On Wednesday I got a text midway through the work day that I would be deployed to a prescribed burn in New Jersey on Thursday. This would be my first time seeing a REAL wildfire, and I had one of the best days of my life.

We left the Point at about 7:45, arrived at the National Wildlife Refuge we were burning at at about 9am. The relative humidity was higher than anticipated, so we waited it out a bit before we started burning. It was almost canceled because we were on the cold end of ideal burning conditions, but I think they wanted to get me and my three AmeriCorps comrads some experience. So we burned a 15 acre grassland field. My job was on the ignition crew, which meant I got to carry around a drip torch (aka flame thrower) all day and set the field on fire. Here’s a picture of me with the fire I started behind me. There was a patch of extremely dry, thick grass fuel in this area so it just blew up. It was an amazing sight, but also the hottest thing I’ve ever experienced. Though the pictures don’t show it, the flames were higher than me. I felt like my face was melting off and my contacts were going to melt to my eyeballs. Fortunately that did not happen.

It was just a day burn, but it was so, so fun. I cannot wait to go out on more burns. Aside from the fire aspect of my life, I’m having an awesome time at Perry Point. We’re living in the village, so the girls have a house and the guys have a house. All of our food is at the guy’s house, so we cook all of our meals and generally hang out most of the time there.  It’s very much like we’re a seven person family. We leave every morning at about 7:15 to go to work at Elkneck State Forest. Last week we took our chainsaw certification classes, and I can now take apart and put back together a small-motor chainsaw! I also learned that my dad’s use of the chainsaw is not at all up to safety regulations.

We also went to Fairhill State Park to plant trees. I rode on the back of a pick-up truck for the first time in my life. I’ve been doing a lot of firsts lately. It’s wonderful. Life is wonderful.

Peace,
Evelyn

PS Check out of my flickr (flickr.com/photos/evvie) I put up a bunch of pictures.

It’s been a while, and a lot has happened so I will try to give you the lowdown.

Last week was spent in Kinston, North Carolina at firefighter training. I am now officially certified as a Type II Federal Wildland Firefighter. Training was absolutely amazing, we were on a small piece of property owned by the NC Forest Service. They provided all of our meals for us so we ate good Southern food the whole time

Fire Composite 1, also known as Team Phoenix (minus Nick).

. We spent a lot of time in a classroom going over material, but we also got to do a lot of field training. This included lighting patches of grass on fire with fusees and drip torches. The last day we did a mock fire, and dug a hand line through a patch of forest. It’s very hard work but also amazingly fun. Especially when you get to start fires yourself.

We got back at to the point yesterday, and it is absolutely gorgeous here. I’m sitting on a porch overl

ooking the Chesapeake Bay and it’s probably over 70 degrees. We’ve spent the day moving a bunch of furniture from different

houses, because we’re moving from the dorms to the village to live in houses for the next two months. At first I was kind of apprehensive about moving, but I think it’ll all turn out okay. I will definitely have more internet access now, which could be a good thing.

Tomorrow we start work at Elkneck State Park. It’s about twenty minutes away from Perry Point, and I’m not quite sure what we’ll be doing but it somehow involves planting trees.

So all in all things are great. My composite team is pretty amazing, so I think the next two months will be a ton of fun.

Peace,
EVELYN

Badger Six in neon vests

So basically this news has brought out a lot of mixed emotions. I’m very appreciative of the fact that I was chosen as a firefighter, and even further chosen to be on this first composite team, but I’m worried about everything I’ll miss while I’m away from my team. We’ve bonded very well over the past week, so I’m sure they’ll bond an incredible amount without me. I know everything will be okay eventually, and I can’t wait to firefight, but it may be a little unsettling for a while at first.

Aside from these minor worries I am PUMPED about being a Wildland Firefighter! Prescribed burning basically means we get to set pieces of forest/fields on fire and then put them out. This includes using flame torches/throwers! Also hiking in the woods and generally spending time outside. It will be an experience that I definitely wouldn’t have if it weren’t for this program.

This week consists of a lot of preparation for our spikes. Since I’m not going on spike I’m not quit

e sure what I’ll be doing, but I know we have our PT assessments on Wednesday. We have to do a minute of push-ups, a minute of sit-ups, and run a mile. It shouldn’t be too bad. On Sunday I will be leaving for North Carolina for a week of firefighter training, then it’s back to the point for the next two months! I’ll be sure to keep you all up to date in the coming weeks.

Peace,
Evelyn

Hey mom! Here's me in my uniform! That red bag is the only luggage we get to take on spikes besides our personal small backpacks. It certainly doesn't fit much.

The past few days have been some of the best I’ve had here. We went on our mini-spikes, or “baby” spikes as badger six likes to call it. These were three day projects to prepare us for our REAL 8-week-long spikes. We did a bunch of environmental work in several Delaware State Parks. Going into the trip we were very worried about our housing situation. We were told we were going to be staying in the “Krapft House”, and that we wouldn’t have beds. At the last minute we realized that we didn’t have room for sleeping mats either, so we thought we were going to be staying on the concrete floor of some type of warehouse/bunker. HOWEVER, we ended up staying in a four story historical mansion in the middle of the woods. It was log-cabin-ish, and absolutely gorgeous. There were probably about 15-20 rooms in the place, and it was just altogether incredible.

Our team bonded extremely well over the past three days, and I have very optimistic hopes for the rest of the year. I won’t go into details, but you can check out my flickr (flickr.com/photos/evvie) and see what I’ve been up to. This weekend I’ll be busy doing PT and ISPs (independent service projects), then starting Monday we’ll be preparing our briefing for the board of directors. We have to give a formal presentation on every spike project before we leave and after we get back.

