Your garden hose has it easy ...

Things have been back to business as usual. After our trip to Storm King on Thursday, we cut a little on Friday and did some saw rehab. Nothing too exciting over the weekend. I was actually looking forward to grocery shopping. So little had been spent during the time I was gone because almost the rest of the entire team was on a prescribed burn for about a week. I wasn't concerned with the budget as I went to Sam's and Wal-Mart. But, try as we did ... we were still under budget. Oh well, there's plenty of good food and that's really all that matters.

We had Monday off because of Columbus Day, which was a nice treat. On Tuesday and Wednesday, we had a pumps class. We learned about everything concerning pumping water on fires, things like portable pumps and engines, how to hook them up, different hoses and fittings, how to effectively apply water and foam to fires, and so forth. There was also a little math class involved, as we learned how to calculate necessary pumping pressure based on how long the hose lay was, the fittings involved, etc.

Last night, I made some chili and the team had dinner in front of the tv as a whole so we could watch the Presidential debate. After that, I flipped on the rest of the Phillies/Dodgers game and I got to see my team win the pennant. The Phillies are going to the World Series for the first time since I was eight. Granted, that's nothing compared to the Red Sox, but don't get me started on which city has experienced more misery as sports fans.

Anyway, today was our field day for the pumps class. We went around three different stations in small groups. We learned how a Forest Service engine works with regards to delivering water to a fire. We also hooked up pumps in a variety of ways.

We have a lot of people from the wildfire teams converging on Denver this Sunday for the Denver marathon. Our whole team is going to either run, volunteer or cap. It should be a fun, but long day. Of course, the first thing I wondered was how late I'll get around to grocery shopping. I'll have to deprogram myself after I get out of NCCC, haha!