Adventure

Tonight luke and I went out for a skiing adventure, it was our first time headed out to this trail this year. We weren't sure if it would be groomed or not but we thought that we would give it a try anyway. Well the trail wasn't really groomed. it had been at one point but not since the most recent snowfall. Well we gave it a try anyway. Then all of a sudden we were at the sign for the big hill and were like, this doesn't seem right. But kept going all of the sudden I was like I think we are going up the big hill....luke was like are you sure. it kept getting steeper and steeper. eventually we were both like we don't want to go up this anymore. So we turned around. and we were just gonna head back. Then all of a sudden I heard a pop. I thought luke's ski had fell off. turns out it did because it had broke. so luke had to walk back to the begining of the trail. Somehow we had missed the turn for the loop we normally do and ended up being at the bottom of the trail.

what a weird adventure

Storms

A couple of weeks ago, about the time the first snowstorm went thru, one of the meterologist on the local tv station decided that he was going to name all of the storms that have been coming thru. They have been naming them like they name huricanes. It was ok at first, but now it is getting kind of annoying....... I think that one that is here today is called Ernie and the next one which is supposed to be over xmas is Fritz.

So all I hear when I watch GMA is when Ernie is done and when Fritz gets here....its only december I wonder if our storms will be named all the way to march...they have some work to do if they plan to do that.

hmmmmmm

Thats what I have to say about today hmmmmmmmmmm.
I should be getting excited that Xmas is coming but Im not really
I went skiing the other night for the first time this winter, that was pretty fun, a little chilly but fun.
Added bonus was that I didn't fall down at all
It has been frigid here lately, I can't wait til its time for me to go to ecuador so I can see some sun and not freeze

quote 4 the day

I saw this quote today and found it funny


No one can earn a million dollars honestly.
- William Jennings Bryan


and today when I got up it was -33 (not including the windchill)

-23


Thats was the temp when I got up this morning...gotta love it

Burn Baby Burn

Today I went up to my grandparents house and burnt a big ol brush/junk/not really sure what pile with my dad!

Oh how I love to burn things!

There is just something about playing with fire that makes my day!

whered I go

So I am sure you are wondering where I went, well I just dont have much to blog about these days.
I have lots going on but nothing that is to blog worthy
I am bummed because I am not going to stephie's party this weekend (it just didnt work out)
I did go visit jen b this past weekend. she and carli were visiting her parents in Northern WI so I drove over there to see her, much closer than ohio
Today is my brothers birthday!
It is snowing lots today, I am hoping that we get enough to ski (I think that we did)
I went out and got a tree from my parents yard today (haven't decorated yet)
Hmm thats all I got

grIncH

So on my 2.5 tv channels there isn't ever to much to watch on tv, but today I got my new couch and I didn't have any new movies around so I am watching what I have

And well the gRiNch is on and it reminded me of the time when I lived in the Crooked yellow house and we had a party to watch the Grinch and play a drinking game with it.

For those of you who don't know you are supposed to drink everytime that they say the word "who"

anyway I think if I were to try it today that I might be passed out before the 30 min movie was over...

.........ahhhhh the days of the crooked yellow house!!!!!!!

Birthday, thanksgiving,and not much else

My birthday was the past week, thanks to all who sent me birthday wishes. I didn't do much to celebrate the big day. I have learned long ago that having a birthday so close to a holiday makes it hard to celebrate since everyone is always off visiting relatives and such.

But anyway I did go out to dinner with my parents, my brother and his fiance and my nephew. It was a good dinner I treated myself to a steak which I never do and also got a free dessert since it was my b-day. Andrew picked it out and it was the weirdest one on the menu and wasn't the best but a free dessert is good no matter what. Later in the evening I went over to scott and steph's and hung out with them and a couple of their friends. Their dog Hank is my new favorite dog. He is so nice and soft and just wants to be petted.

Did anyone notice that I said my brother and his fiance....yep my brother got engaged on the day before my birthday. So now both my sister and brother are getting married. I am very happy for both my siblings.

Thanksgiving was spent at my mom and dad's house. My grandparents and their dog spud were there along with my brother, steph and andrew. The turkey was yummy although I thought that my parents were going to burn the house down. somehow the oven got really smokey and wouldn't stop. Andrew told everybody to get low to the ground and cover your mouths so that you don't enhale smoke. Glad he is learning what to do in case of a house fire


The rest of the weekend was pretty mellow, I think it is the first time since I have been home that I haven't had any plans on a weekend. It was nice to just chill at home.

Keys

Can anyone guess how many keys I have for my house?


When I bought my house I was given a lot of keys and for the past 2 years I have only really used a couple of them, so recently I finally decided that I was going to figure out how many of them actually worked and how many I really had.

I was suprised at the number of keys that belong to me.

Elaborate

Since it seems that everybody who reads this wants more info here ya go

Why Ecuador?
Well most of you that read this know that took a trip to South America a few years ago, and ever since then I wanted to go back and I have never been to Ecuador and have heard lots of good things about it. so know I dont know anyone there and am just going to go somewhere during the coldest part of the winter

How did I decide to go?
One day while I was on a helitack (helicopter) fire assignment we were bored out of minds...ok we shouldn't have been bored cuz it was early in the morning, but it had been many long boring days. anyway Ben and I were talking about traveling and he said that he had never really done any international traveling but he wanted to and he was asking me questions about how much spanish you need to know and where to go. And I said well you just need to go with someone that knows enough to get by and that I have wanted to go to ecuador. His reply....well lets go to Ecuador then.
I wasn't sure if he was serious, but then I asked him about it once we were back in AK and he said that he was game. so since then I have been keeping an eye on tickets and been playing phone tag with ben and well we decided to go. We are leaving Jan 11th and coming back Feb 2

Yes the plan is to backpack.....really we dont have much of a plan yet, because ben is still in Alaska and lives where his phone doesn't have access to the internet. But he is headed back to Montana sometime soon so we will have better plans after that


So it seem a lot of you want to know about Ben.

