Dee Ice Hole

HIP POINTER

2012-01-21T08:22:00.000-08:00

I have had a hip pointer since January 7th. It made me really sick on the 8th when we baptized our grandson. I have fought it since then with Advil for pain.

I finally had enough and called a doctor to see if this was being caused by my cholesterol meds. I went to him on the 17th. Since my regular doctor just moved to where he could take better care of one of his kids this was new doctor to me. He is the same one Inklings visits. He also refused to take me as a patient when we moved here 10 years ago. When we were going through the introductions he asked me if Inklings had made me come in. I told him no but that I thought if I was going to have a doctor he should at least know who I am.

We had a family doctor in a town to the north where we used to live and the day after I was recovering from a heart that stopped beating he asked me "JUST HOW DID I BECOME YOUR DOCTOR???" We both laughed when I told him he had the whole family (7 at the time) and I couldn't help it that I had never been sick in the four years we lived there. I really never want that to happen again even if I waste a few dollars getting checked with a physical.

After that he examined my hip and back and asked about any trauma I may have had on it. I explained that I hadn't taken any falls or anything and thought it might be the medicine causing muscle problems. He pushed on the tip of the joint and told me it was tweaked and it was definitely not muscle problems but problems with a nerve being pinched by the joint. He also told me that I have arthritis in that joint. He then wrote me a work order for an x-ray and told me we'd do that and then figure out what kind of therapy I needed to get into to get the joint back in place.

I told him I debated whether to go to a chiropractor or to him but that I was really afraid I was having problems due to the medications. He handed me the work order and said "maybe you ought to go see your chiropractor and if he can't get it back in place then go have the x-ray and have them send it to me and we'll figure out the therapy." I went to the chiropractor that same day and he got it back in place. I visited him again yesterday and he put it back in place again. Funny how your muscles can adjust to something that is wrong and then just keep pulling things the wrong way.

NEVER THOUGH I'D HEAR A DOCTOR SAY I OUGHT TO VISIT A CHIROPRACTOR BUT NOW I AM SURE HE IS HONEST.

WHAT CAN I SAY????

2012-01-21T08:04:00.001-08:00

I have had a couple of experiences this past week where I have been called by people for information. Both ended up with the caller hanging up on me.

The first was a call from the Republican National Committee.
Her "Do you approve of the way Obama is handling the economy?"
Me "I don't approve of the way anyone in politics is handling the economy. That includes Congress. They only have one required job and that is to pass a budget and they can't even do that."
Her "Thank You very much sir."---CLICK

The second was from a credit card company that has called here many, many times telling us they could help us with our debt and we just hung up on them.
Her " I am with ? ? ? ? Bank and we are offering you an opportunity to save a lot of money on your credit card. We have a very good program and assure you we can help you. Now how much do you owe on all of your credit cards combined?"
Me "Nothing."
Her "What did you say?"
Me "We owe nothing."
Her ---CLICK

I THINK I HAVE THE ANSWER TO TELEMARKETERS---WE'LL SEE!!!!

GOT 'EM RAISED

2012-01-13T09:53:00.000-08:00

Last night about 2100 we got a call from Lightning Strikes to tell us that she was engaged. We have been expecting this since he came to our house Christmas night so he and his two cute kids could be with her for Christmas. It was a long drive for him to come here Christmas but nearly twice as long yesterday to get to where she is living.

I am tickled that she is getting a good man in her life. She deserves one since she has had so many that weren't. I am also pretty tickled to be getting two more grand-kids. They are cute as a bug and we had a lot of fun with them over Christmas. She is the last of our children to be married.

GUESS THAT MEANS I GOT 'EM RAISED, ALL SEVEN OF THEM!!!!

AN AWESOME DAY

2012-01-08T05:59:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we drove about 200 miles to baptize our grandson. It was an awesome experience to get to do that. He was a little scared of what was going to happen but I talked to him and assured him he would be OK. The water was kind of cold and took his breath away for a second but he was fine with it and is glad to be baptized.

We took him and his family to McDonalds for lunch afterward since he wanted to go there and the family doesn't get to go out to eat much. They had lots of fun playing in the play area and really liked the games.

The trip over was pretty easy and I drove. Had about 12 miles of snowy roads on the interstate but it was just getting started and was an easy drive. While we were there I had a problem develop with my back and I could barely walk so Inklings drove home. She drove through blizzards and on slick roads most of the way. We both estimated that she had about 12 miles of good roads to drive on. But she has lots of experience driving through blizzards since we lived near Flaming Gorge Dam and she drove lots of times when she had to use the delineator posts to know where the road was.

I AM SO GLAD THAT I WAS ABLE TO PERFORM THE ORDINANCES.

SOME CHRISTMAS TRADITIONS ARE BETTER THAN OTHERS

2011-12-28T08:51:00.000-08:00

STRING OF BALLS READY TO BE SHOT.

THE JUDGE

THE 22

KID'S LOVE IT---LOOK AT THAT SMILE

DEAD EYE

THE AR-15

MORE JUDGE

THE 0.17---MY ALL TIME FAVORITE
We started a tradition a few years ago of shooting glass Christmas balls on the day after Christmas---it is a hoot and the kids and grandkids all love it. This year we tried out a few new guns just for kicks and giggles.

'TWAS A GREAT DAY

CHRISTMAS SURPRISES

2011-12-26T07:42:00.000-08:00

On Christmas eve we did our traditional Christmas Eve thing - we drove around looking at Christmas lights while listening to Beaver's Own Christmas, a tape that was made by a group of locals. Then we came home to sticky dough rolls, eggnog a chocolate and a white chocolate orange, and a cheese ball and crackers. I ate until I was stuffed and sick at my stomach...why do I do that????

Christmas was quieter this year, because we only had Lightning Strikes at home. Native Minnow and his oldest son did stop for a few minutes on their way to AZ on Friday night. The three of us had our turkey dinner and were thinking it was pretty quiet. Then Dr. Psycho and his 2 youngest kids came and our oldest son and two of his boys came. Lightning Strikes told her boy friend that we were shooting Christmas balls today and invited him to come if he wanted to. He came from Las Vegas and brought his two little kids. It was fun to meet them for the first time. So we quickly went from an almost empty house to a nearly full one but not until after dark.

IT IS FUN FOR ME TO SEE OUR RED NECK TRADITION OF SHOOTING CHRISTMAS BALLS PULL THE KIDS BACK FROM FAR AWAY PLACES. IT IS GONNA BE A GREAT DAY.

TO SETTLE THE ARGUMENT OF CAR IN PHOTO

2011-12-14T09:47:00.000-08:00

1941 Ford Coupe---this is the car---I am disappointed.

1941 Pontiac

1941 Chevrolet--the car on the left (but not a convertible)is the car in mom and dad's photo. Turns out to be a 1941 Ford.

Mom and Dad in 1942 either just before or just after they were married.

CONTEMPLATING LIFE

2011-12-04T06:35:00.000-08:00

I have spent the last two days basically in shock after learning of a friend of ours that had knee surgery. Following the surgery she had a blood clot go through her heart and to her lungs (and probably other places) and is currently in the hospital with no brain function while her family comes from around the world to say good-bye.

This was a vibrant woman that was a great science teacher and outdoors woman. She is highly thought of by everyone in the community where they live. She is married to one of my good friends and they have five grown daughters. The daughters are also awesome.

I know there is a better place after this life but this little episode has shaken me pretty badly. It shows that life is so fragile---we never know what is next---we should all strive to live so that our parting does not leave others wondering how we really felt about life and the people in ours. I do not believe this woman has anyone in her life that did not know where they stood.

I HOPE I CAN ASSURE THAT THOSE IN MY LIFE ALSO KNOW AND I THANK HER FOR THAT THOUGHT.

ONE MORE THING TO BE THANKFUL FOR

2011-11-28T14:39:00.000-08:00

For the last couple of days we would get a spurt of air before the water started to run when you turned the water on in the kitchen sink. I told Inklings that was an indication of a pipe break but we didn't have one in the house so it had to be on the city side of the line. I didn't worry at all about it being on our side of the meter because there were no wet spots and the meter didn't continue to run when the water was turned off.

This afternoon Inklings was doing something in the room with most of our books and heard a tiny noise. She called me to come and listen. I went in and immediately saw where a water leak was in the room above (the kitchen) so I went up to investigate further. There was quite a bit of water under the sink indicating the leak was somewhere close. I turned on the tap and nothing happened. I turned it off and water started running like crazy from the tap for a couple of seconds. I got close to the leak and had Inklings turn the tap on and then off---sure enough the relatively new faucet we had put in was leaking for a couple of seconds after the water was turned off.

I got out my tools and pulled the faucet off (the first rule of plumbing is never touch anything to do with plumbing unless the parts store is open) and took it to the parts store to get another one like it. The guy at the store looked at it and said this is one of ours--I'll just trade you out at no cost (a savings of $69.00). I took it home and did all the replacement things except when I was hooking up the last water line to the faucet I stripped the connection nut (and that is the reason you don't touch plumbing unless the store is open).

We went back to the store and bought a new connection line and I came home and finished the installation. Everything not only looks nice but it works like a champ too.

And now I am happy for the following reasons:
1. The leak didn't show up until after all of our company went home; 2. The parts store was open; 3. The leak didn't do much damage to our books or the house; 4. I was able to fix it myself; 5. It looks nice; 6. I stole Inklings picture of it; 7. We should be in good shape with the kitchen plumbing for a few more years now; 8. It felt pretty good to do something that mattered again.

HOPE Y'ALL HAD A GREAT THANKSGIVING TOO!!!

GREAT THANKSGIVING

2011-11-26T06:26:00.000-08:00

We had a great Thanksgiving Day at our house this year. Had Inklings Mom and Dad, one son and his family and all four daughters and their families. Twenty four in all and it was a great day. We live far enough from our kids that it is very difficult to get to see them. They are scattered enough that if we take a trip to see them then we only get to see each of them for a little while. So Thanksgiving was a really good day to see all of them and get to visit.

BEST PART OF ALL WAS THERE WAS NO CONTENTION---WELL NO FIGHTS ANYWAY ;-)

ROAD TRIP

2011-11-16T19:03:00.004-08:00

We took a trip to Idaho to try to sell this little piece of land where my Grandmother's house used to stand. It is 0.14 acres and you have to have 0.5 acres in this town to build any structure on. Our only chance at selling this piece of land will be to sell it to one of the two adjacent land owners. I talked to the lady with her house just in front of this property and told her we were going to sell it. I told her what the appraised price was and told her that the appraised value was too high because of the size. I told her what I had paid to get the house torn down and wanted at least that much out of the property. She said she was interested. I told her I would call her in a week and if she wasn't interested then I was going to try to sell it to her neighbor. Hope she buys it---if it goes to the neighbor it makes both of their lands more difficult to manage.

