teammates with the sexiness.  Good night all.  Wish us well!

Poplar Bluffs - 6/3

Bucked up a fallen tree, cleaned a couple of river entries—all in a day’s work for this AmeriCorps crew. Even with missing a couple of turns (they really should mark the roads better around here) we managed to finish around our estimated time.  My favorite part was when we were cutting all of the brush away from the shorelines at some river entries.  The ground was of a consistency similar to that of a bog—one wrong step and that solid looking ground turned into a knee-deep waterlogged pit.  To avoid falling into these traps I found an 8 foot stick and I went fishing for branches.  It was very exciting; they all had grooves so you could lock it with the stick then launch it toward the shore like a catapult.

My least favorite part was when we got a flat tire.  We don’t know how it happened, but when we made it to the gas station there it was.  We got out the jack but it didn’t reach the bottom of the truck… we got out the key to unlock our space but it was missing a piece… our equipment needs updating.  Anyways, some good came out of our dilemma; Marshall from Peck Ranch came to our rescue!  He had the jack but he had to call Patti over for a similar key to unlock our space.  Man, what a comedy of errors.

Oh yeah!  We were building a trail to an old school house before that debacle.  It was in the middle of a forest with no electricity (it was that old).  How they got enough light through those windows baffles me, but it was a cool find.

Now I bid you adieau.  Temperatures are going to be in the 90s with crazy humidity so we’re going to start a little earlier in hopes that we can beat the worst of the heat.  Night all!

P.S.  I lied, my favorite moment was when I was surrounded by butterflies.  Imagine Dragon Ball Z when the characters are charging up and they have a swirling aura about them—the butterflies flew in a similar pattern.

Poplar Bluffs - 6/2

Today is a day of firsts.  The first of the firsts is my whole team is composed of first years.  The second is that this is my first time camping out in the tents on a project.  Third, we’re camping out in a new area—Poplar Bluffs.  Huh,  first is a weird word after you use it a bunch… it just looks funny.

Anyways, for the next 2 weeks I will be putting the chemicals aside and participating in an assortment of projects requiring hand and power tools.  It sounds like we will be fixing up various trails so it will be a nice change of pace!

Phew, it’s hot.  I believe this tent is 20 degrees hotter than the outside which is plenty warm.  Speaking of tents, it took me forever to figure out how to put this one together.  There were no instructions and the strings holding the poles together had disintegrated, but still you think an Eagle Scout would have little difficulty with such things.  I guess this means I don’t go camping enough anymore.

Time to turn in!  Hope we don’t get rained on too much this week!  Later all.

Tidying Up

Hey all, I decided to go back and fix a number of grammatical and technical errors in my earlier entries... you can tell what pages were edited as they now possess a weird font.  I may get back to correcting the format or continue to edit my posts until they are consistent, but for now I have to go back to being productive.  My time in the Emergency Response Team is quickly wrapping up so I need to start looking for what I want to do next.  If any of you have recommendations on job hunting let me know!  I have updated my resume as well as my Indeed and LinkedIn profiles as a start and I'm currently working on securing a couple of references.  My current plan is to move to Illinois around the Boilingbrook area come late August/early September so if any of you have a lead on a job that involves disaster relief, working with animals, or nature conservation in that general vicinity please let me know!  If you have leads that have other focuses send them my way as well-- I'm not that picky!  Thanks and I hope you all have a great day!