Allergic to everything?!

I had big plans for the day, including updating this blog, studying, doing some online shopping... but I'm very agitated by something I got in the mail. Since this is a public blog and I don't need it to come back and bite me in the butt, we'll just say I had issue with somebody important but that also has a history of doing poorly at his job, and dealing with people in general. I brought it up and he decided to retaliate in a nasty unprofessional way, and now I have to decide what to do about it. Either way, I can't even read the whole reply I was given because it's outrageous. I'm just glad I never have to deal with this person again! All in all it is very upsetting as I did the best I could given a crappy situation to start with, with no guidance, and I was screwed over because it's easy to pawn the blame on somebody else. I hope karma does its job!

I recently learned about this delayed food allergy test that I have yet to find out how much of it my insurance is covering ($2700 but I know at least most of it is covered), and decided to take the plunge and find out what I'm allergic to. I have seasonal and year-round allergies to a ridiculous amount of things, from cats to down (too bad I won't give up my down comforter!) to mold and mites, I think pretty much everything but rabbits and cockroaches if I remember correctly. I took allergy shots for years in college, which unfortunately when you move to a different area of the country, I am surrounded by pollen to which I was not desensitized. Given the amount of external allergens, and the fact that if I don't take Zyrtec EVERY DAY OF MY LIFE, I break out in hives and itch all over. I've also had a slew of stomach pains that couldn't be explained by an upper GI and isn't made much better by taking medication. My friend, who was recently diagnosed with Celiac Disease, told me her symptoms and they sounded like some of my symptoms but 20x worse, so the pieces came together and I got tested. Results?

I am allergic to:
Peanut Soybean Wheat Barley cranberry pear
avocado gluten lime spinach egg oat rye
sunflower white potato cashew ginger pinto bean wax bean
grouper peppermint broccoli lemon orange
safflower tomato apricot cherry peach artichoke
blueberry hazelnut raspberry corn mustard

So now I'm supposed to eliminate all of these foods for 6 weeks. Yes it is almost impossible. ;) Actually the hardest things to avoid are corn (corn syrup in any of it forms is in almost everything) and soy (because if it doesn't have corn, for some reason it probably has soy). I am most saddened by the avocado, berries, artichoke, and egg. ;) At least I can have milk! Ice cream! Chocolate! Theoretically I have different levels of sensitivities to these things, and not all of them produce symptoms... but I have to eliminate all of them, then try each one ONE BY ONE to see if they cause any problems.

I have gone 27 years and I'm still alive, so I cheat a little bit. Maybe in the new year I will actually try to go 6 weeks. I get a consultation with a chef through the company and he just wrote me today, which may help. In the meantime I'm trying to get Tim used to millet and rice everything. It drives me nuts because I've never been the kind of person to be obsessed with nutrition labels - I've never dieted and generally eat things that say organic or natural on the front and that's about as much as I cared - but now I read all the little last details and then sigh in despair about fructose and soy lecithin and whatnot! The things I am avoiding most are wheat, gluten, and soy, and the easy things like peach and pear (yuck). Though I have had a lot of pizza lately...!

Logan's stitches healed up nicely so he no longer has to wear a t-shirt. Hope he doesn't get any more cysts ever!

From Winter 2008-2009

I am happy but not exceptionally hopefully that I got an email stating that I am "qualified and...being referred to for consideration" for a GS-7/9 permanent Forester position with the forest service with Tongass National Forest. I get that email a lot and barely ever get even an interest phone call. The only way I could take it is if they were willing to make it a SCEP position (student position that gets converted to permanent when you graduate and generally they accommodate school work in the fall and winter) because I probably won't graduate until April 2010.

