Post-AmeriCorps August 8, 2011
Well, I have officially graduated from AmeriCorps. The past 3 weeks I have spent road tripping up to Alaska and am currently sitting in the Sacramento airport to fly home to Birmingham. It all seems a little surreal. It has been weird only being around 3 people instead of 10 and not having to follow dress codes. The last 3 weeks have been amazing and such a nice vacation in between AmeriCorps and going home. Our final transition week was amazing and it was really hard to see everyone go. As of this morning (and I only found out about the opportunity this morning) I am a project lead for the Presbyterian Disaster Assistance program. My mom suggested my name to people at her church and as soon as I agreed it was done. I will be a volunteer liaison between the organization and the church and it is possible that it will turn into a real job or that I will be able to get other contacts to find a real job. It’s pretty exciting, because I have been slacking on the whole job search area. Well this will be my last post. I am hoping that maybe other potential AmeriCorps members can use this as I used others blogs to help answer questions about the program. Any questions or comments will still come to my email for anyone who wants to know more. Peace and Love!!
Almost Over July 15, 2011
Well I am finally back from the wilderness and in Sacramento for my last and final week in AmeriCorps. Our last round was pretty amazing. We hiked around 90 miles in 4 weeks in the Mendocino National Forest doing trail work. Now that we are back in Sac…we are wrapping everything up. Tomorrow, we have our last day of direct service. The entire Corps will be working at the Sacramento Public Libraries. On Thursday, we will be graduating and Me, and two of my teammates Michelle and Shane will be taking 19 days to drive up, hang out, and drive back to Alaska. After that its back to Birmingham to figure out my life.
The Wilderness Life June 16, 2011
So currently I am on my weekly internet trip. I finished my stint at Camp Sacramento in Tahoe and am now in the Mendocino National Forest in the wilderness. We are doing trail work and so far I have hiked 26 miles in a week while doing trail work at the same time. We are very isolated and are 1 1/2 hours from anything. We live at a ranger station up a dirt road in the middle of the woods. So far I am loving it. Its is incredibly hard work but the 3 guys on the trail crew we work with are awesome and we are definitely getting into shape. We get to see a lot of wildlife and so far we have seen several rattlesnakes (within a foot or 2), jack rabbits, a multitude of deer, lizards, ticks (unfortunately), scorpions, and a ground squirrel named Fluffy that will eat out of your hand. I don’t have any phone service for 3 hours from where we are and we come into town 1-2 times a week where there is a library with wireless internet. We also get our snacks here, which are much needed and craved on the trail.
Well I’ll be here until July 13th when I head back to Sac for a week before graduating on the 21st. Then it is off to Alaska for 17 days with 2 teammates. After that I’ll be flying back to Birmingham on August 8th, where I don’t have plans for the future yet.
This weekend we are going to go camping at a nearby campground for one of our teammates birthdays. We are also looking forward to a 4 day trip to Fort Bragg on the coast for the 4th of July weekend. Here is a picture from one of our days on the trails. 
Week of Rest May 31, 2011
So I am currently in birmingham until Saturday using some of my vacation days. Our group is still in Tahoe until Friday shoveling some of the 8 feet of snow that has gathered there. The week and a half I spent in Tahoe was amazing. The sponsors were by far some of my favorite and even with the huge snow drifts, the work was incredibly fun. After a weekend in Sacramento we will be moving to Mendocino County in the middle of the forest. I will have no internet and very rare cell phone service. We will be hiking in and building trails and for the last 8 days we will pack horses and hike far into the forest and camp on the trails we are building. Should be interesting. Here are some photos for Tahoe. 
Last Round May 14, 2011
It has been a while since I posted. We finished our time in Montana last week and are currently back in Sacramento for Transition. Montana was okay. The weather didn’t make it easy for us to go on adventures like in Utah. It either rained or snowed for at least an hour every day and was very rarely sunny. I am glad to be back in Sacramento with the warmth and plenty of sunshine. On Monday our group will be headed to Camp Sacramento outside of Lake Tahoe in the El Dorado National Forest. We will be working there for 3 weeks and then moving on to Mendocino National Forest to work with the US Forest Service. This is our last round in AmeriCorps and it still shocks me at how fast the year has gone. Right now I am working on trying to visit home for a week in late May, so we’ll see if I can get that worked out. If so I’ll be seeing some of you in about 2 weeks. Here are a few pictures from our last weeks in Montana.
Break in Montana March 25, 2011
Well, currently I am sitting in a ski lodge in Montana watching my team ski and snowboard. Earlier this week I had a little mishap with a razor blade. While cutting flooring for a house renovation I accidentally stabbed myself in between my thumb and index finger with a razor blade. End result was 4 stitches and a week of not using my left hand. It is only a little bothersome, it is mainly just hard to not use a hand.
Other than my little accident, Montana has been great. We are living directly on Flathead Lake in cabins. We basically have full run of the camp except for when rental groups are there. On Thursday we finished a 14 day, 10 hour a day run of work. In return we are currently on a 5 day break. The area is gorgeous. We are about 30 minutes from a ski resort, 45 minutes from a bison range, 4 hours from Canada, and 2 hours from Glacier National Park. I don’t have many pictures uploaded yet so here is one of the amazing sunset on the lake.
