THE FLOOD'S A COMIN'

I think it comes from years of monitoring and participating in emergency problems but I have been monitoring the coming flood for a couple of weeks. It won't be long before the sandbagging starts in earnest. I think if I had a house that was going to be threatened I would get it done now. The water is going to get there---just a matter of when now.

This is a field looking east from the road.

Same field with a couple of Canada Geese looking for their nest site from last year---it's under water.

This picture is of where the river leaves it's banks and starts filling the valley.

This picture also shows the river leaving it's banks. This is very near where the picture above is taken.

JUST WAITIN' ON SPRING

Last fall I took on the rehabilitation of two fires that burned quite a few acres in our area last summer. I worked part of the months of November and December and finished most of the work on the largest fire before we got snowed out. I have been watching the largest fire to see when I can get back in with the equipment and repair the damage we caused to the roads and re-contour the landings and reseed them. I have also been waiting for the snow to leave the other fire so we can make the aerial applications of a soil binder and the mulch.

It kind of feels like I am bound to the area waiting for this to happen so I can finish what I agreed to do. I have asked people on the Districts to check out the snow levels and let me know how close we are getting to being able to go back to work. I have gotten no answers yet. I know we have a little time left before it is dry enough to start working on these projects but it would be nice to have a little information to work from.

This has been an interesting thing to work on but it sure feels like it has tied me down as far as what I can do and where I can go. I think in the future I will stick to fire suppression---when you get home you are done---no question about it and you don't have to wait to get called to finish it up.

A LITTLE RECOGNITION

Yesterday all of the den leaders took our Cub Scouts to a vacant lot adjacent to one of our big box stores. There was tons of trash there and it has looked pretty bad for a couple of years. We needed a service project so decided to clean it up.

We got started an had removed a couple of large trash bags which we piled by the side of the road when a guy in a small pickup truck came roaring out of the parking lot and stopped pretty close to me. I hadn't asked anyone for permission to clean up the mess so thought this might be the owner.

He got out of his truck and yelled at me "Who are you guys?" He appeared angry so I walked over to try to calm him down.
I said "This is a Cub Scout Pack and we are doing a service project."
Him "This has looked awful for about ten years."
Me "Yeah we thought it needed to have the trash removed so we chose this spot."
Him: "What Troop are you?"
Me "our pack number." Which he wrote down on a paper inside his truck.
Him "What you are doing is quite important and you are teaching the boys the right things."

He then reached into his pocket and handed me a $10.00 bill and told me to use it to help out the Troop. I still don't know who he was but I am glad the boys got a little recognition for doing good stuff.

IT'S A BUDGET

OK today we are 6 and 1/2 months into the fiscal year and the Senate today voted yes to the budget for FY 2011. What does that mean???---well all the federal workers who have been re-doing their planning for work to be accomplished get to do it one more time before they really start on what Congress is paying them to do.

This whole process has been a monumental waste of money. The people doing the work have planned their year at least five times so far and get to do it at least one more time. They have not been able to go forward with contracts to accomplish their work because of the budget situation. Sure there have been a few contracts that moved forward without guaranteed funding but there are trade-offs associated with that of using all the available money to pay the contract and not hire any seasonal help. Now the money is available they can go back to the plans and modify them so they know what kind of temporary workforce they can hire for the remainder of the year to complete their projects.

AND THIS MY FRIENDS IS THE VERY REASON I GOT OUT OF THE FEDERAL WORKFORCE. THEY NOW HAVE 5 1/2 MONTHS TO COMPLETE A YEARS WORTH OF WORK. THIS IS INSANITY.