From Winter 2008-2009

Tim and I are having fun over these holidays. First, we made sushi for thanksgiving. ;) No we didn't use turkey, cooked or raw. I had given him a sushi kit for last X-mas and we finally sucked it up and bought sushi-grade fish from Whole Foods. I am happy to say that neither of us got sick. Actually, it was a lot of fun and tasted really good! We waited until after turkey day to snatch up some really cheap frozen turkeys from the grocery store. Then, we went to the "Catch the Glow" holiday parade downtown. In the years I have been here, I have always avoided town like the plague for these parades, but Tim helped with some of the floats and it was fun. Logan got a lot of love. ;)

From Winter 2008-2009

We are gearing up for the next couple months of travel - this weekend Tim goes to the Colorado National Monument for a detail opportunity, I am finishing the last 2 weeks of my one class and will also be going out to the Monument to hike and ski, then we head to Michigan and then Pennsylvania for X-mas and New Years. He's not very excited about the long drive but I'm in the mood for a long road trip. ;) Plus Logan gets to meet his "cousin Thor", which is his sister's german shepherd. I can't wait to subject Tim to 50+ of my relatives under one roof for our annual X-mas eve party! And we already have tickets to the Red Wings game on Dec. 23rd.

My friend Alex, whom I have known since 6th grade but haven't seen in like 5 years, came out for a visit. It was great catching up! I took him to Arapahoe Basin and taught him how to snowboard, which was my first time out on the slopes this year. We hadn't received nearly the amount of snow we have in years past at that point. However, the past week and next few days, Summit County looks like it's getting hammered! Tim and I were supposed to go out on Sunday but alas, he either never set his clock or we slept through it at 5 am and didn't wake up until 10:30 so we didn't go. I was determined though and got up early yesterday. It took 3 hours to make a 2 hour drive to A-Basin, mostly because it was still snowing and Loveland Pass was closed, but I finally made it there and there weren't too many people on the hill, and the snow was still powder/packed powder. It made my day. :) I did much better with the telemark skis than last year, though I still have some work to do. I am determined to not suck this year. Having a healed knee helps too!

I am also looking forward to Saturday. What happens on Saturday? I start volunteering with wolves! To get more wildlife experience, I am helping out at WOLF, a place outside of Fort Collins that rescues wolves and wolf-dogs. Some are people-friendly but not enough that they make good pets; some are real skittish pure wolves; I'm not sure what kinds of opportunities I can get my hands on but everything from behavior to vet stuff to handling them will get me experience I can use. Plus, how cool is it to be around 160 lb wolves face to face?

Finally moved AGAIN, school, no snow, and Frankendog

From Winter 2008-2009

I'm procrastinating on unpacking the boxes currently sitting in my new apartment. I found a nice little studio in Drake, which is currently a pre-business bed and breakfast. They anticipate opening in Late 2009/Early 2010 and the plus for me is that it is clean, cute, sunny, inviting... I haven't lived in such a nice, happy place in a while! Of course it's more expensive than I'd like to pay for a studio, but such is the way of life in an expensive touristy mountain area. It's 20 minutes down the mountain from Estes, which means it's nicely halfway between school in Fort Collins and work and boyfriend in Estes. But I am so sick of boxes! Packing them, unpacking them, moving them... Boxes are ridiculously prominent in my life in the past couple years. Thank goodness for a pick up truck.

Speaking of truck, my Little Truck That Could, is now up to 202,000 miles. I don't see Trucky Truck letting me down any time soon! 250k... dare I say 275k or even 300k? Maybe overly optimistic but the best auto purchase I've ever made, a 1992 Toyota 4x4 XtraCab Pickup. Wonder why the Big 3 is screwed? Ask anybody that's owned a Toyota (or a Honda). However, there are inevitable repairs that come up on an old truck. Gaskets in particular are the bane of my truck's existence in the past 6 month. Boxes and gaskets drive me nuts. First it was some piston thingy-bobbers, then it was some intake manifold doo-dad, then some differential plug and pinyon thing. Good news is that those are done and no more leaks in Tim and Dave's driveway. Also had to replace a couple tires due to misaligned front end... So I'm all set for the winter. Come spring, here's my truck to-do list: rear shocks, the other 2 tires, windshield (though I'm going on 2 years with the same cracked one, so why bother? ha ha) and whatever pops up. I did finally get some plastic cut and somehow, with Dave's help, I managed to replace the back window on mytopper. Price: $55 as opposed to probably $200 with glass.

