Karen's turn.

Its been a bit hot here lately and every thing is staying in the shade as much as possible. I've been up in the Mountains where it has been fairly cool, but I still stayed in the shade as much as possible however.

On my last deployment, I discovered that my little "airplane" tent, ( as light as possible, thus pretty small ) wasn't all that much fun to sleep in for 8 days. Its not that bad if you are alone in an area, so that putting your pants on outside the tent is not likely to cause either scorn or alarm. I decided that since I was making all that "extra" money I would get a good medium sized tent that I could both get my cot and a chair inside it. All the other ones that I have are either too small or too big. Obviously a shopping trip to Cabela's and Sportsman's ware house was in order.

We found just what I was looking for in Sportsman's Warehouse and it was $20.00 cheaper than Cabela's. We got back home and I helped Karen put it up, so that she would know what she needed to do if she used it. After putting it up and admiring our handiwork, she announced that she would like to go camping. Like most of her suggestions and comments, it swirled around in my brain for a day or so, when I also came to the conclusion that she deserved a trip to the trees if that was what she desired. We had not taken the new fifth wheel for a test trip either as of yet. So I started looking into some of the camping areas around Burns. Yellow Jacket Camp ground came up as the best option. Quiet, up in the trees and the road to it was also paved, perfect for a first trip with no other expectations other than quiet, wooded, and not likely to be crowded.

We made arrangements with out neighbor to feed what critters we left behind. We decided to take the dogs, as well as the cats, since the cats required medication each day for their asthma. "Its a pretty big trailer with its slide out" was the reasoning at the time, as I recall.

Actually the trip with the trailer turned out to be pretty easy in spite of my pessimism, and we made the trip in about three hours. The only spot that I would consider ( all the way back and away from any of the other three camps in the area.) was not very level. None of them were actually, but we managed to get things pretty well squared away.

Since the altitude at the camp was not that much higher than where we live, it was still pretty warm.

While we were getting set up, Karen told me that we either had a Goshawk nest nearby or a Stellers Jay. ( Very good at mimicry ) I went to the back of the trailer just in time to see a juvenile Goshawk come soaring out of the trees. A male and his sister were calling very loudly for Mom to come feed them. They entertained us for the duration of our visit. At about 5 PM Mom came in with food, and the male, (faster and more agile) grabbed it and the chase was on through the trees. Not sure if he got to eat it all or the female took her share. It appeared to be a Chipmunk, as it was pretty small. Oh by the way, there weren't any of those little guy's living in the campground either. Mom had apparently taken care of them.

They were pretty curious and came up to look me over. I went down to the lake to see what was there, and the female flew within  15 feet of my head going over to a perching spot on the outlet of the lake.

 Of course we took the racing dogs down there with us. Josie was busy cooling off, while Betsy was doing her racing bit.

Its quite a cute little lake, but at this time of the year it is filled with algae and not much worth the effort to try to fish. Fishing wasn't on my agenda anyway, so I was not disappointed.

We had a little Mule Deer Doe come down by camp. It appears that she has some kind of skin problem to her right side. I was not able to determine what if anything the problem was.

It got pretty hot and in the trees there was no breeze, so the night was a lot hotter than I can sleep in. We forgot to bring our pillows and that only made the problem worse. Betsy, our Pointer, is by nature a pain in the ass at the best of times, and a strange place only makes her worse. She hears Bogey men every where, and of course barks, which makes me bark as well. We had brought our two cats as they both need medication. They generally sleep in a large dog kennel, which we had brought. I put Betsy in it so that she would shut up. That left Tiger and Frank on the loose.

I had abandoned any thought of getting to sleep in the bed and was out on the couch with all the windows and door open. In spite of having to lay cross ways on the couch, I had just about gone to sleep when Tiger started twanging the screen door. Of course I had to be wide awake to run him down and swat his butt. Then shutting the door raised the temps about 5 degrees. Finally it cooled enough and I got tired enough that I was able to go to and get to sleep. Then Frank ( the idiot that has claimed me ) came in a started purring in my ear. Strangely enough It did not disturb me, of course a claw in the butt made up for it. I decided that the hell with it, I was going home to the air conditioner as early the next morning as I could.

