Holding Ranch

This morning I drove out to Holding Ranch, just up the road from my house, to pick up my first installment of my meat subscription. Normally they ship the monthly allotment of meat but being as I’m never home, that just wouldn’t work for me. Thankfully they are within a few miles of me, and on my short cycling route, so they let me swing by.

Having grown up in San Diego around vegetarians and animal lovers, I was already well aware of how the animals we eat are raised, processed and slaughtered. I always chose to just accept that I either had to put up with it or quit eating meat. I recently read the book Eating Animals and got a real good image of what really goes on with the food we eat, and it’s horrifying. It’s not only the incredibly unethical way we breed and raise animals, but the things that go into them both while they’re alive and during slaughter that can have a terrible impact on our health. I sincerely recommend the book.

 In any case, I love meat and not ready to be a vegetarian both by choice as well as all practicality with working the job I do. It’s just really hard to get great nutritional value from lettuce sandwiches and skittles when I’m off burning thousands of calories on a fire. I also realize when I’m away from home, the meat I’m eating is substandard and coming from “factory farms”. At this point in my life it just can’t be helped. But when I’m at home, I can make better choices about what I eat, not just for the ethical treatment of animals, but for my own health.

I went to a website called “Eat Wild” and came across a couple of ranches near my house. What’s the difference between farms and factory farms? We all envision farms as pastures and barns with chickens and cows wandering freely. That’s not what you eat. When you eat a chicken, you are eating an animal bred to be too heavy for its bones, so it can’t even run free if it wanted to. It’s born and raised in a single square foot cage. The government is very loose on labeling of food, so even your “cage free” chickens don’t see the light of day and they’re certainly not roaming around the farm. They’re pumped full of antibiotics, which you and I then eat. Our bodies absorb the antibiotics and let our bacteria grow resistant to them. The byproduct that gets absorbed into the meat during processing is disgusting. I couldn’t believe the description in the book.

So I wanted to eat better meat. As it turns out, real farms and ranches still exist. I cycle past these cows and chickens when I do my bike rides around Montague. Holding Ranch has a monthly subscription that you choose the amount of meat you get, and they ship it monthly. Like I said, they also let you come pick it up if it’s better for you.

Today I pulled up into the driveway of a little ranch house and was greeted by a couple of dogs and a huge herd of chickens. I realize chickens generally travel in flocks, but this was huge. It was a herd. And they all gathered around me, presumably waiting for food. I knocked on the front door but no one answered, so I wandered around the side of the house where I heard a noise. There was a banging coming from what looked like a freezer, so I approached it. Nearby two more dogs watched me.

“Hello?” I called out. That sent the dogs barking, as if they hadn’t seen me before.

A man popped out of the freezer and said “You’re Carrie!”

“I am!” I said.

“I’m Hunter.” He said, and I shook his hand. He was tossing frozen packages of meat into a box and set it out on the ground and then went to close the freezer door. One of the dogs immediately recognized the opportunity and grabbed a leg of lamb.

“Hey kiddo!” I said and snatched it from her.

“Hey now! Stop that” Hunter scolded the dog.

We went through my meat selection which was leg of lamb (boneless), pork sausage, ground beef, a large steak and a pot roast. I placed them in the bag I had brought with me and we walked toward the house for eggs and discussed how his daughter just graduated from UC San Diego. As we walked into the house, he called out to Anne, his wife, and she came out to meet me. We talked about the dogs and the ranch and their daughter. Then Anne took out a few dozen eggs and let me pick the carton I wanted. I chose the large and she opened them and explained what I was looking at.

“And that’s a something or other (I forget what she called it), but you probably knew that.”

I gave her a blank stare and said no, I didn’t. She seemed surprised and asked what all I knew about eggs. I told her I was a city girl and the only eggs I’ve ever had came from a grocery store. She asked if I had ever pulled an egg out from under a hen. I told her I hadn’t.

  “Well put your things down and we’ll go get an egg. Have you ever held a chicken?”

I laughed, “No, I haven’t”.