What other lovely things require my hard earned moolah? Log Dog. He had 4 small, pimple sized cysts when he was a puppy all along his right side. 2 remained tiny; one became medium; one got kindof big - big enough his hair stood up from it. It was biopsyed and non-cancerous but kept growing. I scheduled for him to get all four removed. Of course the big one decided to POP (yuck) a few days before the surgery. So they drugged him up, cut 4 patches of fur and took out the cysts. Now my Frankendog has four sets of big white stitches along his side. I really need to take some photos. The funniest part is that A. they gave him a bandana, which alone isn't that funny but B. He has to wear a shirt so he doesn't chomp on his stitches. When he has to go to the bathroom, I have to tie it up in the back so he doesn't pee on it. As a result, he looks like a little werewolf boy dressed in human clothes. ;) I always tell him he looks so handsom but in the back of my mind, I can't help but think "Animal Farm"...

School is school. I'm excited to be full time come January. I'm signed up for classes that probably sound really boring to everybody but sound great to me. Population and Community Ecology (wildlife), Park and Natural Area Management, and Natural Resource Policy something something. Might pick up one more class but don't want to overdue my course load, it's been a while since my brain has had to function that hard. ;)

Blast from the past: a friend from MIDDLE SCHOOL, that I haven't seen in over 5 years, is in town. I think even then I only saw him maybe a couple times since high school?? Alex and I met up for lunch yesterday; it's crazy to see the paths we both took, since we've, you know, turned into real ADULTS instead of silly 8th graders. :) We are going to try to go snowboarding tomorrow, but it's been so dang warm... Yeah, apparently while it's snowing in Michigan here I am at almost 8,000 ft elevation in the mountains of Colorado, riding my motorcycle. It sounds nice, but I LOVE four seasons and snow. I even bought a video on telemark skiing and I'm inspired to get that much better this year.

Hunting has been fruitless. At this point, I've hunted 4 seasons (deer 2 seasons, elk and turkey 1 season each) and come up with nothing. It's fun hiking around and when you hear some "weird noise" or think you see something, it's thrilling... The closest I came to even just finding anything was last weekend during 4th rifle season for buck, I heard a noise and stalked around, finding very fresh tracks from a deer I had startled. I keep looking around to see where these tracks went (in patchy snow) but couldn't figure it out. Started getting dark and I hiked out on a trail... and the damn deer had jumped down the trail, stopped, probably watched me until I startled it again, and jumped away and was probably watching me from another vantage point while I wandered around hoping for a glimpse of him. Never saw him, just heard some noises and saw those tracks... Guess I'll have to wait for another shot next year!

Tim and I are planning on heading back east for the holidays! We hope to leave here around Dec. 19th, hang out with my family until the 26th, then head out to Pennsylvania to see his family until after the New Year. Like always, this plan is hanging in limbo. He just found out he may be going to the Colorado National Monument for 2 months for work; he has a 5 week lay-off at this point because trails has less money this year, and the only way he can keep working is if he goes somewhere else. He may try to hook me up with some work out there, but I'd have to drive back for school on fridays. Not sure if it would be worth it or not, but I only have class until Dec. 12th so we shall see!

ONE MORE IMPORTANT THING: So I signed up for this website where all your shopping, if you use the link, can give a percentage of what you spend towards my student loans. Pretty groovy if you ask me! I sent some folks an invitiation to sign up; if you do it without the link just remember to add me as the beneficiary. You can even do more than one person and allocate percentages.

SHOP HERE!

http://www.upromise.com/guest/2656704786

Thank you. ;)

Ok enough slacking off, time to unpack.

Done and done!

Finally made it back to Estes! Woo hoo!

I went hunting early last week for 4 days and didn't see any elk. Alas, I did not bag a big bull this first time around. Sounds like nobody saw much of anything over there near Bowen Baker and Holzwarth. I have another chance to put some meat on the table in 2 weeks with the buck tag I have for the Estes area. Got a really good hike in on Saturday and a great view from Mineral Point though... 7 miles never felt so exhausting by the time I was done though!

My last day of work in Grand Lake was Thursday. Uneventful, besides driving the long way around from Grand Lake to Estes and back for work, then BACK to Estes after I was checked out of my house = at least 10.5 hours on the road Thursday. I still haven't unpacked everything from the back of my truck!

