A bunch of us participated in an ISP that Adrienne scheduled for today. We worked with a wildlife restoration group, reclaiming an big old gravel mine and turning it into a sustainable wetland. There were a lot of muddy, flooded areas so we broke up into groups with a bunch of volunteers that showed up and we planted marsh grasses and other wetland plants in those areas.
It was a great time, but it was really tiring. It’s starting to hit me more now. We left the bunkhouse around 7 and we headed back around 4:30. The most challenging part was wearing big galoshes and constantly getting stuck in the mud. It was really difficult to move, which made the whole process move very slowly.
It was another really good day. I got dirty, fell in the mud at one point. But it was all good fun.
Oh! Hehe. So, on the drive home from ISP, we were approaching the road that takes us up the mountain to Ned and you won’t believe what we saw – a mob of naked or scantily clad people on bicycles! John was driving and he almost stopped in the middle of the intersection we were driving through. I mentioned it to a Forest Service person later when we ran into some of them in town and they were like, "Oh! It was Naked Bike Ride Day! I totally forgot!" I guess it’s a normal thing. One of the reasons I really like Boulder – it seems anything goes here. (Well, anything of the liberal persuasion, but I’m not arguing with that, call me biased.)
Yesterday, another three of our team went down to the airport to mix retardant like I did on Thursday. Apparently things were crazier than when I was there, though – they were mixing just to keep up with all the planes that would fly in to fill up.
The rest of us spent the day at the work center. We did a six-mile run for PT. The Forest Service people call the route Gates of Hell, but I’m not sure why – I really enjoyed it. It was the most pleasant run and I felt really good during the whole thing. After PT was over, we had a class on different ways to do things like burn fuel or do prescribed fires. We had a mini field demonstration after the class portion in which we went to the bunkhouse parking lot to play with drip torches and fusees. They also set off a fire grenade. We’ll be finishing it up next week.
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Oof, another long day ...
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Coolest. Day. EVER!!!
But first, let me start with Wednesday. Monday and Tuesday consisted of swamping and chipping, as per usual. On Wednesday, we finally did something different with Open Space. The two teams split up and Earth 5 went off to do trail work. We helped reroute a trail by cutting the edges and starting to even out the trail surface. It was pretty challenging, but it was definitely nice to do something other than swamp. Swamping for Open Space is a little different than swamping for the Forest Service, the main difference being that I don’t mind doing it with the Forest Service. Heh.
After work, we had dinner and then a bunch of us headed down into Ned to one of the local pubs because there are some Forest Service people celebrating their birthdays this week. So we went to wish them Happy Birthdays and to hang out. It was a good time. While we were there, Ervin showed up and told me that I would have to get up early the next morning because I wasn’t reporting to work. Instead, M Squared, Harrison and I would be going to a local airport in Bloomfield (a town just outside of Boulder) where we would be helping out with tanker airplanes. Well, say no more!
So the next morning, we left around 8 am and headed down to Bloomfield. We managed to find the main airport, but it took another half an hour to find the office we were looking for. Once we finally got there, we immediately got to work. We spent most of the day tearing open 50 lb buckets of powdered retardant – made up of diammonium sulfate and ammonium phosphates (yes, I had occasion to look) – and dumping them into a giant mixer that added water to the whole thing. Once the mixing tank was full, we pumped the mixture into 11,000-gallon holding tanks (there were two that we could hook up to at the time). I texted Nikki at one point during the day to see how the rest of the team was doing. Apparently we missed a PT hike. That’s the third week in a row that I haven’t gone on one; the first time was because I was on break, the second time we skipped it because of the weather. I am so screwed for next week.
Now, if Mike Rowe wants a Dirty Job, I definitely have one for him. First of all, that retardant tastes and smells terrible. Even with a mask on, it gets up into your nose and eyes because it creates dust clouds every time you dump a bucket into the mixer. It was also a bit windy that day. I was pink by the end of the day. My arms were so red that they looked like I had second degree sunburn. My face felt like I had three layers of dollar-store make up on and my hair was a strange tinge of pink. My Nomex are filthy.
That being said, it was all totally worth it when, at one point, we heard this loud rumbling and turned around just in time to see a fighter jet buzz the airport (sorry Dad, I don’t know what kind it was and it was so obviously fast that I didn’t get a chance to get a picture). We also got to help load tanker planes with retardant every time they flew in. We loaded one plane five times! We filled another plane once when it finally arrived from Albuquerque. As we were leaving, both planes came back to fill up again. So that’s eight fills in one day. They were going to fires in Pueblo, CO; some of the crew we were working with said that apparently the fires just blew up overnight. Dispatch might be a possibility, but we’ll see.
But the absolute best was that at the end of the day, we were going to leave around 8 pm but we waited for another tanker to land so they would take us up inside the plane! It was so awesome. The plane’s mechanic said it was from 1954-55, and most of the plane was still original, right down to the seatbelts. It was so awesome, we got to sit in the cockpit and everything.
