Well, my first assignment as a wildland firefighter was awesome. Unfortunately, I received tragic news and haven‘t been much in the mood to write. I lost a friend earlier this week, he was only 19 and the younger brother of my two good friends. It seems surreal, since I am so far removed from everything. It was wayyyy to expensive for me to fly back (cheapest was $750) but my heart goes out to the family.

In other bad news, my cousin had a seizure and was sent to the hospital… only to run into my other cousin, who was also there for seizures! What a crappy coincidence. They did some tests on the first cousin and ends up she was having mini-seizures during the entire test - which means she could have a seizure-disease or even a brain tumor!

Good family news - my lil’ bro made it on the travel hockey team!

Anyway here is a photo of Gator, Jeff and me with Red Rocks Engine, making coffee after a night of sleeping at our first fire that Jeff lovingly dubbed the “Novi” fire for me. It looks a little weird because the road should actually be flat and the engine should be slanted uphill. ;) More will come soon!