Yes some of you are right I have mentioned him on my blog before. I don't think he reads my blog. I work with Ben up in Alaska we pretty much ended up spending most of the fire season together. I have posted pictures of his plane on here but don't think that I have posted any of him not sure if I have any. We both ended up on most of the same fire assignments. He is a really nice guy and as of now he is nothing more than a friend. We both had the same days off when we were on the helitack assignment and we traveled to the California coast together, and then after we were laid off we took a trip down to Denali together. We have fun traveling together so I think we will have a really good time traveling in Ecuador.

No he is not who I have taken trips with before, that is nick and jake.

Hopefully this satisfies some of your curiosity.

Here is a picture that i have of the first fire assignment to California from this summer. The crew that we took out was making Ben and Dale play an eskimo game and I tried to get some pictures of Ben and Dale trying to outsmart a rope (they didn't exceed)

Edit: so these pictures were taken on day 14 of our assignment and we had maybe showered once during this fire...we were at a spike camp with no showers.......so yes they are dirty and hairy.......

Ecuador

I just bought a plane ticket to Ecuador.....

Thats right I am going to be spending most of January in Ecuador.

No I am not going alone!!

My friend Ben is coming with me....


Yippee!!!

Deer hunting

Well this weekend was the opening of deer season here in MN and since it is the first year that I haven't been working in a while on opener I decided to go up and try my luck


me=not so lucky

my brother on the other hand shot the two deer in the pictures within 5 minutes of each other...he is one happy camper

plus he was the only one of our hunting party to get a deer as of sunday afternoon.


I came home yesterday and picked up my nephew. he had been asking to have a sleepover at my house and he didn't have school today so I we hung out today....we even made a volcano!!!!

Not much new

with me at least.... Ive been quite busy though. my friend pat came to visit for a couple of days last week.......he is looking for a house in Ely.

Then was haloween.....what an interesting night

I met up with Randy down in Duluth on monday.......we had a nice dinner at the 0live G@rden..yummy yummy

Tuesday was election day, I voted and then was excited to see the results.....it was nice to see how much people believing in something can make it happen....I look forward to the next four years......technically the pres is my boss since I do work for the feds

Now its time to get ready to go deer hunting this weekend.

although I say not much is new with me there seem to be a lot of new with the rest of my family

my mom and dad just bought a new car...it is the 2009 version of my car

my sister has a new house and a new ring

my brother and steph have a new puppy dog...he is a very cute golden retriever/ lab mix.....picture a dog the has the same build and fur as a golden except that the fur is black

me well i got that is new is a couch...well I don't have it yet but I did buy one but it wont be here for a couple of weeks


That all I got

Pumpkin time

Yesterday Andrew and I carved pumpkins. It was the first time in a long time that I have carved one and let me tell you it was way different than I remember.

First off Andrew requested gloves to clean the "guts" out...... what I remember was the fun of pulling all the slimy "guts" out
There was a left over carving kit here at my house from last year when andrew and his dad carved one. I told andrew that he could pick one of the patterns or desgin his own! He chooses design his own. I am like sweet we will carve some eyes, mouth, and nose......he ask me to do one of the patterns I say ok Ill try one.

Well andrew was drawing his design on his pumpkin and then asked me to help carve it. I go over and look...holy crap that is no eyes, ears, and mouth it was a very intracite design.....but it turned out fairly well


As for mine...well I tried to do this skeleton thing and it is ok, but I think that it will be better when it is dark.......I am going for the plain simple pumpkins the next time!!!! to much work with these crazy patterns

Go away

I just want the political ads to go away!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I only have 3 tv channels and if I have to hear these ads anymore I may just poke my eyes out

not only is it the presidential here in mn but there is a senate race and those are worse!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Please please Nov 4 come soon



Edit:So I have decided that if I am watching tv everytime a political ad comes on I am going to do push up or sit-ups during it. Either I will be buff by the time the election is over or I will stop watching tv

Dreary Day

Thats what today is....it is rainy and probably cold outside, one of those days where you have to have lights on in the house on in the house during the middle of the day because it is so dreary outside...I was hoping for a nice sunny day today


oh yeah I forgot to mention the other day that Hil@ry Clint0n came to hibbing the other night......Im not big into politics or anything but I figure how often do I get a chance to see someone like that in Hibbing...so I went with my brothers GF it was pretty cool to go to. dont know if I would go again but now I can say that I have seen Hil@ry in person in Hibbing MN

Internet

I have internet at my house!!!! who hooo!!!!


I have been busy doing little things here and there around my house, visiting people and enjoying the fact that it isn't quite winter here yet!! The first time that I have been back in Minnesota before the middle or end of Nov in a long time.