It really was the coolest day ever, especially for me because airplanes are one of my favorite things in the world. I love watching them even more than flying in them. I hope to have pictures up shortly.
After work, we had dinner and then a bunch of us headed down into Ned to one of the local pubs because there are some Forest Service people celebrating their birthdays this week. So we went to wish them Happy Birthdays and to hang out. It was a good time. While we were there, Ervin showed up and told me that I would have to get up early the next morning because I wasn’t reporting to work. Instead, M Squared, Harrison and I would be going to a local airport in Bloomfield (a town just outside of Boulder) where we would be helping out with tanker airplanes. Well, say no more!
So the next morning, we left around 8 am and headed down to Bloomfield. We managed to find the main airport, but it took another half an hour to find the office we were looking for. Once we finally got there, we immediately got to work. We spent most of the day tearing open 50 lb buckets of powdered retardant – made up of diammonium sulfate and ammonium phosphates (yes, I had occasion to look) – and dumping them into a giant mixer that added water to the whole thing. Once the mixing tank was full, we pumped the mixture into 11,000-gallon holding tanks (there were two that we could hook up to at the time). I texted Nikki at one point during the day to see how the rest of the team was doing. Apparently we missed a PT hike. That’s the third week in a row that I haven’t gone on one; the first time was because I was on break, the second time we skipped it because of the weather. I am so screwed for next week.
Now, if Mike Rowe wants a Dirty Job, I definitely have one for him. First of all, that retardant tastes and smells terrible. Even with a mask on, it gets up into your nose and eyes because it creates dust clouds every time you dump a bucket into the mixer. It was also a bit windy that day. I was pink by the end of the day. My arms were so red that they looked like I had second degree sunburn. My face felt like I had three layers of dollar-store make up on and my hair was a strange tinge of pink. My Nomex are filthy.
That being said, it was all totally worth it when, at one point, we heard this loud rumbling and turned around just in time to see a fighter jet buzz the airport (sorry Dad, I don’t know what kind it was and it was so obviously fast that I didn’t get a chance to get a picture). We also got to help load tanker planes with retardant every time they flew in. We loaded one plane five times! We filled another plane once when it finally arrived from Albuquerque. As we were leaving, both planes came back to fill up again. So that’s eight fills in one day. They were going to fires in Pueblo, CO; some of the crew we were working with said that apparently the fires just blew up overnight. Dispatch might be a possibility, but we’ll see.
But the absolute best was that at the end of the day, we were going to leave around 8 pm but we waited for another tanker to land so they would take us up inside the plane! It was so awesome. The plane’s mechanic said it was from 1954-55, and most of the plane was still original, right down to the seatbelts. It was so awesome, we got to sit in the cockpit and everything.
It really was the coolest day ever, especially for me because airplanes are one of my favorite things in the world. I love watching them even more than flying in them. I hope to have pictures up shortly.
Monday, June 09, 2008
I'm still here!!
Ooookay, so it's been a while since my last post. For this I apologize. Things have been busy, though not very interesting. I'll elaborate ...
I got home from break on Saturday. On Sunday, I did my usual grocery shopping. We're now splitting the budget between Sam's Club and a super Wal-Mart that we found. Things have been under budget for the last two weeks, so that's good.
Monday through Thursday of last week pretty much all we did was swamp, even on our day with Open Spaces. I dropped Tree #2 at some point (I forget which day). It was big, I didn't realize how large it was until it was down and we took a look at the stump. It wasn't huge, but it was a little more than a foot in diameter. On Friday, we actually got a change in our routine. Earth 4 went elsewhere, while Earth 5 ended up going to a prescribed burn to mop up. They had burned piles the day before and we were there to turn the ashes over and make sure everything was cold and out. It was different, thankfully. It was also a good experience, even though I'm sure we'll mop up so much that we'll get sick of it. We had an engine with us that had water, so that made things a bit easier. The last spot we mopped was big, with about five of us on it. While we were checking for hot spots, I found one next to a burned stump. I dug around it, got it a little wet, mixed it up and then felt around it again. I continued to do this and the spot continued to get bigger. I ended up pulling out about three or four big rocks buried in the ash. We dug until the spot essentially became a ditch and even then it still didn't seem to want to cool down. And the deeper I went, the hotter it felt. It was a bit baffling. We had to wrap up though, so we just left the ditch open to cool off on its own.
This past weekend was fun. We've been able to hang out with some of the Forest Service people a little. Friday night, we all hung out together down in Nederland. On Saturday, I took Nikki to Urgent Care in Boulder because she'd been coughing all week. About two hours later, we finally found out that she had bronchitis. She got a prescription and got some medicine for it. That night, a few of us went back down to Nederland. She deteriorated from there and spent most of Sunday in bed, the poor thing.