Logan had his birthday on Sunday... and I totally forgot. I remembered on Saturday, and I remembered that I forgot on Monday. ;) He's 2 years old! So I bought some yummy treats and new toys for his birthday. He's going to be ticked at me though because he has his first ever grooming appointment in about 2 hours because frankly, he STINKS. Now that I'm unemployed I'm also going to get him in for a dental appointment and to get these 3 lumps removed. They had done a biopsy a few months ago and said they were fine, but one has gotten much bigger and it's so weird to pet him and feel this giant lump under his beautiful fur. He's happy to be in Estes so he can go to the dog park again!

I just tried to set up my schedule for grad school next semester and I'm not totally happy with all the classes I wanted to take, being at the exact same time! But right now I'm in Forest Policy, Park and Natural Area Manangement, and Population and Community Ecology classes. Probably sounds like a real hoot to all ya'll out there, really. Ha ha. I'm torn between continuing with my undergrad education and stay in Ecology/Wildlife, or get a degree in forestry, which is what all of my employment has been in the past few years. So I'll probably take a little of both, student loans are an amazing thing.

Sounds like Tim and I are trying again to head out east for Christmas, maybe it will actually happen this year?? It would be fun to subject him to our family christmas party with 50+ of my closest relatives to interrogate and harass him. They do it in good fun, but I remember Linda's boyfriend meeting them for the first time and that was priceless. "HEEEEEEY, TONAAAAYYYYYY!" Maybe you'd have to be there to understand, but I think Tim will have fun with my huge extended family. If nothing else he can run away and watch sports with my stepdad and uncles. ;)

Halloween, my favorite holiday... and I haven't even carved pumpkins in years. I'm determined this year though. Not sure if I will recycle an old costume from last year - I still have my "Tim" costume with the big beard! or even my girlscout costume - but Tim wants us to go as vikings if I can find cheap costumes. Logan too has to dress up, though the old photo shows how much he hated his K9 Cop costume. The things we pet owners subject our four legged friends to...!

Anyway got a lot to do but thought I'd quickly update. One other recent and very sad thing is that a former coworker here are Rocky Mt was killed by a tree blowing over this past weekend. He was a great sawyer and had the most vibrant personality and I think everybody is just as shocked and sad as I am... he had quit as trails supervisor a couple years ago to pursue his private forestry company cutting down beetle kill in Grand Lake. He does the same job I do/did, every day dealing with dead trees... really makes me stop and think about how dangerous our job really is, and Kevin was a hell of a lot more talented sawyer than I am!

Oh yeah and I'm going to try to volunteer with this wolf rescue in Fort Collins, might as well get some wildlife experience if I decide to switch away from trees for good. Tara told me she just started volunteering with horses so hey, tis the season to work with the animals!

Ready for snow!

From Watanga Lake; Mooses; Matt and Brandon Visit, August 2008

Bull moose in my "front yard" at Green Mountain

Grand Lake is absolutely killing this journal!

The only time I can really get online is when I'm in Estes, and when I'm in Estes I'm so busy doing so many other things that I never get to my journal anymore! Throw in classes, and work, and being sick, and visitors...

Where should I start?

We started getting snow up on top of Trail Ridge Road in mid August; I actually got snowed on at my cabin August 15th! Which I would be very excited for...if I were east of the Divide and didn't face the prospect of driving the LONG way around from Grand Lake to Fort Collins for grad school every Friday! 3 hrs 15 minutes each way for a 2 hour class if they close Trail Ridge Road. This has only happened once so far, but it's just a matter of time before this becomes a regular thing. I was really stressing out about it, because I didn't know how long we would be working in Grand Lake before we are furloughed, but so many questions were laid to rest about 2 weeks ago:

Management has decided that it is nearly certain they will abandon the idea of having a separate west side crew. WOOOO HOOO! Not that I don't like Grand Lake. I really really do. I'd like it more if my friends were there, I had reliable housing 12 months of the year, and it wasn't a headache being separate from all administrative/management type important people that can make my life easy, or hell. All in all, it hasn't gone as well as I hoped. In part, my cabin was a nasty little craphole that probably made me sick when I cleaned it up and moved out 2 weeks ago. Another part is it is just myself and one other person, so when I have admin/office work, she has nothing to do. On top of that, she hurt her back and hasn't been operating at even 50% most days, so it was ALL ME dropping and cleaning up trees. Add on our impossible management-decided goals of removing 50% of our moderate hazard trees by November...which is approximately 2,000 trees dropped by 2 people. I could go on and on, which I have done to enough of my friends during a venting session that I really hope I never have to speak of it again once I move to Estes.