Back in MN

yep I am back in MN..... I got back friday night, but don't have internet hooked up at home yet. Internet is expensive these days. I just don't know how they charge so much for internet oh well. I decided to go with just internet and no cable.....not saving much but saving some.


so I know I still have to update more about my trip back to MN but am waiting til I have internet at home so that I can add more pictures and take my time writing it up

What know you may ask...well I am going to be busy getting my house in order and doing little projects around there.... I am sure that I will find plenty to keep me busy

Journey part 1

So here is the recap of what I have been doing since I got done with work

Day 1: I was still in fairbanks and it was slowly starting to turn into winter so a group of us decided to go and soak in the water at Chena H0tsprings...it was a nice soak....after we got out of the water we saw a moose just hanging out right by the hotsprings (see photo) and then afterwards we went to the hotsprings bar had a couple of beers and then headed down the road to another resturant to have some dinner.... yum yum Moose hanging out at the hotsprings


Day 2: was spent at brunch with a bunch of people from work, finally packing my car and then watching movies

Day3: Well it was time to head off to Denali....my friend Ben decided to come along with me and being that he lives where his phone doesn't work we didn't plan all that much but it all worked out well. We decided to drive Ben's truck down to the park, since he had his dog ike and with all my stuff in the car we decided that it would be best to take the truck. So off we went
We leave fairbanks and all of a sudden we are in a winter wonderland..yes there was some snow in fairbanks but not nearly as much as there was as we got into the mountians. We went to the park and went to get a pass only to find out that the road into the park was already closed for the witner......( during the tourist season you can only drive to mile 3 and then you have to take a shuttle bus in the rest of the way, during non peal you can drive to mile 30 which was what our plan was) so being that the road was closed we decided to head over to teh Den@li highway which is a dirt road that was the original road to the park. We drove a little and then picked out a place to go and take a hike...here are the pictures from that hike/day

Back

Im back into the world of computer access, done sleeping in my car for a few days....but not home yet


I am currently in WA visiting my sister!


Stay tuned for the adventures of my trip so far...there are lots of them and I took lots of pictures

LAST DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

TODAY IS MY LAST DAY OF WORK FOR THE NEXT 6 MONTHS!!!!!


YIPPEE SKIPPEE!!!!!!!!!



STAY TUNED FOR THE ADVENTURES OF MY TRIP HOME !!!!!!!!!!!


I PROMISE LOTS OF PICTURES!!!!!!!

Weekend Update

Not to much to report about my weekend.

On Friday I went to a wedding of a girl who works here at AFS, I don't really know her but everyone at work convinced me to go. It ended up being a fun time. It was a nice simple wedding in total Alaskan style. People drinking beer and wine before and during the ceremony. Not to many people there, where whatever you want kind of thing. Nice and simple. After the reception a bunch of us headed out to a bar in fairbanks and proceeded to stay out way to late

Sat: was spent saying bye to people and going for coffee at 1:30 in the afternoon, coming back to base and having security tell us to have a good evening and all of us thinking that the day had barely started. After awhile we decided that dinner was needed and headed over to an italian resturant which was good but over priced. Once we got back to the barracks we had a small hall party

Sun: I got up way early to drive my friend Dale to the airport for his flight back to South Dakota, I came home and went back to sleep for a while and then headed out to brunch. it is amazing how whenever I go out to brunch with people from work how we make it into an all day affair. we where at brunch from 11-2. later in the evening I finished the hat that I had been knitting.


now it is back to work. just waiting til the end of the week to get laid off. nothing to excitin

My ride home

well i did it a purchased a ferry ticket to get me part of the way back to the lower 48. On October 5th I am going to jump on the ferry in Haine's Ak and ride down to Prince Rupert B.C after that I am either going to drive or to take the B.C ferry to Vancouver island....only one piece at a time

Stuff

So every year around the time that I go to move to or from work I realize that I have a lot of stuff, I think about how much of the stuff that I own I never use....and I think that I should get rid of it, problem is that I can never part with some of the stuff that I have because I do use it from time to time.

Today for example I was going thru bins of stuff that I have here in AK and realized that I didn't even realize that I had that stuff here with me, the thing it is that I used it all winter so I brought it with me to Alaska....and then never really needed it.


Then there is also the fact that I spent the last month living out of one bag that had 3 work t- shirts, 2 non work shirts, 2 pair of work pants, 2 pair of non work pants, one that can be turned into capris, a sweatshirt, down jacket and maybe a couple of other misc things......so why really do I need all this stuff!!

So my goal is to not buy as much stuff, I don't think that it will actually happen but we will see. I just like having stuff even though some of it sits for 6 months of the year.

end of season

so the end of my fire season is nearing, this is the earliest that I have ever been done with a season, it is a little weird for me to be done this early but I am not going to complain.

the hard thing is that now that I have a general idea of when I am done working I have to decide what I want to do when I am done. I am pondering a couple of different possibilities. I definitely want to go and explore some of alaska before I head back home but I am not sure where i want to go. I had a plan to take the ferry down thru the southeast passage but when I started looking into that I realized that alot of them were already booked. I could get part of the way to Washington but not the rest.....so now i have to reasearch it more. I could bum around until there is space on a ferry but who knows when that may be and I am not sure I want to be bumming around for that long....to many decisions and I hate decisions.....help me decide where in Alaska I should go before I head home for the winter

im alive

I know that you were all wondering if I had fallen off the face of the planet, but nope Im alive.

I am back in Ak, I just got back after spending another month down there in CA working on a helicopter module. I will write more about that later


now I am back to work it is definitely fall here with lots color on the leaves. I will most likely be working for the next two weeks and will then get laid off and then I dont know what the plan is going to be after that.

well I just wanted to let everyone know that I am back and now have computer access.

Off again

so once again I am off to CA, it seems like I can't get away from there, This time I am going down to work on a helicopter right now the helicopter is near where I used to work, I am not sure if they are on a fire or not.

Hopefully they are doing something so that we just don't sit the whole time that I am there, maybe if I am lucky I will even be able to use the internet some, Probably not but you never know

Here are some photos for you all to view, the first 2 are of my friend ben's plane this is the spot on the river where we landed the night that we went flying. and believe it or not Dana is alive I have proof in a photo below. the other one is of my sister and I being goofy nad one being nice, I didn't include the one that josh took, laura and dana can tell you about that one

Blogging Blah

Yep I think I have the blogging blahs.

