yesterday, fire fell from the sky

We did an aerial ignition burn yesterday. It was pretty dang cool. I think I doubled my acreage also. we burned a little over 1000 acres of property yesterday. Of course, mostly all i did was light some of the borders off, and the rest was lit from above via helicopter and flaming ping-pong balls. It was pretty dang cool. I got some pictures, but I dont know what the best way to get them off my camera is, as my computer is sitting in a closet. might have to wait until august to see the pics on a computer.

we burned for about 2 hours, and guess what happened then...it rained.

hopefully we will burn again today, otherwise i may be spending some time on a tractor.

--DAlen

The land of fire/rain

Today I worked on my third burn/rain. Everytime we get to a burnin', and afternoon t-storm comes in, brings gusting winds that shift every whichaway causing high anxiety for spotting, and then it drops heavy rain, putting out our oh so lovely and productive fire. Last thursday and friday we travelled up to Orlando to burn at the Disney Wilderness Preserve (no, Mickey Mouse wasnt there, although I do think Disney world would be great to have a themed section involving wildfire/prescribed fire). We set backing fires (see also, slowest fire ever) and burned long days, but ended up not finishing due to rain. Today, we were burning out a small unit (less than 50 acres) and the rain came in (talk about a case of the Mondays). Hopefully tommorrow will be better though, as we are assisting with an aerial burn. this means that a helicopter will be dropping little flammable ping-pong balls to set the fire, and we just sit and watch, making sure the fire doesnt escape. From what i hear though, it can get exciting if the fire is dropped outside the burn unit. This is called a spot fire and requires immediate action to extinguish. It'll be a long day as well since we might be burning acreage up in the high hundreds (maybe even low thousands).

Last weekend I went to visit my cous Carla in Tampa. She cooked for me and it was awesome. Also, much thanks to Bill for the boat ride and the hospitality. It was nice to get out of Frostproof for a little while, but is also nice to return to this small ville. I am kinda getting attached to it...or maybe its just the fresh mangos getting to my head (or maybe its the chemicals from the orange factory across the street).

--Will

Tommorrow is the first day

"Are we burning today?" Thats likely to be my first question. Apparently the crew here has been really waiting for the right weather and conditions and me to show up so they could get as much burning done as possible. Yeah, my hands may not get clean again until mid-August.

Apparently Frostproof Florida puts on quite the fireworks spectacle. Happy 4th of July everyone!

I've gotten used to the house on paper st., but yet somehow it still feels like I am in an episode of the twilight zone. I usually wait until dark to go for a jog, and I usually run in the middle of the street because its the least worn. There is nobody still awake in this town by the time it gets dark, meaning 9:30 ish. I run down to the lake, then run along it, then back up to the main highway and home. If you go to the center of town, and turn left or right on Wall St. (I find this to one of the funniest things so far, Wall St?), its only about 4 blocks either way to a huge lake. The word lake is used here really to refer to something that seems more like just a giant puddle. I cant imagine it gets more than 5 ft deep anywhere in these lakes, but thats deep enough for gators which means its too deep for me.

Well, time for me to run into the big city (Lake Wales) to hopefully find some cheaper food and a post office box. It might not be until friday that I use a computer again, since hopefully we will be burning as much of the 5000 acre (!) Tiger Creek Preserve as we can.

be great
--DAlen

It has begun

My leisure time with Ms Victoria finally ended yesterday and I got in my car and drove south. i stopped once I reached Lake Wales, FL...well actually i drove through Lake Wales and stopped in Frostproof, where I will be living.

Enter house on paper st.
Its not actually as bad as the fight club's house on paper st., but its pretty dang close. The building is old...100+ years apparently. The TV gets 5.5 channels. Its pretty dark inside, but lightens up a lot when windows are opened. I had to choose between two rooms: the one closest to the back door, with the slanting floor that prevents you from sleeping in the bed on your side, or the other room, which has a couch next to the bed. I chose the couch. If I could see past the giant bush outside my window (which acutally is good for privacy), I would be able to see the fried chicken place next door. Now thats conveniance. Across the street, the pungent smell of an orange juice refinery fills the air. Its like a paper mill, but they make the paper out of oranges. The house is a perfect place to retreat to after long days of burning, looking for a place to read and sleep and store my stuff.

Tuesday, frostproof apparently has a big fireworks display. Looking forward to that. Sunday, probably going to the beach. Next weekend, probably go visit my cousin in Tampa (Carla? sound good?).

So far so good. --Leroi

New New Job

Well, as some of you may know, I got the dream job of working with TNC burning the Florida forest. Unfortunately I am only doing it for 6 weeks. But, fear not, as I have gotten a second cool job to keep me busy for at least the next year...