Well of course reason returned with the daylight, and I decided that I would suffer through, with modification, for Karen's sake. I had a generator with us. One that I had bought specifically with a rating that would be able to run the air conditioner. I decided that I would run it from 6 PM to 10 PM, and hopefully get the temps down enough that it would last us until it cooled off. It made the generator grunt and groan, but I finally got both of them running, and things were looking up.

I had cooked burgers on a small grill that I had used on the RR. The cheese ran over a bit, so I left the lid open in the hopes that it would burn off.

Karen and I had finished eating and the generator was running in the truck at the front of the trailer. Karen poked me, pointing out the rear of the trailer. A Doe, older than the first, was walking down the hill, ignoring all the noise. She walked right up to the back of the trailer, then turned towards the picnic table. She then proceeded to lick my grill as clean as she could get it, as well as all the grease that she could get off the table.

 

I will admit that this was a new one for me. The hell with salt, I am going to barbecue the next time I go hunting.

Our second night was a lot nicer. Betsy was shut up in the kennel, and it was pretty cool for a change. I even fell asleep pretty quickly. Some time in the night Frank came in to serenade us with contented purrs. Then about 4:30 or 5 Josey came in to cuddle, and that wasn't even too bad. Then of course they ganged up on us and wallowed us awake. Still not bad, it was daylight and time to be up.

We learned some good lessons on our trial run that will be implemented our next trip. I will personally make sure my pillow is in the trailer, Much more music, potatoes and bacon will be high on the list as well. A dog and two cats will be left at home as well. Things will then be nicer. Too bad if they feel left out, they had their chance.

On the way back home as soon as we got into cell range, Sharron, the sweety that was caring for the ones left behind, called and informed us that a raid on the Pigeons had taken place this morning. From the sound of it, I was pretty sure that we had another Bobcat visiting us.

There were 15 birds that he was not able to eat left scattered around the floor, and I was then sure that it was a Bobcat. I have a live trap set for him, if he is smart he will get in it. I am going to try to keep him out of my livestock, but a Cat on Welfare is not an easy or smart adversary.

Back home again and there is a Red Flag warning for the area. Winds so far have been in the 25 MPH range, and now there is the smell of a new fire towards Rome. Every one here is out at the time, so I don't know if we will be going out to try to fight it or at least limit its spread.

Thunder City, my latest assignment.

I got to sit at home for a few days, before I was tasked with supplying water to a fire just south of McCall, Idaho. My boss brought the truck to me here at the house, so the next morning I started for McCall. It is back in the mountains along a twisty narrow road that borders the Payette River.

The "IC", Incident Command, was located just off the Hwy at a little crossroads called Lake Port. After arriving, I was tasked with dust abatement within the camp. The only problem was that no one knew where to get this water. I was told to pull it from a nearby creek. I chose an irrigation ditch instead for safety reasons.

There were 284 people assigned to the fire. Their task, from the Forest Service, was to contain the fire within the Frank Church wilderness area. Since the designation of Wilderness does not allow any interference with natural occurrence's. Therefore once contained it would be allowed to burn out.

These camps are small cities that have just about everything needed by the people who are either fighting or supporting the crews that do the actual fighting. Since this was in the Wilderness area the "Hotshot Crews" rappelled from the heli's to their assigned areas. Food, water and all other supplies were brought in by these helicopters.

http://vimeo.com/71534333    password-  owyheeflyer

The next morning after arriving, my truck's starter would not engage. I had been complaining about this problem at the other two fires I had gone to, but no one could seem to find the problem. I have to admit that I do not accept those kind of failures very well. After all I am the one that is required to explain "my truck won't start" to those who are depending on me to preform the job that I was contracted to preform. After all, a truck that will not start is merely a pile of "used parts".

