Week 5: I'm a 60 year old receptionist apparently...

So first injury of the summer! No loss of limbs here people...just carpal tunnel. My left hand has been feeling weird the past couple of weeks..like sporatic pins and needles throughout the day and then last week i noticed i had less feeling in my finger tips than normal, so i mentioned something to my leader and he suggested we go get it checked out. Thursday, we went to the Yampa Valley Medical Center to see the doc- just to make sure it wasn't anything serious or permanent. He asked me a few questions and knew right away what it was. Apparently the vibrations from holding the chainsaw for hours a day have caused the Median nerve in my wrist to get pinched...which is what causes Carpal Tunnel. He says i'm young so after i stop working with the chainsaws, it should go away. If not... surgery :/ but I don't think it'll get to that point.

Last week we finished up work at the same place we were working- Buffalo Pass. I'm glad to be out of there. The work was pretty monotonus-- cutting up trees and making slash piles. I made mushroom risotto for dinner last week, which was a big hit! We are thinking of making it in the cookoff against the other crews at "Rendezvous" which is like the end of July..where all the crews get together and hang out and do "FUNTIVITIES!!" (shotty team Gryffindor).

This week we are working on a forest thinning project in Wyoming. What that means is with new young forests, the trees are fighting for resources. So, we go in and cut down the trees in a cluster that aren't doing so hot, so that the dominant specimen gets access to more resources and therefore flourishes, making a healthier, more resilient forest. Those trees are able to produce more sap, which is more effective in defending against pine beetle infestation. So yay go us!

Finally got paid this week! Woot woot rolling in the dough! not really.. but it's a start. This past weekend we did our weekend rec in Vedauwoo (Vay-dah-voo), WY. It's this cool place with awesome rock formations. Not gonna lie... i vegged out yesterday. It was much needed though. Now, I will be well rested for the week ahead.

I'm in Laramie, WY right now. A friend that I met during my stint out in Utah (Outward Bound circa 2007..?) goes to school out here. So, I'm meeting up with him in a few minutes. It's been a while, so it'll be a nice blast from the past. Still going strong out here. The mosquitoes are starting to bug me (yea...that pun just happened..btw I met a guy from WI that can totally go head to head with me in terms of lame puns. It's been a nice challenge. Gotta step up my game a little bit)

tata for now! xo Joanna

Week 3: So this is what manual labor feels like?

SOOOOOOO started up our first job with the chainsaws last week. It will be continuing into this week as well. Pretty much we've been working for this "wilderdude" on his private property up in Buffalo Pass outside of Steamboat Springs. The beetles got his land good, so we are basically bucking (cutting up) a lot of trees that had fallen and putting them into slash piles, so that come winter he can burn them and make room for grass and new trees to grow! We've cut down a few dead trees, but it's mostly been the bucking and limbing and dragging wood into these massive piles. I can already feel my body getting stronger. 9 hours of manual labor 4 days a week, then Friday we work for 4 hours. Along with not having drank alcohol in almost a month, I can def tell i'm healthier!

Basically, our routine is we get up at 6am...eat breakfast, then make our lunches for the day. Then we start work @ 7...break at 10:30...work...lunch @ 12... work... break @ 2:30...work... finish at 3:30... then we do saw cleaning/maintenance for the last half our of the day. All of our saws are named after Presidents. My personal favorites are James Madison (he's the small saw) and good ole' Millard Fillmore.

We also got a new crew member this week. From the beginning, my crew time has been adorned with a multitude of Hook references (starring Robin Williams and Dustin Hoffman). Everynight before bed myself, and my friends Jake and Skeeter (yes like from Doug) yell 'Goodnight Neverland' regardless of the time. SOOO when we heard we were getting a new member, naturally we started calling him Peter. Come to find out his name is Chris and he is from the Cape! But we've just kept on calling him Peter anyways. He's a good sport about it.

Another new addition to the group is our "poop chair"...nothing like digging a hole and squatting in the woods, but it gets old after a while...sooooo we bought a canvas camping chair and cut out a nice little hole in the bottom- buttocks size appropriate of course- and duct taped the edges. Then we dug a deeeeeppp hole out in the woods and VOILA. The comfort of a cool mountain breeze on your bottom aint so bad. Just as long as a bear and her cubs don't come up behind you it's quite freeing!

