Wanderers, everything happens for a reason. What happens will most likely always be an attempt at teaching you patients, amongst other things. I think I have come to believe this at the core of my being. There are those gut instincts that we get, yet attempt to ignore, right? Or those intuitive moments where you wanted to say something, but wrote it off, and later regretted it? I get those moments. Part of my wandering is to learn how to trust my instinctual self. To know that when something gets tossed in my path and there is no way around it, then my guardian angel is probably on to something. Today was one of those days. I have been trained with a chain saw, and though I probably cannot take down a large tree, I am certainly capable of performing PM and bucking already downed trees. So that was the plan for today. Take the crew out and have one saw team, and the others drag. Easy day, right? NOT!

So upon performing standard PM we found that both our chainsaws were defective. So while the others hand cleared what they could we worked to get different chainsaws to the site. Needless to say that did not go smoothly as the only route was completely opposite direction due to a bridge being out. So back to that communication thing from earlier this week, the logistics runner went the wrong way and our team ended up having a nice midday break. Again, any time we aren’t working, when we want to be is extremely frustrating. We were doing pretty well at practicing patience, until the new chainsaws arrived and none of them were operational either. I was concerned that it was operator error, but my sawyer partner was having the same issues, and he’s a bit more experienced than me.

We ended up getting reassigned to another Debris Management situation, and it all worked out. We also found out later that the chainsaws did have issues, and it was not an operator error. There is something that feels so good in knowing that following my training led to making the right call, and also that my training didn’t fail me. I was taking it pretty hard, assuming that I was the reason the saws wouldn’t work. I guess it is a good lesson for me to learn and practice that I should not assume fault about myself, let alone anyone else.

I’m keeping this short and sweet for today. Just remember my dear wanderers, it’s a long race, so practice patients, and start listening to your instincts. You can trust yourself.

Signing off Wimberley, TX