One of the locals gave me the number of a Mobile Mechanic, and I managed to get him to come out to camp and check it out. After some checks on the electrical system, it was decided that the starter was at fault. He got me started, and agreed to go to Boise, pick up a new starter and meet me after work to install it.

I kept the truck running all day long, and he showed up at 2000 hours ( 8 PM) to install the part. After a long and lengthy ordeal, due to the location of this part, we finished at 2400. The next morning the truck started, but I again kept it running all day long due to distrust on my part.

I went into McCall, which I would classify as a "tourist destination", with a "redneck" permanent population. I was in a NAPA parts store buying a hose clamp to stop a leak, and a guy comes walking into the store. ( Now having been a cop at one time, you learn to evaluate anyone entering your immediate area for possible threats.  I am no longer in any sort of a position to be a target, but it is ingrained, whether it is needed or not. ) What I saw was a man in great condition, dressed in shorts, sport shirt, and "Roman Style" rope sandals,---- with Aquamarine painted toenails! I guess no where is safe any more.

The entire camp began to relocate to a site nearer to the fire. The new site was a 75 mile drive to a new site just south of Yellow Pine, Idaho, on a mostly single lane dirt road that had down grades of 12 degrees.  There was 8 water tenders and we were tasked with dust abatement on this road. In eight days I put 148000 gallons of water on a four mile stretch of that road.

The weather was a lot better than it was in Vegas, and on at least two of those mornings I had to wear clothes to bed to keep warm. The only problem that I had was the many many horseflies that were waiting for only moments of inattention.

The new camp was in a meadow just south of the Johnson Creek airstrip.

 This is the Lake Port site.

 This is the new site on Johnson Creek at the Cox Ranch.

 Camp, looking south.

supply lift.

 Johnson Creek behind camp

The meadow behind camp,looking North.

One of the more interesting surprises about this trip was one of the other tender operators assigned to this job. Look close at his name tag.

I inquired about is ancestry and found that he was a fifth generation resident of Utah. The likely hood of him being in any way related is pretty remote.

  

I spent 8 days on this one, returning home yesterday. One of my first things to do is mow the yard as soon as I can. I am sure that this is not the last trip of the year for me.

Local fires

One of the hazards of the High Desert is fire. Normally the hottest month of the year is July, and it puts the finished touches on the Sage, which is already dry. Most of the month has humidity in the low teens and sometimes in the single digits. Then in August the "dry lightening" starts. Sometimes water actually hits the ground, but mostly it is in the form of "Verga". This year however we went right to Dry lightening in July. I can only guess at what August will be like.

Mike, one of our friends from New Mexico flew through a storm on his way back form our fishing expedition on the Owyhee River and flew over some of the fires close to the house. He made a nice video of the flight and the fire, and has kindly made it available for your viewing.

 http://vimeo.com/70596313   password- backcountry

He was also curious as to the method used to fight these fires. Fires are ruled by the availability of the fuels on the ground. Sage burns hot and fast. Tumbleweeds burn even hotter. If there is Cheat grass, is tender dry in July, and all of them combined can burn very hot and very fast.

Now first the disclaimer - 6 months ago, I couldn't even spell "firefighter", so what ever knowledge I claim to have is through common sense, and listening to those who do know something.

The first rule of firefighting is to stay in the black. The fire has already burned all the available fuel there, and it is the safest spot at the fire. Generally concerning Sage land fires, they will try to get a fire line around the fire to deprive it of fuel. Occasionally a back fire will be used, but it also causes more land to be burned. What is of course is the best, is a line of fire retardant either on the leading edge of the fire or in front of it.  The fire you will see in my video was stopped by just such a method. The ground crews, (Hotshots) will come in after that and put out all the hot spots that may be left over. Of course the best is to get them before they get big enough to began to make their own wind and weather.

 https://vimeo.com/70691829     password- owyheeflyer

This is likely to be an interesting year, while I was editing the video I got another call for a fire in Elko, Nev. Fortunately there is an alternate driver, and I opted to sit this one out.