We walked back outside where we were followed by the mass of chickens, and into a barn. She looked up to the ceiling and showed me a barn owl. Then she pulled a hen out of her roost and put her in my arms. There was also an egg under the hen which was warm. The hen fluttered a bit until Anne showed me how to hold her properly. I held her a few moments and stroked her feathers. After I set her down, we walked around looking for eggs. Between a couple hay bales, three hens were climbing on top of each other in the crevice.

“They’re standing in line. This is a popular spot.”

I figured I hadn’t heard her right. “They’re standing in line to lay an egg?” I asked.

“Yep.”

This seemed a little unreal to me. There were so many places on this ranch to squat and drop an egg. Why would three hens stand in line and push each other around to lay an egg in that one spot? My bewilderment showed.

“Well if you were a hen, where would you want to lay your eggs?”

Good question. Although looking back at it now, it’s not exactly like taking dump. I assume these ladies do not know whether or not their eggs have been fertilized, they just know they need to get to a private, quiet spot to lay down their potential babies…which led to another question. I kind of knew the answer but had to ask to be sure. I was like a 4 year old with my questions. Like how do we know it’s an egg and not a chick in there?

“These ladies haven’t had dates if you know what I mean.”

 Ok, so it’s like us women who drop unfertilized eggs every month (in theory). Nice. It was funny because looking around, I couldn’t tell the hens from the roosters. They all had their little red things on their heads and beaks. Apparently there was only one rooster, and she pointed out the tail end of the guy as he took off running across the yard. Hmmmm. I didn’t get to ask…but how do we know that guy isn’t getting it on with the ladies?

Apparently someone is, because inside a shed, in a big tub with a heat lamp, are a bunch of baby chicks. She asked if I ever held one. I thought about it.

“Maybe once at the San Diego zoo?” I replied.

She brought out the cutest little chick who told me I should take him home. I didn’t though. Boy was he cute. We saw the little pigs who were weaned from their mothers about a week ago…also wanted to come home with me. Their mothers were absolutely huge. Then we went and spent some time with a hybrid potbellied (I guess breeded with a regular pig or something because this guy was big for a pot belly) pig named Kenny. Kenny did not appreciate the dog Bosco (Anne kept apologizing for his bad haircut) that kept jumping around him. The sheep were out to pasture and I believe the cows were too, I was much too busy with the animals running around me to notice.

 Anne asked if I’d like to come by to see them process the chickens.

“She doesn’t want to see that” said Hunter.

I looked at him. “Yeah I’m not sure I’m ready for that…I don’t know, when is that happening?”

“Friday probably.”

“Hmmm. During the day I suppose. I gotta work.”

I was mostly relieved, but I’ve been thinking how if I’m going to eat the animals, I should probably suck it up and learn how they’re “processed” as well. For the city in all of us, processing basically means slaughtered. And then of course the de-feathering and cleaning. I wasn’t sure how I’d handle that. I grew up in the city where meat is a beautiful package found in the grocery store, but I feel like maybe looking the animal in eye before chopping off its head, plucking the feathers off and eating it would be the honest, responsible way to do it. Instead someone else does the dirty work for me…although, I save people’s houses and land. They’re not out there cutting fireline around their house, so I suppose it’s a give and take.

I got home and immediately plopped two eggs in a frying pan. They were delicious! For dinner I roasted the leg of lamb with garlic and rosemary. A week or so ago I told my captain about this place and he quickly said “Don’t go there, it’s not a good business model”. So because sustainable farming is not a profitable as factory farming, I shouldn’t support it? That doesn’t make sense. How about helping out the sustainable farms because it’s the right thing to do, even if it’s not the most profitable? Is it a bad business model simply because it values ethics over profit? Maybe. But maybe it shouldn’t be. I’m really excited to be supporting both my local community and a better world…as well as providing healthier foods for myself. I can literally visit the food I’m eating, just a couple miles away and see exactly how the animals live. Next time I’m there, Kenny and I are going to go for a walk and I’m going to give him a good brushing.