Since my coworker is leaving for a winter job late October, my last day of work is October 23 in Grand Lake. Now, I am hoping they can change my duty station via some simple paperwork and keep me working with the east side crew until Nov. 21st but we shall see. Part of me just wants to be done with it and recover and focus on School, Snow, and Sleeping. ;)  Though the money would be nice... hello student loans come January, when I am full time student until April!

Ok let me back up a bit, so much has happened and I'm sick so chronological writing is not really happening right now. The topic of grad school will have to wait.

August 21st or so, my "random adventure buddy" Matt (of past Yellowstone ninja and Virginia horseshoe crab fame in previous journals over the years) came out to Colorado with his friend Brandon and, well, we had random adventures. We stayed in Steamboat for a night and went to the hot springs up there, then hit up some bars (and felt very very old, forgot it was a college town!); then we were going to hike to a ranger cabin in the park but nasty weather and lack of motivation turned it into a simple driving tour of Rocky Mt National Park, cussing at Long's Peak for hiding in the clouds, a beer and a cigar at the Rock Inn, and wrestling with the dog (with and without bandanas). There were lots of random quotes to go along with that but most aren't appropriate for the General Audience except, "Horses are stupid!" which I totally don't agree with. ;)

From Watanga Lake; Mooses; Matt and Brandon Visit, August 2008

Anyway as always it was great to see Matt and his friend Brandon was a great travel buddy with a good sense of adventure. They came at a great time when things have been pretty rough and I really hope he can come out and ski this winter!

And since I wasn't already tired and busy enough, my mom and two sisters came out for a visit over Labor Day weekend! I was pooped and totally missed my first day of classes at Colorado State, but I didn't care, it was my favorite girls finally coming out to Colorado! We stayed at this guest ranch, complete with horses randomly wandering around, and my mom wrote up a pretty good journal about the visit - Meggie's Mumblings!  And here's the link to her photos from the trip, which are way better and tons more than I took. It was filled with horses, moose, freaking them out driving up "Don't Fall Over Road" (Linda's name for Old Fall River Road), thunderstorms, fishing in a dress and not catching anything, my mom being an insomniac without television, watching a color tv in black and white because, well, we thought it was a black and white tv... oh and the first time my sisters had been to Colorado to visit, and the first time they had all seen Logan since he was a wee pup! Of course they loved him. Everybody loves the Log!

From Family Visit, August 2008

Linda and I on horses on our private ride

From Family Visit, August 2008

Momma and baby moose on the trail to Timber Lake

From Family Visit, August 2008

Linda and I on the saddle above Timber Lake, trying to beat the storm!

Jeez what else. My life is filled with work and driving. Driving to Estes, driving to Fort Collins, driving all over. And chainsaws. I don't know my tally but I at least tripled the number of trees I had felled this year in the past month. Some pretty big ones, about 30" diameter, that's always a nice treat. We completed our clearcut, oh pardon me, our "buffer cut" at a certain picnic area so all that's left is trees under 20'  tall (save for a few spruce). I hate doing it but having green trees just fall over is probably a bad thing, so we have to do it in the name of safety. I could go on about THAT too...