While we were there I tried to clean the headstone for my Grandma and Grandpa. It didn't come completely clean but this picture shows how it looked after I scrubbed it with a full bottle of Lime Away. When I go back again I will go prepared to remove all of the lime scale from the stone. My Grandpa died on my Grandma's 47th birthday. He went out to the farm and didn't come home.

This is a picture of me scrubbing the headstone. When I saw it I was really disgusted that we have allowed their headstone to look that bad.

This is a picture of part of a 26 acre dry farm we own up there. It is always fun for me to see this little piece of land that used to be part of my grandparents land holdings.

HALOWEEN

2011-11-01T07:18:00.001-07:00

Someone asked me what I was going to wear for Halloween and I told them a western shirt, Wranglers and cowboy boots. Inklings said I should step it up a little and at least wear my black hat.

I never realized until one of my employees told me after I left the district that this was called my bastard hat. She said I only wore it when things were gonna get really bad for someone. I honestly didn't know that was happening. I have three different colored Stetsons. Silver (taupe), brown and this black one. Guess I have one for every occasion. ;-)

LOOKIN' BACK

2011-10-23T17:30:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Joe Paterno tied Eddie Robinson (Grambling coach forever) as the winning-est college football coach in history. Not to take anything away from Joe but I seriously doubt he is in the same league as Eddie.

Back in the mid-80's I was honored by my employer to go to the south and recruit employees from five of the all black agricultural colleges. I had always been a Grambling fan and was always amazed at the number of players Eddie seemed to graduate to the pro's. I always thought it would be really neat to meet and talk to him. Well as luck would have it we arrived on the Grambling campus the night they were playing a football game. I can't remember who they were playing but I talked one of other guys that was with me on the trip to go down to Eddie Robinson stadium (it was brand new at the time) and look at the field.

When we arrived at the field the entry gates were locked. While we were looking over the field there was an old guy down on the sidelines pacing up and down the field. I told the guy that was with me that I thought that was Eddie Robinson. He said nah it can't be, he has got to be getting ready for the game. I told him I was sure it was Eddie and climbed over one of the gates. He asked me what I thought I was doing and I told him I was going to meet Eddie Robinson. I opened the gate and invited him to go with me. To my surprise he came into the stadium.

Now picture this---two white guys had just broken into Eddie Robinson Stadium on the all black (at the time) campus of Grambling University. We walked directly down the stairs toward where this guy was pacing and after a few hundred stairs we reached the edge of the field. The guy walked over to us and asked what we thought we were doing. I asked him if he was Eddie Robinson and he answered in the affirmative. I told him it had always been a dream of mine to meet him personally.

We visited about football and his old teams and the players I was familiar with from the pros. It was fun to have this guy welcoming us to his field even though by rights we had no business being there. It is one of the days in my life that really stands above most of the others. During the discussion I told him that I was always amazed at the numbers of kids he placed in the pros (over 200 in the NFL---not counting coaches he raised).

He smiled at me and said "THAT DOESN'T EVEN COMPARE TO THE NUMBERS OF KIDS I HAVE PLACED IN LIFE."

I dunno Joe---I think it would be really hard for you to top EDDIE ROBINSON. In my book EDDIE WILL ALWAYS BE THE GREATEST.

INKLINGS THIS IS JUST AN EXAMPLE OF THE RULES NOT APPLYING!

30-29-4

2011-10-13T06:21:00.000-07:00

Wow do I feel old. Yesterday was my birthday and I have always said I wasn't going to get older than thirty---hence the title. I got a call the night before from one of my retired friends from work. He wanted to know if I would go with him to a town to the west for a trail management meeting in the morning and then go to lunch with him and another retired friend.

We have celebrated our birthdays together like this for several years. There are four of us with birthdays within five days that all worked together. YUP---the scales (Libra) had a lot of influence when we were all working. One friend was at the senior games while her other half participated in the shotgun competition so we missed seeing and visiting with her. I bet he won the shooting competition but time will tell on that.

I took my truck in for servicing and potentially a lot of expensive work on the right front axle, a safety inspection, and re-licensing. When I stopped to get it last night the service was complete and the work on the axle wasn't necessary so I felt really good about that. It still cost quite a bit of money but guess that is the price you have to pay to have a vehicle.

For dinner last night I took Inklings to a steak house here in the valley---interesting that we both had fish for dinner.

AFTER ALL WAS SAID AND DONE---I HAD A GREAT BIRTHDAY!

42 YEARS AGO TODAY

2011-10-02T20:20:00.000-07:00

42 years ago today I married the woman of my dreams---and I am still having the same dream. I have now been married over twice as long as I was single.

Inklings posted that I should have known our marriage would not be normal on the second day of our marriage---when we took her 18 month old baby brother home with us because her mom and dad were in a different town and no one was watching him. We saw him nearly get hit by a semi on main street.

Was an interesting night---he had an ear ache and cried all night---Inklings sat up with him all night---just like she did after we got kids of our own.

We raised seven children and have eighteen grand children. Nine of our grand children have lived with us for an extended period during part of their lives. We sure do miss them.

IT'S BEEN A HELLUVA RIDE.

LOOKS LIKE THE BOYS AND GIRLS HAD FUN...

2011-09-26T19:19:00.000-07:00

Inklings and I took our annual leaf ride today and I couldn't help myself. I just had to see how the last fuels project that was planned while I was the District Ranger was turning out. Seems that all of my efforts in training them is being well rewarded. Here are three pictures of their recent work.

They are also in the process of fencing these areas with wildlife proof fences in order for the aspen to have a chance to regenerate. These treatments are in the most heavily used elk habitat on the district. If these are successful then they will be able to go forward on the rest of the district without near as many regeneration problems. I told the environmental groups that we worked with on this project that I didn't choose it because it was easy but because it was the most in need. After looking it over with us they agreed and the project has moved forward nicely.

It is always good to see a well coordinated project move forward---TO THE CREW--GREAT JOB!!!!!

LEAF RIDE 2011

2011-09-26T19:05:00.000-07:00

We went on a leaf drive today. Took longer than we expected but it was a great day. Ate at two of my favorite restaurants so that we could keep goin'. Here is a sampling of what we saw---beautiful day. The pictures are posted exactly opposite of the way we took them.

SHADOW LAKE

2011-09-23T07:16:00.000-07:00

I just returned from the Shadow Lake fire in Oregon. Our base camp was at Hoodoo Ski Resort. When I first arrived the fire was 450+ acres and burning pretty hot and spotting all over the place. Which is what you would expect in this type of timber. When I left it was 10,000 acres+ and was secured along most of the perimeter. The weather changed significantly and the fog rolled in from the ocean and raised the humidity to 100% for a couple of days. I had forgotten how miserable that is to be wet all over from the atmosphere and not be able to get dry unless you went inside a building.

The fire burned the south side of Mount Washington as well as burning through a boys camp and many structures. The firefighters did great. They brought the fire through the structures and didn't lose a single one. There were over 40 pumps and 220 miles of hose and over 200 sprinkler kits out on the fire. It was amazing for me to see where they took the fire through and those structures won't have to worry about fire for at least 10 years.

It was a tough fire for me because of all the supplies that went out and came back. I worked harder than usual to stay in front of the fire fire fighters with the supplies they needed. I also came home really tired.

I'M NOT HALF THE MAN I USED TO BE.

HOME ALONE---SORTA

2011-08-31T07:50:00.000-07:00

Inklings is in a town about 175 miles North of here taking care of one of her nieces that is in a hospital there. That leaves me and the CAT in the house. The cat spends the majority of her time yowling and looking for Inklings. Last night she was looking all over the house for her and finally came over and looked in my lap---yowled and went over to the place Inklings usually sits and yowled some more.

The garden has gone nuts---well not nuts---but it is producing a lot of veggies right now. I picked 15 beautiful tomatoes yesterday and gave some of them away. I have been pigging out on them but can't keep up. I gave all of the cucumbers away and will pick the beans today. I don't think there will be too many beans but there for sure will be some.

I went to a retirement party yesterday for a woman I worked with for over 19 years of my career. She is one of the people that I have always been amazed with the amount of work she could do in a short time. I was talking about it with one of my other co-workers yesterday and we agreed she worked easy---she was just able to get an awfully lot of work done and nobody really noticed it...THEY'LL NOTICE IT NOW...I ASSURE YOU. She will be missed a bunch---mostly because the people employed there don't have a clue what she does---or how to do it. I know what she does and how to do it because on another Forest I was responsible for most of her duties. I hated doing that part of the job. There was a woman from the Regional Office at the party and she told me she is terrified with the added workload of teaching someone else how to do all those things.

HOPE SHE HAS AS GOOD OF RETIREMENT AS I AM HAVING.

GONE AGAIN

2011-08-26T08:28:00.000-07:00

I just got back from a fire about a hundred miles North of where we live. It was pretty small, only 886 acres but it was a good little fire to be on. They had trainees in every position on the fire so it was good to see the kids stepping up and taking on more responsibilities. There have been a lot of skills go out of the fire world the last three years. I was happy to get to go and really happy to see the young ones growing up.

ANOTHER FIRE RUN

2011-08-14T18:17:00.000-07:00

Got a call Thursday night while we were at the rodeo and got asked to go to a fire near where we live. I told the dispatcher I really wanted to watch the bull riding at the rodeo before I went anywhere. (There is a bull rider from here that I am friends with his dad and grandpa and I wanted to watch him ride again. He bucked off in less than 2 seconds. I was really bummed out---I had hoped for days he would win it.) The dispatcher told me to go ahead and watch them as they had enough help over at the fire site to get through until morning but to come to the dispatch center after the rodeo and help organize deliveries and supplies for the next morning.

I went down and ran through the orders they had placed and what they had on site and figured we would be good for the next day. I got home at midnight and didn't sleep much because of the adrenaline rush I get every time I get called out. I got up at 5:00, picked up the breakfasts for the fire at 6:00 and went over for the duration.

When I got near the fire camp I could see the fire burning close to the main highway but there were a bunch of engines there so I figured they would hold it and went on to fire camp. Shortly after I arrived they came in for breakfast and said they had caught that side of the fire and after breakfast were going back to secure the entire side. The fire was at 380 acres when I got there and it finished up at 410 acres so the crews did a great job.

While I was there I ran into two people I had worked with on a northern district and it was really good to see them. Both were with hand crews on the fire.

I spent three very long days in the fire camp making sure the crews had everything they needed to fight the fire effectively and finally made it home. I always get home from these incidents worn out but I sure do love getting the call and the chance to go on them.

