Howdy from the Southwest

We have been in Big Bend National Park working for the trail maintenance crew for almost two months now and I am having the time of my life. I had never heard of Big Bend before getting assigned to this project and after seeing all the endless beauty, I am shocked that it is not as famous as some of the more well-known National Parks like Yosemite or Glacier.

We have a little under two weeks left here working for the trail crew and then we head back to Denver for the final week and a half participating in AmeriCorps NCCC. At the end of July, I will have completed my 10-month commitment and will return to the DC area. I am having a tough time wrapping my head around how fast this experience has gone by.

We are living in tents and only get an Internet connection or cell phone reception every week and a half. Nature and hiking have always been a major interest to me, but that cannot be said for everyone on the team. Some people are definitely struggling with the daily 100+ degree temperatures, lack of sleep from windy nights, and complete disconnect from the rest of the world. It has made for some tense moments, but overall, the team is doing really well and doing some great work.

We have been working with the National Park Service trail crew here in Big Bend. Although trails help millions of people get a closer look at nature, they also prevent water from being easily spread evenly throughout the park. The sparse rainwater that falls in the desert here will just coast down the trails instead of nourishing the plants of Big Bend equally. We have been digging drainage ditches and installing water bars on the trails that help disperse the rainfall and also prevent erosion. It is incredibly strenuous but awesome work, especially since we are doing it in the heat of the desert.

The park is our playground. Everyday off we go on hikes all throughout the park. I have already hiked almost 100 miles worth of trails and reached the peak of 4+ mountains. We also have free access to any campsite in the park. I camped out on the ‘South Rim’ a couple days ago.

Well… as you can read… life here is awesome! If you ever get the chance, you need visit BIG BEND NATIONAL PARK!

~Ian

Life in Big Bend National Park

Hey guys! It has been ages since I have had a chance to write anything to you. But I will update to the best of my abilities. Right now we are on our fourth and final project in AmeriCorps NCCC and I must admit I am a little saddened by it. It's nice to be back together with Water 4, though! I have missed them tons! Since being in Big Bend we have been doing many different projects, most of which is trail maintenance. We have been using lots of different tools and such to get the work done. I have become an expert at using a pick-matic which is pretty cool. We went on our first hitch (multi-day camping excursion in the mountains) where we hiked up to Emory Peak which is over 7,000 feet. We have been repairing the new trail and getting it all nice and smooth for the hikers. We camp in tents and we cook our food on camping stoves. I feel like a real wilderness camper. I haven't showered in DAYS!!! I haven't seen a mirror in ages and I am betting that I have a face full of hair and can't wait to shave it off. HAHA! Time is dwindling pretty fast here and it will soon be time for graduation. I can't wait to see my family and friends; I haven't seen anyone from home since I joined in October. I have been very focused on my life after AmeriCorps and I have been accepted to serve with City Year New York as a Corps Member. They also called me back to interview me for a Senior Corps Team Leader! I am glad that I have something to transition to after the program is over. I can't wait! For now, later!!!

~ Shawn

Shuffling out of Ferncliff

We have wrapped things up here and it was hard to say good bye. Water Seven’s third round project in Little Rock was a major success. The sponsors at Ferncliff were great to us and were very thankful for what we accomplished. It was hard to say goodbye.
Our main project was a 3-tier, 140-foot retaining wall that will help prevent landslides and one of the houses from flooding. Only one tier was finished. Overall, we poured about 175 bags of concrete into that wall. We did some math and came up with 45,000 lbs when you add on the water and sand. Oh don’t forget the 1000's of rocks that were put in the wall. Finishing that wall was an amazing feat for the team.

Overall, the sponsors had about 20 projects scheduled to be finished during the two months of work. However, Water Seven finished their tasks in advance and were able to take on more than what was expected. The biggest addition was a 120-foot slide that was assembled in time for the summer camp. The slide is a wild ride when you use a sled and I recommend that the campers do not try out the sleds. I'm glad we were able to fit that project in at the end.

I will never forget Ferncliff. It is such a beautiful place and they do some great things. Water Seven will be missed most of all. However, I am very excited to rejoin Water Four. As you know, we will be at Big Bend National Park in Texas for our final project. Two months of camping will allow for some great adventures and stories. I can’t wait to hear about the other projects as well. Although it will be extremely hot, there’s nothing like a little Water Four to cool things down and to have some fun. See ya there!

~Jeremy

"Every Day is Earth Day in Boulder"

Hello again from Boulder! Can’t believe we are already almost done with the 3rd AmeriCorps NCCC project. Although I am so excited for my 4th project and to be reunited with my original teammates of Water 4, I am trying to soak in every last moment I have in Boulder.

This past weekend, we had an awesome opportunity to do some independent volunteer service. Everyone on my team helped with the Climate Smart Energy Sweep in Longmont, Colorado. We partnered up with Boulder County and went door-to-door giving away free energy efficient products. We swapped incandescent light bulbs (old-school) for compact fluorescent lights (exciting and energy saving!), gave away water saving shower heads, clothes drying racks, and a $30 gift certificate to be used for more energy efficient items at the local hardware store. It was such an incredible experience to be able to help the environment and help lower-income families save money on their electric and water bills. We met some amazing people and had a memorable experience. We were able to give away hundreds of dollars of energy saving items and it was greatly appreciated.

