It all came about last Sunday. I had just returned from the flight to Rome and Jordan Creek. A very satisfying flight in more ways than one. I had tried to get a video of the Jordan Creek Canyon at least three times before, and had malfunctions each time. This time I finally got it, and the video was good, if not a little over exposed. No matter, the camera performed perfectly, there was a minimum of harmonics in it, and I survived it as well.
Karen had called on the radio while I was still in Rome with a teaser about a question that she had. Well when I got on the ground, the question was "Do you want a job"? Wellllllllll, maybe?
An acquaintance that owns a piece of property just below us up the Creek works for a fire contractor and was unable to take said job, and had offered to find a substitute for him. I still had my CDL (commercial drivers license) and since it was less than 8 miles down the road, and likely to be of short duration, it sounded pretty good. I could always use some new toys, or pay for the ones that I just bought. The pay was good, and the duration short, so what could be better?
I just finished seven 12 hour work days, and quite frankly was quite happy that they didn't need me any more. Don't get me wrong, it was fun in a way, and I did have the use of the water truck to wet down my runway. I needed that in the worst way with all those planes at the fly-in going up and down. The rocks had a general coming out party with all that traffic.
As you may remember we just finished with the "Long Draw" fire that burned 850,000 or so acres, give or take a few thousand. Then we had the "Haboob". Now we had the "Holloway" fire which was the stuff on the south end of the Long draw fire that didn't burn during the first one. In essence the entire Malheur County south of us is one big ash heap. This one was about 450,000 acres.
The reason for my job was to supply water to a portable Phos-Chek fire retardant supply point for the heli's to dump retardant on the fire to stop it. The product is great stuff. We set up the trailer that mixes the stuff, and waited for the heli's to come in and pick it up.
This is the mixing station
This is the product.
This is a Pumpkin, that the water that I haul is stored in, and in
behind are the storage tanks that the finished product is stored in.
Here is the spot on Crooked Creek that I was drafting water from.
The truck holds 4000 gallons of water and can suck that up in 15 mins.
This is the way it is picked up.
Of course it was a great plan, but as usual there were too many chiefs and not enough Indians.
It took four days to get a port a potty, and the mix boss had to go down to the base camp and for all intents and purposes- steal it and bring it up to the camp in his own truck. This of course triggered an exhibit of sarcasm, that is likely to end up on the pages of a "Phos-chek" company calender for next year.
With the exception of the intense work involved in setting the thing up so they could use it to fight fire, the rest of the time was spent sleeping, reading, and waiting for the knuckle heads to use us for what we were intended for.
About the only excitement was a road trip to truck two trucks full of the "product" (retardant) down to a ranch south of us to fill a "pumpkin" so that they could use it to protect a transmission line. Then it was back to reading, listening to one of the guys that must have been 150 years old. He droned on and on, almost driving me crazy. He of course was from California. His email was "toocool" Who would have thought it. He was as good as a football game to put me to sleep, but when my rest was caught up his habit of clearing his throat every other sentence would drive me out into the 100 degree heat just to rest my ears.
The "Pumpkins" held 10,000 gallons of water, and the first couple of days was filled with activity for me, but that didn't last. All in all we hauled 96000 gallons of water to the site. They mixed 9600 gallons of retardant, and totally 7 choppers came in to haul out 3500 gallons of mix before they decided it was too far to fly to get it.
They supplied Breakfast, lunch and a dinner. We finally got a "liaison" guy who was actually worth something, and he kept us in good shape and was very happy to hang with us so that he wouldn't have to put up with the craziness of "Camp". The base camp was in McDermit Nev, some 49 miles south of us. The food while quite cold by the time it got to us, but was actually pretty good. It was tailored more to a guy fighting fire and burning calories in overdrive. We of course were sitting on our butts sweating in the heat. The only thing that we needed was water and Gator aide.
We were handed off to a series of "Bosses", and then we got two of them. That is when it got interesting. The last one that we got actually came to visit and see for himself what we were and what we were doing. One of the interesting things that came into play was the requirement for the agency in charge of the fire to pay for the water that we had taken out of the creek. The going rate is 3 cents a gallon. It comes to $2800.00. The new boss asked me about taking our unused water and taking it back to dump in the stream, to keep from having to pay the cost. I am afraid that I was quite rude to him. Not really caring if I ever worked again has a tendency to free one from most constraints.
We didn't dump any water back into the creek!
It was finally decided to send heli's up there to load the mixed product on the fire primarily to get rid of it. You see they couldn't dismantle the site until the product was gone, and once it had been mixed the controlling agency had bought the finish product. They didn't suggest that they take the stuff back like the water. Well we had five loads sucked up by the heli's, at 500 gallons a trip, leaving 6500 gallons of the stuff at the end of the flying day.
We came to work the next day and found that they weren't going to send any more helis. Now the wonderful plan was for me and the other tender to haul the stuff to Winnamucca Nev, 110 miles south and dump it at a fire base there. Only one problem- they did not have any place to put it and didn't want it at all.
One of the guy's asked me about giving it to me to use as a fertilizer. Quite nice, but I spend about $400 bucks a year trying to kill everything that grows here, and I damn sure didn't want anything to get in the way of that. So I inquired at the ranch next door. The mix boss and I went up to see if they had any place that we could use it. ( It is primarily a fertilizer, if diluted enough.) Dave had two poly tanks that had been brought in with cattle feed many years ago and they had never picked them up. Since the ranch is part of a local fire district, the retardant would be a nice insurance policy if we had another fire. The rest we would dilute and spray on one of his fields.
We returned and offered the solution to the new boss. He, without shame at all called his boss and took credit for the whole thing.
Yesterday afternoon I went up and started cleaning the tanks, and before quitting we put about 5000 gallons of Fire retardant in the tanks. I spread another 4000 gallons of diluted retardant on Dave's fields.
Today was the day that they were finally able to break down the site, and in the evening I drove the tanker to Base Camp in McDermit to "Demobe". When I was originally hired and given a 1 hour training period to learn all about how to be a tender driver, I asked about fuel. I was told that I should have enough to last a week. He was intending to go to Winnamucca to pick up another tanker truck to fill out the requirements of his contract. He never came back, he was instead sent to Battle Mountain to supply dust abatement on a fire there.
Well, on my way to McDermit, I of course ran out of fuel. The gage didn't work of course, and it wouldn't have mattered if it had. There was no place to get Diesel, and I would have had to pay for it out of my pocket if there was. So I called him on the phone and he had to send a guy out to bring me fuel and help me get "de mobilized" It was damn near as detailed a routine as when I left the army.
In short, I found that nothing has changed. People are still being promoted well beyond their ability to perform. The contractor was a great guy, and I may get an occasional job to break the boredom, and buy a few toys. The Govt is as screwed up as I was afraid it was. I am glad to be retired again!