DR. VISIT

2011-08-02T16:33:00.000-07:00

Went to the doctor today for a check-up. Had my blood tested for cholesterol and it is now down to 124. The medicine has given me several problems so he told me to go off the medication for two weeks and see if it is really the meds that are causing the problem. If it is he gave me some samples for the next month to try---if it isn't he wants me to get the prescription renewed for the one that I think is causing the problems because it has cut my cholesterol exactly in half.

Got checked for the chronic bronchitis I have from smoking for so many years. Progress has been made there again but he isn't going to take the inhalers away. He wants to cut the dose in half again like we did last time and see what that does to how I feel.

I'm thinking that by the time I have been quit for five years I will be in about the same boat with breathing that the rest of the world that is my age is in. That will be remarkable because I have had some serious breathing episodes but they are mostly gone now.

TODAYS DR.VISIT MADE ME FEEL LOTS BETTER ABOUT MY HEALTH.

HEALTHY???

2011-08-01T08:29:00.000-07:00

It is somewhat frustrating to me to be going through all of the tests to determine my health. I have never had much wrong with me and it is really frustrating to be sent to the lab every six months for blood tests to determine the next round of treatments.

This all started when my Doctor found that my blood cholesterol was at 191. He prescribed a drug to help reduce it and ordered blood tests in six months. This blood test had my cholesterol at 214 so he changed the drug to another one to reduce it. Along with that he ordered blood tests in three months to see what was happening. It was interesting to note that at this blood test part of my blood was higher and part was lower so he gave me another drug and ordered tests in six months.

I took the blood test today and am seeing the Doctor tomorrow. I am going to tell him I am not taking the drug any more. It makes my muscles ache, makes me dizzy at times and makes it so I can cause a cramp anywhere in my body by simply holding the muscle tight for a few seconds. The warning for this drug has all of these symptoms so I'm not taking it anymore. IN FACT I MAY NOT TAKE ANY MORE DRUGS FOR CHOLESTEROL---I THINK THAT IS PART OF A DOCTOR SIMPLY PRACTICING MEDICINE.

TWITCHELL CANYON REHAB IS NOW TOAST

2011-07-26T20:05:00.000-07:00

For the past two months to the day I have been trying to get the last three hours of work done to finish the Twitchell Canyon Burned Area Emergency Rehabilitation (BAER). Today we got up there and finished it. The fire area is making a remarkable recovery. Much of the burned area is completely healed up and this is just the first growing season after the fire. It usually takes between three and five years to be as far along as this fire is.

This was a fun project start to finish but it HAS been a pain in the backside for the last two months waiting for the meadow to dry enough that it could hold the heavy equipment up. I am really glad that I got to do this project. I met some really good people and learned a lot of new things about rehabbing fires. Here are some pictures so you can decide if fire is good or bad yourself.

FAMILY REUNION

2011-07-16T21:26:00.000-07:00

I went to Inklings family reunion today and had a pretty good time really. I enjoyed visiting with my brothers in law and watching the goings on at the reunion. I haven't been to a lot of these because they are always this time of year---and this time of year has always and still is fire season. The difference---for thirty years I traveled everywhere I went with a red fire bag. When, or if, I got called (and I got called every year), Inklings would drive me to the nearest airport and I would depart for whatever part of the United States that was burning.

I spent 25 years on a Type 1 (highest ranked) team and 5 years on a Type 2 team. During all that time I never missed a single fire call---nope not one. So now I am picking and choosing when and if I go to an assignment. I refuse to ever travel with the red bag again when I leave home for some family gathering or something else and if I want to go to the reunion I simply place myself unavailable.

I assure you that during that 30 year time frame I made a lot of really poor calls and went to the assignment rather than stay home and turn it down. I missed a lot of planned fishing trips and other family gatherings for those assignments. SO WHY DID I DO IT????

Everytime I was financially strapped or needed a big check to get mny kids back into school or to pay the Dr. visits or the braces or any of those other types of things, I ALWAYS HAD A FIRE CHECK COMING IN THE MAIL---ALWAYS.

I don't have those same kinds of needs now and when I choose to go out it is mainly to keep my fingers in the game. I love the job and have never really considered what it would be like to be completely out of it. I would surely miss all the great folks out there that protect all of the citizens of the U.S. from fire. THEY ARE A GREAT BUNCH TO KNOW AND WORK WITH.

RAMBLE ON

2011-07-15T17:14:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday we went North to a celebration of life for my friend that died last week. A CELEBRATION??? I told his spouse, who is also a friend, that I just couldn't do the celebration thing but that I'd keep my mourning to myself. WRONG---when I talked to their boys I cried when I told them to always remember who they were and never forget whose they were. It was tougher to talk to them than I thought it would be. I saw lots of people that I haven't seen for a while and did enjoy those visits.

There were a lot of his accomplishments talked about during the ceremony and it really made me think about how good of life he lived. I laughed when they said his boys told everyone that they were raised CATHERAN (or Lutheric) because their Dad was Catholic and their Mom was Lutheran. They attended the Lutheran Church there but my friend was always CATHOLIC---marked by the Nun's at Creyton Prep where he went to High School in Omaha, Nebraska.

On the way up to the celebration we hauled furniture to two of our daughters that has been stored in our house for a while now. It seems good to have it out and the space back available to do nothing with. We were nearly late for the ceremonies due to unloading the furniture but got there before anything much got started.

We tried to load up some other stuff for a daughter and haul it back to her but I just plain ran out of gas and had to bag that for the night. The next day we delivered it to her on our way home.

Had dinner with three of our kids and four of our grand kids so all in all it was an OK trip.

A TERRIBLE LOSS

2011-07-10T08:41:00.000-07:00

Last evening I was notified that one of my good friends from my entire Forest Service career had died from the cancer he so valiantly battled. It upset me pretty badly until I thought about his battle and how sick he has been for the past month. He was sleeping 22 hours a day and was on a pain pump so it should have been no surprise that he finally lost the battle. I have spent some time thinking about our friendship and decided to put it on here so I could come back and read it if I chose to.

In 1976 we worked on the same District in Montana. He was on the timber preparation crew and I worked on the silviculture side of things. Our paths crossed many times that year and we were friendly but never got to be really good friends. I moved on to another District in Montana and he moved on to another District in Idaho. We occasionally saw each other at training sessions and had some great visits about the OLD District.

In 1981 I moved to a District in Utah and he moved to a District in Utah. We were both responsible for recreation so our paths crossed a lot and we shared ideas on how to do things better. We had a great relationship and were friends but not really close friends. In 1997 he took a job as an assistant to the Director of the Olympics for the Forest Service and left his job on another District. I put in for that job and got it so followed him on a job. One thing I was always cautious about was picking who I followed. He left some pretty big shoes to fill as I knew he would but he still lived in the same town so I could easily contact him if I needed to.

He had left some pretty big partnership jobs unfinished and I had to figure out how to get everything done that he had started. We spent quite a bit of time together on these projects and he helped me get everything figured out and I was able to get the projects finished. They turned out great and the Forest got a National award for one of the projects. I refused to be the recipient of the award because I thought (and still do) that it should have been his award since he did all of the planning and getting all the partnership money rounded up. He refused to be the recipient of the award because he thought it should have been mine because I was the one that implemented it on the ground. There were many long discussions about this with high powered people and they were insistent that one of us agree to receive the award. We both still refused saying the other one should get it. As it turned out one of the designers of the project went to Washington D.C. and received it. SEE WE WERE BOTH HARD HEADED ENOUGH NOT TO BEND!

In 1986 we were on a fire together in the deep back country of Utah. It was really terribly hot and drinking water was at a premium. We had been working very hard for several hours and all of a sudden he went down. I ran over to see what was going on and he was hot and dry and really red. I got the crew to set up a sleeping cot and started pouring water all over him. I covered him with a light cloth and just kept pouring that water over him. He was miserable but we kept at it until we could move him to a hospital. When we got him to the hospital he was diagnosed as having a heat stroke. Our pouring the water on him had cooled his body temperature enough that he survived. His spouse did not let him come back to work for me in fire until 1997. He came back as my Supply Unit Leader and we had a great run for eight years.

WE HAD A GREAT RUN---WENT TO LOTS OF INCIDENTS---SHARED IN LOTS OF HEARTBREAKS AND OUR FRIENDSHIP GREW BY LEAPS AND BOUNDS! REST IN PEACE MY FRIEND!!!!

UPDATE LAS CONCHAS FIRE

2011-07-08T07:20:00.000-07:00

The fire has an Area Command team and four Type 1 Fire Teams on it. That is an awful lot of elite firefighters directing the effort.
136,955 acres
6264 acre increase yesterday
40% contained (hasn't changed in a couple of days)
2276 people on it
55 (20 person) Crews
70 Engines
17 helicopters
95 structures have been lost to date.

FIRING AWAY

2011-07-07T14:38:00.000-07:00

I just got home from the Wallow fire in Arizona. It was the biggest fire in Arizona history (538,049 acres) and I really wanted to go it because I was on the team that put the Rodeo/Chedeski fire down back when it was the biggest fire in Arizona history. I was with California Team 3 and was not impressed a lot. Their operations section is top notch though. When I got to the fire camp I told the people working for me that we would be fighting fire hard for three days and then we would be trying to get everything out of camp.

It was really funny that the crew asked the IC if that was right---she kind of hum hawed and said if we are lucky that will be the case.

We were lucky and that is exactly what we did. While I was there I sent 7 semis with a trailer of 50 feet or more back to the cache. I tell everyone the only thing I did there was send 359 feet of semi trailer back to the cache.

IT IS SOOOO GOOD TO BE HOME!!!

THE BENEFIT OF WORKING FIRE REHAB PROJECTS

2011-06-19T18:05:00.000-07:00

This picture shows a whole backseat of a full sized truck filled with giant puff balls that were growing in the fire area when we went to check it a week ago. We have been eating mushroom steaks all week and only made it through almost two of these. The others went to folks that went out there with me.

I asked them if they had eaten any and they both told me they have eaten a bunch, sauteed a bunch and dried a bunch. They both took home over 30 pounds each. It was kinda fun to find that many edible mushrooms in such a small area.

I rode home in the backseat and I assure you the smell of all those mushrooms was awful.

SOMETIMES YOU GET A BIG TREAT FOR DOING YOUR JOB,

HOW FREAKING OLD AM I ANYWAY

2011-06-05T16:11:00.000-07:00

Friday we attended the wedding for our first grand daughter to get married. It was awesome. Both her and her hubby said in their vows that they were marrying their best friend. That is awesome. Hope it stays that way and they live happily ever after.