I am working with Our Towns Habitat for Humanity in Huntersville/Davidson. I am supplies and equipment mangament supervisor, which means not only do I get to build and work on houses, I also get to keep track of who has the nails and where the tape measures all went. I am pretty stoked. I am turning into this outdoorsmen, rugged, homebuilding, humanitarian guy. Pretty soon all the women will flock to my steel-like carpenter forearms and smell of smoke as a result of burning the forest. and then I will RULE THE WORLD MUHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

But seriously, I am doing well in the whole not-making-money area, accumulating lots of stories for my first New York Times bestselling autobiography.

peace,
--Steve

yeah, life is sweet

Newest Job

Wanted: Person with prescribed fire experience, must enjoy riding on ATVs while laying down fire and/or putting out fire. Ability to use a chainsaw a plus. Must be willing to work in Florida, 1 hour from your cousin in Tampa and 1 hour from an east coast beach. Bring your surfboard. Must also be good with hands, as we build all our own fire engines and pumps. Experience living in 100+ year old houses is good, especially if you dont mind not paying rent. If you are currently living with 10 other people and would enjoy only living with 3 other people, please mention that. Pay is $12/hour, but we will also pay overtime should you get the pleasure of setting fire for more that 40 hours per week. Up to $100 will be reimbursed once you buy your cool new fire boots, the coolest footwear you could wear to any job. There will likely be some wildfire suppression work allowing you to complete your Type 1 Fire Fighter (FFT1) taskbook, allowing you to be a squad boss and work closer to being a burn boss. Blah, blah, blah, this is the coolest job ever, blah blah blah.

FL, here I come.

2 days of work and counting...

Sunday, wonderfully hot and humid Louisiana Sunday.
Tommorrow I play golf with my mother for the first time in probably 10 years.
Tuesday and Wednesday are my last two real work days in this current AmeriCorps program.
Looking to hire an engineer to fix your problems? Call my email adress.
Josh is getting married in 2 weeks! Holy Cow.
Chris is leaving....tear :(
Partyhouse will soon to be no more.
Man, I need to find a boat and a wakeboard. Dr Maisto?
I miss the beach alot...especially now that the water is the right temp for naked night swimming.
Feelingsolazy.

How is everyone? Does anyone still read this? Andrew? Are you alive?
Why does Gateway keep going down?
Where is tremont music hall when you need it?
Van Warped Tour in August anyone? Jerrod?

Love y'all. --Darth LEroi

Its dang hot!

Here we are in Louisiana, home sweet Louisiana...and dang its HOT! Actually, its just really humid, but at times is just feels really hot. Maybe I forgot about it, or maybe all my teammates ranting has gotten to me.

We are working on mold remediation and treatment of houses. First, we go in and rip everything out...well, hopefully not everything. Today I broke a pipe and we had ourselves a little indoor thunderstorm. But, almost everything gets taken out. then we started to scrub the walls with wire brushes. Tommorrow, we will spray termite stuff all throughout the house and eventually paint it with some special primer called Kilz.

27 days until AmeriCorps is over! 14 days left until this project is over. 27 days until i become homeless, jobless, and uninsured. To the couch batman! July 4th the part house becomes no more. Anyone want to buy a Kawasaki 550 jetski? Anyone selling a jetski trailer?

I just started reading a book about smokejumping...I could see myself doing that in 5 years. Only gotta work half the year to. I dont know if they provide health insurance though. Definately gotta have health insurance. Apparently, jumping out of a plain into forest fire is a little...whats the word? DANGEROUS!

Times up on the public computer. Gotta run. Love y'all.

--Steve

One more Spike

Well, I am back in SC for transition. Its hard to beleive that on Thursday I will depart from base in a van for the last time. We are going to Lafayette for 2.5 weeks, and then we will return to base. Its our last project and now that I know I am not coming back as a Team Leader, I am looking to the end.

I am looking for a job in forest fire work...or I might end up working for Habitat for Humanity. Nothing is certain right now. All I know for sure is that I can rent a storage unit in Charlotte for 40 bucks a month and sleep at the party house for free until I figure things out. Its great to have friends with couches.

Popso, a good friend of mine here is planning on saving some money and trying to go live in Peru for 2 months to help build an orphange. Man, doesnt that sound great?

Tonight, I am going to a RiverDogs baseball game with my teammate Tori. She got a team leader job so she wont be with us on our last project. I'll miss her greatly (together we form the superhero team of Tornando and Lorenzo, bog duo).