This not really having internet kind of sucks when it comes to blogging

I want to post pictures but it is so slow that I am unable to do so without it taking all day. Hopefully if I am arouond Sat Ill come into the office and do so since there will be no one here and maybe it will make it easier to post them.

Last night I went out flying with one of the guys I work with, he has a little 2 seater float plane so we went off on adventure to see what we could find, we saw a bunch of bear and moose, but I didn't really take any pictures of them. Then we saw a spot on the river we were flying over that would be long enough to take off on so we landed and hung out on the river bank for a little while. It was pretty cool to be out there and wonder when the last time a human had been there, or if there ever had been someone there. we both thought that a boat might be able to get that far up the river but we weren't 100% sure. Thats the crazy thing about alaska there are so much land here and you never know if someone had been there before.


I am back here in the office for a little bit, I don't know how long, it will all depend on when my boss wants to send me back down, this time though I think I will be going down as a single resource so that will be good.

quick and dirty

Most of you may have heard about the recent deaths of firefighters on some of the California fires.

I was not on any of those fires, however the 18 year old that was killed is the brother of a good friend of mine.

The crew that I was with went back to Alaska yesterday, but I didn't go with them. I got in a car and drove up to Seattle. I will be here until monday or tuesday. Thankfully my sister is here and I get to spend time with her and craig, while also spending time with the palmer family. I have a bunch of friends that are coming in to support rob and his family. It is a tough time for all of us because it reminds us of when we lost our friend Dan in 04. Rob was on the crew with me then and now he is suffering from a similar accident

For those of you who are out there reading this... it you have an extra $52.00 or whatever please dontate to the wildland firefighters foundation.....they do so much for firefighters and I want to help them in anyway that I can. They do more for the families and friends of fallen firefighters than you can imagine.

Im alive

yes I am alive!!!

I am back from the american river complex of fires in CA, it was a good trip, it was different with a crew that wasn't a bunch of hotshots, but it was good none the less

I had two days off didn't do a whole lot, except fly back to Galena.

I am came back to take a class in the morning, and then after that I am off to fly back to fairbanks and then leave again for Cali on tuesday morning. yep I am off again, not as a crew boss, but this time as a crew rep...what is that you ask, well I will be finding out all the details of it in the morning.

hopefully I will get a chance to post a couple of pictures tonight, but am not sure I will since I will be doing lots of other stuff as well since it is my only night in galena

Lower 48

well ive got afire assingment. it seems as though cali is burning up so they are sending resources from Alaska down there to help. I am going down as a crew boss trainee with a crew of 20 people from the villages here. It should be a fun time and being that it rained cats and dogs here yesterday I am not to worried that I am going to miss out on things here.

hopefully we get assinged to a good fire and have a good time......

dont miss me to much while I am gone

Finally

Here are the photos from the fire I was on.....yes it took me a while but here they are. Most of them are from when we were on the helicopter or watching the "ducks or helicopter drop water on the fire!!

Things

Here are some things that I have realized are of great importance to me currently


1. Music....my ipod is my new best friend. I listen to it when I run, work, after work, on the way to and from work and just about anytime......it helps that I got all of steve's (helicopter pilot) music from him so I have new things to listen to. IF anyone has any suggestions about good music let me know or send me cd's I can always use more

2. Boxed wine.....I never thought I would say that I am a fan of boxed wine, but in reality I am. once you don't have the ability to go out and just buy whatever you want you find the beauty in other things....boxed wine is easy to transport, you don't have to drink the whole bottle all at once, it doesn't go bad and it taste good....yes wine is important in my life currently.

3. light and sun....it is amazing how much it being light all the time affects you...when it is cloudy and rainy it is kind of derpressing because the sun isn't shining....actually it is only depressing when it has been nice for a couple of days

4. internet......Tonight I figured out that the helicopter that just got here now has internet and they have a wireless router that for the time being works in my room...whohooo.....it is slower than crap but it is internet and gives me something to do at night as long as it keeps working

5. running...it seems like I run or work out quite a bit these days...gotta occupy my time somehow

6. mail.......it makes me think I have some sort of contact with the outside world...sometimes I send myself some just to get stuff



Things I want to go away......

1. the rain...how are we ever going to get fires if it doesn't stop raining....yes I know that there are fires down south but there is still fire danger here so I don't think that I will be able to go down south quite yet

2. the crazy kids that are staying at my house...my one roommate has her daughter and grandkids staying here...dont get me wrong I love kids, but these people just don't pay attention to their kids and let them cry all night and then don't get up with them in the morning

3. false alarm fires...tonight we had a false alarm fire...we got in the helicopter and headed out to a reported fire...we found it but it was just the dump burning....we turned around and came home.

4. the crazies here at work.....people are bored and sometimes get crazy...it would be nice if the FMO (person in charge) here like smokejumpers...then we could have some stagged here and it would give me something to look at during the day



ok for those of you who are wondering about it being light here is what I can tell you

yes it is pretty much light 24/7
I am used to it now and can sleep no problem...one trick is that you have to close all your blinds like and hour before you want to go to sleep so that you can make yourseld think it is dark
you end up staying up or out way longer than you had planned if you aren't paying attention.....staying out till 5 in the morning is no big deal here beacause it is light out the whole time and you don't know if it is 10pm or 5 am
plants and stuff grow like crazy right now because of the light.......it is a short growing season if you count the days but it is almost like each day is 2 because of the light

Here are 2

Here are two photos of the 2 fires I found last week.....

Midnight Sun

This weekend was the summer solstice which is a pretty big deal here in AK......in a way it is sad to me because that means that the days are only going to get shorter now....just when I was used to it being light all day.