I generally don't get very emotional about things but did at this wedding. I got really emotional when I told my new grandson in law that he was awesome and I thought he had set a high standard for the rest of our grandchildren to follow. I think they are an awesome couple. I love this picture.

I AM NOT OLD ENOUGH TO HAVE GRANDKIDS GETTING MARRIED---NOT!!!

MEMORIAL DAY 2011

2011-05-31T07:37:00.001-07:00

I went back to my home town yesterday to visit my parents grave. It was a peaceful day and I felt really good about going for a change.

The headstone looked nice as well as the two flower arrangements on it. It was nice to remember.

While we were there I decided to try to find the grave of my friend who died in Viet Nam. I looked it up in the Sextant Record but couldn't read the tiny map in the record. I could read the section that it was in. SOOOO--I decided the easiest way to find it was to walk to the flags on the headstones until I got to the right one. Took about two minutes to find it.

It has been said that everyone in America suffered a personal loss in Viet Nam. I don't know if that is true but I do know that he was my personal loss and the personal loss to all of the friends I grew up with.

REST IN PEACE

COFFEE POT REHAB COMPLETE

2011-05-27T07:15:00.000-07:00

Wood straw bales being moved to the deck for netting.

Netting the bales for flying out.

Ready to hook the net on the helicopter.

Helicopter coming in for a load.

Helicopter leaving with a full load.

Final results---something was wrong with my camera but this gives you an idea of what it looks like after the wood straw is spread by the helicopter. The date should be 5/25/2011. I don't know what happened to my camera but I reprogrammed it this morning and it is working OK now..

REHAB TOMORROW

2011-05-22T08:23:00.000-07:00

I am going back to do the fire rehab on the Coffee Pot Fire tomorrow. Took about three weeks for them to get through all the BS associated with hiring me but guess they finally figured it out. I can't remember ever having to turn in copies of so many papers before I could go to work. Proof of drivers insurance, gov't drivers license, state drivers license, defensive driving.... What a joke that whole process was.

I am however looking forward to getting back and getting the job finished. Not sure I will ever agree to do another one of these but the work associated with this one has gone very well so far. I have also worked with some very good people that have been doing the work. It has been fun to work with and get to know them.

RETURN TO FIRE REHAB---MAYBE NOT

2011-05-18T07:27:00.000-07:00

This past two weeks has been pretty frustrating. I am supposed to start the fire rehab next Monday. They have been trying to figure out how to hire me to do the contract inspections for the last few acres. They have taken me through many iterations and still don't have it resolved so maybe the contractor will start without an inspector---time will tell.

I have learned one thing from this project. I will never agree to do another one of these unless it can be completed within 90 days of the fire burning. That is the break point for emergency as defined in the emergency fire hiring book. I have been really tempted to just call back and tell them I'm not doing this anymore. I do feel somewhat obligated though because the contracting officer held on to this contract after moving to another job because he thought we would just finish it as easy as the first part and close it out.

I have no doubt it will be done as easy as the first part but it sure has been tough getting through the process---gave them copies of my driver's license, gov't. driver's license, vehicle insurance that insures me to drive any vehicle, and updated defensive driving card yesterday.

I AM PRETTY TIRED OF BEING TREATED LIKE I AM TRYING TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF SOMETHING

'TWAS A REALLY NICE DRIVE

2011-05-05T07:56:00.001-07:00

These geese are enjoying the false lake from the flooding. The gaggle is growing daily.

This buffalo calf is brand new---he was barely dried off from his birth.

It is fun to have these things going on near us right now. The entire buffalo herd ought to calve in the next two weeks. Will be fun to watch the herd grow.

Usama Bin Laden is GONE

2011-05-02T06:27:00.000-07:00

Last night around 8:30 Fox news indicated they were going to have a speech from the President shortly. Shortly turned out to be about 2 hours but he did finally get on and tell us that Bin Laden had been killed by a US ground attack. That makes it almost 10 years since the attack on the World Trade Center.

I really got a kick out of Girraldo Riveras while he was doing the initial commentary. He was talking about this and that as to why the President would be talking after 10:00 pm to the Nation and went through several scenarios. Then he got this great big grin on his face and said something to the order of---wouldn't it be great if he was going to announce that Usama Bin Laden had been killed---It would be a great day if that son-of-a-bitch was dead. He kept grinning and said to the others that were on line. If that is the case we will be dancing around here and high fiving and celebrating his death. Then he said this isn't any official news release and I'm not saying that is what is going to be announced. I am just saying it would be news worthy of a late night announcement.

I just sat there and grinned when he said that s-o-b. I am sure he doesn't know he said it on National TV. I remember when he was tracking Bin Laden all over the world and remember when they thought they had him when the bombed his camp site on the Pakistan/Afghanistan border. A miss by only a few hours. I remember how badly crushed Girraldo was.

I am glad this is over. Terrorism will not go away because of it but this hit will have psychological ramifications on the terrorist world for a long time to come and maybe, just maybe, slow it down.

Don't know whether to say SEMPER FI or HOO YAA and we will probably never know but which ever branch did it I say GOOD ON YA!!!

THE FLOOD'S A COMIN'

2011-04-27T07:03:00.001-07:00

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

2011-04-26T08:10:00.000-07:00

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

2011-04-21T06:55:00.000-07:00

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

2011-04-14T14:59:00.000-07:00

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.

PINEWOOD DERBY TIME

2011-03-31T07:41:00.001-07:00

I got there at the requested time---waited about a half hour for the rest to show up.

Had a pretty good showing of cars to race.

It has always been fun for me to be the starter for the Derby. I get a kick out of watching the kids react to their handiwork.

PONDERING

2011-03-28T06:44:00.000-07:00

I woke up fairly early this morning because my mind was going about a hundred miles an hour thinking about all kinds of things. I got up and read through a bunch of stuff on the computer. It really didn't slow the old mind down at all. There is an awfully lot of stuff going on in the world right now and a lot of tragedies out there. Most of my pondering is whether there is enough help in Japan to help the people that have lost everything. Makes my heart hurt to think about these poor people that did nothing wrong but are wiped out none the less.

HOPE JAPAN GETS CONTROL OF THE POWER PLANT AND GETS STARTED ON RECLAIMING PEOPLES LIVES.

THE RECONSTRUCTED HOUSE

2011-03-25T04:39:00.000-07:00

Went south yesterday to see my brothers and see the progress on the reconstruction of the house we grew up in. It is coming along nicely and is just about finished. Thre re a few touch up things that have to be done and the construction of the garage and reconstruction of the basketball court in back but it looks really good.

PERSONALITY TEST

2011-03-20T10:05:00.000-07:00

Went to a training last night for renewal of our foster care license. The instructor gave us a personality test to see where we fit in the four personality types. There were thirty word choices and 10 reaction choices. Surprise, suprise, suprise, I had 23 in the red and 12 in the blue---should not come as a surprise to anyone that is where I scored. Now I just need to figure out how to change this enough that I am not a sick purple....since reds and blues are generally not very compatible.

FUN DAY

2011-03-10T08:32:00.000-08:00

Today I am driving a woman to her going away party in this 1930 Model A. They did an old time Forest Service photo shoot a few years ago at Big Flat. I wore the old time uniform for that and she wore the old time dress. It was kind of a fun day so they asked if I would drive her to her party in the car with the uniform on. I told them yes. They brought the car but can't find the uniform so guess I'll just drive her there in regular clothes.

I WILL BE MUCH MORE COMFORTABLE THAT WAY.

AAAHHH RETIREMENT

2011-03-05T07:23:00.000-08:00

Yesterday Inklings and I went to a retirement party for a guy I worked with. We had a little bet way back early in our careers about who would be a District Ranger first. At that time neither of us thought it would be 20 years before we got it. I beat him to the DR position but he went on to be Area Manager for the BLM in our area so he made an extra grade.

The party was held in a Mexican Resturant in another town so we had to travel a little for it. I prepared what I was going to say expecting his boss to be at the party. I prepared pretty well before too---I wore a black shirt and my bastard hat (the black Stetson I wear when I am going to be a bastard). I was going to let his boss know how unfairly I thought he had treated my friend but--wah lah---he didn't show up.

My friend was pretty nervous when I got up to talk (because he knows about the bastard hat) but I only said good things about him. I did say that the BLM would talk about his time here as the GOOD OLD DAYS. It was a good party and I am glad he is out of a bad situation. I hope his health improves and he has some time to enjoy his life away from work. My fondest memories of him are when we were out in the boonies on horse back looking at the resources and having a great time. We had lots of great trips together---BUT NOT ENOUGH. We need to figure out a way to get out on horse back again.

IS THE WISCONSIN CRISIS AMERICA'S CRISIS???

2011-03-01T06:34:00.000-08:00

I have been watching the happenings in Wisconsin with grerat interest. The Governor has not budged on a single point but says he is willing to negotiate. The 14 elected Democrats have left the state because if even one of them shows up to vote the bill, as currently written, will pass. If they don't show up it can't be voted on.

There has been a lot of rhetoric on this but the bottom line is that the Governor has the votes to do anything he wants to do and the only defense for the Democrats is to not show up. The Democrats have said they would vote for the spending cuts but not for removing the Union's collective bargaining clauses from the contracts.

The Governor keeps saying the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior. The Unions in the past weeks have tried to rush contracts through before this law is signed. THE BEST PREDICTOR OF FUTURE BEHAVIOR IS PAST BEHAVIOR---AND BOTH PARTIES HAVE FAILED AS FAR AS I AM CONCERNED.

This is way worse than GRIDLOCK and I pray every day that the Governor and the elected officials can find a way to negotiate through this. THIS IS THE BEST EXAMPLE OF FAILED GOVERNMENT IN AMERICA THAT I HAVE EVER SEEN!!!

Hope this isn't a preview of what is to become America's crisis.

BEARS IN THE WOODS

2011-02-26T06:39:00.000-08:00

The Forest Service in Northern Utah is in a Federal lawsuit because as bear killed a kid that was comping in a dispersed area with his family four years ago. The family is sueing for $2 million. I am really sorry that the family lost their son but I cannot believe the courts will award the family a settlement. If they do the rest of you users of the National Forests had better watch out. You will start seeing closures of the forest for weather and for rattle snakes and any other risk factor that might be lurking in the woods. Looney you might need to stop publishing your pictures of snakes as the pictures prove they are around.

ROAD TRIP

2011-02-19T14:58:00.001-08:00

Yesterday Inklings and I went on a short road trip. We went south to see how the remodeling of my brother's house is going. I think it is going great and hope everything gets done by the time he wants it done. Right now I would say it is on track to be completed on time. It is going to be a beautiful house when it is finished.