New Fire- Las Vegas

I had been home for two days from the last fire, and had gotten a few things done around the house. The second day at home the phones quit working for some reason. I called the phone company from my cell phone to report the problem. There is a spot out by the pine tree in the front yard that you can sometimes get cell service. Finally late in the day I decided to check my cell phone for messages. The contractor in Winnemucca had been trying all day to get me to answer my phone.

I returned his call and found that I was supposed to be in Las Vegas by four PM the next day. The fire was named the Carpenter 1, and it was threatening structures.

I got to Winnemucca by 8 PM, Got all my stuff in the truck and met the other guy who was taking an older water tender that had been sitting for two years. They had done all the inspections and wanted to get two trucks out and working. The plan was to drive to Tonopah and find a Motel for some sleep, then continue on in to Vegas the next morning.

The drive to Tonopah was miserable, strange road, dark as could be, not bright enough lights made it miserable in the extreme. We persevered, and finally found a Motel at 4AM. It of course was run by a family of Indian descent. What a place! The steps to the top floor were closed, due to holes in the concrete steps. The rug that is usually on the walkway was pulled up and there was just tar paper instead. The fixtures were all loose. The smoke alarm was hanging open, but I think it still had a battery in it. The shower head and valves were all loose in the shower stall. It was a bit disconcerting for a bit, but being an old Rail Roader I was used to such accommodations. I managed to sleep for about 5 hours, and we were on the road again.

It is not my intention to disparage the fella that I was teamed up with, but being an inveterate people watcher and closet cynic, I was interested in what he was going to be like to work with. He had owned a garbage business that covered a lot of the area that were were going through. He had sold it and I guess like me thought that a little side money would not be bad. My first inclination that things might not be as they should was when we started driving all over Las Vegas looking for a truck stop. After touring through the second housing development, I called a halt and drove to the nearest gas station that we had passed and got my fuel. Driving a Kenworth tanker truck in Vegas traffic is not one of my favorite things. You haven't seen "crazy" until you do. I am a much better welder than I am a truck driver. The greater the stress, the less likely that I am going to hit the gear that I was aiming for.

 I find all this fire stuff to be intimidating, since it is a whole new world with rules that I know nothing about. I mostly muddle through by being willing to admit that I am new, and asking for help in my best "lost but cute puppy" manner. The worst is trying to find out where you are supposed to be, since some of them may include driving for 75 miles to find a duck pond that you are supposed to fill, back in some Canyon.

We checked in among the probably thousand people that were already there, and of course found that no one knew who had ordered us, and none had any idea of where we were to go. We first had to get our equipment checked. They found that the other truck had leaky wheel seals. He went off to a truck shop to see if he could get repaired. He never did get the repairs that he needed and was sent home after two more days, while I was assigned to a "Phos check batch plant". That is the red fire retardant. There were about 5 other water tenders assigned to the plant.

 We were furnishing retardant to two "Erickson Sky Cranes".

We got our refills from a hydrant in a housing development at the bottom of the hill. Turn around time was about 55 minutes each. We worked 12 hour days. The BLM guy assigned to the plant would bring up a sack lunch each day, and generally brought a few extra, which worked out for me as I was sleeping at the site. There was enough food in each lunch to supply me with lunch, dinner and some P'nut butter and Jelly "crustables" for breakfast next morning. When its that hot you don't need much anyway.

The temps in Vegas were from 105 to 107 during the day and down to 102 at night. You can well understand why I would choose to stay in the hills where it was a bit cooler. Sometimes in the early morning it would get cool enough that covering up with a summer sleeping bag would feel pretty good. Not so in town however.

