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