After we looked it over we went to lunch with a couple of friends and then further south to see her parents. We had sunshine, rain, wind, snow and any mixture of the above you can imagine. Shows that spring is for sure comin'. We had a great visit with them and got home before dark to avoid the deer on the road. We saw a lot of dead deer along the side of the road that had been hit in the last few days. Also saw an Eagle eating a dead deer but didn't get a picture. I am pretty sure it will eat a few meals there before moving on.

WASTE OF TIME

2011-02-10T06:41:00.000-08:00

Night before last I spent an hour on the phone on Congressman Jason Chaffetz community phone call. What a waste of time that was---he spent the first fifteen minutes saying they were going to repeal the health care law (done in the house but the Senate won't do it), eliminate the No Child Left Behind Law, Eliminate the Federal Department of Transportation, and eliminate the Federal Department of Education. The reason---Utah can do it better---yeah that is probably true but there ain't NO money in Utah.

He was going to personally see to it that rules limiting access and restrictions to minerals got changed, see to it that the US sells it's excess property ($19 billion in 50,000 excess buildings---this might be a good thing---where are they located?), change and enforce the laws dealing with illegal immigration and that allow illegal aliens to get medicaid, school, and food stamps, get the Federal Regulations out of the way so the economy can turn around, assure that the big fee increase (to $200/month) for Forest Service recreation residences gets reduced (so much for fixing the income), change the EPA rules to allow more development of our Natural Resources, fix it so we are oil independant and ethanol (using food for fuel) is not the answer, and rein in the EPA regarding use of coal for generating electricity,

I'm not saying that some or all of these aren't good things to do---but they ain't gonna happen. WHY---because everyone representing us in Congress and the Senate are set on making themselves look good for the next election. YUP---Republicans control the House and Democrats control the Senate so no bill is going to get approved without a lot of compromise. COMPROMISE---CAN'T DO THAT---I WOULD LOOK BAD TO MY CONSTITUENTS AND THE NEXT ELECTION IS ONLY TWO YEARS AWAY.

SSSSOOOOO----for the next two years you can expect---GRIDLOCK---nothing passing no one getting anything done---BEEN THERE DONE THAT. They can't even pass a budget for the Federal Government and are again running the Nation on a continuing resolution where you never really know if you have any money to manage your job or not so no single politician has to own up to where the cuts in budget are coming from.

So where are the leaders going to come from that will actually try to led us out of the mess we are in financially in this country. It won't come from all the LONE WOLVES out there that are going to make all these changes. It is gonna take good negotiations and superb understanding to get anything done---as long as both sides are running for the next election in two years we are in deep S#!*.

WE ARE IN SERIOUS TROUBLE AS A NATION---I DON'T HAVE THE ANSWERS---BUT CHEST POUNDING LEADERS TELLING US THEY WILL FIX EVERYTHING ISN'T IT---HOPE WE GET IT FIGURED OUT PRETTY SOON!!!! And unfortunately that is my $0.02.

SUPER, SUPER BOWL

2011-02-07T06:58:00.000-08:00

I am not the greatest football fan but I do love to watch the Super Bowl. Yesterday was no exception. I enjoyed the game. I cheered for Green Bay---I cheered against the Steelers. It was as good game with a respectable score and a near turn around in the third quarter. I am glad Big Ben got his first ever loss in a Super Bowl. I hated to see so many injuries to great players in this single game. I enjoyed my Super Bowl treats.

Made one mistake though---started the game with sizzling hot Cheetos and a cherry coke zero---ran out of coke before I ran out of Cheetos and nearly fried my tongue.

It was a fitting end to a long season. Hope they have a season next year.

OH WHAT A TANGLED WEB

2011-02-04T07:41:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I received a forward from a friend I used to work with. It had been forwarded to him so I looked to see if I recognized any names from the previous forward. I did---the second name on the addresses was the name of my first Forest Supervisor when I went to work full time. So I copied the name and address and sent a message asking if he was the guy. He responded that he was and we sent several messages back and forth. It was fun to find him and communicate a little with him. HE WANTED TO KNOW HOW A YOUNG GUY COULD BE RETIRED ;-). It was sad to find out that many of our co-workers are no longer with us. The intertnet is a wonderful thing for reconnecting with people---even if you have to steal the name from an unknown party that sent it to one of your friends.
'TIS A TANGLED WEB.

THE TAX MAN COMETH

2011-02-01T07:21:00.000-08:00

Yeterday was tax day at our house. We went to the tax man and had them done. I do that because the company where we have them done went to the two audits we have had and defended our filing. I had to go too but he did all of the talking and we didn't have to pay anything additional. On top of that they know all the rule changes and about all of the new refund possibilities AND TAKE ALL THE STRESS OUT OF PREPARING THE FORMS.

We usually get refunds from both Federal and State because we over pay the taxes so we don't have to come up with any money this time of year when money has always been tight for us. This year I was retired and the place that sends my retirement checks did not take out any State taxes this year. NOPE---NONE. Luckily when I was on fires they took out our normal taxes and this helped us not to have to dig up more money to pay them. We had to pay a pretty large sum in income tax to the State at the end of the day.

I don't feel at all bad about paying the income taxes---never have---because it means that I made a pretty good sum of money to have to pay them. QUITE FRANKLY I WISH I HAD MADE ENOUGH MONEY TO HAVE HAD TO PAY AN ADDITIONAL MILLION DOLLARS IN. My only point in this is that I wish I had caught that they weren't holding the taxes out before we got the retirement checks. That would have helped us not to have to dig up the money right now. I made the change for next year but we'll probably have to pay some additional because they won't start taking it out until March.

IT WAS A GREAT DAY BECAUSE OUR FEDERAL RETURN WAS LARGER THAN OUR BILL TO THE STATE---IT'LL TAKE SOME TIME TO RECIEVE IT BUT AT LEAST IT IS COMING.

ROAD TRIP

2011-01-27T08:50:00.000-08:00

We just got home yesterday from a three day road trip---mostly just for fun---but also so that I could go to a retirement party for one of my friends. While we were tripping we saw six of our kids and seven of our grandkids so we had a good trip.

The guy retiring's career and my career crossed many, many times. He worked for me on the fire team for quite a few years, and I worked for him at the winter olympics in Salt Lake City in 2002. We worked closely through our careers (starting in 1976) and I replaced him on the District when he went to help manage the Olympics where he was the assistant director. I'm telling you I hold this fine man in great esteem.

At his party a Senator and a Congressman had letters read to him about how they felt he was such a valuable asset to them. He had two retired Regional Foresters there. The current one was not. I don't know for sure how many people were there but it was a lot---A LOT. I got to see many people at this party that it is likely I will never see again in my life time.

He has terminal cancer and has had for several years. When he was diagnosed he told me he was going to live long enough to see his son graduate from Medical School. I have no doubt he will accompish that. We had other friends diagnosed with the same type of cancer at nearly the same time, and they are gone now.

I told a few stories about him when I talked but near the end of what I had to say I started to cry and was unable to finish. I was embarassed but couldn't get my voice to work. Since I got home I have had many messages saying I hit it right on the head with my comments and they thought I did good. I dunno about that but I do know that I love this guy---AND I HATE IT THAT HE IS GOING TO DIE FROM CANCER.

HERE IS HOPING THAT YOU CAN ENJOY YOUR RETIREMENT MY FRIEND.

WHAT I'VE BEEN UP TO---PENNY COLLECTIONS

2011-01-16T09:11:00.001-08:00

When I was in Cub Scouts about a hundred years ago I started collecting pennies. When my Mother died last year I got them back. A few months ago I got them out and started trying to finish them up. Gettin' close now---only lack 5 to have all the pennies from all the mints from 1909 to 2009. It has been kind of fun and Epitome of Sweetness has helped a bunch finding them.

1959 to 2009 (compete set 1/19)
1941 to 1961 (Complete set)
1909 to 1940 (just 5 to go)
This is being updated on 1/20--I visited the bank several times this week for $10.00 worth of pennies. Sorted through them most of two days---ta da---complete set.

PLUMBING--MY FAVORITE JOB

2011-01-13T13:19:00.000-08:00

For the last couple of years the toilet in the bathroom by our bedroom has been leaking from the tank into the bowl. When the tank gets low enough it refills. This has been going on two or three times a night for at least three years. Well last night it was refilling every ten to fifteen minutes. It was agravating--it was disgusting. I didn't sleep much last night and was pretty mad at myself for not fixing it earlier. Now in my defense I did replace the flapper a couple of times but that didn't stop the leak.

So this morning bright and early I went to the store and bought all of the parts to replace everything inside the toilet. I replaced everything and the leak from the tank to the bowl was fixed---now the leak was out of the two bolts that hold the tank on the bowl. I replaced them and hooked things up again---they still leaked---I bought a new set and doubled the rubber gaskets on the bolts---one on the inside and one on the outside and tightened them pretty tight. They still leaked. I had Inklings come in and hold the screw driver while I really cinched the gaskets down. They still leaked.

I had Inklings come and help me one more time---she commented we ought to go get a new toilet---I said nah this one has all new parts. She held the screwdriver above while I wrenched on the bolts from below---I tightened them to the point I thought the porcelain would break. I had decided that if the porcelain broke I would go buy a new toilet and install that instead. But---wah lah---the toilet has not leaked for an hour---I think I may have won. TIME WILL TELL AND THE STORE IS STILL OPEN. ;-)

WHEW

2011-01-10T13:48:00.000-08:00

Today I went in to get a hair cut. The lady that cuts my hair said "it's been a while." I said "yeah a couple of months." She said "that is probably right. The last time you were in here was just before you started doing the fire rehab project." I said "yeah that's right---that would have been October 22."

She cut a lot of hair off---A LOT---it wasn't long enough for locks of love but if you could sell it by the pound there would have been a few bucks there. ;-) It sure feels a lot better than it did when I went in.

GETTIN' OLD

2011-01-07T07:38:00.000-08:00

I went with my father in law yesterday to get his drivers license renewed. He has lost a lot of his sight in the last ten years and is gettihng really frail. When we were headed for the car I asked him if he wanted me to drive. He reached into his pocket an handed me the keys and said you know how to get places here better than I do so you go ahead and drive. That made me happy because he has a lot of trouble driving anyway---and he knows it.

We got to the drivers license division and got started in the process. The woman that was waiting on him really helped a lot. She worked with him so that he got through all the questions and she made sure he had the pen in the right place when he made his answers. I was really relieved by how easy she made it for him to get through the process. Just as I was about to walk out the door I went back and told her how much I appreciated her kindness and assistance.

He would never have let me help with that. It really sucks to get old but it beats the he#@ out of the alternative.