On Sunday, there was a big festival for Earth Day in downtown Boulder. There was live music, food, and tons of booths set up advertising local, organic, green, or otherwise environmentally conscious companies. It is so mind blowing to be living in a city that cares so much about preserving the beauty of the planet.

We headed back to work on Monday. After a couple weeks of cleaning irrigation ditches, it was back to invasive species removal. While we walked along the fields at the bottom of the foothills of Boulder removing Mediterranean Sage and Myrtle Spurge, we also came across 5 rattlesnakes, 1 bull snake, and a frog. Seeing and hearing my first rattlesnake was breathtaking. I literally was only 2 feet from a 3-foot rattlesnake that had no intention of letting me get any closer. We all were wearing Kevlar snake chaps and steel toed boots, but it was still a very intense experience to be walking through a field that was littered with poisonous snakes.

After work, a couple of us went to hang out on Pearl Street. We then went to a concert next to the University of Colorado campus. It was a venue called, ‘The Fox.” Tons of well-known artists have played there before they really got big. There were pictures of Dave Matthews, The Killers, Ziggy Marley and tons more. We went to see an up and coming ‘indie’ band called ‘The Antlers.’ It was an awesome show and we got all the way up to the front row.

As you can see, life is great here. We are spending a majority of our time helping Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks with their invasive species removal and irrigation ditch maintenance and still have enough time to explore and take advantage of all the amazing opportunities in Boulder.

~Ian

Battle of the Ceiling Fans

Water 7 had a pretty crazy weekend. Saturday was Global Youth Service Day, so all NCCC teams were required to have a "day on." Our team helped out at the Little Rock Earth Day Festival. It was supposed to be huge--over 71 booths had signed up--but unfortunately there were some pretty crazy storms and a ton of rain, so the turn out was a lot less than expected. It was still pretty cool though, we managed to have some fun. Then Sunday, we went on a team outing for service learning to the William J Clinton Presidential Library and to Heifer International. Both were informative and interesting. The Clinton Library had an AmeriCorps exhibit, which was fun to see, and Heifer had a lot of interesting displays about world hunger and what's being done and what could be done.

Back at Ferncliff, we're working on finishing up our retaining wall. The 130-foot wall was originally supposed to be three tiers, but now we're only doing one tier, due to budget and time restraints. Last week, Alex and I had a pretty epic struggle with some ceiling fans... We had to take down seven old ones, and put up seven new ones. Ceiling fans sounds like a pretty simple, innocent job, but they definitely are not. We really struggled the first two days, lifting the heavy motors, figuring out the wiring, and which screws actually needed to be unscrewed, that sort of thing. But, by the third day on the project, we finally found a system that worked, and we started feeling a lot more effective. By the end of the week, we had successfully taken down all seven fans and installed seven new ones in their place! All in all, it was a very challenging task that certainly made me feel extremely accomplished by the end. Friday afternoon we turned them all on and just stood in awe for a few seconds; it was a good moment and a good feeling.

Now I'm just trying to take in as much of Arkansas as I can before it's time to leave...it's definitely a beautiful place!

~Jo

Busy Busy!

Things here have been going wonderfully. Work has been the same since I last reported; we are still working on the houses on Gilman. I've finally finished my ISP (Independent Service Project) hours, though I intend to continue to volunteer. And my free time has been filled with fun activities! On Monday most of my teammates and I went canoeing at Lake Fausse Pointe, where we previously did an ISP. The only detriment is that it has been getting really hot and extremely humid here in Lafayette. Thankfully my team and I now have gym memberships since we gave blood. Actually, everyone donated blood except me. Apparently I lived in Europe too long to donate blood in the US, but I was able to get a membership anyway. The gym allows us to exercise in an air conditioned room and/or swim. A few of my teammates wanted to learn how to swim, so I've been regularly instructing them on basic strokes. It's nice teaching others a very useful skill; it's like sharing a hobby.

I'm looking forward to this weekend! Festival International starts today. I'm excited to hear the music. I'm not usually much of a concert goer, but I do like to listen. I will volunteer with the local AmeriCorps program on Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday to help recycle. In addition on Friday afternoon a few friends that I've made here and I will go down to New Orleans to attend a DeadMau5 concert.

I apologize for this entry being so short, but I've been very busy and am extremely tired. I write this at 2:13 a.m. Eeeek! I promise my next entry will be more detailed and with pictures.

~Leia

Cuivre River and AmeriCorps ERT

Hi All,

We’ve had another busy week this week here in Missouri. Monday-Wednesday we worked at Cuivre River State Park (Pronounced like Quiver) doing Garlic Mustard removal (spraying the invasive plant), trail building, and sawyering cedars. It was a pretty neat experience and a change up in our normal activities. We stayed over night Monday and Tuesday nights with an AmeriCorps ERT team from St. Louis. The team we were working and living with were super awesome and were a lot of fun! We’re hoping to meet up with them in St. Louis next weekend.

As much fun as our little junket was, it was nice to get back home to our cozy little house. The rest of the week we worked on repairing a bridge, pulling fence, and starting to prepare some picnic tables and benches for staining. The weather has been very muggy and rainy, but we worked through it for the most part.

It’s been a good week, and I’m excited to see how the last two weeks pan out.

~Jenna