If you'd like to check out Holding Ranch, click here. To find other sustainable farms and ranches near you, got to Eatwild.com

Buying Local

I'm really excited to start buying more locally, supporting the community and of course the environment. I've never been great at being good to the environment and I'd like to be better. My worms of course eat a good portion of my garbage, but I still throw out a lot since our recycling up here is not as easy and complete as it is in San Diego. I burn some trash as fire starter, but that hardly leaves a dent, so magazines and mail end up in the trash. I take long hot showers in the winter and that won't end anytime soon.

I joined a local wine club, which I like to think is supporting my community....although it's up in Jacksonville, OR so I get it shipped to me. This creates a problem since I'm never home to receive and sign for the package. It's now sitting in an office in Yreka that's only open Mon-Fri 11am to 4pm. Tomorrow is my only hope of getting it, I'm on call for fires, and I'm the only one who can pick it up. Keeping my fingers crossed. Anyway, the winery is Quady North which is part of Quady and their wines are fabulous. You'll notice that Quady North is in the State of Jefferson, and since I live in the State of Jefferson, I'm obviously supporting the local businesses. I just bought some amazing Vermouths from there as well as a Sherry, which I'm pysched about because I didn't know I liked those. Well, turns out I do. Quady's dessert wines are amazing as well. When I went there for a tasting, I liked everything I tried so I highly recommend them.

I'm reading the book "Eating Animals" by Jonathan Safran Foer who also wrote "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" (a very good book, I recommend it. Haven't seen the movie.). I thought it might be a push for vegetarianism (good for you and good for the environment) but it's actually not. I believe after all his research he decides to be a vegetarian (haven't gotten to that part yet) but doesn't try to get other people to do so. It's a well researched look into where our food comes from, how we eat and why we eat like this, and other options for eating meat. One thing I've always been interested in is farm fresh meats and eggs. The stuff you buy in the store and eat at restaurants is generally not "farm fresh" even if it says "organic" or "cage free". I didn't know this, but "cage free" chickens are not roaming free out in the pasture...or even outside at all. Turns out a "box" is technically not a cage. I'm about halfway into the book, and while there's a lot in the book that I already knew about the chemicals, antibiotics and medications used in the animals as well as the absolutely horrible way they are raised and processed, there's also a lot I didn't know. I didn't realize how bad these "factory farms" are for the environment and our health. As far in as I am, I'm fairly convinced that these factory farms are going to kill us. It's a huge source of new flu viruses and the biggest contributer of pollution- more so than all of human travel combined.

I've also been interested in things like farm fresh eggs because they taste better and I see signs for them up here all the time. I'm surrounded by farm land and couldn't come up with a good enough reason why I'm still eating store bought meat and eggs from factory farms. So I started looking up some stuff on the computer and came across some cool websites. Eatwild.com and Farmerspal.com are great resources for farm fresh food. When you think of cows and chickens and sheep roaming the farm, this is what you're looking for. I gaurantee that most of the stuff you're buying at the grocery store does not get to walk around on the farm. It's disgusting and frankly, quite scary. Anyway, so there's two farms within 2 miles of me that sell meat and eggs. Holding Ranch is only a mile away and sells monthly packages. I sent them an email to find out if I can pick them up instead of getting it delivered, since UPS and I haven't been getting along so well lately. I'm really excited about it.

Why not just go vegetarian? That's fine too, but with my lifestyle it would be very difficult. Plus, I love meat and eggs. When I'm on fires, the nutrition is bad enough as it is, the vegetarian meals are even worse. And since we're on the road a lot, and sometimes only have 10 minutes to stop for food, it's usually fast food (I know, horrible for a hundred reasons). I would feel much better about my health, then environment and supporting the small family owned farms (that are actually legit farms) by buying from them than the grocery store, when I can of course.

Pics of the South East

I'm not sure why I haven't been inspired to do this until now (now that I'm home) but I wanted to post some highlights of my trip to the southeast. I didn't take a whole lot, nor did I write down in my Smokey Calendar what on earth I was doing (which is something we all do to keep track of fires, hours, etc) so short of these pictures, there's really no record of me ever being there. Ok, not exactly.

