Fantastic Start to the Season
May was an amazing start to our 2022 season. At the very beginning, we hosted our Spring 2022 Chainsaw Skills and Safety class. We hold this class every year as it is a requirement for being a sawyer at one of our events but also to give everyone a chance to learn more about operating a chainsaw safely and effectively. This year we had a couple of people from not associated with any group, a small group from Axe & Snax, our peers in Gilpin County, and another person from the Crescent Park Community Fire Protection Agency. It is great that we can share the wealth (and the work!) and organize these opportunities together for the benefit of our entire community. As usual, a lot was learned by both the novices and the very seasoned chainsaw operators. If you are interested in future classes, please let us know by emailing sawsandslaws@gmail.com. If we get enough demand, we’ll plan a second class this year. The following weekend we hosted our first regular event of the season and our first normal event since the pandemic started! As a safety precaution, we hadn’t been having our traditional potluck meals after the smaller events we’ve had over the last two years… and it was greatly missed. I felt the difference after the events last year when we didn’t get that time to celebrate (and relax!!) together. This was the first time we’d brought back the potluck since 2019!! It felt so good to have that back again… and, as usual, the food was so yummy! It is delicious, refreshing and restorative to eat together after a morning of hard work!
The May event was focused on cleaning out the road side along Twin Spruce, near our longtime volunteer and founder Jane Marsolek’s home. This kind of work is important for protecting our egress or, in other words, our ability to use the road in the event of a wildfire. We removed a lot of dead trees and ladder fuels along the road. Some homeowners pre-made piles of slash for us to collect as well. We hauled over 14 loads of slash from there to the Nederland Sort Yard (Thank you, Chris Reichard, Steve Dickson, Linda Martin and John Paul Thompson for the use of your vehicles as well as your extended time later that week!) During the event alone, we had 24 volunteers who in total worked over 104 volunteer hours which has a value of over $2,500 in work!! Great job, everyone!!
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Upcoming Events:
Saws & Slaws event – June 11th – Lionel Road (off Coal Creek Heights)
Come and join in on the fun… the workout… the wildfire mitigation at our next event on Lionel Road on June 11 th . This will also be a regular event and feature the delicious potluck afterwards! We need sawyers, swampers (slash gatherers), and slash haulers. We always have a job for everyone, kids included! As always, many hands make light work and make HUGE impact on making our community safer. For more information and to sign up, visit our website or Facebook pages. We have only a few spots left in the season, so if you are interested in hosting an event in your neck of the woods email us at sawsandslaws@gmail.com or call us at (720) 326-7739.
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Safety Tip of the Month: Don’t ever leave a camp or pit fire unattended. As I write this we are under fire
restrictions anyway, so there are limits from those restrictions today. Should they be lifted later this summer or if you travel to a different area, be sure to keep a close eye on any campfire you have. Always have a shovel and a ready source of water nearby (e.g. a hose or large bucket) in case any embers escape from your fire. Always keep your campfire to a reasonable size so that you have a better chance at controlling it. Finally, when you are done with your campfire, be sure to extinguish it thoroughly. It’ll take much more water than you think! Stir it with a shovel to reveal more hot coals and continue to put water on it until it is cold. If it is warm, it is not out. Dry air and strong winds can reignite a fire days later, so continue to keep an eye on it even after you think it is out.