On Sunday, we were supposed to have an ISP scheduled for the whole day. We got down the mountain to the edge of Boulder when everyone got a cell signal back and we all got voicemails from Joanna, a girl on Earth 4. It turns out that the ISP was cancelled. So we turned around and went back up the mountain. I went for a run and then got the grocery shopping out of the way. When we got back, some of the Forest Service guys were trying to set up an Ultimate game. Everyone on my team who wanted to play ended up changing their minds, so that left only four of us. We decided to just throw the Frisbee around in the driveway instead. After that, we all hunkered down infront of the tv and watched Ax Men on the Discovery Channel. That was a lot of fun, just because we all have experience with chainsaws now. The comments from the Forest Service guys were particularly amusing because they've been doing it for so long.
Today was more of the same -- falling trees, limbing, bucking and swamping (but no chipping for once, yay!). I dropped trees #3 and #4 today, so I'm glad to have a little more experience under my belt. I hope to have more just because the more I have to do it, the more comfortable I'll feel.
Well, the library is closing in about fifteen minutes so I'd better go. I hope it won't be quite so long before my next post!
I got home from break on Saturday. On Sunday, I did my usual grocery shopping. We're now splitting the budget between Sam's Club and a super Wal-Mart that we found. Things have been under budget for the last two weeks, so that's good.
Monday through Thursday of last week pretty much all we did was swamp, even on our day with Open Spaces. I dropped Tree #2 at some point (I forget which day). It was big, I didn't realize how large it was until it was down and we took a look at the stump. It wasn't huge, but it was a little more than a foot in diameter. On Friday, we actually got a change in our routine. Earth 4 went elsewhere, while Earth 5 ended up going to a prescribed burn to mop up. They had burned piles the day before and we were there to turn the ashes over and make sure everything was cold and out. It was different, thankfully. It was also a good experience, even though I'm sure we'll mop up so much that we'll get sick of it. We had an engine with us that had water, so that made things a bit easier. The last spot we mopped was big, with about five of us on it. While we were checking for hot spots, I found one next to a burned stump. I dug around it, got it a little wet, mixed it up and then felt around it again. I continued to do this and the spot continued to get bigger. I ended up pulling out about three or four big rocks buried in the ash. We dug until the spot essentially became a ditch and even then it still didn't seem to want to cool down. And the deeper I went, the hotter it felt. It was a bit baffling. We had to wrap up though, so we just left the ditch open to cool off on its own.
This past weekend was fun. We've been able to hang out with some of the Forest Service people a little. Friday night, we all hung out together down in Nederland. On Saturday, I took Nikki to Urgent Care in Boulder because she'd been coughing all week. About two hours later, we finally found out that she had bronchitis. She got a prescription and got some medicine for it. That night, a few of us went back down to Nederland. She deteriorated from there and spent most of Sunday in bed, the poor thing.
On Sunday, we were supposed to have an ISP scheduled for the whole day. We got down the mountain to the edge of Boulder when everyone got a cell signal back and we all got voicemails from Joanna, a girl on Earth 4. It turns out that the ISP was cancelled. So we turned around and went back up the mountain. I went for a run and then got the grocery shopping out of the way. When we got back, some of the Forest Service guys were trying to set up an Ultimate game. Everyone on my team who wanted to play ended up changing their minds, so that left only four of us. We decided to just throw the Frisbee around in the driveway instead. After that, we all hunkered down infront of the tv and watched Ax Men on the Discovery Channel. That was a lot of fun, just because we all have experience with chainsaws now. The comments from the Forest Service guys were particularly amusing because they've been doing it for so long.
Today was more of the same -- falling trees, limbing, bucking and swamping (but no chipping for once, yay!). I dropped trees #3 and #4 today, so I'm glad to have a little more experience under my belt. I hope to have more just because the more I have to do it, the more comfortable I'll feel.
Well, the library is closing in about fifteen minutes so I'd better go. I hope it won't be quite so long before my next post!
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Quoting "Leaving on a jet plane" would just be cheesy ...
Well, I'm sitting at the airport, waiting to get on the plane. My flight ended up being delayed about two hours. It doesn't really bother me, though. I think my break made me a little homesick. I didn't realize how much I miss being here. I like just being around my parents. Sure, my area may be incredibly suburban and overdeveloped and the traffic is awful most of the time. But I love where I live. I've been here my whole life and I know the area like the back of my hand. It's the best. So ... yeah. The apron strings seem to work in both ways a bit, I've discovered. I miss everything already. I didn't even get to hang out with anyone besides Alan and my parents. My brother was working most of the time. But I just like existing there. Never has being in one's element felt more true.
That's really all I have to say. I think it might be time to get on the plane.
That's really all I have to say. I think it might be time to get on the plane.
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
"Home, home again. I like to be here when I can ..."
I'm home! I flew in on Saturday from Denver. It turns out that all of the homework I did on the bus schedules was for naught, but in a good way. On Friday, after work, the remainder of Earth 4 offered to let me and M Squared stay overnight at their house in Boulder and then get dropped off at the airport the next morning when they dropped off Jared, a member of their team. So it worked out well. I had to get up at 4:30 am (so I could have flown out much earlier, but oh well), and I had to wait an hour before I could check in and check my bag. But it's okay, it was free after all.
