I forgot to
mention that on Sunday I was able to go to an old mining museum here in Grass
Valley which was so interesting to hear about different things the miners had
to do and other general history of the town during that time. We were able to
go into the main museum which was neat because it wasn’t open to the
general public since they were refurbishing the inside.
Monday we started off at a site that had a
couple trees cut down because they were dying from bark beetles. Our job was to
go in and clean up all of the extra limbs that were scattered all over the
place. Only problem was, was that everything was on a steep hill. Not only was
the hill steep but very slick from all the pine needles. We ended up climbing
to the top to start and would throw all the debris from the top to a lower
section and continue until it was all at the bottom. Once it was at the bottom
we would stack it to be chipped. While some people did that another group was
on the hill below that doing the same thing. Since I’m the “sawyer” on the team
I was in charge of sawing up the much larger logs that came down. The work
wasn’t too tough, you’d move at your own pace to get to the top since the
ground was slick; but safety was a large issue on Monday especially when a
giant cut log that was about 2½ feet thick and 5 ½ feet in diameter, got
unlogged from where it was and came tumbling down the hill straight for one of
my team mates who proceeded to run for their life (literally) and then jump
over yet another large log to safety. After that little incident we stayed away
from the large stuff. I did leave around 12 with Emily and Melissa to go to a
high school and recruit for NCCC. It was funny to be there because one boy said
“wow guys, just think, in two months we’ll be out of here, and in the real
world”. After hearing that I thought right back to last year, during this time
and thinking the same thing. But now here I am, only a year later traveling
across the US, talking to teens that are basically the same age as me, telling
them that, hey ya know if you don’t know what you want to do after you
graduate, I guarantee that this will change your life… Anyways the recruiting
event went very smoothly and we got 15 emails out of the 20 students that were
in the Junior/senior class and about 7 emails out of the 25 in the
freshman/sophomore class; which in my opinion is pretty good for students who basically
just started high school.
Tuesday we were
at the same worksite doing the same kind of stuff. I again chain sawed for a
good amount of the time but then switched to climbing the smaller hill to throw
down debris. During lunch a few of my team mates and I went on a little hike to
the suspension bridge over the river next to where we worked. The area was
beautiful! And after I ate I decided to try and walk across the long bridge.
The first attempt went very poorly since all I could do was 1.look down to see
how high the bridge was from the water and 2. See how far the end of the bridge
was. In my defense I’m already scared of heights and although the bridge was
very stable it was in a way bouncy whenever people would walk across it. I
ended up walking (crawling) back to the side of the bridge that I originally
started on with my fellow team mates laughing at me because I was too scared to
cross the bridge. My Team leader just told me to keep telling myself not to be
scared while I crossed the bridge, so that’s what I did, and I’m so happy that
I did because it was so beautiful to look out from the center of the bridge and
it felt pretty darn good to accomplish a little fear. After work we came home
and took a long walk for PT.
Today (Wednesday)
we started off the day in mixed emotions. First of all we decided to do a hike
for PT this morning in Nevada City, so we had to wake up almost an hour before
when we usually wake up. As we got in the car Amanda put on her music, but it
wasn’t exactly music. It turned out to be a voice recordings from one of the
employees back on campus telling us what our next project is!
So I’m glad to
announce that Silver 6 will be living in Yosemite National Park working with
the Tuolumne River Trust! Our primary role will be to take a leadership role in
managing tree planting volunteer events in burned areas of the Stanislaus
National Forest through the late winter and spring. Other activities that we
will be taking part in are trail rehabilitation, fuel reduction, data
collection, presentations on program activities in local schools, assistance
for camps near the Rim Fire burn area, installing fencing to protect sensitive
plant species and restored meadow areas, and occasional participation in events
with the Trust’s office in Modesto, CA.
After the big
news my team had all mixed emotions. Mostly everyone was excited to find out
that we will be living in Yosemite for our next project; but at the same time
it is yet another environmental project. And don’t get me wrong, I am beyond
excited to be going to Yosemite because I’ve heard and seen pictures of how
beautiful it is. I just didn’t imagine the first three of my projects to be
environmental; I thought I’d get at least 2 projects to be working closely with
people. Who knows though maybe it will turn out differently than what we
assumed.
Thursday we
left early to go to a different sight, but we were still working with the group
of older gentleman. We started off pulling scotch broom around a subdivision
near Nevada City. Then after lunch we headed back to the original site with the
steep hill and finished up around there. We left around 2:30ish to go back to
the office for the weekly debrief.
Friday we were
able to work with Donna again! We went to a snap client’s house which was about
an hour drive from home. The lady whose house we were working on said she was
turning 70 this year; but she didn’t look a day over 50. Anyways we were
cutting down a lot of manzanita that was next to her driveway (I was chain
sawing). It was sprinkling for most of the morning then the sun came out
towards the beginning of noon. “The calm before the storm” Donna said; and she
was right because it then began to rain fairly hard on us the rest of the workday.
I finished up cutting the rest of the manzanita then we packed up our tools and
headed out. As we were backing the van out of the driveway, we went off the
driveway a little and got stuck so we all had to pile out again to help push
the van out of the little ditch we created. When we got home we had to take the
chainsaw test to be officially certified by the government. After the test I
helped Melissa with the VST (Vehicle Safety/ Tools) weekly update (I ended up
taking over that position after my team mate left). VST’s are required to clean
out the van top to bottom, go over car fluids/ tire pressure and a few other
things every week. I’m actually happy to have this other specialty role since
it is useful information for the future, even if it is simple things like
checking tire pressure and knowing when to fill up different car fluids. After that we all went and met Joanne at Pine Street Burgers; a local restaurant near Grass Valley. Since it was Friday I wasn't able to have meat so I got their famous vegetarian Nut burger. The burger is made out of pecans, brown rice, garlic & cheese, topped with brie and sun dried tomato pesto. The taste was interesting and I didn't actually finish it all since for some reason I couldn't wrap my head around the fact that it wasn't meat. After we went back home to drop mostly everyone off than molly and I went grocery shopping for food over the weekend. When I got home I had 4 different meetings. The first was a one on one meeting, there as an VST meeting, peer helper meeting and the last was an ATL (Assistant Team Leader interview/meeting).
That's another exciting thing that happened this past week, Molly and I are officially the Assistant Team leaders. This means I will be in charge of a part of the grocery shopping, keeping track of finances, helping with quantifiables , weekly project report and a other paperwork. This also means that it will be a little harder to keep up with my blog with all the extra work, but I will try my best to keep it updated!
~Savannah
View from the middle of the bridge.