Any way there was a big softball tournament here on Friday and Saturday. I went over with a couple of people and watched some games on friday night....the last game being at midnight.....there were two girls that I know playing on that team so it was fun to watch.

Afterwards we went to the bar for a little while nothing to to exciting

I found out that there was a race on saturday. It was a race around the dike, which is the road that I run almost everyday so I figured why not go and do it.....so it started at 11:00 and I wake up and was trying to decide if I wanted to go....I had stayed up late the night before and had had a couple of beers so I wasn't sure if I wanted to race or not.....well I couldn't fall back asleep so I decided to ride over there and do it.....

I ended up getting second in the woman's divsion.....and the prize for that was $50.00

So I was excited about getting 50 bucks for doing something I do everyday anyway.....I think I could have gotten 1st if I hadn't been up till the wee hours the night before

Later in the afternoon I got ropped into playing on a softball team...it was ok...I think I would have enjoyed it more if it had been with more people that I knew. We lost miserably but it oh well. It was a beautiful day out so it was nice to be outside.

today I am work, hopefully we get a fire today...there was lots of lightning so we will see

Fire

I got my first fire here in Alaska.

on Friday I went out and flew a detection flight, which is where someone goes up in the airplane looking for fires. we had a report from a comercial airplane that they had seen a fire. so I go up and fly around looking for fires and we found 2 of them.

the airplane then dropped me off at a village's airport and then the helicopter came and picked me up and we went to the fire.

it wasn't to much of a fire but I got to experience having wet feet in alaksa...the minute I stepped off the helicopter I was up to my knees in water. it looked like a solid place to land but it was a floating bog..

I was on the fire for 3 days and then back here to Galena

the best part was that I got to work my weekend and that is always a good thing.

It is back to being cold and rainy here well today is a little bit nicer.

The best thing is that I was one of only a few firefighters here who have actually been on a fire this summer. The other fire that we had a bunch of jumpers jumped it. I wish I could have seen them jumping that would have been pretty cool.

I will try to post some pictures later of the fire... I just have to download them from my camera first

Town

I got to go to town last night

it was only for one night but it was nice to hang out with some other people

and for those of you wondering no I have not been hanging out with anyone in particular (if only that was the case) just not much computer access time here

Please

Make the rain go away!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I need there to be fires!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If there aren't any soon I will have to go the extreme and think about having to work in the winter!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


ok that is the extreme extreme scenario....but we need dry weather so that we can get some fires and I can be less bored

I know I have been slacking on posting these days but I don't have much time to be on the computer...ok I have tons of time but I am not really supposed to sit around the office and mess around on the computer but today it is raining so I am updating both sites!!

whats up

so what have I been doing you ask?

a whole lot of nothing....just trying to stay busy at work until we get some fires, whenever that may be...who knows. it was super nice over the weekend and I thought we might be on our way to having a fire season...well today it is cloudy and cooler again.

at least we got our garden planted yesterday....ok not our garden...it is more one of our dispatcher hilary's garden but it is in front of my house and I helped her plant it. She will be here most of the summer so she will be able to care for it more than me. I hopefully will be off fighting fires and not here.


here are a few things that I have been doing since I have been here in Galena

working out...I work out 2 sometimes 3 times a day....a run in the morning, lifting weights in the afternoons and sometimes after work when I have nothing to do I go over to the old airforce gym with a couple of people and workout somemore. I figure in order to avoid going insane from having nothing to do I might as well be in shape..right

I have not had any carbonated beverages...ok I take that back I have had beer....but no soda since I have been here....I am trying to see how long I can go without soda

Fast food...it does not exist here in galena so I do not eat it

My bed time is much later now than it has been in the past.....being that it doesn't get dark anymore..the sunsets but it doesn't get dark. you forget what time it is and if you aren't paying attention to the time you end up staying up later than you had planned.

The mosquitoes are out now and so are the leaves on the trees..it is super pretty with the leaves and the river here, but the I can tell that the bugs could get bad fast and then I will be retreating indoors

I thought about more for this post on my run this morning but now I just can't seem to remember what that was.

So so close

I was so close to going to my first fire in Alaska yesterday.

we worked late until like 7:30 becasue of lightning and just wanted to make sure that nothing popped.

Then I went to ride my bike home and the wind was outreagous. I am pretty sure that one point we were pedaling and not going anywhere.

Then I had been home for about 20 minutes when the phone rings first thing I hear "are you fit to fly there is a fire in the Ruby dump and we are sending you and the helicopter"

so I was thinking sweet. I fuigured that since it was in the dump that all we would do is drop water on it. I ride my bike back to work...at lightning fast speed since the wind was at my back this time. Find out that there are already jumpers on the way but they are just going to have them recon the fire.

we are just about ready to go when we get a call from the town saying that they had it taken care of and that they didn't need our help. I was kind of bummed and I think that the pilot was as well since he is new to fire and has never flown on a fire.

But the good news is that I am also working today, but it is freezing out and I don't think that we will get any fires today although it is windy and we did get lots of lightning yesterday. I hope that it gets warmer soon.

I am sure we will get a fire that we have to take action on soon, or at least I tell myself that.

who hoo

we got fires!!!

yesterday there was a bunch of lightening and when the plane was coming in they noticed some smoke.....and yep they found 4 fires, granted they are in the middle of nowhere and we will just let them burn for now, but they are fires...who knows maybe we will pick up some more today...maybe one that needs to have some one on it to monitor it....

although today is quite a bit cooler outside.

The view

ok so it isn't the best picture but behind the red trucks in the pictures is where we are stationed.....I am across the run way closest to the river!!!

