Being in Ardenvoir is kind of like being in a foreign country...

Tried to post this on Thursday but the internet shut down and I didn't want to make people wait for me... here you go!

Hey y'all... so I keep getting calls/messages/emails from people and sadly have only been able to get back to a few of them. Monday I tried to get a hold of about seven people to update them on the drive up to Wenatchee, but nobody answered and then I promptly lost service for the next hour before I could call more... and I still haven't been able to check my phone. Sorry!

First, a couple of things and then maybe a little bit of life stuff if we have time... my house has a landline, but no cell phone service. If you want to call me, call 509-784-0736 and then we'll either have a little chat or if you want to talk for a while, I'll go drive down to the spot on the road that gets coverage and call you back. Also, if you can't get through on that line, please let me know. We're not really that sure it works.

Second, we get internet at the (only) store in Ardenvoir, which is a little over half a mile up the road. So email me, but I'll take a while to get back to you. 

Third, we're going to be in the backcountry (Pot Peak) for 8 days starting on Monday. 

Okay! So, basically, if anyone has ever wondered if they should do Americorps or the Northwest Service Academy, the answer is probably yes. I am having the time of my life up here, the people are amazing, and the place is amazing. Oh, and the food. 

Training was awesome. A little like camp, but awesome none the less. There's around 35 of us, and we stayed in cabins. We had training most days, but went on a little work project (2 nights of camping and one day of work, which included creating habitat for steelhead trout) and had a service project (helping in the community garden) in the town of Trout Lake, where we lived. Weekends we had free, so we would explore the lava tubes and area around Mt. Adams (THE COLUMBIA RIVER GORGE IS PERFECT), went for bike rides, spent a day exploring Portland (and a night singing drunken kareoke), had a couple bonfire parties, camped out a couple times. I could go on and on - especially about the people. These people are amazing. 

On Monday the teams all went our separate ways - some to southern California, some to the OR/CA border, some stayed where we were, and we left for the north - Wenatchee National Forest, and our little home on a "work compound" called Steliko. We're living in a house built by the Civilian Conservation Corps (sort of our forerunners) in the 1930s, two stories with a big living room and kitchen and lots of windows - and doors we haven't even found yet. There's a double wide trailer that houses another guy, and various buildings for botanists and biologists and such. We're pretty in love with it. Me and the other two girls (who are awesome) share one room, the two leaders share a room and the other two boys share a room (sort of - one of them is sleeping in what we call the Boom-Boom Room, a little attic-y thing off the main room). 

For the last two days, we've been helping out at a campground felling trees that have been attacked by pine beetles or rot. A falling tree is one of the coolest things I have ever seen.