The Office

This is work!

Sorry about the delay, but its been a busy week and I didn't really have the time (or energy) to post something sooner.

But so here's the skinny: I work four, ten hour days, Tuesday through Friday. I have to be at the park headquarters to meet with my crew at 7 o' clock. Its about a 1/2 hour walk from my apartment (which isn't as bad as it sounds), so I wake up at about 6:15 every morning, take a quick shower, grab something to eat, strap on the boots, and I'm out the door.

I walk up this driveway...


And meet at the rig in this parking lot.


I swear if you don't own a truck they won't hire you, because there's about a million of 'em here.


"The line" - this is where the big tractors, trucks, trailers, lifts, and all the other massive machines live.


I've noticed that there's a whole heck of a lot of standing around by the way. All these old timers in ranger outfits that look and sound real important (and probably are) just stand there, usually with a wrist on the waist and a cup of coffee in hand, starin' at some piece of machinery or tree or whatever like its the most interesting thing in the whole world, one of them saying something and the other just nodding his head slowly. I love it, and hope to make it there someday.

My crew got to meet many of the rangers that head the "departments" (carpentry, engineering, trails, electric, etc.) the other day, and they were all very, very nice. They stressed how safety is the most important thing, and I can see why, because it looks like there's a lot of stuff around here that could do some damage.

We were also told that they try to make our job to be less like "work" and more like an "experience" by offering and encouraging crew swaps (with others around Washington), shadow days (take a day off from manual labor and follow around somebody else in the park, like an ecologist for field studies, or a carpenter who is building something), and training.

The training sounds really cool. I think sometime in March all of the 34 total Washington crews meet up in some location for 2 weeks of optional training. You still get paid like you were working, and you also get certified in whatever you choose to do. You can take 2 classes, completing 1 each week. I can't remember all of the class options, but they include power saws (check), water pumps, wildland firefighting (check), ethnobotany, wilderness first aid, HAZMAT, and some others.


This is the repair garage


And the fueling station


The junkyard is a place where people drop crap off, and anybody who wants it can take it.


In the back of this building is a whole bunch of plants being grown to eventually revegetate the Elwha Dam area. The removal of the dam is a very big deal, not just around here, but globally. The reason is because not many dams of its size or impact (18 million tons of sediment are jammed behind it) have been deconstructed before, so scientists, environmentalists, engineers, and policy-makers are very interested in how it turns out.


Where we store all of our tools. This is one of the oldest buildings in the park.


The administrative building.


How cool is that!!!??? There are black bears, but no grizzly bears around here. Also, something that I found out this week that I am VERY excited about is that there are virtually no ticks in Washington.

Stay tuned, I have some pictures from my first week at work, but I'm still sorting through them.