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