The terrain was quite interesting to me. Of course Vegas is situated in the middle of a old dry Lake bed, while the hills are Granite, and so rugged that the fire could only be fought by helio's with retardant. The crews had to wait until the fire came to them. Vegas is on one side of the fire, and over the Mountain was Pahrump. That was where the structures were threatened.

We had a couple of days where it was cool and rainy up on the Mountain. This slowed the fire considerably, and furnished Vegas with some flash flooding. Combined with some serious retardant drops, the weather allowed them to get the fire under control.

They began to "demobilize" as many crews as they could. I got one more day to assist two other tenders to fill a "duck pond" that this character had in front of his house. The fire crews used it to refill their containers and tankers when they were trying to keep the fires from the houses there. We put 27000 gallons of water back in it for him. He was quite a character! Boots, Bermuda Shorts and a pith helmet. I assume he was a "flim flam" man, from his speech patterns. I was grinning all the time he was talking to me or anyone else that came by.

 The news media was all over the place trying to get " the story".

 Flim Flam was in all his glory as he told the story of his "close escape". One set up is camera in front of my truck, but a blast from the air horn convinced him to relocate.

I spent a total of six days on the fire. Some of the days were busy as could be, others were spent sitting in the shade of the truck. I had one book on my kindle, but it didn't last all that long, and I was back to people watching again. Finally one of the guy's finished a "Longarm" novel. I read that in less than three hours. :-/

It was nice to get back home again, get a shower, and get in out of the sun.

2013 Fly-in

I am a bit behind due to range fires, but I will give it my best.

We had tired of the lousy weather that has plagued us for the last 6 or more years, so with a hope for the best we decided on the 29th of June through the Fourth of July weekend for our fly-in. The weather had been lousy, extreme wind, cold and over all nasty. Then in the middle of the last week before the fly-in the weather turned hot with a vengeance. Oh well, better hot than cold and windy.

If there is ever a "normal" anywhere, we should have been all right. In case you are wondering, normals do not apparently exist. What should have been highs in the 80's quickly turned into 100's and 110's.

As a bit of a bonus adventure I had decided early in the year that a fly out camping trip to the Owyhee River to a place that I call "fish camp" would add a bit of fun to the fly-in. There is a nice level area and two track road that is about 1100 feet long or more that we could land on, and a nice shady glen with a good deep "Catfish hole". My last two video's were the last minute recon of the area and the trip out that John Hauck and I would take, since we would be going in on the Quads. The rest of the group would be able to take advantage of the planes, while we bumped our butts along the ground like frogs. A 45 minute flight compared to a 60 mile, three hour plus bumpy, wrist banging quad ride. Which would you choose?

John had decided with my encouragement to leave his plane at home and spend the rest of the summer and fall exploring the West with his new truck and fifth wheel. It just didn't make much sense for him to fight the weather for 2500 miles, then turn around and fight it back to Alabama. Then load up his fifth wheel and head back West again.

In preparation for the planes that would be here, I normally take some barrels and get fuel, so that the planes would not have to go off to distant airports to get fuel and burn a lot of it up again just to get back here. I had gotten a trailer hitch put on our Subaru, so I hooked up John's quad trailer, loaded it up with containers, so that we could get an early start the next morning.

One of our guy's, Boyd Young from Utah had taken off that morning and was being tracked with a Ham radio application. Before we were ready to go, I checked and found that he was slowed down to 38 MPH due to a nasty headwind. As we got in the car to go, I was relating that, and forgot that I had a trailer on. Well it didn't take long before a nasty crunch reminded me. After the dust and the self recrimination ended, the insurance company determined that a $1300 bill would set things right again. The trouble with doing things like that when you are getting up there in years, is the doubt that results. When you are young, it is just inattention, at my age, I start checking to see if I am drooling or something equally bad. Sigh!, Oh well this too will pass, and I have a good chance of forgetting it ever happened.

