Week 4 October 24 - 28

Up to the gorgeous Conrad Meadows ! The air was crisp and the fall colors were amazing ! All the aspens and larches were turning different shades of yellow, red, and green.

This week was all about building fence ! The first fence was 8 sections long and 4 logs high, with each log about 16 ft long. These logs weighed anywhere from 300 to 600 lbs and we had to drag or carry them about quarter of a mile (which sometimes felt like 20 miles!). Took half the first day to drag them all down and half of the second day to put it together. The rest of the 2nd day was spent dragging the 25 logs we needed for the second fence. The third day we finished the 2nd fence and built 2 more sections of a bucking pole (?) fence. The last day was spent cleaning up brush and making it all look nice. Then we all got to use the chainsaw ! ! Everyone got to cut a tree or two down ! ! a dead one, of course, . . . to prepare for the next fence . . . . not just for the fun of it . . . =)

This is the location of our 2nd fence. First step was gathering all the material needed.

Next step is to lay it all out at the desired angles.

Then we get to assemble !

Hammer . . .

Hammer . . . . Check to see if it all lines up right . . . .

Even things out a bit . . . .

Halfway point !

One more log . . . .

And finished !

The Forest Service cabin we stayed in was pretty nice. Had running water, a kitchen, and heat !

This is our fearless leader turned fearless master chef !

. . . with his mighty kitchen helpers . . .

Week 3 October 17 - 20

A crew divided ! Our first year members went to New Member Orientation in beautiful Port Townsend. The rest of us met up with Lindsey M. Latham from Ernie's Ellensburg crew and we went to Wenatchee to work with John Melby and Caleb.

Technically we worked at a site in Monitor, right on the river. It got chilly in the mornings !!

Dave Coffey and his crew came down to help us out. It was great working with these guys.

The first day and a half was for digging in the rocky bank to put plants in. Lovely smelling soil was brought in so that we could fill in the holes we made.

The last day and a half was for trench digging and messing with pumps and pipes.

Zach seemed to like running the ditch diggin machine, even though it broke 20 feet from where we had to stop. Figures.

"Supervisor training"

We all got along great !

Zach choking Sarah . . .

Zach smothering Lindsey . . .

Week 2 October 10 -13

Well, I wasn't here the first two days of this week either. Monday was for travelling back from Bastrop Texas and Tuesday was recovering from travel.

Wednesday our crew did some housekeeping around the North Yakima Conservation District facility, like brushcutting and organizing. The chipper was also repaired that day, so we got to use it on Thursday, yay!

We chipped in a small community up around Indian John in Kititas County, along several back roads and dead end roads. Managed to get the truck stuck in some mud, but Mike got it out once we strapped the tire chains on. We lunched in front of a huge house that had an amazing view of the mountains. It was a beautiful day !

First pic with the whole crew !

Week 1 October 3 - 6

New year, new crews for the Washington Conservation Corps ! ! The spike crew for Yakima has some old faces and some new faces for the 2011 - 2012 year. They are :

Sarah Stover - 2nd Year

Zachary Schut - 2nd Year



Julia White - 2nd Year



Aaron Lasha - 1st Year



Chris Shook - 1st Year



and our fearless leader :

Mike Stowell



Sadly, I was not present for the first week of the new WCC year, so I'm not really sure what happened. It was probably just paperwork and pictures and such. Let the new year begin !