Right after my parents picked me up from the airport, we went to dinner at (where else?) Tortillas. Jenna, Jamie and Anna were working, and Roberto was in the kitchen so I got to say hi to the gang. I also got to sleep in my own bed on Saturday night. On Sunday, I woke up early and drove to Jersey to visit Surf. It was fun, I got to see a bunch of people and catch up a little. I also got hours for helping out while I was there, so that was nice. I was going to go anyway, it's cool that it could count toward something. I also got sunburned.
On Monday, I did a little grocery shopping and made some pasta salad to go with dinner. I went for a run and got my hair cut on Tuesday. What's the plan for today? Hm. I think we're going out to dinner. I did a bike ride, laundry and baked cookies today. Other than that, I've just been enjoying being home.
After the brief tease of a possible fire dispatch on Tuesday, we went to Open Spaces on Wednesday. Our project for the day was swamping at a state park trail. We swamped all day. We had to load stumps into a trailer and then move the rest close to the trail so that they could be loaded. We also fed the chipper all day. It was intense work, the hills were steep and the slash was heavy. Thankfully, there were nineteen of us so we could all help each other. Paul managed to find a lone antler among some of the slash, so that was cool.
On Thursday, it was cold and there was the potential for rain, so we took some drives with the Forest Service to different work centers in the area in order to become more familiar with the operations of the region. We also took a trip to a ranger station way up on Mount Squaw at about 11,400 feet. In order to get there, we drove up a trail with a bunch of switchbacks. Never before did we appreciate the use of ground guides. On the way back to our work center, we drove through a hail storm. Along the way, I got texts from my mom asking me if we had come across any tornados. When we got back, I saw on the news that tornados had touched down in Colorado. They weren't near us though.
During work on Friday I dropped my first tree. I cut the stump off and packed it in my suitcase to bring it home. It wasn't a bad cut, actually. Earth 4 and 5 were split up into small groups to weed out some beetle-kill trees at a campsite. Nick, one of the Forest Service guys, was in charge of me, Crystal, M Squared and Chris. Crystal actually got to take down two trees while M Squared and I both did one each. We then limbed and bucked them. More swamping, of course. It flurried on and off for a bit. After work, I loaded up into one of Earth 4's trucks and headed into Boulder.
And now I'm here. I am so glad to be home. I didn't realize how much I missed it. And it's mostly the little, familiar things that I really appreciate. I missed my dog and cats tons, I'm just glad to have them around. Spike has resumed sitting on my lap whenever I'm at my desk or on the couch. Gidget still doesn't like to be picked up. I've had to resist the urge to vacuum. I miss the way my house smells. I like being able to go to the fridge and just grab something. I love how everything is green and in bloom. It's great to have the windows open and breeze blowing in. The weather has been great, it's so gorgeous out. I really miss weather like this, I thrive in this kind of warmth. But mostly I just love seeing all the green with everything that has come back to life.
We're supposed to spend the day down the shore tomorrow. I'm definitely looking foward to that. I kind of had my seasons out of order this year with going to Texas in March. I went from snow to temperatures in the sixties and seventies and a beach half an hour away. Then I had to go back to Colorado, where it could and did still snow every now and then. I don't even need the beach, I'd just like for it to be a little warmer. Though I suppose I should be thankful that it has stayed cool because our uniforms are going to get pretty hot once things finally start warming up.
So yeah, I'm glad to be home. This break is way too short. But there will be another one. Time already flew up to this point. It's kind of weird to only have a little bit more than five months left.
Right after my parents picked me up from the airport, we went to dinner at (where else?) Tortillas. Jenna, Jamie and Anna were working, and Roberto was in the kitchen so I got to say hi to the gang. I also got to sleep in my own bed on Saturday night. On Sunday, I woke up early and drove to Jersey to visit Surf. It was fun, I got to see a bunch of people and catch up a little. I also got hours for helping out while I was there, so that was nice. I was going to go anyway, it's cool that it could count toward something. I also got sunburned.
On Monday, I did a little grocery shopping and made some pasta salad to go with dinner. I went for a run and got my hair cut on Tuesday. What's the plan for today? Hm. I think we're going out to dinner. I did a bike ride, laundry and baked cookies today. Other than that, I've just been enjoying being home.
After the brief tease of a possible fire dispatch on Tuesday, we went to Open Spaces on Wednesday. Our project for the day was swamping at a state park trail. We swamped all day. We had to load stumps into a trailer and then move the rest close to the trail so that they could be loaded. We also fed the chipper all day. It was intense work, the hills were steep and the slash was heavy. Thankfully, there were nineteen of us so we could all help each other. Paul managed to find a lone antler among some of the slash, so that was cool.
