Strange Times/Are Here

We're slowly finding our groove at Pacific. It's a bit tricky to do for a couple of reasons. The first reason being that our schedule is never set in stone. We spent a couple of days this week simply waiting for our sponsor to figure out something for us to do. There have been a few paperwork mishaps that have prevented us from dividing straight into heavy project work, so those have been getting straightened out. The weather also plays a big part in what we can accomplish in a day. Monday and Tuesday were pretty awful this week, but I got to experience my first thunderstorm since leaving the east coast! I was beginning to think they didn't happen at all out here. I usually sleep through weather-related happenings at night, but some of the thunder we experienced this week was enough to wake me up around 1:30am. It was fantastic – I forgot how much I missed a good thunderstorm.

The second reason is because we're still settling in, really. We spent most of last weekend in Placerville, a town about 15 minutes away, because it's cute in a touristy kind of way so we explored the area and completely assaulted the Cozmic Cafe with our presence as we flocked towards an source for internet. Cozmic Cafe is a great place for internet though. Good coffee, the prices aren't bad, there's a bar and performance space upstairs that we haven't made use of yet and there's a MINE SHAFT ON THE FIRST FLOOR! You can't go too far into it, but the whole place was literally built off the end of this mine shaft. It's so cool that I'll forgive the proprietors for spelling “cosmic” with a “z”.

So since we weren't really around last weekend and the fact that food everywhere around us is expensive (everyone jacks up the prices for the tourists who invade this area during the summer) we're not on a real schedule yet in terms of buying food, doing laundry (there's only one machine here and it's not at all reliable) and even hanging out around the house. There's a TV, but it's covered in balloons right now (one of the employees at a grocery store we were scouting gave them to Josh, Jules, Jeff and I). As a result of our time in Placerville, the Morris House looks a little bit more like a home thanks to purchases that people have made.

The Happy New Year 2010 Bear and Wanda, the cat cookie jar. Wanda holds our laundry room key (attached to the safety glasses) and our snaps (kudos) to each other between team meetings.

 

And our team is still really great about trading off chores so there's not a lot of stress in that area. In fact, we have a dining room now! We've definitely taken advantage of that by having family-style dinners as often as time allows.

Our project work this week had its ups and downs. Monday and Tuesday were spent working at the fire cache in nearby Camino, CA. The team spent two days taking inventory of everything there – and there's a ton to count: fire hoses of varying materials, lengths and diameters; couplings; sleeping bags; nozzles; batteries; antennae; packs; cans of gasoline; sets of fire resistant clothing (Nomex); whistles; space blankets; Nalgene bottles; bottles of Gatorade; hand tools (shovels, rakes, McLeods, Pulaskis, etc.); rolls of caution (flagging) tape; fusees; driptorches; tents, and other fun/not as fun things. 

Ellen found some fashionable goggles!

 It was great getting to see the cache and learn exactly where some wildland firefighting resources come from. It was not as great to count over 200 of just one nozzle type by hand, and so on. But Tuesday afternoon found us one Nalgene, one whistle, and one carabiner richer thanks to Dave, the cache supervisor. We were also fortunate enough to listen to a presentation by a Forest Service Recruiter who gave us some tips on how to apply for a full-time position (or even seasonal job) with the wildland fire division of the USFS. Thanks, Pacific!

Wednesday and Thursday were spent in training, which was wonderful. The alternative would have been busywork, but our sponsor decided that our time would be better spent getting trained up before the refresher courses for the seasonals start in May. Wednesday was all classroom training for the S-212 course: Portable Pumps and Water Use. We learned the basics of how 2-stroke and 4-stroke portable pumps work and how to set up/use them in the field. There was a lot of new vocabulary involved, but it was a great review of some terminology we covered during fire training but haven't used since. Thursday was the Intro to Hydraulics section and the written final exam: both of them went just fine. 

Thursday afternoon involved driving out to Jenkinson Lake, which was only 5 or so miles west on Highway 50, towards Placerville. Pacific staff drove out with us and helped us actually set up and run the pumps we had learned about. 

Tucker messes around with the fog nozzle

Josh takes aim at mallards

  The field day concluded with our instructors running us through a "real" scenario in groups of 4. Both groups did quite well and everyone passed the practical portion of the class. So now, in addition to having my Basic 40, my S-211 (chainsaw certification) I also have my S-212 certification! I'm so glad that the Pacific staff chose to train us versus telling us to go paint a shed or something (which will happen in the coming weeks, we're told). It makes me feel more productive and more at-ease when I think about the approaching fire season.

This weekend is still pretty open in terms of plans, but we have some things on the horizon! I'm talking with someone from the South Lake Tahoe Department of Park and Recreation to see if we can do an Independent Service Project there. It would be ideal because then the whole team would have an excuse to use the van to get up to South Lake Tahoe and see some of the sights in addition to performing service. I'm also trying to think of if I want to take vacation time and where I'd go. Any suggestions? Send them my way!

Speaking of sending things my way, I have an address at Pacific that I'm allowed to use for the rest of the year! If you'd like it, get ahold of me somehow and I'll be glad to share it. This address will be much more reliable than my campus address because SPIKEmail, no matter how convenient, takes forever to get to us.

Cheers, everyone!