Here's a pic of some of my buds on the crew:

That's Crystal, Sean and Drew. If they knew I was posting that pic, they'd have my head for sure. I think it's sweet.

Here's a flying squirrel I tried to rescue from a fire in Florida:

He wasn't too keen on being rescued, or being picked up by a big scary person. He shimmied out of my hands pretty quickly. I'm not sure what was wrong with him, but he wasn't doing very well. By the look of him I'd say smoke inhalation. No signs of trauma or burns other than the traumatic way in which he was carrying himself.

Here's a fire in Florida:

This is the view outside my hotel window when we took two R&R days in Jacksonville. We were downtown right on the river, with a rooftop pool and fitness center. Very cool.

This little fella was sleeping in the sun at the museum in Jacksonville.

This was my first alligator sighting in the wild. We were cutting brush around a helicopter dip site and this little guy was a curious bugger- he kept circling around towards where we all were. I have a feeling people fed him. The other alligators we saw out there would slink back into the water when we came by, not this guy though.

This was a big guy! I swear everywhere we went it took us twice as long as it should've because we had to stop and snap pictures of all the creatures we saw, just like a bunch of tourists.

I had more pictures of inappropriate things, so you don't get to see many more than that. The following are some pictures I took on the way home. Had I not been so anxious to get home, I could've done the tourist thing and stopped every so often to take pictures, but it would've taken days longer to get home. It already took 4 days of driving for 10-12 hours.

This is Wendover Will. He wasn't so much welcoming me to West Wendover, NV as he was really waving goodbye. The Nevada desert at 6am.

I saw a really pretty mountain range alongside the freeway and stopped for photos since I had to pee anyway.

I took this picture while sitting at a construction area waiting to be led down the road by the pilot car. The sky was an absolutely amazing blue that day and those mountains had a green and purple tint to them. If only my photos could really do it justice.

The long road ahead....and I mean really long. All day.

Another shot of the road. The wind was terrible that day, pushing me all over the road. But if you ever get a chance, I strongly recommend taking the 140 up from Winnemucca, NV through Oregon. It's absolutely gorgeous. I would say spring time would be your best bet. You won't make it in the winter, it'll be too hot in the summer, and it'll probably be pretty ugly in the fall. But yesterday the views along that highway were stunning.

Now I'm home and it's wonderful! Slipping into my own bed last night was like sliding down into a pillow. My bed is soft, the sheets are silky and the down comforter is like sleeping inside a cloud. This morning I woke up at 5am so excited about life that I wanted to tackle the world. I went for a short run then continued putting my things away, did some laundry and went grocery shopping. Tomorrow I start work back up again with my crew and am excited to get the summer fire season underway.

It's the end of the winter fire season!

Crystal just told me my presence is calming. I'm fairly certain no one has ever told me that before. Amusing maybe, but calming? Most likely not. I'm sitting in her room watching her try on a punk wig named Vanessa. It won't fit over her bun. I guess the lady at the wig shop spent quite some time and effort putting it on her, getting her waist length hair all tucked up into a short pixie cut wig. The wig caused quite a stir around McCarty (that's what our barracks are called) when she showed up with it. I tried to be cordial but all I could think was that her new friends that she had left with must have been quite an influence to encourage her to chop all her hair off and dye it a dark red. Anyway, I digress.

It's the end of our winter season. The last day is two days from now. I get in my vehicle and drive west 3 days from now. 6 days from now I will be arriving at my home, unloading all my junk and sitting down in my own house and sleeping in my own bed. I have not seen home since the end of December.

We just got back from an uber long roll in Florida. We did a 14 day stint, took two days off (we call it R&R in place) in Jacksonville, FL and then went right back in to some fires and worked another 19 or 20 days (I didn't count during that second round). So overall we spent more than 34 days away from home on that roll. It's our last week and we're no longer available, we're working on all our close-out stuff. So Crystal and I have decided to do a couple more fancy dinners before we head home.