MEAN OLD MAN

2011-01-06T07:33:00.000-08:00

Just before 8:00 this morning we had a knock on our door. Anyone knocking on our door at any time is a strange happening here. I went upstairs to answer it and it was one of our neighbor kids. It was cold outside and she asked me if I would drive her to school. I thought about it for a few seconds and told her NO she would need to go home and ask her mom for the ride. I felt really, really bad when I shut the door because it was quite cold out there (8 degrees). I felt like a mean old man but as I watched her out the window she didn't go back home to ask her mom she just trudged along toward the school.

My kids all walked to school every day in three feet of snow, up hill both ways, with tempertures below zero (our oldest two boys really did do this about 1/2 mile to the bus stop) and so did I. Guess she'll make it.

NOT SURE I'LL GET OVER FEELING LIKE A MEAN OLD MAN THOUGH.

RE-RETIRED

2011-01-04T07:26:00.000-08:00

We finished the rahab of the Twitchell Canyon fire on December 28. It seemed awfully good to have it completed. It feels even better to not have to be out in the cold every day trying to get er done.

Since it was finished Inklings and I took a short road trip north. We saw our new grand daughter for a few hours, and had lunch with another daughter. It was a great trip and I am sooooo happy we took it.

WHERE I HAVE BEEN

2010-12-19T05:39:00.000-08:00

Even with a computer with viruses and worms I still had to work---here are a few photos of what I have been up to.

WHAT'S UP

2010-12-11T20:33:00.000-08:00

I HAVE KIND OF BEEN OUT OF CIRCULATION FOR THE LAST WEEK OR SO WORKING ON THE REHAB OF A FIRE WE HAD HERE LAST YEAR.
I hope that this series of photos will help you understand how we straw mulch the places in a fire where it has burned extremely hot. The reason we mulch is to hold the seed and the soil in place until the plants from the seed can hold it stable without the straw. When you lose your top soil you don't have much chance of producing a lot of anything. It is really important to keep all the soil on the hill rather than wash it down the streams. If you double click the photos you can see them bigger.

I have the photos in about a perfect reverse order but am too tired and lazy to reshuffle them so here is a little explanation of straw mulching.

Center ridge has been mulched---notice the yellow color of the ground.

Straw bomb just about to hit the ridge after it was dropped from the net hooked below the helicopter on a long line (150 foot cable).

Helicopter being used to fly the straw mulch. We are using three of these.

Another straw bomb before it hits the ground. Notice how much they expand before they hit.

About 2200 pounds of straw in the net it is dropped from.

Crew loading net for pick up.

Crew waiting to remove an empty net and re-hook a full one. Sometimes there is less than two minutes to hook, refill the net, and hook again. This is a supreme helitac crew. They run (and I do mean run) steadily from sunrise to sunset.

Helicopter heading out loaded but you can't see the net full of straw because it hasn't cleared the stack yet.

Straw stack.

Bigger straw stack.

Biggest straw stack. Tractors and bale wagons used to transport the straw up the hill to the helispot from which it will be flown out.

Stack of straw in easy reach of the landing.

Trucks delivering straw at a rate of about 300 tons per day. We'll likely end up flying over 4200 tons. That is a lot of trips since each flight carries about 1 ton.

BACK TO WORK

2010-12-07T08:28:00.001-08:00

Yesterday, just a couple of hours after I posted my last post, we got the decision that the appeal was being over ridden by the Chief and we can go back to work completing the rehab on the Twitchell Canyon fire. That is great news. We still have a weather window that is good for seeding and mulching so we'll go for it and see what happens. I am personally glad that an appeal without merit, in my opinion, was over ridden. CAN'T WAIT TO GET 'ER DONE.

HMMMMM

2010-12-06T10:27:00.001-08:00

Went to the office today to get a list of the rest of the straw that has been tested and approved for use on the rehabilitation project. While I was there I got lots of comments like---"we're really glad you are doing this project because if you weren't we would be tied up almost full time in it," AND "I'm so glad I dont have to give people the bad news like you are having to do with this project," AND "we don't seem to get any news on what is going on with the project, what's the deal?"

Well here's the deal---the contract is under appeal and a stay has been put in place---we have requested that the stay be overridden by the Chief and we get told to go back to work. Until that happens or the appeal is resolved----NOTHING IS GOING ON EXCEPT MY PHONE BILL. I get a lot of calls for a few minutes each day but don't really think that constitutes working on the project so I am not charging for any of the time I am putting in either.

If the project was at a decent and clean stopping place I would give it back to them. The past three weeks hasn't been much fun.

HOME AGAIN---HOME AGAIN

2010-12-04T14:33:00.001-08:00

Went back to my home town again today and after the funeral viewing went up to my mother's old house which is being reconstructed by my brother. I have been told by many people that there are huge changes in the house---I can tell you that the footprint on the front is exactly the same. The house has been expanded nine feet in back and a covered deck has been added back there too. Makes the peak of the roof higher but I doubt you can tell that with the naked eye. But who knows---maybe the OLD ladies that told me they could see the difference really can. There are some other subtle changes to the roof too but they are hard to see.

After--I noticed that the chimney in the middle of the roof and the upright in the middle of the porch are not there if you compare to the before picture.

This is the before photo---just before they started tearing the North 2/3 off the house and recontsructing it.

WORTH THE MONEY

2010-12-03T04:12:00.000-08:00

Took Inklings to Tangled last night. All I have to say about the movie is that Disney's animators and artists are great. Imagine a horse following a trail like a blood hound---YUP---one did that and it was hilarious. The rest of the movie was great too. I believe that the lead in to the movie said it was Disney's fiftieth full length movie. I don't believe I have seen fifty of them but the ones I have seen make me happy there are Disney studios. Young parents---take your kids---old folks go see it---it is worth the money.

THANKSGIVING

2010-11-27T07:26:00.001-08:00

We had a lovely Thanksgiving dinner with only us, Inklings Mom and Dad and Native Minnow. We didn't even try to eat the entire 25 pound turkey---but I still ate way too much. Native Minnow left Friday for home and our oldest son, his wife, and five children came over for a visit. They spent the night and it was fun to have them here.

They are all growing up way too fast but guess that is what happens to kids. We missed all the rest of you. Looking forward to Christmas.

1040 TONS OF STRAW

2010-11-20T18:49:00.001-08:00

I am getting a real lesson in the Logistics of moving straw---these guys are good and know what they are doing. It's fun to work with folks like that.
Storage area where bales are off loaded from the trucks and transported to the helispots.

Tractor pulled bale wagons move the straw six miles uphill 12 bales at a time---that's about 7 tons.

It is put into one of several stacks at the helispot. This is 1/4 to 1/6 of the straw we need to fly depending on how the coverage goes when the bales are released from the helicopter.

PREPARATIONS FOR FLYING MULCH

2010-11-19T06:53:00.000-08:00

The dates on the photos should be 11/17/2010 and I don't know how the camera date got off but it is.
BACK ON THE FARM????

It was never this easy to move bales of anything when I was working on the farm.

The trucks are all off loaded into a storage site close to a paved road and the straw is stacked in a huge stack. It is moved to the helispots by farm tractor pulled bale wagons at either 8 or 12 bales to the load depending on the size of the bales.

The bales are put into a stack just like you see on the farm.

Tried to start the stack here but there is just too much slope and the bales won't stand.

Two fuel tenders on the helispot. They are parked in spill containment kits to prevent a hazmat spill. We are ready to fly as soon as the weather cooperates. It is too windy again today.

MAKIN' PROGRESS

2010-11-18T18:59:00.000-08:00

On the little project I am working on we are making good progress. We have flown about 96 thousand pounds of seed onto the burned area. We are about 1/3 complete with that part of the project. If the weather would settle down and let us go to work we would finish this in about four days of good flying.

We had to shut down today because of strong winds aloft that blew the planes and helicopters all over the place. We will likely be shut down tomorrow, Saturday and Sunday because of weather too. Time will tell.

The mulching side of the project is coming along too. There is a lot of straw on hand and a lot more being delivered daily. It will be fun to see the three helicopters that arrived yesterday actually fly with the mulch---I am really looking forward to watching them bomb the hill sides.

RAIN, RAIN,. GO AWAY

2010-11-15T20:06:00.000-08:00

We have been weathered out with high winds and rain/snow for the last 2 days. The rain/snow is also making muddy conditions across the project area. The frost has come out of the roads and they are terribly muddy. Hate to be a spoil sport but I could use a couple of nights at near zero---just to solidify the roads into the project area.

Hate to wish the warm weather away but I could for sure do without the storm for the next five or six weeks.

RANT OVER?.....maybe.

A BANNER DAY

2010-11-12T19:32:00.001-08:00

Had a great day today spreading seed for fire rehab. Here are a few pictures of what it looks like. We had two planes each of which flew about 2,000 pounds of seed a trip. Flew over 25,000 pounds of seed today. This is turning out to be an awesome project. Now we just gotta beat the snow.

Flying seed---look at the seed trail behind the plane.

These dudes are awesome pilots.

Seems pretty close to the ground to me.

How seed is loaded into each plane---the bag on the lift contains 2,000 pounds of seed.

GONNA BE A FAST RIDE

2010-11-11T11:49:00.000-08:00

Worked a half a day today to get things ready for the rehabilitation contract tomorrow. They are flying in two aircraft today to start spreading seed as soon as we are out of the meeting tomorrow morning. Should have it all down by next Saturday. They are bringing in four helicopters to fly the mulch, starting Saturday or Sunday. If things go well we will be finished with the entire contract before December---That's gotta be a record for accomplishment time.

UNDER THE GUN

2010-11-10T08:13:00.000-08:00

Things are going pretty fast. The aircraft contract has been awarded and most of the seed is mixed and ready to fly. Should get the remainder of the seed tomorrow for testing. Then we will mix the rest Monday if the tests come back good. Heavy clouds today (and now snow) will prevent any flying and I haven't been contacted by the Helicopter Company about where they want to store their materials yet. They know that I have to approve the sites so things will get tense in the next few days when they do contact me.

I am really looking forward to getting things in the air on this project. On Friday of this week I will have been working three weeks on and off on the project. That has got to be a record for getting six seed contracts and an application contract awarded and ready to go.

Just looked out the window and it is snowing---HARD---and that is the last thing I need right now with the contract ready to go forward. I hope we don't get a ton of snow out of this storm.

A LITTLE AT A TIME.

2010-11-09T08:05:00.000-08:00

I worked yesterday and went to the place where the seed for the Twitchell Canyon fire is being mixed. About half of the seed is already there and the rest is being delivered today and tomorrow. The last two loads of seed have to be tested before they can be mixed to assure there are no noxious weed seeds in them and to get the percentage of seed that is live. That will make a big difference on application rates since the rates specified are for pure live seed.