On Thursday, it was cold and there was the potential for rain, so we took some drives with the Forest Service to different work centers in the area in order to become more familiar with the operations of the region. We also took a trip to a ranger station way up on Mount Squaw at about 11,400 feet. In order to get there, we drove up a trail with a bunch of switchbacks. Never before did we appreciate the use of ground guides. On the way back to our work center, we drove through a hail storm. Along the way, I got texts from my mom asking me if we had come across any tornados. When we got back, I saw on the news that tornados had touched down in Colorado. They weren't near us though.
During work on Friday I dropped my first tree. I cut the stump off and packed it in my suitcase to bring it home. It wasn't a bad cut, actually. Earth 4 and 5 were split up into small groups to weed out some beetle-kill trees at a campsite. Nick, one of the Forest Service guys, was in charge of me, Crystal, M Squared and Chris. Crystal actually got to take down two trees while M Squared and I both did one each. We then limbed and bucked them. More swamping, of course. It flurried on and off for a bit. After work, I loaded up into one of Earth 4's trucks and headed into Boulder.
And now I'm here. I am so glad to be home. I didn't realize how much I missed it. And it's mostly the little, familiar things that I really appreciate. I missed my dog and cats tons, I'm just glad to have them around. Spike has resumed sitting on my lap whenever I'm at my desk or on the couch. Gidget still doesn't like to be picked up. I've had to resist the urge to vacuum. I miss the way my house smells. I like being able to go to the fridge and just grab something. I love how everything is green and in bloom. It's great to have the windows open and breeze blowing in. The weather has been great, it's so gorgeous out. I really miss weather like this, I thrive in this kind of warmth. But mostly I just love seeing all the green with everything that has come back to life.
We're supposed to spend the day down the shore tomorrow. I'm definitely looking foward to that. I kind of had my seasons out of order this year with going to Texas in March. I went from snow to temperatures in the sixties and seventies and a beach half an hour away. Then I had to go back to Colorado, where it could and did still snow every now and then. I don't even need the beach, I'd just like for it to be a little warmer. Though I suppose I should be thankful that it has stayed cool because our uniforms are going to get pretty hot once things finally start warming up.
So yeah, I'm glad to be home. This break is way too short. But there will be another one. Time already flew up to this point. It's kind of weird to only have a little bit more than five months left.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
What a tease ...
Jeeze, the past twenty-four hours have been a little crazy. It all started, well … let’s start with Saturday. Saturday was my last day on call. I was in Boulder for a good part of the day. I ate lunch at a little deli on the main mall and got online for a bit. After we got back from Boulder, I went down to a pub in Ned in order to buy my plane tickets. I’m officially going home for break. I’ll be taking a string of buses to the airport. My flight is at 10:55 am on Saturday. Weee!
On Sunday, we tried a Sam’s Club for grocery shopping. Lo and behold, we got a ton of food and we spent $317. Two dollars over budget. I guess we know where we’re getting our food from now on.
Yesterday was just spent at a campsite, bucking and chipping a bunch of felled trees. Around 10:00 pm last night, everyone had settled in for the night. I was texting someone on Keenan’s team, all of whom had recently gotten dispatched. They asked how things were going with us and I responded, "Things have been quiet here. Chainsaw trainings, swamping campsites, fireline drills … stuff like that." Not fifteen minutes later, Ervin grabbed Travis and John and sent them up to the bunkhouse because a call had come in for a fire. They left and then promptly returned, only to have just John go out again. Then I remember waking up at 11:30 … or, I suppose I remember being woken up at 11:30 by Adrienne. Everyone had to get dressed and get their gear, the whole team was being called in. John was already out on an engine scouting the fire. Earth 4 was already on their way to the work center from Boulder. Despite being really jittery from anxiety, I managed to get dressed and we all walked up to the work center and started the waiting game.
We waited around for about an hour with some of the Forest Service people and Earth 4. Finally, Chad told us that the fire, which was originally estimated to be about one to two acres, was more like an out of control campfire measuring 50x100 feet. So he told us to all go back to the bunkhouse and we’d leave at 8:30 am the next morning to mop up. So Earth 4 came back to our bunkhouse and slept in the living room. When we woke up the next morning, John was still out with the engine from the night before.
So we gathered up at the work center and eventually found out that there just wasn’t enough damage at the site for all of us to spend the day mopping up. So we weren’t going. We returned to our original plan for the day, which started with a PT hike. We hiked in our Nomax, with our packs on and tools. Everyone carried a chainsaw for a part of the hike as well. We hiked for about an hour. My pack weighs about 37 lbs. And when I say "hike," I mean "power hike." We purposely went faster than we would on a fireline hike. It was more to work out and, in doing it faster, a line hike won’t feel so challenging. Words fail me. Intense doesn’t begin to cover it.
After we finished the hike, we loaded up the trucks and went to check on some campsites that apparently had been the hosts of some high school parties the night before. So I guess they wanted to make sure that all of the campfires were out? I don’t know. After that, we went to a park to see what trees needed to be felled. We ate lunch around that time and then waited for a while to see what the plan was. The plan ended up taking us back to the work center because … well, I’m not sure why. There weren’t any trees to take down or they were B-level or something? Not sure. So that was the day. While we were hanging out back at the work center, John finally came back from his little adventure. We’re still hearing bits and pieces.