I'm not sure what all I've said about Crystal, but she's actually off my home unit (my same forest) and lives about a half hour from me. I met her once before we came out here, but I've reluctantly agreed to continue our friendship when we come back home. Just kidding, she's actually a fairly decent person to hang out with.

So last night we went to Que Sera here in Black Mountain. Our favorite place I think, although it's in close competition with The Blackbird, which is where we ate tonight. With an appetizer, an entre, a dessert and a drink or two, we're looking at about $50 per person. It's been fantastic. I think that's the only thing I'm going to miss about this place.

I've also decided to take up photography, digital to be exact. With a digital SLR camera. I decided with the investment that I'll be making, to research the cameras and photography first (hello Photography with Digital SLR's for Dummies) and then buy the camera. So I've got it narrowed down to about 5 cameras. I just have to decide how much I'm really allowed to pay for these things. I mean, I do have a mortgage and all. I have to start making adult decisions someday.

Crystal is packing her things while I sit here and write. Yesterday we had a competition going about whose room was more a disaster. She may have won but I believe it was because I was not quitting until my room had some sort of order to it. We had to empty out all our gear, which is 4 bags of stuff: line gear, hotel bag, briefcase and black bag (black bag has camping stuff and extra clothes...and of course is usually black). We turned in the bags, so I had to transfer it all into my bags for home: red bag (it's red and contains extra clothes), black bag (it's black and contains a sleeping bag, tarp to lay on, pajamas, underwear and baby wipes), line gear and a back pack. The problem is, the layout of our off time is different between the crew here and the crew at home. Here we stay in hotels (due to weather and insect/animal issues) whereas at home we usually sleep on the ground with the exception of a couple nights stay in hotels when we're travelling to and from fires. So bags need to be packed differently. Our line gear (what we carry on the fireline) is basically the same.

So we had to completely empty out all our bags and compiled with the huge load of laundry I had spread out on my bed, it was a disaster. What was worse was trying to remember how I packed my gear at home, as I moved stuff into my home bags. I'm a little worried because I keep finding things that I forgot to pack in my red bag or black bag. I'd hate to find out the hard way that I've forgotten something.

On Sabbatical

After yet another night of being awakened by drunk people, I've checked myself into a fairly decent hotel to get some sleep. The funny thing was, a good majority of the people on my crew felt that I should not have to spend money on a hotel to get some sleep and that it was my home too and I should be able to sleep just fine at home. Their chivalry did not make it to 1:45am. Once again, the giggling and the cooking started, but this time it was accentuated with several people saying "sshhhhh!". I gave up.

After breakfast I went back to my room and went on hotels.com to find a hotel that didn't cost too much, but also had amazingly comfortable beds. I decided on the Country Inns and Suites. You know if they have big heavy down comforters then the bed is comfortable too. They've got an indoor pool and jacuzzi and a fitness center. The staff is very friendly.

Years ago when I couldn't sleep, I didn't fight it too much. I simply got out of bed and found something else to do. And if I got tired during the day, I'd just drink more coffee. I found a book for my kindle called Restful Insomnia that didn't promise to solve my sleep problems, but would make me feel rested despite not sleeping. I put it on my wishlist and basically forgot about it. Every night that I didn't sleep I would think about it.

Yesterday I checked in to my hotel completely exhausted. I had an overwhelming need to fall asleep and instead of getting coffee, I waited until it was time to check in, closed the black out curtains and got into bed. I snuggled into the down pillows and concentrated on sleep. After about 20-30 minutes, I began to fade off. Then my arm jerked and shot out from underneath my pillow and into the empty room. Damn it. Ok, I thought. No big deal. I'll try again.

I closed my eyes, tried to focus on nothing at all and let my eyes soften into my skull. Another 15 minutes later I was drifting off into sleep and the hotel phone next to my bed rang and jerked me out of sleep yet again. Are you kidding me? Who on earth knows I'm here?! I picked up the phone and it was the guy down at the front desk wanting to know if everything was acceptable in my room. Jeezo.

