Tuesday, July 15, 2008

The wait

We are in that limbo between fire assignments- lots of rumours about where we may go next and when, but nothing solid. We have done almost everything we can here in the office, including washing the trucks, cleaning the chainsaws, restocking miscellaneous stuff, etc. It reinforces just how weird of a lifestyle/job this is- how many people can take off for up to 18 or so days on the road with just a few minutes notice about where they are going? We try to assure that we'll leave by making plans with the few friends outside of fire we have, almost certain that we'll be making calls from the road apologizing for being on our way to AZ/CA/CO/NM/etc. In the meantime, we get antsy and grumpy, tired of trying to make sitting around bullshitting seem enough like work that the bosses don't find crappy jobs to keep us slightly busier. I drink too much coffee just because I can and force myself to calmness when asked, "are you looking for something to do?" Clearly I am, it is just well disguised as sitting down for five minutes to drink my coffee. When the work day is finally done, we crack open beers and speculate about where we will be off to and when.

Friday, July 11, 2008

Fire on the North Rim




I just got back today from the Walla Valley Fire, on the north rim of the Grand Canyon. It was a good roll, I got to play crew boss trainee, we saw some ripping fire (for the first few days at least), and it was an absolutely gorgeous setting. I'll try to write more this weekend, but for now, enjoy the pics.