Eventually almost all of our people were in attendance by Saturday evening. Sharron, Karen's co conspirator from next door, had a birthday on Friday night. I had arranged to host her Birthday party at the house on Saturday, so we all chipped in and had a swim party, with a good feed for every one. I got to sing a "Happy birthday" solo much to every one's disgust.

Sunday morning was the start date to our fly out. John and I had loaded up our quads with every thing that we could carry, and hit the road by 9 AM. The others would load their planes and wait for us at fish camp.

The first 30 miles were quite pleasant and uneventful. The good road ended at a remote place called the Reinhart Ranch. From there it got a bit more adventurous. We had been averaging 30 MPH, but after the ranch that dropped to about 10 MPH at the best. I was quite surprised to bust a herd of 28 Elk around one of the hills. The terrain was rolling hills covered in Sage. There was some Junipers off in the distance, but I have to admit that the Elk surprised me a lot.

We finally topped over the last ridge in an area called the Owyhee breaks on my GPS. From there it was an 8 mile descent down the brow of the various ridge tops to the bottom. We had been fairly comfortable until we dropped down into the bottom to the 2600 foot elevation. Some of the areas that we went through on the bottom felt like a hot wall of air as we rode through them.

We found the group in exactly the right spot and added our tents to the camp. Roger Hankins, from the West side of the state was out merrily catching Bass for our evening meal. He was catching so many that he got a guilty conscience and was turning them loose. After he returned and got a scolding from me about how three Bass and one catfish was not going to feed all of us without Divine intervention, he agreed to go back as catch some more. I was surprised at how easy it was to convince him to return to his labours.

Gary Haley, a friend from Houston Tx. brought his 9 year old grandson, Drew, with him, and he had caught his first Catfish ever. so we were not going to starve. Roger came through however so we didn't have to supplement at all. Gary had made a quick flight back to the house and brought some proper cooking utensils for a fish fry, that neither John or I could carry. A little Zataran's , oil, a cast iron skillet , a whisper lite stove, and we were in business.

Drew had been described as having a "picky" appetite, but I could not see any evidence of it, as every time I turned a fish fillet over, his plate was sticking under my nose.

It was pretty hot, so we all got in the river and took our baths and cooled off some. In honor of Drew, we had a camp fire, and shot "bulls" the rest of the evening.

The next morning after coffee, I had determined to check out the hot springs that was down the river from us. I had the directions to locate it but I had never been told how to get to it. It was on the other side of the river, and from all appearances the water was much too deep to cross. Roger planned to fly down and see if there was any place to land a Kolb there.

It was early morning and it was so nice. There were Bald Eagles, Ospreys, and we were the only people on the river. The road eventually petered out. I could see the PVC Pipe on the other side, but the water was very dark and pretty darn fast. No way to tell how deep it was, and since it was about 30 yards across, pretty intimidating.

 Roger after cruising around in his KXP Kolb, made an exploratory pass at the mud bank checking it out. Then came threading back through the Canyon to touch down lightly on the mud flat.

The mud had dried and cracked like an egg, but was solid. I went down and got him with the quad and together we looked for an obvious way across. All we could find was a post on either side of the river in what looked to be the narrow, fastest part of the river.

Nothing left but to try, so I stripped off and of course left my camera and every thing else that might get wet or hamper my swimming, and stepped into the mud. In some places the mud was much deeper than the water. The actual water depth was only about 24 inches, but the mud was mid thigh. I finally just leaned over and walked with my hands, letting my feet float free. Some wandering soul had packed in enough cement to shape a pretty good size tub, fitted it up with a PVC pipe and a shut off valve so that it could be filled. The water was a pleasant 102- 103 degrees.

http://vimeo.com/69917549   password - owyheeflyer

After we had our soak, we forded the River again and I waited while Roger taxied back and took off again. The heat kept building, and Karen later told me that the temps reached 110 degrees at the house. I am sure we were a bit hotter at the 2600 ft altitude that we were sitting in, and we took to the river quite often to cool off.