I am releived to have the seed on hand and some of it is being mixed today and tomorrow. They will continue to mix next week if the tests come back good on the seed delivered this week. Time will tell---hope it tests good.

They are evaluating the bids this morning for the aircraft that is going to apply the seed and the mulch. The award could be made as early as tomorrow. It is starting to look like we'll be flying seed next week. That will put me completed with the project by December 15th if everything goes well. Would love to have it completed by then...both for me and for the ground being seeded and mulched.

AWWWW---LOVE THE INDECISION

2010-11-01T12:38:00.000-07:00

I went in to work this morning to make sure I had everything in place for the 8th to mix the seed. While I was there we were notified that the seed companies (all of them) didn't have enough of one type of seed to fill our order. That seed is being delivered today less the amount not available. This creates a problem because the total poundage was scheduled to be in two different mixes and some of it applied alone (it was going to be used on three separate areas). So now a decision has to be made of what to do about a change in mixes (if any)---and on top of that the other seed contract will be awarded tomorrow so we should know sometime tomorrow if we are going to get all of the other seed we ordered.

We are having a meeting tomorrow to determine what we are going to do with this changed situation---if it was up to me we would use what we have where it was scheduled by itself and mix the rest for the other areas each receiving half of what remains. That is what I would do and that took all of one minute to decide. But NO tomorrow we will meet as a group to try to figure out what we are going to do to meet our plan. Should take about three hours and we still won't know for sure what we are going to apply in all the areas.

When I was a wee lad my Grandfather used to say:
"Committees of 20 contemplate plenty;"
"Committees of 10 work now and then;"
"If you want anything done, under the sun, have it done by a committee of one."

Just proof again that my Grandfather was a very smart man.

WHAT SEEDING AND MULCHING LOOKS LIKE

2010-10-29T13:01:00.001-07:00

I have blogged about flying seed onto the burned areas and there was a question or comment about it, so this picture shows the seed being flown on---look closely at the bottom of the plane toward the tail and you can see the seed being blown out of the seeder. Look at the left wing tip by the cliff to see how awesome these pilots are.

1600 pounds of seed is flown on with each takeoff. It is loaded from 50 pound bags into a big loading bag that is lifted by a big machine and the seed loaded into the front of the plane. The above picture shows this process.

Mulching entails loading wheat straw bales into a cargo net with a large piece of equipment then the bales are flown to the area requiring mulch and the straw is dropped from the net---only half of the net releases and the big bales of straw hit the ground and the straw is spread across the site by the force of the bales hitting the ground.

This will give you an idea of what I will be up to for the next little while. It is an awesome job---glad I get to do it. ;-)

THE PRACTICE OF MEDICINE

2010-10-28T09:03:00.001-07:00

This month has been our time to get things fixed.

I went to the Dentist and had no cavities but he thinks I need my wisdom teeth out. I told him they took one out and broke my jaw---why would I let you take the other three? He said "well I guess we will wait and see what happens with them." I said "YUP!" They polished all the silver and gold (tooth caps) and sent me on my way for six months. Yeah it will be a year before I go back but he can think what he wants.

I went to the Doctor for a check-up. He reduced my inhaler prescription by half, added a prescription nasal spray (that does more to stop the cough than anything I have ever had), and after further blood tests doubled my prescription for cholesterol medicine. I really don't understand what he is doing with that but the prescription I was previously on has reduced my cholesterol to 164. Reading through the notes on the blood test they are trying to get my LDL down to 100. Why to that level? I have no clue but the notes say that is the ultimate for people with chronic heart problems. I have no symptoms of chronic heart problems. The previous prescription got it half way there so I guess I will do what he wants for two months when they check it again.

I haven't been real good in my life to go see the doctor on a regular basis, partially because I really didn't think the doctors I had were at all concerned about my health. I have said before that this doctor seems to really be interested in what is going on with me and he's been practicing pretty hard to fix the things that are wrong with me health wise. It is pretty nice to have a doctor I trust and think is doing what is necessary to make me better. TIME WILL TELL

WORK DEFINED

2010-10-26T11:47:00.000-07:00

Well I worked Friday, Monday most of the day and today for five hours. In that time I have sorted out the work to be accomplished, who would be the best person or group to do the work, when they should be doing it and have basically delegated them to do the work. Two of the jobs, reseeding and mulching, will be my responsibility. Both of these jobs will be done using aircraft and it should go pretty quickly. Time will tell on that, but I will work two hours tomorrow and then won't work again until the seed starts to arrive for mixing.

There will be five separate seed mixes that will be flown onto different areas of the fire based on historic moisture regimes on the areas. The tracking of which seed mix went to which site will be a nightmare but I think I can make it through that. I said earlier that there were a lot of moving parts to this rehabilitation plan and there are going to be a lot of things going at the same time. I will get to work on many of them but won't get to spend as much time as I wanted to on each one.

There are 75 days programmed for me to do what I need to do. With the way the delegations went today I will probably only use 1/2 to 2/3 of the days that are set up. Looks like I have nearly delegated myself out of a job. ;-)

ONE DYIN' AND A BURYIN'

2010-10-25T17:54:00.000-07:00

Today we buried my friend and the Sheriff of our County. There were many, many police officers there to mourn his passing. He served as a City Police Officer, a Highway Patrol Officer and as our Sheriff for 12 years.

The hearse carrying his body was escorted by these motor cycles and their officers and an unknown (but a whole lot) of patrol officers in their cars with the lights flashing. We never got where we could get a good picture of the whole line of the cars.

He was honored by the Utah Highway Patrol honor guard and bagpipe officers. He was given a very impressive 21 gun salute. The bagpipes played and brought many tears to my eyes.

This is not a good shot of the helicopter but the Utah Highway Patrol helicopter flew by and gave a final salute to him. This was all very impressive to have happen at a small community cemetary.

Near the end the honor guard folded the flag that was on his coffin and presented it to our Sheriff elect who saluted and then presented it to his wife. At the very end our dispatch center made a final radio call and read a eulogy over the radio to him. There were handheld radios on many of the officer's duty belts and this final call was very impressive. It is tough to see a good friend go on to greener pastures.

Now for a funny story about him. I met with him and the County Commissioners to discuss what I intended to do with the lightning fires that started on the district that year. I told them I was going to manage any lightning caused fire that occurred on the district that wasn't a serious threat to life or property. I told them what that meant, letting fires burn naturally, and taking control action only when they passed predetermined map points.

We discussed this for quite a while and he finally said "You are not going to do this in my county." I said "Yes, I intend to do it on the entire district and part of the district is in your county." He said "If you do I will arrest you and take you to jail." I told him "Fair enough warning."

A few weeks later I called him on the phone and said "This is Dee Ice Hole and I think you may want to come and get me and take me to jail. I have just decided to manage a fire about 3 miles east of the town where you live so thought you might want to make the arrest yourself." He laughed and said "Why don't you come and get me and we'll go look at your fire together so that I understand what you are doing."

I did and we spent a couple of hours discussing fire and fire suppression then I took him home. From that day forward he supported me in everything I did with fire---even when the chips were down and I was thinking I was in serious trouble because of my decision he was there to support me along with the Seriff from the adjoining County. We had to do an evacuation one afternoon because a management fire got within about 100 yards of six summer homes. Both Sheriff's showed up with enough Deputies to take care of anything that could have occurred. We held the evacuation the entire afternoon while the fire burned hot and threateningly nearby. We let the people stay at a junction about a mile from their homes. As the sun went down and the fire began to die down we discussed it and decided we could let the people back in to their homes with the understanding that if the fire came back up the next day they would have to leave again. The fire didn't come back up and I gained another dozen tremendous supporters of management fires.

AND quite frankly that is where the quote "I'D RATHER BE LUCKY THAN GOOD" came from. I later added to the quote saying "THE ONLY THING BETTER THAN THAT IS BEING CONSISTENTLY LUCKY." AND I was. But remember Gary Player said "The harder I work the luckier I get." You decide.

HI HO, HI HO, IT'S OFF TO WORK I GO!!!!

2010-10-22T16:24:00.000-07:00

I was asked a couple of days ago if I would be interested in being the implementation leader for the Burned Area Emergency Rehab (BAER) for the Twitchell Canyon fire. I went into the office to discuss the possibility today. Spent most of the morning reviewing and recommending a few changes to a contract and started into the report made to request the money to do the rehab. The changed contract has been submitted for contracting and I have agreed to take the lead in implementation. Included in this package is the BAER for the Coffee Pot fire on the Manti-LaSal that I was on a few weeks ago as part of the team managing it. It is only two small areas totaling 35 acres there.

It really made me feel good to have them ask me to help with this. It is a project funded for about $5.5 million that will mostly be done in the next two or three months. Lots of things are going to be going on (mostly monitoring flying seed and mulch onto the burned area) for me when the contract gets awarded.

Looking forward to the challenge and to the work. It will be nice to know that the fires have been properly put to bed too. AND...It's nice to be the one that makes that call.

OH HAPPY DAY

2010-10-14T07:16:00.000-07:00

Yesterday they were able to remove the 33 Chilean miners trapped below ground for 69 days and the six rescue workers that went down to help prepare and load them. This has been an ongoing situation that has given me the heebee jeebee's everytime I have watched anything to do with it.

Yesterday I spent most of the day glued to the TV watching as they pulled them out one by one until about 9:30 they pulled the last rescuer out. Every time the Phoenix 2 started the upward ascent my insides would turn over and tie up---guess I was never cut out to be in tight places.

This was a great accomplishment in the history of mining---never before have miners survived that long. The Chilean President put all of his political cards on the table for this rescue---all I can say is---WELL DONE!!!!

REFLECTING ON RETIREMENT

2010-10-12T06:07:00.000-07:00

I have been reflecting on my life for the past couple of hours. Today I retired for the second time---this time for Social Security with 48 quarters of compensable time. That is 12 years working---I retired from the Forest Service with 39 years and a couple of days working. That means I spent 51 years of my life working. I am 62 years old today so that means I started working full time when I was 11 years old. That isn't quite true---I started at 9 and took a few quarters off while I was unemployed and/or going to college. So quite frankly I couldn't remember a time in my life when I wasn't working until I retired from the FS. I was pretty worried that I wouldn't know what to do with myself in retirement. Well maybe I still don't know what to do but for sure I am enjoying not being tied to a job any more. I miss the heck out of the association with the people I worked with though.