That’s all for now, I’ve got to be up super duper early tomorrow for 6am PT. Have a nice weekend everybody!

Peace,
Evelyn

Kristen, Katherine, and Marlee snow shoveling the streets of Perryville

I guess I should start with the big news first: I got selected to be a Wildland Firefighter! There were only 36 slots available, but about 90 people wanted to be firefighters so I was very worried I wouldn’t get it.  We had to carry a 45 pound vest for 3 miles in 45 minutes. It was one of the hardest physical things I’ve had to do, but also very fun and inspiring. Everyone was cheering for each other and helping each other out and it was just a great, great day. In March we go to North Carolina to do a week of training with the US department of fisheries and wildlife to become real, certified firefighters! After that we could get called up at any time to firefight. Pretty exciting stuff.

Another big piece of news is that we got our official permanent teams. I am now a member of BADGER SIX! It was very hard to leave my old pod because we’d grown very attached to each other, but I am starting to bond with my new team and I think we’re going to work well together.

The mysterious VA building next to our dorm. My favorite building on campus by far.

The two weeks have been nonstop 7am-5pm training. Here is my week in bullet point form:

• “Communicating Peacefully” Workshop
• Mini-Spike Reveal/Meeting (We go on small projects next week from Tuesday-Friday. Ours is in a Delaware state park)
• Red Cross CPR/First-Aid/AED Training
• Save The Children Child-Friendly Spaces Training
• Red Cross Shelter Operations Training
• Red Cross Mass Operations Training
• Red Cross Logistics Training
• Red Cross Shelter Simulation
• Introduction to FEMA/Disaster Relief
• “Corps Life I” Workshop
• “Corps Life II” Workshop
• Tool Training (power tools/safety/etc)
• Van Training to get our chauffer’s licenses (certified to drive 15 passenger vans now)
• Unit Introduction

We get pretty spectacular sunsets every night on the bay. The place is overrun with geese, seagulls, and deer.

On top of this we have team meetings maybe twice a day, PT every other morning at 6am, and cleaning “parties” every night and/or morning. I’ve never cleaned so much in my life.  We have room inspections every so often as well, so we have to keep our rooms in tip-top shape. I’ve also never been so constantly sore in my life either, we work out so much and it’s more muscular than cardio focused Unfortunately I do not have extremely developed muscles, so I’m constantly in a state of not being able to walk/move my arms. It’s a good feeling though because I can sense myself becoming extremely fit/in shape.

Tomorrow (Saturday) we have special firefighting PT at 7am, so I am planning on going to bed pretty early. I hope I can start updating with more frequency once we get out of training and into our spikes, but somehow I doubt the probability of this.

Peace,
Evelyn

PS Mom – I’m sorry I haven’t gotten a picture of myself in my uniform, I’ll try really hard to do it this week.

The view of the Bay from my dorm.

And the first week is through! Wow, the last week has felt a bit like a month. So far the journey has been defined in inches of snow. Snow snow snow snow snow. I think there’s about 3 feet on the ground currently, though the temperature is not too bad.

So point being: we had TWO snow days last week, making it pretty uneventful. We were snowed in, so we couldn’t go anywhere or do anything. We don’t have cable television, internet, or anything really exciting in our “dorms”, so everyone got pretty restless. I say “dorms” because my living area is actually an old hospital renovated to be “dorms”, except it is still very hospital-y. I live in a room with six other girls.

So basically in the past week I have filled out a ton of paper work, gotten my uniform, attended lectures, and met a TON of new people. We’ve been put in temporary teams, or pods, of 11 people. We spend a lot of time with this group, driving all over in our 16 passenger government van. We also cook and grocery shop together, dinners are usually group meals. There’s an industrial-sized kitchen with a refrigerator for each pod and about four ovens.

My dorm room and some roommates.

This morning we got up at the crack of dawn and drove to Delaware to get physicals. It went surprisingly fast, and now we’re off for the weekend. One of my pod members has a car, so she drove me and a few of friends to the local library to use the internet. This is my first time with internet since I got here, so it is safe to say the internet is limited. The internet that the corps provides is in the “village”, which is a group of houses that another unit lives in. Two of the units (Ravens and Badgers… I’m a Badger) live in the dorms, and one of the units (Wolves) live in houses in the village. The village and the dorms are a mile apart, so it takes a bit of effort to walk a mile in three feet of snow to use the internet.

I don’t want to make this too long, so I’m leaving out many details. It’s a bit overwhelming at the moment, but I am surely having a good time. Tomorrow is a free day, then back to training starting Monday.

Hospital Hallways.

My street in January 2009. (Click for hi-res)

I don’t think it’s quite hit me that I am leaving this town. For many years I have dreamed of the day I would move out of Michigan, but I don’t think I ever realized the sadness of the occasion in those dreams. I will miss this place, and I never thought I’d say that. I know that the reality of leaving

has magnified the positive qualities of this area, but I do think that there are real things to miss. Not to say that those things would ever keep me here, but I will not look back at this place with the bitterness that I thought I would.

Done laid around, done stayed around
This old town too long
And it seems like I’ve got to travel on
-Gotta Travel On by Bob Dylan

I am beyond excited for this. I thought the magnitude of the situation in relation to the story of my life meant that I should probably document my adventure. Hence the birth of this blog. I probably won’t have much to update with until February, but I am hoping that I have the time and patience to stay committed to this.

I’m leavin’ my family
Leavin’ all my friends
My body’s at home
But my heart’s in the wind
Where the clouds are like headlines
Upon a new front page sky
And shiver me timbers
‘Cause I’m a-sailin’ away
-Shiver Me Timbers by Tom Waits