So yeah. My legs are killing me, but I’m surprisingly not very tired. My arms hurt a little too. But things are good. I’ll be honest, I hated the hike while I was on it, but I just kept going. I felt better about it after it was over.
Tomorrow will be a day with Open Spaces. I have a few things on my mind, things to do before leaving after work on Friday. I want to do my laundry, repack everything. Hm. I thought I had more to do. I guess that’s it. Oh! Bake a birthday cake for Levi and maybe Travis. Levi’s birthday is on Friday and Travis’s is on Monday, so I’ll be missing them. But I can bake the cake tomorrow and have it for Thursday’s dinner. That should be fun and that way all the teammates going on first break will still be able to celebrate with them.
On Sunday, we tried a Sam’s Club for grocery shopping. Lo and behold, we got a ton of food and we spent $317. Two dollars over budget. I guess we know where we’re getting our food from now on.
Yesterday was just spent at a campsite, bucking and chipping a bunch of felled trees. Around 10:00 pm last night, everyone had settled in for the night. I was texting someone on Keenan’s team, all of whom had recently gotten dispatched. They asked how things were going with us and I responded, "Things have been quiet here. Chainsaw trainings, swamping campsites, fireline drills … stuff like that." Not fifteen minutes later, Ervin grabbed Travis and John and sent them up to the bunkhouse because a call had come in for a fire. They left and then promptly returned, only to have just John go out again. Then I remember waking up at 11:30 … or, I suppose I remember being woken up at 11:30 by Adrienne. Everyone had to get dressed and get their gear, the whole team was being called in. John was already out on an engine scouting the fire. Earth 4 was already on their way to the work center from Boulder. Despite being really jittery from anxiety, I managed to get dressed and we all walked up to the work center and started the waiting game.
We waited around for about an hour with some of the Forest Service people and Earth 4. Finally, Chad told us that the fire, which was originally estimated to be about one to two acres, was more like an out of control campfire measuring 50x100 feet. So he told us to all go back to the bunkhouse and we’d leave at 8:30 am the next morning to mop up. So Earth 4 came back to our bunkhouse and slept in the living room. When we woke up the next morning, John was still out with the engine from the night before.
So we gathered up at the work center and eventually found out that there just wasn’t enough damage at the site for all of us to spend the day mopping up. So we weren’t going. We returned to our original plan for the day, which started with a PT hike. We hiked in our Nomax, with our packs on and tools. Everyone carried a chainsaw for a part of the hike as well. We hiked for about an hour. My pack weighs about 37 lbs. And when I say "hike," I mean "power hike." We purposely went faster than we would on a fireline hike. It was more to work out and, in doing it faster, a line hike won’t feel so challenging. Words fail me. Intense doesn’t begin to cover it.
After we finished the hike, we loaded up the trucks and went to check on some campsites that apparently had been the hosts of some high school parties the night before. So I guess they wanted to make sure that all of the campfires were out? I don’t know. After that, we went to a park to see what trees needed to be felled. We ate lunch around that time and then waited for a while to see what the plan was. The plan ended up taking us back to the work center because … well, I’m not sure why. There weren’t any trees to take down or they were B-level or something? Not sure. So that was the day. While we were hanging out back at the work center, John finally came back from his little adventure. We’re still hearing bits and pieces.
So yeah. My legs are killing me, but I’m surprisingly not very tired. My arms hurt a little too. But things are good. I’ll be honest, I hated the hike while I was on it, but I just kept going. I felt better about it after it was over.
Tomorrow will be a day with Open Spaces. I have a few things on my mind, things to do before leaving after work on Friday. I want to do my laundry, repack everything. Hm. I thought I had more to do. I guess that’s it. Oh! Bake a birthday cake for Levi and maybe Travis. Levi’s birthday is on Friday and Travis’s is on Monday, so I’ll be missing them. But I can bake the cake tomorrow and have it for Thursday’s dinner. That should be fun and that way all the teammates going on first break will still be able to celebrate with them.
Friday, May 16, 2008
The Real Pack Test
Believe it or not, I’m sitting in a bar right now. Every business in Nederland, it seems, has wifi. Even the bars. And then, when we were here for Frozen Dead Guy Festival, I heard that even the coffee shops serve beer. Heh.
Today was our official field day. I know that I said we had one last week, but today was the one that we were supposed to have back in March. We treated today like a real fire, it was essentially a drill. So we gathered up around 8:30 and got "briefed" on the fire situation we had facing us. We skipped PT and went right to the area where we were going to dig line. It was about a forty-five minute drive from the work center. We were actually digging line for a purpose, though – there’s a prescribed burn planned for that area on Sunday.