Mellow

thats what this week has been. There are not many people around our little station this week so that means things are pretty mellow...no bosses just everyone doing there own thing totally not what I was used to but I like it

so my boss calls on tuesday and says "Amy your in charge"
I am like of What'
him the helicopter!
me ok
(but in my head I am like I don't know crap about managing a helicopter since my class that I took wasn't that great)

so for the last couple of days I have been in charge of the helicopter.....it doesn't take much when it isn't flying much.....just some paperwork...

but the point of this story is that I have figured out that they do things differently in Alaska...in the lower 48 they would have never let someone do stuff if they didn't have the qualifications to do it lisited on their red card, the gov is weird and even though you may be way qualifed to do a job if your red card doesn't say it you can't do it...here they are more like you are the only one there that is semi qualified to do it just do it.....I like that they are like that it will give me way more nad better experience than I was getting.

well I should get back to work

time to go private

ok so I am not going to make this blog private beacause I know alot of my family reads it and wants to be able to see how I am doing and I like posting my pictures...but there are some other things that I want to be able to talk about and not be worried about someone at work coming across them.

so if you want to find out more about previous post please send me your email addresses first.last@gmail.com

Graduation in Galena

Last night was a big night in Galena....High school graduation. A few of us headed out to the the dance at the town hall...it was kind of like a wedding...lots of kids dancing to the band and lots of people there. Well lots for Galena. The funny thing was that it didn't even start until like 11;30pm yep that is when it got hopping. the band ended at 1:00 and then people hit the bar...it was funny being at the bar... I was like one of 5 white people there so everyone wanted to know where I was from..the helicopter pilot and I worked out a deal to look out for each other...make sure none of the crazy bar locals tried anything funny. He is a younger pilot by younger I mean my age...lots of the pilots we have are older. I haven't ever really hung out with the pilots before but so far this year it has been fun getting to know them. We went with two of our cooks who have been around for a while and both the helicopter pilot and I are new so we weren't sure what to expect. I am not sure how he wanted me to look out for him but hey it ok it was a fun time and he did have to scare one drunk guy away and I did have to make this old woman leave him alone. .... we came home at 3:00 or so and it was just getting dark...or maybe it was getting light again. I don't know...it seems to not ever really get dark I discovered....all in all it was a pretty fun night....and yes i did dance....

in other news I may have to make my blog private...I don't really want to but since i know use the work computers to update I think I may have to go that route. I do go private I will let you know and hopefully makes sure everyone can still view it.

Tommorow is another day off...no big plans..I will probably go and try to get some firewood for our sauna since we are running low.

Pictures

Here are some photos for you all.

First off here are my new methods of transportation:

Here are some photos of pack testing in the villages of Ambler and Koyuk

Ice over the ocean:

This is a shee fish....one of the guys in a village gave it to us...our cooked it up and it was yummy

Here are a couple shots of when the ice broke up on the yukon river here in Galena...I have some video that I will try to up load later

update:...if anyone has a basket for my pee-wee bike I will gladly take it...I choose that one because of the horn...some had baskets but didn't have fenders and fenders are important so because of the mud.

snow: there really isn't any snow any more..in the mountains yes but elsewhere not much.....it melts quick up here

Ill be here in alaska till probably oct...but even though I will be here till then I will be available for fires and could be anywhere in the U.S.

My sunday

I started off today with plans to nothing really. I ended up doing lots of stuff

On Sundays everyone tries to get together for brunch, but today we kind of decided to not do the big brunch thing since it was mothers day and we didn't want to have to wait and because a bunch of people had to work today. So 3 of us decided to go to a bagel and coffee shop for brunch.....shortly after we left we get a call from some other folks that they were coming. next thing you know a couple of people from work show up randomly and then some more arrive. our little brunch turned into a big brunch.

Someone mentioned going out to Chena hotsprings and most of us thought that it would be a fun thing to do since today was such a nice day out. So we headed out. the hot springs are about 60 miles from fairbanks, and it was well worth the drive.

so intstead of doing nothing all day I spent the afternoon sitting in the hotspings.

no I didn't take this picture and it didn't look like this now. but you get the idea, it was like being in a big hottub

So

I took a bunch of pictures this week and now that I am back in fairbanks, where my computer was and I thought that usb cable was. I have come to discover that I can't find my usb cable.......hmm must be in a box somewhere.


anyway I do have pictures just not right now.

this week was good. I spent a lot of time in a airplane. we went to different villages everyday and most of them were pretty far away.

one of our pilots scott, likes to fly the plane pretty low and is really good at pointing things out to me since he knows that I am new to the area. I am also the smallest person in our group so I have ended up flying co-pilot on almost every flight. If I have my pilots licsence I would be raking in the flight hours. We have seen lots of different stuff from the air, we have seen, caribou, moose, elk, seals, and even a grizzly with 2 cubs. at first I wasn't so sure about sitting up in front of the plane bascially because some of the turns that we make are pretty tight and it sometimes feels like you are going to fall out of the plane, but now I am used to it and it isn't so bad.

well Ill post more after download my pictures.

Galena bound

Well its official, I am off to Galena tommorow.
Well that is if nothing changes. It seems that the plan tends to change daily.....but hey thats what keeps things interesting.

As of right now I am coming back to fairbanks on friday... so I will be back in town much sooner than I thought.

my weekend was pretty good. I pretty much wasted sunday away. I think I spent like 5 hours sitting in the hallway. we tend to have hall parties here on the second floor of the dorms. we all just kind of end up in the hall and sometimes can be there for awhile..tonight we had everything from snacks which lead to ordering pizza because none of us knew what was for dinner. The pizza tool forever so we just hung out and harrassed anyone who wanted to walk by. Then we ate some yummy pizza and afterwards we had ice cream. well we had enough ice cream for each person to get a bite.

yes we may be dorks, but when you live on base there isn't a ton to do and it was raining.