Roger, Drew, and Gary were out doing their best to gather enough fish for our evening meal. Roger had earlier shot one of the many Carp that are all up and down the edges of the River with a 45. I filleted it out and was using it for Catfish bait. I finally took Boyd's suggestion and started giving them enough line to hook themselves, and began catching Catfish. Since they were about 18 inches long, the 6 that I caught supplied enough fillets that we were in no danger of starving.

  Our normal, if there is any such thing, temps in the early part of July are in the low to mid 80's. Our season for dry lightning is generally in Mid August. Well nothing is normal this year, and the storms were building each evening. So far we had not had any serious fires from it, but as hot as it was, with humidity in the low teens, it was only a matter of time.

Gary had been making trips in his Just Highlander, for ice, beer and Hamburgers. For some reason as soon as he got out into the great nothing, he got a craving for hamburgers. "Who am I to blow against the wind", so I didn't turn down the beer or the ice.

We finally fired up the Whisper lite stove and started the oil heating. I got a comfortable seat and began frying fillets of Catfish and Small mouth Bass. Roger and John took the fillets as they were fried and passed them around. Mr "Picky appetite", stuck to me like glue and was eating them faster than I could fry them. When every one was stuffed, there was still one or two fillets left over.

Mike Marker decided that the air conditioning in the fifth wheel that I had provided for him and Jan was calling him, so he left in his Rebel before  the coming storm. He had to detour around a couple of cells to get there. He got tied down before the storm really started in earnest.

http://vimeo.com/69919580  password - owyheeflyer

Meanwhile down on the River, it was getting a bit interesting. We watched the front build, and lightening was hitting all over the Mountain tops between us and Idaho. Another storm had built up between us and home, so we had stereo booms and rumbles. Finally the rain marched up to our position and every one took refuge in our tents. It was late enough that I just went to sleep. In the night I smelled smoke, so my earlier conviction that fire would be the result of the nights fireworks, were confirmed. I got up to check but there was nothing close to us that would cause a threat, so I went back to bed.

When dawn arrived, John and I began packing for the return trip. It had rained hard through the night, so we had mud holes to contend with. We finally climbed the eight miles back out to the rim and began the long bumpy ride back to the truck.

After we passed the entrance to the Reinhart Ranch, I saw tire tracks that had gone in there and turned around. At first I was a bit puzzled as to who would have gone there. Then I began seeing dead Kangaroo Rats in the road. Then I understood that the truck had passed in the night and was most likely a BLM fire crew looking for fires.

We saw several Antelope on the way out, and a solitary doe that I passed about a hundred yards to the right of,  just had to race. I cannot explain, but for some reason they feel that they have to cross the road in front of you. I was only doing about 25 MPH, and I could see the wheels turning in her head. Sure enough she couldn't stand it, and took off. At first she was just matching my speed, then she got lower to the ground, and being prepared, I matched her speed, holding my hat on with one hand, and trying to steer with the other. I got up to 45 MPH before she really buckled down and got far enough ahead ( 15 yards ) to cross in front of me. Duty now done and Antelope honor upheld, she was content to slow down to watch me stop so that I could laugh without crashing.

As we got nearer to the end of the road, we began to pass other BLM rigs. At that point I knew that things had gotten a bit interesting last night. I told John that I would be able to tell how bad it was by how cranky Karen was. When she gets scared, she gets cranky, generally at me, because I had left her alone. I met Tami and Dave at Burns Junction talking with the BLM fire crew, and it was obvious that a fire had started on the Ranch below me. They had put out the fire, and was mopping up the line.

When we pulled into the drive way, I knew that I was in trouble, and that it had been high on Karen's scale of cranky. The contractor that I worked for last year in Winnamucca, Nev. had called and wanted me to come and get a water tender, and take it to a fire in Paradise Valley, Nev. Wonderful! Just what I needed, a house full of people that I really enjoy, and I have to go off to one of the Cluster @#*^'s  that are generally associated with the Government agencies.

