First Post of 2012

Hey everyone,

Sorry I haven't updated this in a while. Christmas and New Years were way too much fun and kept me busy. But here I am once again. Since my last post, there has been plenty of fun and exciting things happening here in St. Louis and all around Southern Missouri.

Starting off, I flew home for Christmas and spent a lot of time with Sarah. We went skiing, walked Gnarly, and went to the Denver Aquarium. We spent new years in Boulder with all our friends and then before I knew it I was 30,000 feet in the air on my way back to St. Louis.

Sarah and I on top of Copper Mountain. Kevin went with us and took this great picture.

Gnarly loves walking around Wash Park.

One of the first things I did when I got back into St. Louis was to take the Pact Test. In order to fight fire on federal land, one has to carry 45 pounds for 3 miles while walking in under 45 minutes. It was tougher than I thought, leaving me with really sore shins and calves. I was in the first group to go and I was the first to finish in just over 41 minutes. I thought that was fast, until other members, practically ran the three miles and did it in 34 minutes. I found out its easier to run with the weight compared to walking, but the test really tests to see if one can actually walk 45 minutes with the weight.

Some people came out in the rain and watched us.

A few people getting ready to carry 45 pounds of batteries.

Then the next week I went back to Peck Ranch. I spend a lot of time there maintaining a fire line, it's mindless, but it has to be done or we would never be able to burn anything. We throw a lot of sticks around, move some large logs, and walk all around trying to get burn units ready to burn.

Before picture. Lots of wood need to be moved away from the fire line

After picture. No sparks can fly from wood that isn't there. That's one safe fire line.

Then it was the time for the best weekend ever. I surprised Sarah for our three year anniversary with a last minute surprise out to St. Louis. It was all planned out, and Sarah didn't know she was flying out to St. Louis until about 2 hours before her flight. Thanks Neil.

While she was here, we did all the tourist activities. We visited the Arch, the Budweiser plant, tried to go into the Schafly brewery, City Museum, Soulard Farmer's Market, and the free and awesome St. Louis Zoo.

Sarah and I at the arch

Sarah looking west. She loved the city.

Sarah at the zoo, totally fascinated by the penguins

Rocking out in the Bud truck. I told her she looked good in a truck.

Spudz. Good old spudz!

First tour of the morning. And we went on the short tour.

Sarah, you can't take hone all the dogs that you see

I had a great weekend, but Sarah had to go home. To make it worse, the next 2 days I was in St. Louis cutting and removing honey suckle. Honey suckle is the worst plant tree in the history of mankind. It just grows where ever and take over the land. But things got much better on that Wednesday when everyone went to Potosi, Missouri for the federal chainsaw class. Taking this class allows us to cut on federal land, aka, Forest Service land. I got my A classification sawyership after cutting down, and doing a great on my tree. If I hadn't fallen and scratched up my whole leg the day before, I would have cut more, but my leg was killing me thanks to my fire boots.

Everyone in the woods getting chapped up and saws ready

Mark scouting up his tree.

Everyone watching Andrew on his test.

 The next week I went to Eminence, Missouri to work on more fire line. This place is great, I really do love serving there. We do more than just move logs, we get to cut down snags, blow leaves, and really cut down anything that may be a hazard when it comes to fire.

Andrew trying really hard to start a backpack blower.

Grace giving a lesson on how to carry a backpack and a blower. Koala bear style she calls it.

Lisa filling up on gas in the middle of no where.

Lisa and Grace blowing the line behind me. Three blowers can make a 8 foot wide fire line in no time.

Before, tons of leaves.

After three blowers made there way up the hill. Leaves moved off the fire line.

Hopefully I have time to update this blog more often in the next few weeks. My neighborhood is swarming right now a week and a half before Mardi Gras, so I can only imagine what I will stumble across. Until next time, see you all later.

Shamucas