So anyway, we got out of the trucks, briefed again on our plan of attack and we started digging. We had been split up into three separate squads, but we all started out digging the line together. To dig a line means to dig up the ground until you reach mineral soil, something that won’t burn. We used a variety of tools, all of which you should google because I’m not going to explain them. I used a scraper and a Pulaski before lunch. After lunch I was on a combi for the rest of the line we dug. We started the line up hill and then went across the hill, moving the dirt up the hill. Then we went down on the other side. Going down was actually just as difficult as going up because you had to watch your footing even more. After that, the squads broke up and cleared the green from the area that is going to be burned (the "black"). This means that we took a lot of the still-green slash (branches, limbs, etc) out of the black and moved it to the "green" (the area that will remain unburned). At one point, Chad circled us up and reminded us that, should we run a fire-shelter deployment drill, don’t actually deploy your real fire shelter. I had a feeling he was telling us this for a reason, so I was just waiting for it to happen.
They kept calling out fake weather reports and fire behavior changes over the radio all day. Emily was about to have us "grid out" an area (sweep it in a line like a search party) to check for hot spots (spots where the ground is still smoldering) but we were called on the radio to meet up with another squad and pretend to dig a line around some spot fires that had cropped up. That brought us right up to lunch time. We broke for lunch where we were on the hill and it was nice to get the packs off. I found out a few days ago that my pack weighs about thirty-seven pounds. I have no idea how it could be so heavy. I think it’s the MREs and the batteries that add the extra weight. We have to have six quarts of water in the pack, which makes for a lot of the weight. But it didn’t feel this heavy before. Oh well. Once I got the pack off, my back stopped hurting. And it wasn’t so bad for most of the day. My shoulders seemed to take the brunt of it, which I prefer to having my lower back carry it all. So it’s fine (for now, heh … today was just Day 1).
Anyway, after lunch Chad (our main supervisor) circled us up and told us that the groups who are doing the burn on Sunday were hesitant about the lines we had dug. They were good, but he said that they wanted a line down the middle, just in case they didn’t want to burn it all right away. So we dug another line uphill. I was toward the end of the line and, by the time I got up the hill, I was the last person because the people behind me had stayed down at the bottom for some reason. Once I made it to the top, the decision was made to head back down and improve the line, to get all of the "duff" out of it (the small burnable material like pine needles and dead grass).
So we were about halfway back down the hill when they called for us to just stop what we were doing and get down the hill. The fire behavior was apparently beyond our control so we had to head to our escape route. We had only gone a few yards when they called for RTO, Reverse Tool Order – aka, turn around. Our escape route had been "cut off" and we had to run to our deployment site. So the order was called to drop packs, meaning take our line gear off. When you have to do a fire shelter deployment, you take your fire shelter out of your pack, a bottle of water and your tool and you just go, you leave everything else. So everyone was scrambling to grab everything we needed. Running with all of that is pretty awkward, I dropped my shelter once and my water bottle twice. We ran about a quarter of a mile and then Chad pointed to where our deployment site was. People were already lying down in the grass, so I joined them. It was pretty exhilarating. We treated it like a real deployment, talking to each other to make sure everyone was accounted for. We had lost two people – they had been held back as a test to make sure we were all paying attention to our numbers. Everyone also had to hold up their shelter, water and tool to prove they had it.
After that was all over, we walked back to where we dropped our packs and repacked our things. Then we loaded up and headed back to the trucks where we sharpened tools for a while. We did an AAR (After Action Report … the government sure loves their acronyms), where we circled up and discussed what happened that day, and then headed back to the work center.
It was a great day. I’m not gonna lie, it was rough. Digging line tires you out real quick and there isn’t much chance for recovery, you just have to keep going. Everyone was huffing and puffing, which made me feel a bit better about my own shortness of breath. And the fact that I'm a klutz really seems to come through in this line of work. The packs don’t help, but I know I’ll get used to it. My feet feel decent, surprisingly. Everyone was warning us about how today was going to prove that our boots weren’t broken in but I think I’ll be okay. I don’t have any blisters and I didn’t really feel any sustained hot spots. The ankle bracelet that I made will have to come off, though. It’s sad, but I can’t wear it with a boot that laces halfway up my calf. What I noticed more was that my sports bra straps had started to irritate me after a while because of all the pressure from the pack. I think I may have to find sports bras with wider straps or something. We’ll see how it goes the next time.
Today was definitely challenging, but I don’t think I questioned it. I just tried to keep going. My ability to stay positive has actually surprised me in the past few months. Even when things get crappy, I’m still not reconsidering my commitment to NCCC, which is good. I think Surf taught me that; after three seasons, I came to realize that even on my worst days, there’s no where else I’d rather be than on a field in the middle of who-knows-where, getting yelled at by Matt Hurley. I think the same goes for wildfire. At the end of all of this, I’ll look back and see how far I’ve come and how glad I am that I stuck it out.
Today was our official field day. I know that I said we had one last week, but today was the one that we were supposed to have back in March. We treated today like a real fire, it was essentially a drill. So we gathered up around 8:30 and got "briefed" on the fire situation we had facing us. We skipped PT and went right to the area where we were going to dig line. It was about a forty-five minute drive from the work center. We were actually digging line for a purpose, though – there’s a prescribed burn planned for that area on Sunday.