The hallway is definitely someplace that can suck you in....it is kind of like the alph gam couch but not as comfy

we did spend alot of time rehasing the events of the weekend.

I should have some pictures soon. I believe that I will be going to a bunch of different villages this week so that should be cool. I may even be going above the artic circle

NOOOOOOOO!!!

I woke up this morning and it is snowing!!! It is April 30th WTF!!!

I thought that the snow was going to go away, but now I think that it is never going to go away

awful

that is how you would describe the class that I am taking this week, just plain awful. I know some of the fire courses that are taught to us aren't put together in the best way so it always isn't the instructors fault when the class is bad, but that is not the case here folks. we are stuck with instructors, that just don't really know how to teach and are unprepared

oh well.

I found out today I fly to Galena on tues, I originally thought that I was leaving on sunday, but am not til tuesday. which means that I will have an extra day to do some of the online training that I need to know, somehow I have never have had to do all this online stuff before, I am not sure how we got out of doing some of it, but we did but now I have to do it and it is pretty noninteresting government stuff.

I got a suprise in the mail today. My old boss sent me this I thought that it was pretty cool. I don't know anyone else who has gotten something like this when they have left the crew, I know some people have gotten a framed photo but not a framed patch like this. It is pretty cool, because just someone today asked me if I got a patch when I left, patches are hard to come by they don't just hand them out on arrowhead so I was pretty excited that I got one.

Blah

that is how I would describe my day today. I spent the morning doing pre-work for a class that I found out I was taking and then in the afternoon I went and sat thru the first part of this class...if today was an indication of what the rest of the class is going to be like, then I am in big trouble....it was super boring....it doesn't help that I have already sat thru 2 weeks of training, but at least that stuff was interesting

oh well you can't turn down training so ya gotta take it when it is offered to you....

sorry I still haven't taken any pictures...it has been so gray and blah here the last few days that it is like winter returned...ok winter did return snow and all, but not as much snow as those of you in MN got. It was just starting to get nice and bam here comes winter again.....It gotta be spring sometime right?

camping

we spent the last two days camping for work...we did lots of alaska specific fire scenarios so that was good.

it was pretty nice out, the snow is starting to melt, and some people claim that they have seen mosquito, but I don't believe them. I don't think it is warm enough for them. yet

we are supposed to get snow tonight booooo

I only have one day of classroom training left yipeee

and then on fri we have another fire simulation

then its the weekend and I have no clue what I am going to do, probably work on packing up a bunch of my stuff so I can get it ready for when I go to Galena

well its time for me to go to work....boo who!!

life on fort wainwright

Well, my first week of work is over. All went pretty well.

I was in training all week and will be all of next week, so that kind of sucks, but at the same time I am learning alot

I found out that I will be going out to Galena earlier than I had thought, I figured I would be going out in late may, but it turns out that I am heading out there around may 5th...well actually I am heading to some villages first to train some of the native crews there, and then I am heading to galena. it will be an experience to see some of these villages.

what else do I know, hmm last night a bunch of us headed out to watch one of the guys play at a local bar.....so all you techies will love this. The university of Alaska Fairbanks is here in town and I learned yesterday that they have a bar on campus in the their student union building...it was definitely different walking into a building like the mub to go to the bar. Although I am sure that the students here need to drink in the winter when it is dark for like 22 hrs aday....but it was pretty fun.

not much in store tonight, just kind of chillin it was 50 degrees out today cloudy but 50 and most of the locals broke out the flip-flops and shorts...yes I am serious.
I think most people here are ready for spring to roll around. hopefully it comes soon, because the sooner it does the sooner I get busy

One that cracks me up is that growing up in Northern MN I am used to seeing and doing it myself....what is that you may ask.....plugging in your car when it is cold. At home lots of people plug there car in so it will start in the morning, but it is nothing like here.....you see places to plug you car in everywhere....at home it was just an extension cord run from somewhere....here they are everywhere

living on the military base is def different... I hear helicopters and shooting at all sorts of hours.....we live and work right by the runway hence the helicopters and across the river behind our housing is woods, hence the shooting exercises.

Another difference is that to run outside you are supposed to wear this bright green reflective sash... One day Ill take a picture of mine it is sexy.

well that is all for the time being

later gators

photos

I am attempting to post some pictures of the drive up here. The internet is kind of slow so I don't know if it will actually happen or not, but I am trying.....all of the pics that I put on here are from driving, there are no mountians like that in view from fairbanks....at least I haven't seen any yet, but it has been cloudy since I got here

well it worked, some of the pictures are blurry because I took them while driving.

Alaska

Well I made it to Alaska, I am not to Fairbanks yet, which is where I will be living for the time being, but I am in Tok, which is where there is a junction of a bunch of highways, well two...you can go south to anchorage or north to fairbanks.

I broke down and stayed in a hotel last night, I decided that I was back in the US and that rooms weren't as expensive as in Canada, they weren't but they still aren't that cheap. I can only imagine how high they jack up their prices once it is tourist season.

well the drive has been long, bumpy, and desolate. A lot of the places along the highway are closed for the winter so that means that there are not many people around. I had to pay attention to when the next services would be to make sure that I didn't run out of gas, anytime that I got to around a half tank I had to start thinking of how far it would be to the next place for gas and then I had to guess if they would be open on the winter or not. it was a good thing that I had a book that I friend told me about, it has some advertisments in it along with driving tips and it usually told me which stops were open in the winter. The most I paid for gas was 1.33/liter. I don't know what that equals in gallons I figure I will just think of it this way so I don't have to think about how much it was....that is until I add up my reciepts and start to cry when I realize how much money gas costs me

so seeing a moose was nothing, the day after I saw that I saw, caribou, mountain sheep, bison, coyotes on the road, yes on the road.

well time to get back in the car and finish off the drive.

yes I have taken pictures, but don't know where the cable is for my camera at the current moment

Quick update

Things are going well. I am in Dawson Creek B.C. Which is the offical start of the Alaskan Highway!