I loved going on the fires I went to this past year but I didn't have to go---it was my choice whether I went or not. There is a great amount of freedom and enjoyment just in the fact that it was truly a choice. It pays me pretty well to go on the fires but only about 1/3 of what I got paid a year ago (when I was working for the FS) to do the same job. I have determined that I do fire for the adrenaline fix I get out of going and that I get to associate with some great people while I am doing it.

NEW EXCUSE NEEDED---LEAF RIDE WON'T WORK ANYMORE

2010-10-08T20:09:00.001-07:00

I was on the mountain yesterday and the leaves were mostly there but around 2:30 the wind started blowing hard and the leaves were falling pretty fast. Took Inklings up today to see them and they are mostly gone---so now I need a new excuse to take an afternoon ride.

We actually had snow on both sides of us where this picture was taken---in one spot the snow came all the way down to the road.

This dude had a mouse in the tree and was way too hungry to fly just because a truck with a blaring radio stopped. He didn't even consider leaving the mouse.

SNOW IN THE HIGH COUNTRY

2010-10-08T11:07:00.000-07:00

We haven't seen the mountains to the south for several weeks---either due to smoke or due to rain clouds settled way down on the mountain. When the clouds finally lifted there was snow to about the 8500 foot level. WINTER'S COMIN'. It ain't here yet but it is comin'!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR

2010-10-07T14:31:00.001-07:00

Went to the New Year party for the FS here today---for you that aren't feds October 1 starts the fiscal year for the feds---hence New Year. This is a pretty neat party where the forest celebrates the accomplishments of the old year and gives out the safety awards for the year just ending. They also celebrate the accomplishments they made in the last year and discuss some of the things that are going to happen in the next year. I started this celebration a couple of years ago and hope it turns into a yearly tradition.

I got invited by the Forest Supervisor to attend since I was the one that started it earlier---at least that is what I thought---at the end of the day he presented me with a Legacy In Fire Management award from the national office in recognition of my efforts in fire throughout my career. It was neat to be recognized even if it was 10 months post mortem. I think it is a vey nice award.

IT'S RAINING, IT'S POURING, THE OLD MAN IS BORING

2010-10-05T17:55:00.000-07:00

It has been raining pretty hard the last two days and the Twitchell Canyon fire is looking way sick. There is no visible smoke anywhere that we can see. But remember it has been this way twice before. I'm tellin' ya rain doesn't necessarily put fires out. I told everyone before that it wasn't out and I'll tell you again it isn't out---not yet---it'll take a lot more rain than this to finish it off. BUT it is for sure not going anywhere in the near future. It will sit and smoulder for a while and if it turns hot and dry it will burn again....if it continues to storm it'll give it up and go out....time'll tell.

I THINK THERE IS SNOW IN THE NEAR FUTURE---AT LEAST IT FEELS LIKE IT T'DAY.

PUTTIN' AROUND

2010-10-02T10:30:00.000-07:00

I got home from my little fire the evening of the 29th so spent all day the 30th kind of resting up and cleaning up my gear to get ready for the next go round. The gear is clean but not packed yet but that will be easy when I get around to it. Yesterday we went for a little ride to look at the leaves on the mountain. They were beautiful but have changed rapidly and will fall soon so if you wanna look do it quick.

Today is our 41st anniversary---Where did the time go????

At the end of the trip we stopped by my Mother's old house to see how the construction is going on it---it'll look pretty much the same but the inside will be quite a lot different.

More Arm Chair Quarterbacking

2010-09-30T18:04:00.000-07:00

This map is only one day and 4,500 acres out of date but it shows most of the fire activity since I have been gone to a little fire of my own (about 1150 acres). The fire is now over 44,000 acres and growing a little every day. I believe they have made a new decision on it to put the fire out on the south end. If they get that part of the fire put down I think this one is history---yeah I know I said that earlier but this time I think it's over. From my perspective that would be a good move and would put this fire into the books of the Forest as the most effective management fire ever.

They are moving the fire camp to Beaver Monday since that is where the majority of the work that remains to be done is located. They did a really effective burn out near the I-70/I-15 Junction yesterday and I think that is shut down cold today. The rest of the fire along the west facing ridge (facing I-15) is hanging up on a prescribed burn that was done by about three years ago. I don't think it is possible for this fire to chew through that as there isn't enough fuel yet to sustain a good fire.

ANOTHER UPDATE

2010-09-20T20:40:00.001-07:00

After today I'll probably have to put the map on in two halves---barely got North Creek on tonight and a lot of that burned today---we'll see how the new team does.

This is a picture of North Creek burning that I stole off my wife's facebook---thanks to whoever posted it.

ARM CHAIR QUARTERBACKING IS LOSING IT'S APPEAL

2010-09-19T18:13:00.000-07:00

Here is the latest progression map of the Twitchell Canyon fire just before the third red flag warning day in a row. I understand it has hit the Interstate at Fish Creek and is rapidly approaching it at Shingle Creek. If you can't read the map Fish Creek is the one with the big blob of red North of the light blue and Shingle Creek is the one that is all dark green just to the left of Fish Creek. They will both be black by morning if the information I am getting is correct.

Here is what the sun looked like from the North corner of our yard after the fire started making it's run today.

Right now they are predicting another red flag warning day for tomorrow with the potential for thunder storms. It's not my call, and I am not involved in any way, but I think we will see them move into the full suppression mode tomorrow. Time will tell but I think everything identified to be burned has now been burned.

AHHH TECHNOLOGY---DESTINED TO FAIL---AT THE WORST POSSIBLE TIME

2010-09-15T17:12:00.000-07:00

Here is an updated map of the Twitchell Canyon fire. When I was just starting to fight fires we had great base maps that you could see the contour lines and read all the drainages, peaks and points of interest onto which we penciled the estimated fire perimeter...today with all our great technology we have maps with the precise location of the fire perimeter but the only way you can tell where it's located is by using a GPS unit. That's not totally true but the team in charge of this fire could use a better base and then you wouldn't have to see my crayon writing identifying the streams and peaks. Guess I'm just too old to learn new tricks but it is possible to have it both ways---just takes a little effort---which is apparently too much to ask. I guess this is my blog and if I choose to use it to bitch about something that really makes me mad then I get to do that---so there ya go.

Proof positive that the squeeky wheel gets the grease.

TRAIL CANYON BURNING

2010-09-14T14:08:00.000-07:00

Here is a picture taken about 1400 on 9/14/2010 of the Twitchell Canyon fire taking out the entire Trail Canyon drainage. It was pretty cool to watch it move to the west a couple of hundred yards at a time. This picture was taken from I-70 about half a mile west of the Fish Creek bridge. I think this is the first time Inklings has seen a fire progress up a drainage just like you would predict it would. I certainly didn't expect to see this fire get up and run again---guess we can all learn something---I did today.

These next shots were taken between 1600 and 1700 on 9/14/2010. All of the earlier spot fires were fully engaged at that time.

THE OLD HOUSE IS BECOMING NEW

2010-09-10T20:37:00.000-07:00

Went south yesterday and stopped by my brother's house to see how the construction was coming. The walls were up and the workers were inside getting ready to install the roof. They are working hard to get it enclosed before winter. Time will tell on that.

Front shot

Back shot

OK---I ADMIT IT---I COULDN'T STAND IT

2010-09-10T17:29:00.000-07:00

I have had a lot to say about the quality of the maps on Incinet for this incident and today I went to camp and bitched about them and they cleaned them up---here is a copy of what is there now. I hate that they do everything in shades of red since I am red/green color blind but I can see most of this one.

ARM CHAIR QUARTERBACKING---AIN'T IT FUN

2010-09-07T13:47:00.001-07:00

Newest map 9/8/2010---10,607 acres---a very good resource burn. Now they can put the Bonneville cutthroat trout into Fish Creek and not worry so much about a devastating fire. Will be a couple of years but that will happen.

Look at the straight line of spot fires generated when the winds blew the column sideways---if you look at the other picture of the smoke you can see they are in a straight line just where the column leaned over.

EVERYONE LIKES TO WATCH THE AIRCRAFT---EVERYONE.

We took a little trip yesterday to watch the Twitchell Canyon Fire burn. It is doing a great job by getting rid of a lot of fuel that needs to be burned out. It also got onto private lands for about 50 total acres which they are putting out as I write. A new team took over the fire yesterday and spent most of the day getting oriented and taking care of the spots on private lands. Not sure what they are doing today but the fire isn't doing anything.

I wrote earlier that I thought the fire had gobbled up everything it could get when it made the run Sunday when it had the high winds behind it---Monday it just cleaned up what was already on fire. Today there isn't even any smoke showing but there is still a lot of fire out there. I believe that if there had been enough fuel to sustain a run the fire would have kept going Sunday instead of hanging up where it is. I've been on a lot of them and I think this one is finished---it just isn't out yet. Pretty risky to say tht with all the firefighters reading my blog but that is my $0.02---the Type 3 Team coulda held it---they were on the right track and just needed a little break from Mother Nature---which they got yesterday and today---it always looks bleak when the fire is up and running.

YA GOTTA LOVE IT

2010-09-04T19:55:00.000-07:00

I spent five days last week on the Boise Complex of fires. When I left home there were 70 fires we were going to be responsible for. That in and of itself is insanity. By the time I arrived there was another team ordered for the fires on the south and another team for the fires on the north east---that left us with one major fire and 14 minor ones. That reduction in numbers was good because it got it to where you could keep track of what was going on where.

We had a couple of pretty good burning periods where our biggest fire grew and got a little scary because it got quite close to the structures. But the crews did good and with a burnout they were able to shut it down from going east and really pretty much shut it down---AND THEN IT RAINED, AND RAINED AND RAINED. Three nights in a row it rained---my tent leaked---and I punctured my queen size air matress---and the fires went out with some help from the crews so I came home and cleaned up my gear. I haven't repacked it yet but it is all in a pile in the bedroom on top of the two packs it goes back into.

I have put myself back up as available Nationally so I may just get one more chance to go out before fall gets here in full force. Ya gotta love it to do this time after time after time after time---I love getting to see all of my old friends when I go to these but I also like the adrenaline rush I get when I am in the heat of battle working a fire. OR MAYBE YOU HAVE TO BE CRAZY TO DO IT!!!!

A NEW BEGINNING????

2010-09-02T18:33:00.001-07:00

The new back patio (which the house never had) is now poured and ready for the roof to be put on. that'll be a long time coming.

The floor of the new addition is in place and sealed---the walls will start up pretty soon now.

SONG THAT I CAN'T GET OUT OF MY HEAD

2010-08-24T09:48:00.000-07:00

WHAT DO YOU DO IN THE SUMMER TIME WHEN ALL THE WORLD IS GREEN---HOPE IT GETS YOU TOO. ;-)