While I had been gone, the water line that feeds the sprinkler system and the remote water for the animals had separated. Boyd Young who had been a plumber before he retired had kindly crawled down in the header box and stuck it back together for me. So nothing left but for me to make my apologies and head South. Sigh!

One of the contractors other employees met me at the turn off to Paradise Valley with the Truck. It of course was not ready, and had a few vital parts missing. After a bit of delay while they were delivered, I began my search for the fire crew that I was supposed to be supporting. After stopping in the only commercial establishment in Paradise, a bar, I got the general direction that I needed to go, and began my search for the fire crew. I got lucky and found one piece of tape at one of the two track junctions and just kept going until I ran into the fire crew. They had pretty well wrapped up all the active fire by the time I arrived. My function was to refill their tankers which will hold about 800 or so gallons of water. They had been using a Ranchers portable water trailer whose normal function was to provide water for his cattle.

Their operations area was a cattle corral that was on a pretty good slope. I had just dug out a semi flat area for my cot, when they all drove up, told me to pump the rest of my water in the tank, and come to Winnamucca after I refilled the trucks tank at the fire station in Paradise.

It was a bit of an adventure getting down off the mountain as my headlights were pointed in all directions. Picture Marty Feldman and you have an accurate idea. By the time that I had gotten into Paradise and was filling my truck, the plan had changed at least three times. The final plan was to drive to MP 158 on Interstate 80 to a different fire. I finally arrived at about 1100 hours, and set up in a closed off Rest area. It had been closed because of bad water, and that of course meant that there were no toilets available.

I pumped my last water at 0400, and went to sleep with my cot on the asphalt beside the truck. I was up again at 0600 and throughout the day until about 2000, filled tanker trucks. There was no supplies or water, or crappers for that matter. I had water, no ice of course, but as long as I was in the shade it wasn't that much problem. I had brought some MRE's, and of course I had enough fat around my middle to be able to survive for quite a while.

About Wed. they began ramping up, and crews were coming from all over the West. An Indian crew out of Arizona, hotshots from John Day Oregon, and various locations in Nevada. They began hitting the trouble areas with "Seats" ( Crop duster types), Twin engine tankers as well as a pretty good size twin engine jet, and a chopper. They hit it all day long, and finally got the last hot spot out. There were cats and crews crawling all over the mountains grubbing out the hot spots.

They brought in porta potties,  MRE's, and Gator aide with water. That night we had a really interesting evening, as a front blew through sometime in the night. I was still sleeping on my cot with no tent. I woke up in time to grab my chair and the few loose items that I had stored under my cot. When I woke up in the morning, I discovered that three of the Porta potties had blown over.  Glad that I didn't have to clean that up.

That day they sent me up in one of the canyons to support the Indian crew from Arizona. I found that Karen had sent my Kindle along and I spent a nice restful day reading. Having nothing else to do but read and drink water, I finished an entire Patterson novel well before time to leave. The crews were lining up about 10 feet apart and were marching over the entire burn grubbing out hot spots. Some of the hills were very steep, and my respect for their hard work grew. They were packing tools, survival gear, food and water.

I finally got tired of seeing all the grime under my finger nails and took a shower, shampooing my hair under one of the pipes that was used for one and half inch hoses. There was a little creek in the bottom and I washed my shirt there, hanging it on the outside mirror to dry. It took no time at all.

There was another rock and roll storm that night, only this time it had rain in it and it soaked every thing quite well, so the next day they started demobilizing the camp. I finally made it home after 5 days. I had not had a real shower or a cup of coffee in that time. Luckily I seem to be able to do with or without caffeine without any distress.

Of course every one had left the day before I got home. On the way home Andy Slinkard from Washington called and said that he was on his way down. So I at least got to play host for one day.