Remember, I do not speak on behalf of my employer, I speak on behalf of myself! There's my disclaimer so they can't yell at me. I have a lot of opinions that just don't seem to line up with what we are doing, and a lot of theories on why that is. This is why I am getting a masters. With a masters you can tell other people what to do and actually have the credentials to do it in the government. ;)

School. Yep, grad school. Colorado State University. Just taking 5 credits this semester so I can keep working - a 2 credit required seminar on Fridays, and a 3 credit correspondence course on Public Relations and Communications in natural resource management. Yeah, I'm not known for my PR skills, tact, or butt-kissing so maybe I can learn a thing or two on how to deal with telling my superiors that their plans are stupid. Last I checked, telling people in charge anything that contradicts what they say isn't tactful or a good way to get them to listen. And I checked recently. :P  I just keep stepping on toes lately. The worst part is I don't even care anymore! It's almost liberating, but probably overall a bad idea.

Anyway so next semester I'll go full time. I planned on doing the same thing - taking only a few credits next fall, then full time next winter - but who knows. That's a year away and a LOT has changed just in the past month yet alone in the next 12 months.

I had to move out of that horrible cabin by Sept 15th so I now live in a nice big 3 bedroom, 1.5 bath house with a woodstove and a real kitchen and a garage... with my coworker (which I'm not keen on working 40 hrs then living with my coworkers) and some older lady that works for the park. It's fine, we all mostly stay in our rooms, but that lady snores like a chainsaw...which I can hear through the wall...which made me have a dream that a bear was looking in my window and grunting at me, ha ha! That and the bull elk are going NUTS in the rut right now, bugling right outside my room... had a weird dream about that too. But after this weekend they both move out and I have it to myself for my remaining month in Grand Lake (I hope!).

Why I am updating my journal on a Monday? I've been so freaking sick. I think I may have had the flu last week, but I've had 5 migraines in 8 days. And I mean MIGRAINES. Bad. Nasty. I finally went to the doc and I have a sinus infection and an ear infection so just maybe it's making my head hurt. I mean, even my teeth were hurting! And my stomach problem from last year (that I never got a camera stuck down my throat for; guess that's what I get for blowing it off) is back, so my stomach hurts 24/7. Hiatal hernia? Ulcer? Who knows til I get it scoped. Stress tends to make it flare up, and there's been an overabundance of stress lately! (If you aren't sure what I'm stressed about, reread the entire freaking journal!) Hopefully with a hefty round of antibiotics, stomach meds, and migraine medicine I'll be back to work by Wednesday. Boss isn't psyched but there's no way I'm running a chainsaw with a migraine!!

By the time Tim gets back from Alaska (which I obviously am not going up there to meet him as we had planned months ago), I will have literally only seen him once in TWO MONTHS. There's a lot of reasons for that but he gets back this Friday so hopefully we'll get to hang out at some point. Lots to talk about for sure, can't wait to see his photos. We've been able to talk over the phone a bit so he's finally in McCarthy, AK where his property is. He hasn't been up there in 3 or 4 years! I'm sure he's very excited to be there and I wish things would've worked out different and I could've made itup there.

The fall colors are starting to explode out here, last weekend the aspen in Grand Lake just turned in the blink of an eye. My favorite time of year, and it will be gone so soon. That's ok, gotta whip out the telemark skis and hope for a better season - no knee injuries and more progress in getting better!

Now, my priorities are doing this correspondence course, finding a place to live in Estes (can you believe I've moved 3 times in 6 months?! UGH!), finishing the season safely at work (with a good attitude!), trying to update this more often, and getting in better shape for telemark skiing = damn squats and lunges!

A few more exciting things I did, I ran my first race since I was in 2nd grade! We had the Running of the Bulls on Saturday and, despite being sick, I dragged myself out of bed and ran... good enough. ;)  I felt horrible and my head was throbbing but I finished in pretty average time for me. If I had felt better could've shaved maybe a couple minutes off my time. My friend Steph got 1st place for our age group (because the "real" 1st place woman won for overall women's, so she couldn't win both) which was cool; I got #6 but it was only out of maybe 17 in our age group so not like I was that great. ;)  Still though, I did it! It was fun and I am a little bit inspired to run more, though it did slightly aggrivate my chronically-finnicky achilles.