So anyway, we got out of the trucks, briefed again on our plan of attack and we started digging. We had been split up into three separate squads, but we all started out digging the line together. To dig a line means to dig up the ground until you reach mineral soil, something that won’t burn. We used a variety of tools, all of which you should google because I’m not going to explain them. I used a scraper and a Pulaski before lunch. After lunch I was on a combi for the rest of the line we dug. We started the line up hill and then went across the hill, moving the dirt up the hill. Then we went down on the other side. Going down was actually just as difficult as going up because you had to watch your footing even more. After that, the squads broke up and cleared the green from the area that is going to be burned (the "black"). This means that we took a lot of the still-green slash (branches, limbs, etc) out of the black and moved it to the "green" (the area that will remain unburned). At one point, Chad circled us up and reminded us that, should we run a fire-shelter deployment drill, don’t actually deploy your real fire shelter. I had a feeling he was telling us this for a reason, so I was just waiting for it to happen.
They kept calling out fake weather reports and fire behavior changes over the radio all day. Emily was about to have us "grid out" an area (sweep it in a line like a search party) to check for hot spots (spots where the ground is still smoldering) but we were called on the radio to meet up with another squad and pretend to dig a line around some spot fires that had cropped up. That brought us right up to lunch time. We broke for lunch where we were on the hill and it was nice to get the packs off. I found out a few days ago that my pack weighs about thirty-seven pounds. I have no idea how it could be so heavy. I think it’s the MREs and the batteries that add the extra weight. We have to have six quarts of water in the pack, which makes for a lot of the weight. But it didn’t feel this heavy before. Oh well. Once I got the pack off, my back stopped hurting. And it wasn’t so bad for most of the day. My shoulders seemed to take the brunt of it, which I prefer to having my lower back carry it all. So it’s fine (for now, heh … today was just Day 1).
Anyway, after lunch Chad (our main supervisor) circled us up and told us that the groups who are doing the burn on Sunday were hesitant about the lines we had dug. They were good, but he said that they wanted a line down the middle, just in case they didn’t want to burn it all right away. So we dug another line uphill. I was toward the end of the line and, by the time I got up the hill, I was the last person because the people behind me had stayed down at the bottom for some reason. Once I made it to the top, the decision was made to head back down and improve the line, to get all of the "duff" out of it (the small burnable material like pine needles and dead grass).
So we were about halfway back down the hill when they called for us to just stop what we were doing and get down the hill. The fire behavior was apparently beyond our control so we had to head to our escape route. We had only gone a few yards when they called for RTO, Reverse Tool Order – aka, turn around. Our escape route had been "cut off" and we had to run to our deployment site. So the order was called to drop packs, meaning take our line gear off. When you have to do a fire shelter deployment, you take your fire shelter out of your pack, a bottle of water and your tool and you just go, you leave everything else. So everyone was scrambling to grab everything we needed. Running with all of that is pretty awkward, I dropped my shelter once and my water bottle twice. We ran about a quarter of a mile and then Chad pointed to where our deployment site was. People were already lying down in the grass, so I joined them. It was pretty exhilarating. We treated it like a real deployment, talking to each other to make sure everyone was accounted for. We had lost two people – they had been held back as a test to make sure we were all paying attention to our numbers. Everyone also had to hold up their shelter, water and tool to prove they had it.
After that was all over, we walked back to where we dropped our packs and repacked our things. Then we loaded up and headed back to the trucks where we sharpened tools for a while. We did an AAR (After Action Report … the government sure loves their acronyms), where we circled up and discussed what happened that day, and then headed back to the work center.
It was a great day. I’m not gonna lie, it was rough. Digging line tires you out real quick and there isn’t much chance for recovery, you just have to keep going. Everyone was huffing and puffing, which made me feel a bit better about my own shortness of breath. And the fact that I'm a klutz really seems to come through in this line of work. The packs don’t help, but I know I’ll get used to it. My feet feel decent, surprisingly. Everyone was warning us about how today was going to prove that our boots weren’t broken in but I think I’ll be okay. I don’t have any blisters and I didn’t really feel any sustained hot spots. The ankle bracelet that I made will have to come off, though. It’s sad, but I can’t wear it with a boot that laces halfway up my calf. What I noticed more was that my sports bra straps had started to irritate me after a while because of all the pressure from the pack. I think I may have to find sports bras with wider straps or something. We’ll see how it goes the next time.
Today was definitely challenging, but I don’t think I questioned it. I just tried to keep going. My ability to stay positive has actually surprised me in the past few months. Even when things get crappy, I’m still not reconsidering my commitment to NCCC, which is good. I think Surf taught me that; after three seasons, I came to realize that even on my worst days, there’s no where else I’d rather be than on a field in the middle of who-knows-where, getting yelled at by Matt Hurley. I think the same goes for wildfire. At the end of all of this, I’ll look back and see how far I’ve come and how glad I am that I stuck it out.
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