back to school.

70 steps in 7 days.

i felt like i went back in time a few months to education season with this hitch. the first part of the project involved building steps at rowe school (a school that a few people taught at this winter). long story short, we built A LOT of steps. 70 to be exact. it was wild. i did a lot of saw work with the circular saw. i actually got tired of it at some points...which i didn't think was possible.

food time on the playground.

we were able to cook our meals in the school kitchen, which was awesome! we ate dinner out on the playground. our contact brought us delicious snacks every day (blueberry muffins, cookies, chocolate zucchini cake). i really felt like a kid again.

all corps!

in the middle of the hitch, we packed up and drove to bear brook state forest in new hampshire for the all corps - a gathering of all the conservation corps in the northeast. i won't lie. i was overwhelmed with all of the new people when we arrived...to go from seeing the same 6 people all of the time to being surrounded by over 100 people...a bit of a change. on friday night, there was a talent show and boy, did sca massachusetts represent! i sang bridge over troubled water with a bunch of folks, but i was astounded with the great talent (justin, danny and kya's circus performance, sean's songs, caleb's playing, dave's singing...and so much more!).

the next morning, we all loaded up into our respective vans to head to a 4-h community garden for the day. there were lots of tasks, but i spent the day weeding and restaking some plants. i had fun meeting new people and learning about the different programs in the northeast. eventually we ran out of weeding to do, so i learned some african work songs (that i have since forgotten...but will remember again).

hanging out on saturday afternoon.

in the afternoon, we played some ridiculous games like LITM (leaves in the mouth...) and sticking blades up grass up our noses in order to see who could stand it longer (i won. lasted over a minute. another guy actually sneezed. it was hilarious!). then we all had a cookout dinner and contra danced! yay! after the long day, i played a rousing game of apples to apples back at camp and enjoyed a campfire by the beach.

on sunday morning, we had the all corps competition for the coveted horns and a year of bragging rights. it was one of those moments where you just had to be there, but i don't know if i've ever had that much of a flood of spirit for anything ever. there were some typical relay games (log tossing, hammering nails, piggyback races), a few rounds of tug-o-war (we won!), but the competition came down to a game of rock paper scissors. we won, but it was rock paper scissors...still quite exciting.

my boots.

being at all corps made me really appreciate the focus on community that we have here. it's not that the other programs don't focus on it, but it was there that i realized how great a community we have. i'm going to miss this so much!

after all corps, we returned to rowe to finish the steps. it was a grumpy few days on my part...i was really tired. but, hey. that's our work! when we finished, we packed up for hawley and enjoyed a delicious dinner made by jessica. cari and i took a dip in the pond which felt great : )

the trailhead at mlk.

the next two days we spent building a trail at the mlk charter school for excellence in springfield, ma. it was great, and my only experience doing new trail work, but i think i was too tired to really feel involved there. we still did a great job! but, i was pooped!

i'm feeling a bit refreshed after a 3 day weekend...but it's strange that this program is quickly coming to a close. i'm not going to be ready to leave....