--DAlen

LA, here we come...again

Sure enough, we are getting sent back to Louisiana. We will be working the United Way of Abbeville, and staying...get this, right next to my old high school in Cade, LA. I am pretty stoked, and once again it seems my life has moved in a complete circle. Gonna hang out at ESA and reminisce.

We helped to do this, here in Slidell. http://www.ob.org/programs/disaster_relief/news/2006/dr_2006_0509_jessicahomemakeover.asp

Somehow, I am 25 now. That seems kind of crazy to me. It seems like yesterday I was a freshmen in college. Of course, if I get a fire job, I might back to school to learn some ecology stuff and get a pay increase. That would be sweet. I am applying for fire jobs left and right.

Thanks for the comment BillR...and of course thanks to all my other faithfull readers as well. My weblog is still advertisement free, although I can apparently make money if I put up ads. Would y'all mind ads? I hate them, but of course I also dont really like being poor and getting money for nothing is what this seems like. Maybe i'll wait a little first. I think I'm gonna start selling plasma as its apparently pretty lucrative.

Off to bed to rest for gutting. love y'all,

--Lorenzo

To the med clinic batman...

Well, its been almost a week, and not much has changed. Day after day we are still working our butts off, removing debris from houses, and then removing the walls and ceilings. Often we also remove carpet and padding from the floors. Its amazing how different the places are before and after. We also seem to change from clean to dirty, the exact opposite of the houses. today was the hardest day we have done so far. Our house had roughly 6 inches of mud throughout, not to mention all of the "stuff" these people had which was basically just stirred around into a big soup of mud and crud.

Lesson #1: As you get older, you should save more memories but less other stuff.
When you get to the point that you are not capable of moving by yourself or gutting your own home in case of catastrophic activities, maybe you should try and cut back on your general stuffage. I have already made an agreement with my teammate Sarah that if I have as much stuff as we are pulling out of these houses when I am old, she is going to punch me in the stomach and yell at me to "get rid of all your crap!"

Lesson #2: Dont become the contents of your house.
This is a variation on the classic quote by Tyler Durden, my personal hero, "the things you own will end up owning you." Its also a variation on "youre not the contents of your wallet." Obtaining stuff and making that stuff your life is only setting you up to be easily broken through the destruction of your stuff, and thus the vicarious destruction of your self. Become stronger as your progress through life. Dont invest time and money into your stuff, weakening who you are. Become your abilities, thoughts, and emotions. Become your company of friends and family. Dont become a couch owner, and kitchen ware user, or a car driver. Become more. Be Great!

Tommorrow I have volunteered to work at the medical clinic. We get the day off of gutting, and some of the people on my team will be bug-busting (visiting houses with unkept pools to inject fish and larvacide into the cess). I am working at a medical clinic, probably sorting pills all day. I get to wear shorts, which beats the amount of sweating I have been doing in Tyvek suits lately. Its been crazy. Never sweated this much in my life.

Time for a team challenge to hopefully find out our next Spike project. I have a feeling we are getting sent to Lafayette, which of course would be sweet.

love y'all. --Leroi

and then there was a message...

So, I have been thinking alot lately about wanting to be in NCCC, and not getting my TL spot. I have been trying to figure out where I went wrong. I have been praying alot.

Then, I got up this morning and went to work. Before we began our tasks, our supervisor, a local pastor stopped us to give us a little talk. He thanked us for our efforts and told us that indeed it was the true gospel, the idea of service, that we woere doing and that God was happy and in all of us everyday that we are here. His words were something to the effect of "Sometimes you dont get the job you want, but doing it anyway, working for others, is the way it is meant to be and makes us better." This is God's love for us and for everyone. It was chilling that he used those words, as if he was speaking directly to me. Combining this with the email that I received from Adam telling me that God would put me where I was suppoed to be has really comforted me. NCCC is not my place after I graduate in June. I dont know why, but I do know that it is not my place, and wherever I land, will be where I am supposed to be.

Tommorrow we are bug patrol, preventing the millions of mosquitoes from breeding in the stagnant bodies of water behind destroyed houses all over this area. I might be on TV, but more importantly I will be making a difference.

Love y'all,

--Luke

the only thing worse than a girl not wanting you...

...is when you really want a job, and the people you want to work for dont want to hire you. I got my denial letter back from AmeriCorps NCCC. They dont want me to be a team leader. They dont even want to keep me as an alternate.

So, it looks like I will apply to work with Habitat for Humanity back in Charlotte. They wanted me as a worker last year. Maybe they will want me again this year...or maybe I will get a real moneymaker job and become rich. Or maybe I will work in fire. I have a lot of options to look in to, but its really hard to think about other things when I wanted to be in NCCC so badly. It sucks.

