2 days "off"!

I had yesterday, and today, as "off" days. That means I don't have to go on the line but am still subject to call out if things go nuclear. My wife and youngest daughter came down yesterday and will stay through tomorrow, which is very nice. At least that way I can see them before August. After tomorrow my clock is reset and I am considered fresh meat for another 21 day run. Man...

I started doing a little calculating yesterday (a little was all my tired brain could handle) and realized that I have been on fires for 36 out of the last 38 days. If things work out as I believe they will, by the time July 28th rolls around I will have worked 900 hours of overtime in a 12 week period. That would be in addition to my regular 72 hour/week schedule. That's quite a bit I do believe. The nice thing is that I am still having fun and have not really nutted up over anything, so that's good.

I hope everyone had a good 4th of July. I've worked a lot this summer, but I can not imagine what our service men and women have to go though doing this sort of thing for months on end. My hat is truly off to them.

I was looking forward to sleeping in a bit this morning after 23 days of up at 4:30 AM. So what happened? Yep, at 4:30 AM my eyes flew open all by themselves. Stupid eyes anyway! Oh well, such is life.

Gotta go for now...I'll talk to you later.

And the beat goes on

Well I finally got to sit in front of a computer again. Looks like MAYBE every 4-5 days I'll get to spend a few minutes surfing the net. Then again, maybe not...in this business you never know.

We have been in some of the steepest, nastiest country I have ever seen the last few days cutting line through tan oak forests on slopes of 100-130% (a 45 degree angle is a 100% slope so you can use your imagination to visualise anything above that). In fact, I would consider the 100% "flat" anymore. The weather has been cooperating as there have been no big winds on the fires here in Butte. That has helped to give our crews a bit of an edge. However, that could all change in a heart beat and we have to keep out eyes open and our minds clear at all times. I can't even remember what day it is come morning anymore: not the date, simply what day of the week it is. LOL!

The team in charge of this complex is one of the worst I've ever seen. The organization and communications are horrendous. That alone gives us cause for concern and we are ever diligent in our caution for taking things at face value. Oh well, such is life.

On the way back to base camp this morning I blew out both tires on the driver's side rear. Had to sit by the side of the road and wait for the tire guy to show up and get us back on the road. I did have our strike team leader take a picture of me in front of both tires showing the huge hole. Ah yes, the joys of driving through the rocks. My wife, bless her soul, hate to be near the edge of the road that has a drop off. She definitely would not have enjoyed driving with me the last two shifts. The roads are not much wider than the crew carrier and the drop is almost straight down. One bridge we went over had two turns on it (yep, not a straight bridge) and was only 10 feet wide or so: the crew carriers are 8 feet wide at the mirrors which doesn't leave a lot of room for error. Couple that with the fact that we were 30-40 feet above a rocky river, and the bridge was built in 1935, and it turns the pucker factor up just a bit. We made it so it must have been a pretty good bridge after all. :-)

I'm sorry I am not visiting other blogs right now but I simply do not have the time to do so. Maybe in August I'll have some time to do that, but certainly not right now. Take care everyone!

It ain't gonna stop anytime soon: California Fires

Well, it's been awhile since I've been near a computer. Today is day 15 that I've been away from home on fires. I started in Butte County with the first fire, and now I'm back in Butte County again. There are a TON of fire burning here and it's extremely smoky. In fact, the visibility is so poor that a plane using infrared imagery "found" a 2500 acre fire last night that no-one even knew was there.

I am currently assigned to the "Rim Fire" that is located between Hwy 70 and the town of Concow. I have today off after doing 48 hours on the fire line. We are being told to anticipate 48 hour shifts until further notice as there is simply no-one to relieve us so we can go to 24's. I called my wife today and told her that I would probably not be home until my vacation started on July 27th...and I wasn't kidding at all. The whole state is burning and there simply aren't enough people to go around. I have no idea how many fires are unstaffed, but it's a lot.

The last two days we spent prepping and are to fire it out, and then firing it. Some of the work could be done by billdozers and some of it had to be done by us, the handcrews. The country is horribly steep. I had one of my crew members slip on loose rocks and fall on his pulaski causing a cut that required a trip to the emergency room for 3 stitches. He's a tough booger and was back on the crew by the afternoon. We burned out about 400 acres yesterday and stopped the fire spread toward the town of Concow so at least they should be out of danger. Of course you never know what might happen today or tomorrow.

After 15 days on the fires, not seeing a laundry for a long while, and a 48 straight hour shift, I had a real nice case of monkey butt yesterday. Our strike team leader said he had some Gold Bond powder I could use and I jumped at that chance. I went into the back of the bus to apply it...didn't figure I needed to drop my pants in the middle of the logging landing...and when I hit the top step the inside of my left leg went into a BAAAAAAAD cramp. The strike team leader came running to find out why I was screaming like a girl, saw what was happening, and had a good laugh. He did bring me a Gatorade so I let him live to see another day. When that cramp quit my right arm cramped, and then my left hand. Hmm, better eat more bananas I guess. And no Jeff, I'm not going to kill two birds with one stone by using the banana on my monkey butt and then eating it.

The last time I ran crews was 10 years ago and it was hard work then. Now it's simply grueling. I still recover fairly quickly, which is a huge plus. If I didn't life would be unbearable. However, I'm still smiling and having fun and in spite of the hardships I consider this trip to be a very good one. I went to Wal-Mart to get some soap to do my laundry this morning and when I walked in a lady said. "God bless you for all the work you're doing!" Two people thanked us in the parking lot. There are signs up that say thank you. I have to admit that I enjoy that. We get very little praise from out department and it's always nice to know the people think we're doing a good job.

Well, I need to check and see if my clothes are dry so I can go take a nap before dinner. Take care everybody!

On a fire near Paradise, California

Been here since 0300 Thursday morning. It was wild Thursday afternoon when the canyon we wre working in blew up and the fire took off. By the time it was done that evening it had burned an additional 14,000 acres and torched 76 houses. Good thing for Paradise that the wind took the fire parallel to the town or there would have been major loss of homes and lives. I'll be here for awhile longer but will get up some pictures when I get home.

Gonna be a LONG summer.