This weekend we went to Dinosaur National Monument which is Colorado/utah Border. The place where they had all the bones was closed though for renovations, so that kind of blew... :( but getting out to the desert was nice! Our camping spot was SICKKKK. It overlook a canyon with the Yampa River at the bottom. Technically we were there illegally though because we didn't have a back country permit, so we got kicked out and had to drive to a random spot last night and didn't get in until late. I slept in the van because it was too dark to put up my tent. Today it's town time. So chillin on the internet.. prob go get a coffee.. a book.. do some laundry.. good shtufffff.

Still loving it out here! Missing everyone though. xo

Week 2: Let the chainsaws begin

SOOOOO this week we moved to a new location. It's called Officer's Gulch and it is in Silverthorne, CO. Sunday was a chillaxing day. Then Monday we began our S-212 wildfire chainsaw training. We are not going to be working around wild fires luckily, but the class was at the federal level so some pretty intense stuff.

The first day we learned about safety and maintenance and I was able to take a part a chainsaw and put it back together. THis is important in terms of maintenance and stuff. After pretty much every use you have to clean out the sawdust and sharpen the chain to ensure optimal performance. Day 2 was more of theoretical cutting and then days 3, 4, & 5 were field training. It was some tricky stuff, not gonna lie! But now I am a certified class A sawyer... with a few restrictions. I am still having trouble properly falling (cutting down) a tree. There is a lot of beetle kill up here, so part of our conservation work is cutting down the dead trees in order to mitigate the possibilty for forest fires. Last night we got to go to a firefighter BBQ on a lake with. There was pulled pork! Pretty soupt on that!

We just got back from a hike. That altitude is quite the bitch. 11,000 ft... the air got thinner and thinner. Tomorrow we are heading back to steamboat for our first project!

First week complete!

First week done! LOVING it so far :). my crew is awesomeeee. For the past week it's been me and 7 other guys, but today we got the final addition to the team. A burst of estrogen named Lida! She seems chill, so should be a good match. SO last week... Our crew was assigned to work in White River National Forest, which is between Minturn and Leadville, CO.. approximately 10,000 ft above sea level. I thought the altititude would mess with my breathing and such, but NOPE! Had a headache the first couple of days, but adjusted quite niceley after that. So we set up camp at kind of a barren campground, but we had it all to ourselves besides this one forest service dude. He was basically never there though. Lived in an RV with his cat and his wife that we only knew existed after 3 days of being there. We had memorial day off because the forest service doesn't work holidays, so we went into Leadville and did a bit of shopping and site seeing. Tuesday our work began! We built a fence at the campground we were at living at along with planting a bunch of trees. So it was hard work at the beginning of the week...10 hour days, but towards the end we finished a lot of our stuff early, so we got to chillax. I want to go back in 10 years to see the progress the trees have made!

We've been eating real well too. Lasagna, stir-fry, burritos, chili, BBQ Chicken (anj, if you say "we've created a monster" to yourself i'm roll my eyes at you through the computer) and lots and lots of PB&J. Today we relocated to Silverthorne, CO, which is near Breckenridge Ski Area. The campsite is kind of right off the highway, which kind of sucks, but my spot is right on a lake and pretty far back into the woods, so i"m just going to pretend that the highway is a raging river! We got to take showers today for the first time in a week. FELT STHOOOO GOOODDDD. We always have weekends off to shop for food and do recreational things, so that's nice. We'll probably do a day hike tomorrow. Then next week we start our chainsaw training. Loving it so far!! Send me things!!! Miss you all. And i'll probably post something every weekend so stay tuned :) xo

Shipping / Office Address:

Send food or fun things like puzzle books (I LOVE CROSSWORDS)

Joanna Falcone
c/o RMYC
1705 13th Street
Steamboat Springs, CO 80487

Mailing Address: (Write me fun things about what you are up to!!)
Joanna Falcone
c/o RMYC
PO Box 775504
Steamboat Springs, CO 80477