I was pulled aside from my team today to work on a special project with my team leader and another member of my team. I think I was pulled away because the project we were working needed extra work, extra fast, and some of it required extra ability. I feel like these are the three reasons I was chosen, and yet it seems like NCCC doesnt want these 3 things in the package of me to remain a part of their organization.

Tommorrow is another day, and now I cant wait until I get out.

Gutted our first house today

Today was our first day of real work. We wore full Tyvek suits, respirators, gloves, hardhats, and safety glasses. Sweating is an understatement. It was like I was a bucket of water with holes in it...but at least I didnt lose my house and everything I own.

This particular lady did. There ended up being about 1.5 ft of water in her house, and the house itself remained dirty and destroyed until today. That over 6 months that this house was unusable. We went in there and in one day removed everything that was of no more use, ripped out all the sheet rock, and took everything out to the street to be hauled away. She was so gratefull as well. I created a quote for one of my press releases, but today, I really did feel that "smiles were my paycheck."

all I could think about while I worked in this mold covered interior was how crappy it would have been to have owned all this stuff and then lose it. It makes me not want to own stuff. It makes me want to convince other people about how temporary "stuff" is. It makes me want to somehow move beyond this desire to buy things, to not become the contents of my wallet, to not become my khakis.

I feel like I might not be able to go back to a life of happy apathy...not caring about the suffering I dont see, but I still no exists. I have experienced it first hand and maybe a part of me envies those out there who choose to not know, and live their lives as though the rest of world is as content as them.

--Leroi
be great

Tommorrow...finally doing DR

Tommorrow is the big day. Ever since we started training in this program I have wanted to get down to the Gulf Coast to do disaster releif. We will be travelling to Slidell, Louisiana, working with Operation Blessing. http://www.ob.org/ Our tasks will include tarping damaged house roofs and gutting the interiors. It going to be really hard work, but I am glad to be finally going where the need seems to be the largest. Hard work reminds me of my childhood to so...

Also going to finally get to see my parents. Missed them alot and havent seen them since the hurricane hit actually.

Louisiana is kind of my own backyard. I really feel like the southeast is the bigger extension of my yard, by LA is where I grew up. Gonna see some friends and hang out in the humidity, maybe hunt and cook some mosquitoes.

Saturday is National Youth Service Day, where about 600 of us will be in Waveland, MS, working for the morning.

hope all is well with y'all.
be great
--Leroi

Act Fast...CALL NOW!

Life is good. I got sunburned today. I am hanging out with a beautiful girl later. I am going to get to see Mary-Claire, my mom, and my dad later in the month as I return to the state of Louisana. Soon, I will be on the AT. Tommorrow I am working at the Children's Museum (think touchable exhibits). Life is good.

So, all you people out there with free nights and weekends...no I am not wanting to borrow your phone. I need you to make some phone calls on my behalf actually. Well, really they are phone calls on behalf of NCCC, the program I am in and on behalf of all the people who will lose the benefit of us helping them if the government doesnt appropriate money for our existence. So...

NC Reps
Call Richard Burr @ 202-224-3154
Call Elizabeth Dole @ 202-224-6342
Call Charles H. Taylor @ 202-225-6401

Call at night and leave a message. Sample Script: Hello, my name is (name). I'm a constituent, I live in hometown & North Carolina and I'd like to leave a message for the Senator/Representative. I'd like to ask him/her
to oppose the proposed budget cuts that would eliminate the Americorps NCCC program.
NCCC gives thousands of young people each year the opportunity to serve their country and
develop countless skills to build their futures. It also serves many organizations that wouldn't
be able to meet their goals otherwise, such as American public school systems, Habitat for
Humanity, and even the Red Cross with its disaster relief with Katrina. My address is
(home address, not Charleston); I hope to hear back from the Senator/Congress(wo)man as to how (s)he plans to address this issue. Thank you. Good-bye.

The end is near!

Only a few more days until the kids go on spring break...then its only a few more days of work for us...then I go on spring break. Pretty stoked. It looks like I am going to get some time on the AT finally and the weather is going to be amazing!

for some reason I have that Gloria song stuck in my head...that one from the '80s.

I feel like working at this school is a cartoon, where the boat is sinking and I am plugging the holes, and then another one appears, and then I plug it, and eventually there are too many holes to plug. Its like putting a band-aid on the left arm when the right arm is the one thats injured, and it has been torn completely from the body. But enough of me being negative...I think someday I am going to teach at a Title I school...as soon as I get rich elsewhere and dont need to worry about money.

