Last Partybarge of the Summer

Folks keep asking me what I've been doing with all my free time since my fireman is out working for the good of the order. "Free time" seems like a strong word really, but I feel like I've been doing good stuff... socializing, theater, was sick for a couple days, TV, naps... the good life really. Including one last credit on the books for the partybarge Thursday that went awry. Use it Sunday morning or lose it. With no regular captain, I had to step into some big shoes.

Not only was it my first time captaining a ship, but they have been dropping the water in the reservoir about 2 feet per day, so the terrain was completely different from usual.

First mate Shelby was as useful as could be... whipping up some fantastic knots to keep us anchored into our cove.

We are a good team!

We had a short morning float, and went low-key, just the two of us. No management, just relaxing in the sun. 

We were entertained by many fire helicopters taking off and landing with buckets beneath them.

And long conversations about how big that bucket really was close up, and how much use it could it really be.

We had no troubles at all! We didn't hit anything, we didn't lose control of our boat, and we didn't flat out sink the boat! Hooray for ladies floating!! So long partybarge season!

Texas Shorty

We have a new pet! He's a outdoor pet, and we mostly don't own him, but he's been hanging around a while now, living in our deck, eating our bugs and enjoying respite from larger four-legged creatures.

I have named him Texas Shorty. If I can shoot his lady friend -- Lulu -- I'll post a pic of her too.

Stand...? Up...? Paddling...?

I think...

...they should have...

...called it something...

...other than...

...stand up paddling.

Ah, there we go!



GIS Guys

The most interesting part of the tour? Definitely the GIS trailer.

Sometimes there's sitting at fire camp.

Sometimes there's leaning at fire camp.

Sometimes there's presenting to folks from the community, telling them about GIS, mapping, and how these tools help fight fires. He was such a charming presenter!

We got some special private information afterward.

Thank you so much for having us to your camp, fire folk! We appreciated the opportunity!

Gear

One of the interesting things about fire camp: the gear. Every has gear on from everywhere, heralding their skills and where they're from. These guys' hats just said "FIRE RESCUE."

Neither of these guys apparently had sassy little bags to hold their personal effects...like Louise smartly had.

Pennsylvania!?!

Beaver Dam/Littlefield, Arizona.

Alaska! Not any specific city, but the whole state.

It's hard to see, but her shirt is from the Ham Lake Wildfire in Wisconsin. She helped guide our tour. I can't say Ham Lake without evoking Homer Simpson.

Phoenix Fire Department, and the Rocky Mountain Incident Team.

A local boy from our own Wood River... Gotta love "INITIAL ATTACK."

Some folks wear fancy gear to fire camp. :)

Facilities!

OK, yeah, those facilities too, but mostly I mean ALL the facilities.

Here's where fire camp folk sleep. Except my husband, who sleeps in BigGreen. It's a little bit smoky up there.

This is the shower trailer. Girls on the right, boys on the left. Toothbrushing station in the middle.

This is the dining tent. Not bad ambiance, considering yer eating in a tent. They have three people cooking, and their contract says they must be able to feed 3 people a minute. Each morning they prepare 1800 eggs, 2400 lbs of bacon, and 3400 pounds of hashbrowns.

This is the supply area. It requires a lot of supplies to house 600 folks.

My husband loves stuff like this.

Community Meeting: Containment!

We found our favorite GIS dude promptly. My mother-in-law and family friend Louise were in town housesitting and dog-watching just for the weekend, so this was their only visit with my husband.

Such a helpful boy.

Lost of people spoke, including the fire lead, the local sheriff, and a gob of agency folk. My husband made those fancy maps in the backdrop. That's what he does on fire. Some folks think he's out there with an ax and a hose. Not so much. The good news was that these fine folks were successful, and that fire was mostly contained when the meeting occurred. Yay!

They also had a couple of "hot shots" speak. Folks go crazy for the hot shots. Her shirt was once the same color as my husband's, but she had been up on the fire.

His shirt, also once yellow. Yeee.

It took me like a day of working on my mother-in-law to get her to go with me, so i was pleased to see such a serene look on her face once we got there and she realized it was more like church camp and less like the fire scene from Bambi.

And then, off to our tour!!

FIRE!

As you may know, the entire state is on fire. Here's a cool pic I took a while back showing a small burn on the hill (the black) that was contained by air-dropped fire retardant (the red).

So it was time to get these out!

It's BigGreen's first fire!

So after just after a week on the Springs Fire, they held a community fire...complete with tours of the camp! We were soooo there!

Ooooh! The danger!!

And in just over an hour we were in the company of some hot firefighters! Meow!