The trip has been going well so far. The first chunk was really boring like 1000 miles of boringness...pretty much like driving through the plain states of ND, NE, SD and such. and then once I got north of edmenton things got better. it was like driving thru northern MN.

I am about half-way there, but this part might be a little slower because it is when I start hitting the mountains and such.

It is weird driving and not having my cell phone to talk on. I have service in places but don't want to use it and have to pay canadian fees.

well here are some things that I have learned

speed limits are 110....km/hr that is
gas costs on average $1.20....... a litre

oh yeah I saw a moose on the side of the road yesterday

it stays light late here. I knew that they have like 22 hrs of daylight in the summer, but it didn't click that the days would be long now as well.

I slept in my car last night...yep it was nice and comfy.....I just pulled over in a turnout and moved a couple of things to the front seat and then pulled out my sleeping bag and quilt and slept pretty well...except that it got light out way early...so I was up early......

well I am stealing the internet from the super 8 so I better get back to driving...why didn't I stay here you ask well because hotel rooms are like a 100 bucks and I am cheap and my car is comfy

Im off

well I am off on my trip to Alaska, wish me luck!!!!

I will post again when I get a chance!

my current view

So the snow stopped for part of the day, but it picked up again this afternoon, plus it is windy so that means blowing snow, and this just isn'y anysnow, it is the heavy wet stuff.

I can't even tell where I shoveled before...... I thought that april showers meant may flowers, I didn't realize that it meant april snow showers!!!

well here are some views of what it looks like when I look out my windows.


The fun part is that I have to pack up my car. I hope it doesn't do this all day tommorow or when I start off on my drive.



At least I have some beer that I need to drink before I leave!!!

Bummed

Today I was supposed to go to Duluth and see my nephew get an award for a story that he wrote, but becuase we just got dumped on with snow and I mean dumped, no one is going to the ceremony. I am bummed because he was all excited to go and get this award and now he doesn't. He even made the paper about getting this award. I bet he is even more bummed than I am.

here is a link to the newspaper article about him



Edit: I just spent the last hour, shoveling and snowblowing....arghhhh it had been so nice and now it goes and snows like a bit@h. Now I get to have the joy of loading my car full of all my stuff when there is a ton of snow in my way!!!!!!!!

grrrrrrrrrr

So I mentioned my troubles with my new ip@d. well they continue. So I get the upgrade for my operating system. Which was supposed to make the new ipod work, yes it was another 75 bucks to buy the operating system. so after that I try loading the new system and it wont install. so I call apple and they told me I don't have phone support for my computer....I am like come on here people help me out, it is your products fault that I am having issues. so the lady helps me and we try to make it work, she says we do everything except erase everything on my computer, nothing works. while we are waiting for my computer to do things I express my disgust in Ap@le, that there new prodcuts don't work with their ones that are less than 4 yrs old, that it is ridiculous that I have to update a perfectly good system to get there new ip@ds to work and she agreed with me.

nothing we were doing worked so we decided to erase my hard drive and give that a try. it was no big deal to me since I had already backed everything up on my external hard drive. So away we go, I am nervous even though everything is backed up. well it works this time I have a newer version of OS on my computer....then the unthinkable happens....I go to hook up my external harddrive and the computer doesn't recognize it!!!!!!!!! I have downloaded stuff that should make it work, but no luck there

I hope that I can bring it to my moms computer and it works, otherwise all my pictures, music, and everything else that I have ever put on my computer is now stuck on the hard drive........nothing is easy these days.

so now the ip@d works with my computer but I have no music to put on it since it is all on the hard drive........well time to see what else I can do


in other news I have decided to drive to AK so I am leaving next tues. I have to start packing and getting ready for that....so much to do so little time

Drive or fly

I can't decide if I should drive or fly up to Alaska.

It will take a while to drive and its a lot of miles to put on my car, but I have heard that there is lots to see on the drive up there, and once I am there I will have my car so I will have that freedom of being able to do what I want without having to ask for rides, and I can bring more stuff if I have my car

Flying on the other hand is fast, and my be cheaper than driving, but once I am there I wont have the freedom of being able to do whatever I want when I have time off.....

I just cant decide what I want to do. I know this shouldn't be that hard of a decision but it is, and everytime I almost have my mind made up I talk to someone else and then I begin it lean the other way again.....why can't this be an easy decision

The Big News

So the other day I said I had some big news and here it is

I accepted a new job!!!!!!!!

I am going to be working in Alaska this summer. Yes I am still going to be fighting fires, but I am no longer going to be on a hotshot crew. Yes I will definitely miss being on a crew but at the same time I think it is time for me to take the next step. I have never been to Alaska before but have always wanted to go so it will be a big change, I am excited and scared. I am going to be working as a fire suppression specialist. what is that you ask. well go here and it will give you a little more info about what I will be doing.

I am starting work on Apr 14. I have yet to figure out if I should drive or fly. I am going to be stationed at a remote location for part of the time, so I wouldnt even be able to use my car then. I haven't really had the chance to talk to the guy that I am going to be working for yet, I dont know a whole lot yet.

I will be sure to keep everyone updated and I will take lots of pictures. It is just like me job now in the aspect of I will be working 6 months and then having 6 months of, I am still considered a full time employee and I get benefits and everything like that. So come fire season I new chapter of my life is about to begin. stay tuned for the adventure