I shaved my head last night. It feels really good. I am thinking that it might be time to close the mohawk chapter of DAlen's life. My head feels so much less warm now to. I used the number 1 guard...meaning its super short. Everyone is super shocked. Of course, come winter I might miss it and grow it back out again...especially if I end up working with fire as a means of employment. It looks like I need more environmental background.

My Team Leader Interview was last week. It reminded me a lot of my RA interviews...which statistically speaking is a bad thing. Of course, I felt pretty good about it.

Did I mention I'll be hiking some of the AT soon? yeah....i'm excited.

and then we will be doing DR, although it no longer stands for Disaster Relief. Now its Disaster Recovery...ironic that they change the name, even though the work and the acronym stay the same.

Love y'all...LEAVE COMMENTS!!!! I miss my homes.

--DAlen

another kid standing against the wall...

Well, progress is being made. My newest and greatest (read also most chaotic) class is the 6th grade remediation math class. Apparently the teacher has a lack-o-spine, and as a result the children refuse to listen to him...and he seems to ignore this and teach anyway...teach to the loud roar of 20 kids doing whatever they please. Mostly the kids walk around and talk, sometimes they draw on the board or do whatever. Occasionally they fight. There wasnt really much I could do yesterday. So, today, I came up with a plan. The first thing all the kids did was stand against the far wall of the class. I have seen this tactic used very effectively with another one of my classes by that teacher, so I tried it. It took them 20 minutes of short outbursts here and there before they, as a group, were quiet for one minute. Then, I allowed them to take desks that I chose for them. Then I handed the class over to the teacher, who then proceeded to lose control over the whole group, but still retained enough of them to help some of them learn. It was a small victory. I think it will take about 5-7 days of class before they are doing what they should, and then they will start learning. Otherwise, many of them will probably repeat the 6th grade.

Another problem that I discovered (hah...I could probably discover a new problem every day for the next year) was that many of the teachers lack faith in the system, and thus they dont try and work with it. The system requires a teacher to fill out these things called "referals." Many of the teachers feel that doing this gets nothing done, and as a result they dont do them. So, incidently, there is no mountain of paper proving that the system is flawed. If they did the referrals, and then it didnt work, at least then they would be able to hold up the copies and ask "what now?" So, I filled out two referrals on behalf of my teacher today...and in the case of the first girl, she changed her behavior. As for the 2nd boy, he got so mad and furious by my glaring and kind requests to do what he was supposed to do that he eventually put his head on his desk and was silent. DAlen:3 Middle School Monsters-o-fun: 0

On a very very happy note, during my initial referral writing of the first girl, one of here classmates, one that did not particuarly like me, requested I not document her misbehavior. He begged that I leave her alone, and promised he would make the class good, because it wasnt fair. If she gets one more referral, she repeates the 6th grade. Much of the reason behind this is not her fault (but small pieces are) and this is why he requested I not turn in the paperwork. He showed compassion, which really surprised me, and made me hopefull.

Tommorrow is another day...

be great

School? more like chaos on a time schedule...

Well, I started actually doing stuff at work this week. Monday was a wasted day, but tuesday we finally got a schedule and now we are following that schedule and assisting with classes. Some of the classes are fine, but others are pure chaos. I talked to my teachers in the nice class today and told them that I might move to some of the worse classes since they already had things under control. Pretty much, the original description of our project has gone right out the door. There was no obesity problem. There is a discpline problem. In many of the classes, the students do what they want. In one class, the teacher seems to have control, but its only because she spends so much time tongue lashing the kids. I was even confused when she said that she loved kids, stopping several times during that short phrase to reprimand students for not sitting up or not having feet on the ground or breathing too much or no blinking enough. I really do feel she is a product of teaching at a bad school for way too long. Worse yet, it seems like the principle isnt involved at all in the workings of the school, especially since I have yet to talk to him and I am a guest at his school. He was the primary contact to the mayors office who is our sponsor, and yet it seems like he knows the least about whats happening. Luckily, there is a lady who is some sort of admin. person who has her act together and has given us some structure. So, we are tutoring. I'm losing sleep though trying to figure out a way to fix the much larger issue of underfunded school systems and impoverished students who have no future.

On a really bright note, the students in my school are being taught material that seems advanced to what I remember learning in the 6th, 7th, and 8th grades. In science, they are working with curcuits and electricity, which I dont remember doing much of in the 6th grade. I remember life sciences class being really hard, but I dont remember taking a physics class. Some of my teammates are capable of tutoring some of the subjects because the material is defiantely advanced for kids.

After school today, I went to the high school to pick up my teammate and I played a little soccer with them. It was very enjoyable. I miss soccer. Maybe I'll start going on a regular basis to help coach.

Only one more day until the weekend.

--Will Leroi DAlen