Greetings from...

Colorado fire camp, where I am well on my way to becoming a sawyer.  In fact, I've come far enough that I now pronounce the word as it should be SAWyer and not SOYyer.  Essentially, I'm learning with 13 other WCC crew leaders and supervisors how to safely operate and maintain a chainsaw for tree felling(simply put, cutting down trees).

We arrived wednesday night in a caravan of pickup trucks and suburbans in Salida, Colorado(population 5,000 and elevation 8,000 feet).  Salida is nestled up in the mountains 3 hours southwest from Denver and home to the fire camp where students can eat sleep and saw for two days in the comfort of the Ponderosa Lodge.  All day thursday was spent in the classroom learning the jargon and safety information that allows us to pick up a saw in the first place.  This morning we spent additional time in the classroom, learning all the parts of the saw and how to perform maintenance daily and weekly.  After lunch we ventured outside to the saw shop where we took our saw apart for maintenance and finally, sharpened the chains and fueled up.

My first attempt at firing up was definitely rough.  Donning all of our PPE(personal protective equipment) including saw chaps, hard hats, glasses, and ear plugs, I failed to hear the engine fire on choke, thus I instantly concluded I was a bad sawyer.  But, after a few tries and some assistance I got er' started and gave the throttle a nice squeeze.  Now, a fully fueled and oiled saw is no light object.  It is cumbersome and awkward for a beginner, and only experience makes those imperfections fade away.  Watching our instructor Mark hold the saw in class on day one, I assumed that the saw was light and as long as I studied, this would all be simple.  Wrong.  You could read saw books all day but when the saw is in your hands, your newly acquired knowledge flies out the window.  But, such is the way of learning and being a student.

Tomorrow, we head into the field to fell some real trees.  I'm optimistic about the forecast for scatted thunderstorms and 30mph winds tomorrow.  I mean really, anything worse than that would be like felling trees in a hurricane.  No biggie.  Maybe I'll switch paths and become a lumberjack(or Jill).  Maybe I'll get my red card and fight wildland fires for the big bucks.  Or maybe I'll just be a really good tree feller for the WCC.  Either way, my point is that it's nice to be a student again.   There's so much to learn!