its been long, and might be longer...

Here I am in the middle of GA...Vidalia is where I am writing this from and Baxley is where I live. My job is to set fire, and make sure it burns the forest...but nothing else...but its gotta burn the forest, completely, but not kill the trees, but burn the forest. To do this I use a gasoline/ diesel mixture (1:3 ratio) dripped from a flaming torch onto the ground. It glows green at night. Way cool. Also, I use rakes, shovels and other instruments of digging (McLeods, Council Rakes, Chainsaws) to dig what are called fire lines, or handlines when done by hand. These are fire barriers to prevent the fire from moving outside of our fire zones, usually about 100-300 acres at a time. On a good day I wake up mildly clean at 7am, and return home smelling like wonderfull burning foliage with a sooty face sometime around 8pm. On great days we dont burn at all, because at Moody we burn at night. Fire+night=beatifull public service. Its also easier to see at night if the fire spots (i.e. crosses your fire line into areas you dont want burnt...extremely bad when spotting happens, but it rarely happens). Bad days are when the humidity is too high and stuff wont burn, so we wait and do construction or tree planting or trail work or digging hand lines. Tommorrow should be an afternoon/ night burn, and if all goes well we will also burn thursday and friday to. Next week, we might travel to Alabama to burn there (GA and AL are partners). Why you ask? Because long leaf pine forest ecosystems depend on burning. The Nature Conservancy website might have more info on that (www.nature.org). I am a red carded type-2 wildland firefighter and my job is to burn forest. Yesterday and today were non-burn days. Myself and two of my coworkers transformed normal, lame ATVs into super fire machines. We affixed a torch/tank to the front which allows burning fuel to be sprayed into the forest about 20 feet, while driving. Thats dang cool! On back, a slighly larger tank of water is mounted in order to help maintain fire lines (wet lines if you use water) and combat spotting if necessary. Ordinary ATVs mounted with water and drip torch flame thower fun...my life rules. this has actually become my new motto and I seem to say it to myself at least 3 times daily. Since I have been here I have seen one of the rarest snakes in the Southeast, the Indigo Snake, not once by twice! I have helped burn almost 500 acres of old growth Long Leaf Pine Forest. I am reading books to, so I feel like I am even getting smarter, bookwise. I just wish I was a little bit closer to a computer. Oh well...talk to y'all back at base (around 2/16) if not sooner.
be great
--WiLL

Back in Action

Christmas/New Years was wonderfull. I got to play the part of Santa Claus, doing gift deliveries on christmas eve to houses of kids who had lost a parent in the past year. I worked from 11pm-6am...kind of reminded me of my stagehand days. Then, I took a nap and drove to Charlotte, where I slept on a wonderfully quiet couch. Later in the week I attemped to volunteer at a homeless center, but was happy to find out that in most cases they had too many volunteers already. I also gave platelets, the first time I have been able to give blood since getting my tattoo last christmas. Platelets take about two hours to give, so not many people give them. I of course had a lot of time, with not a lot to do. The rest of the week and a half I was in Charlotte I mainly just slept on the couch. I did nothing and it was everything I hoped it could be. New Years Eve was quiet. I wandered around uptown a little. I wore my AmeriCorps jacket, and a bunch of people thought I was a security guard or police officer. New Years Day was Jerrod's b-day, so a keg was purchased and their was much merriment. The week of partying was only two days for me, then it was back to AmeriCorps. Man, those two days were a lot of fun though (see picture walls). Training here in Charleston is almost over, and soon we will be burning the forest!!! YAY!!! FOREST FIRES!!!...well not yay for the crazy ones but yay for the good ones.

Thanks much to Chris, Jerrod, Bryan, Josh, and Ryan for allowing me to inhabit the weight room. Much love.

be great
--DAlen