After a brief conversation, I hung up the phone and tried to go back to sleep. I wasn't laying there long before I decided it wasn't going to happen. So I got up and made a cup of coffee and watched a terrible love story (Something Borrowed...I don't recommend it) before going out to meet some of my crew for dinner at Frankie Bones.

My sleep last night was a little broken, but every time I woke up, I fell back to sleep. No one woke me up at 2am, I wasn't josteled awake by heater noises and the bed didn't creak and squeak every time I moved. My hand towel in the bathroom is also shaped like a swan.

I have to check out by 11am, which is a bummer. I'm definately over living with 16 other people (we lost one to injury, it used to be 17 other people). I miss having my own home with a comfortable bed and a more quiet means of heating the house. The heater in my room sounds like a diesel truck starting up every 10 minutes or so.

Oh yeah, so after the front desk guy woke me up yesterday I decided to purchase the book Restful Insomnia. I'm a quarter of the way through it and not totally convinced that this lady can teach me how insomnia is actually a blessing. I guess we'll see.

2am

It's 2 in the morning on Sunday and I've been awakened by a crowd of I'd say about 4-5 drunk people by the sound of it. My bedroom shares a wall with the kitchen which is a popular hangout for those returning home from the bars. The walls are very thin and the kitchen has a way of bringing out the echo in every little sound, especially if no one is trying to be quiet, everything is funny (as is often the case with drunk people) and some one is trying to cook.

The night before, a wave of people came in at 11:45 pm and proceeded to have an argument over how to run the extremely loud dishwasher, so they kept slamming down the industrial crank, letting it run it's 5 min cycle and then running it again. On the third slam (accentuated by very loud laughing) I decided it was enough. I went into the kitchen and very tactfully declared that people (ok, maybe just me) were trying to sleep. Shortly after, it became quiet and I lay awake until about 2am trying to coax myself back to sleep.

I discussed the situation with a few of the members of the late night party, which is much easier to do when they're sober the next day, however, it doesn't stick with them through the next night after too many drinks. At 1:30am, a group came in and headed directly into the kitchen. One girl tried to boil water but had to pee. After returning, there was plenty of banging around, laughing and talking. I banged on the wall a few times, heard my name mentioned (because even in their drunken state they remembered that there I was, on the other side of the wall, trying desperately to get just one night of quality sleep) followed by laughing and someone saying "ssshhhhhhh!". The cooking, talking and laughing continued. I knocked again. Again the "sshhhhh". A couple minutes later everyone dispersed with the exception of the girl trying to boil water. I lay awake and wished it was 5am so I could get up and start my day and say the hell with any attempt to get back to sleep.

We had our first roll of the season these last 2 weeks and by now I'm pretty sure the whole crew knows that I have insomnia. It was the talk of the assignment. When on the road, we share hotel (yes, hotels...no sleeping on the ground when it's 15 degrees outside) rooms. My roommate did not get the whole gist of it until a couple weeks ago when we snuggled into bed and had "the talk". She already knew that my sleep was often disrupted, I went to bed early and got up early. I'm fortunate to have such an understanding roommate, and a crew that is dry on assignments.

When I snuck around in the dark room at 5am, when our alarms were set for six, she would wake up and tell me to just turn on a light. I'm sure she didn't really mind, but I didn't want to be one of those people that deprived others of sleep. When I was wide awake at 3:30am, I certainly was not going to be that person. I learned to lay out my clothes and key card so I could sneak downstairs at 4am for a cup of coffee and to gather intel on the internet. She finally started setting her alarm for 5am because she knew I'd be up moving around by then.

One morning, I sat up in bed drinking a cup of coffee and heard her alarm go off. It was 5am. She turned it off and lay awake until the second alarm went off, a few minutes later. I asked if she was ready for the light. She turned it on and was shocked to see me sitting up drinking a cup of coffee. She later discussed it with my bathroom mate from back in Black Mountain who declared it "Creepy". It became the joke of the roll that I sat awake in the dark and watched my roommate sleep, perched up like a gargoyle. Not incredibly accurate. It's dark in there, I can't see a whole lot of anything. I just listen to her breathe.

