I Hate Tamarisk!

Tamarisk is an evil plant. We had to remove a shitload of it from Lake Mohave. My arms and legs are covered cuts and bruises; I had less injuries when I had a car crash!

The worst thing about the project is that you have chainsaws going the whole day, you have your earplugs in so you can't have a conversation with anyone, so 10 hours really feels like 10 hours.

The campsite was really nice though. We were camping on the shores of Lake Mohave, and it was so beautiful. Every night we sat eating our dinner, looking out over the lake at the sunset.

The worst thing (other than the Tamarisk) was that there were rogue donkeys around the campsite. They had been used for mining, but when they had finished with them the miners let them go wild - so now they have basically no fear and will approach humans. You could hear them making noises in the middle of the night (fucking terrifying) close to the campsite. One even chased Lucy when she went to the toilet at lunch. This is why I hate donkeys

Can't be arsed to write much more, here's a shitload of pictures:

Tonto Creek and Vegas

Hello.

I'm a wee bit tired and can't be bothered to write for an hour about what's been going on the last fortnight, so I'll mainly spend to the next hour posting photos. More info if I feel like it....

My third project was in Tonto Creek. We had to build structures in the river to in order to help out the population of trout (they prefer deep pools usually covered by rocks). This meant a full week of moving rocks, cutting trees, moving trees, drilling holes, moving rocks, tying cable and rock moving.


We were meant to leave on the Wednesday, but we had to turn back 45 mins down the road as the creek was frozen over. So instead, a few of us chilled out in Flagstaff for the day and prepared to leave Thursday. When we finally got there and got to work, it was fucking cold! Easily -10 C during the nights (almost certainly colder - my watch literally froze up and died)

 

Having Lunch

 

Number 2 - The first log is in place

 

If you look right at the back in the middle, you can see Number 2 completed! (Click to embiggen)

We managed to get all the sites finished way ahead of time - so the project partner gave us some more to do, which we also finished ahead of time, allowing us to leave a day early.

We got back on Wednesday, and headed straight to the Green Room (it was a quarter per drink night - as in literally 25 cents a drink) I don't think I've ever woken up the morning after a night like that with so much money in my wallet still!)

Thursday we went for a crew dinner at a Thai restaurant, then some more drinks at Collins Irish pub (a dollar a drink night - places in this town just want to get you drunk!). Got in around 3am but had to try and help 2 random American girls jump start a car (I tried pointing out I'd have trouble with this when sober)

Friday - we went to Vegas!! We left Flagstaff and decided to stop at Hoover Dam again on the way:

 

New bridge built last year

Then we got to Vegas!

Had a walk up and down The Strip on Friday night, then went back to our (massive) hotel room and drank into the small hours. Got up quite late the next afternoon (a few people had trouble recovering), then headed back to The Strip to get tickets to see Penn and Teller. They were brilliant!! Worth every single penny! Myself and Dan went onto the stage beforehand to inspect a box - which was a box - then when the show started, Penn ran on stage and Teller jumped out of the box! Very enjoyable show. I went alone to the Bellagio to meet some friends afterwards, where we saw a great fountain show (And I won a dollar on the fruit machine!)

Bellagio Hotel - famous for its fountains on the lake:

Dan's hilarious sleeping face when I got in that night!

Penn And Teller. Couldn't be bothered to wait for a picture with them (and I'd forgotten Monkey) so I took photos of them with random people.

The next day we went to The Stratosphere. I won 10 dollars!! Then we walked around Vegas a bit more and eventually drove home.

I WON I WON I WON!

View from the Stratosphere

The Strip

Ride on top of the Stratosphere

Outside The Venetian hotel.

Inside The Venetian. Actually nicer than Venice! Not as many tourists and doesn't smell at all!

They were celebrating the Year Of The Rabbit with this terrifying rabbit.

Overall it was a great project, followed by a great few days off. Though four nights in a row of heavy drinking are now taking its toll on my wallet. :-s

I might add some more words if I can be bothered.