Me falling a tree at Mueller State Park last week. 

4ft. firewood logs we had to carry up steep hills all week.  

This is my chainsaw. It's smaller than the others. It still makes my arms sore. 

Mueller State Park

For the last ten days, my crew was working in a very cold place south of Denver called Mueller State Park. It's a very new park to Colorado, apparently not even 15 years old. Including the adjacent Fish and Wildlife land (which allows hunting, but is also protected from development and other evil human endeavors) the park covers over 12,000 acres of land. This was all donated by a family who saw the importance for protection for the herds of hundreds of elk migrating through their backyard every year, not the mention the black bears, bald eagles, and other more recently rare wildlife.
We were focused on thinning out a swath of land surrounding the visitors center. It was just under 10,000 ft. where we were working, and we had to haul all the logs and slash up a very long and steep hillside where we chipped it up and blew it back into the forest. In the morning it was as cold as 6 degrees, and when it eventually snowed, it was hard to keep fingers and toes warm while working with our saws! Quite an experience.
It's good to be back home in Durango, but it is very cold here too! The snow is coming soon, creeping down from the foothills.

Twenty

I had my birthday this week, and it was awesome. Phil and I just hung around and were boring as usual, but we ate a wonderful homecooked meal and played cards too! I'm finally finished with the Russian olive project we've been working on in the office all week at Southwest Youth Corps. On Monday, I'll take off early for a place called Mueller State Park. I'll be gone fort 10 days, and that brings us right up to Thanksgiving! It's been nice living at home for these past few weeks of work. The word is that this upcoming job will be our hardest one so far and there will probably be snow on the ground. More when i get home!