In any case, once everyone is drunk and we're back home and don't have to share rooms (actually some peole do which must suck), people forget that other people have fragile sleep and don't truly understand how that feels. I'm sure from their experience, if some one wakes them up, they just roll over and go back to sleep. If some one wakes me up, I'm up for at least a couple hours if not for the rest of the day. Well, at 1:30am, the rest of the day is a long one.

Now it's 2:30am, the house is quiet except for the occasional movement of furniture upstairs and my stomach is rumbling. I don't know what it wants, maybe some sleep, maybe some food. I can tell right now that sleep is a ways away and it makes me want to take a blanket out to the front porch and curl up in a rocking chair but it may be far too cold for that. I wish people could truly understand what I go through on most nights just to be able to function the next day. I took a nap yesterday which ate up a good portion of my day and today may end up the same. I can't wait until the work week when I can get a decent night's sleep.

First Assignment for the Winter Season

Well it's Friday night and in a house of 18 people (yep, I live with 17 other people) I'm the only one home. Yes, I've always been this lame, but tonight is a special night. I just got the crew turned over to me as I am the first one to go in the round of crew boss assignments. I'm now in charge of the entire crew and we just received an order to head out to the Croatan National Forest on the east coast of North Carolina. Right now the order is to help out with prescribed burning, but this time of year is also their fire season, so we will be there to help out if fires break out. However, we can also get called to fires anytime this weekend as well, which is one of the reasons I'm not joining in on the festivities.

We won't be leaving until Monday morning, but as always in this job, plans have a way of changing as soon as you think you've got them tied down. So tonight I'm working on gathering intel on the area and making sure I'm ready to go. I've made a list of questions for my supervisor, travel plans, finance code information, contact information, weather forecasts and things to remember while on assignment. In bold on top of my page reads "Food, shelter, and engaging work". That phrase sums up how to keep a hotshot happy. I've also got various notes and ideas scribbled on 4 seperate notepads and have attempted (in vain) to put them into one. I've made a list of things I need to accomplish this weekend before heading out, and things I need to buy. One of the more local guys dropped off his map depicting heli-spots on the forest, on his way out to the local Ale House. I've written down questions I intend to ask the guy in charge when we get to the Croatan.

For now I've put away all the maps, notes, the gps and my radio and will curl up in bed and continue reading "A Guide For Prescribed Fire in Southern Forests" which will hopefully enable me to better understand the assignment we're about to take on. Everything is different here. Fires burn differently, fuel (vegetation) types are different, soils are different, heck we even will see fire burn through swamps! What a sight that will be. Our crew structure is different, our vehicles are different. We travel in 6 pick-up trucks as opposed to the 2 buggies and 1 supt truck back home (and occasionally a chase truck but that may be going by the wayside). Our radio communications are slightly different. Oh, and they talk different. We don't say dinner down here, we say supper, and I was just fined another dollar tonight for saying "dinner".

Another major difference is that we'll spend more time in hotels than sleeping on the ground. This is new to me and it also presents new issues. Showers for example will be a new thing. Not that I've never showered before, I'm actually quite learned at the art of showering. However, showering on assignment is different. For example, we pack light, so my clothes will be dirty. But if I shower, I will be clean. And then I will put on dirty clothes in the morning. It's just unfathomable. But I can't just not shower because being in hotels, we will also be eating in restaurants and it is just not ok to be that dirty in public. It's different when you're just out in the woods and don't come across civilians for 14 days. I don't know, we'll see how that goes.

Staying in hotels also presents a sleep issue. For both myself and my roommate. Possibly more for my roommate. It's one thing to get up and roam around fire camp when you can't sleep, it's another to turn on a reading light in a hotel with your roommate right next to you who was sleeping. And it's harder to roam in a hotel at 2am. Less safe places to go.

Anyway, I could go on, but it's past my bedtime. Hopefully I will return with amazing news of my travels.