I also finally bought a rifle! I have a bull elk hunting tag for mid October so it was time to suck it up and dish out the dough. I got a Savage .30-06 which might not mean anything to most of you that read this. Now I have to get some knives and a bone saw and some game bags in case I actually get anything, and my book on how to field dress it aka cut it into pieces small enough so I can move the darned thing. Mmmmm elk! And if that doesn't work, got a buck tag too...
Well, time to pop another migraine pill. FYI Frova doesn't work worth crap. :P  Enjoy the photos and hope to update sooner than 6 weeks from now!  At any rate, I'll be done working in probably 4 weeks so at LEAST by then!

From Watanga Lake; Mooses; Matt and Brandon Visit, August 2008

Watanga Lake

From Family Visit, August 2008

Things I learned on the night shift on a wildfire in California...

Things I learned after almost 2 weeks of working the night shift on the Ukonom Complex fires in Forks of Salmon, California:

-Scorpions sting and it hurt, but not as bad as I thought it would
-Getting stung on the neck, however, is psychologically disturbing
-I'm immune to poison oak; unfortunately, most other people are not.
-Poison oak can go systemic, meaning you get it in weird and often uncomfortable places
-Did I mention I'm immune to poison oak? ;)
-California has lots of weird bugs.
-People should be required to keep their boots outside of the mobile sleeping trailer
-The river by Orleans and Forks of Salmon is remarkably clear and refreshing
-Being told you can't go river makes people upset
-Being told you can't drink on the way home from the fire makes people upset
-Poor leadership makes people upset
-Even a "dark cloud" has a silver lining. You can see it better when you drink
-I do pretty well working the night shift. It's the vampire thing...
-When I wake up at 5 pm to work the night shift, I do NOT like it when people say "Good morning". It's 5 pm, I don't care that we are just waking up, it is the AFTERNOON
-Eating breakfast for dinner is better than eating dinner for breakfast
-It doesn't matter how old you really are, sneaking out of a hotel to the liquor store when you're told you're not allowed to still makes you feel like you're in high school...and not in a GOOD way
-Nate is a rageaholic. But not really.
-Even if you don't think you can drink a whole bottle of wine by yourself, once you open it, I'm sure you can find a way
-When you start counting down the number of days left on a fire roll by day 2, you know it's going to be a long one
-People that wake up too early and start singing and being annoying before everybody else wakes up at fire camp really pisses people off
-...Especially when you ask how they are doing, and they say, "I'm ALWAYS fine!" Don't ever EVER be that guy
-Yellowjackets will swarm and attack, even at midnight
-I'm glad I wasn't there for THAT...not that scratching your eye and not being able to see out of it for 24 hours is much better
-I wish I could have seen Andy freak out, apparently it was hilarious when he started getting stung
-You CAN get pneumonia during the summer in 110 degree weather
-Running a chainsaw for my job here at Rocky is WAYYY cooler than brushing out poison oak and manzanita on a fireline
-I need a new iPod
-Nate has the best taste of music of anybody besides maybe Tom back in Michigan
-It is possible to tend to a bonfire for 14 hours straight
-It is possiblyto sleep in the most uncomfortable positions ever, on really steep slopes, wearing a hard hat and a fire pack
-Don't try to sleep on top of a steel truck; it will NEVER warm up from lying on it
-Setting up tents of different styles, shapes and sizes in a straight line, no matter how perfect, will never look that good, so don't bother
-Getting injured, stung, or poked in the eye while doing some crappy task is the BEST thing you can do for yourself; I got to shoot the shit with Sheean and nap in a warm reclined truck seat while everybody was cold and miserable; it got Andy a hotel room; it got Ruth to go home!
-On that note, I recommend carrying a live scorpion around for when you're REALLY itchin' to get off the fireline
-I don't want to eat Skittles or drink Gatorade for a LONG time
-There's always a short, hyper, impressionable young man on every fire that will at some point drive you up a wall
-Having a big black dog come out of the night to keep us company on a cold spot fire really does make everybody smile.... I miss big drooling Jake!
-It's freakin' GREAT to be home... even though there were 5 huge spiders in my sink and my window fell out, and yes my windows fall out for no reason

I could go on and on. As I made it perfectly clear to those in charge, it was the worse roll I have ever been on. It has nothing to do with the work we did; brushing out contingency lines during the day in 110 degree weather was pretty grueling but it kept us busy. Poor leadership, miscommunication, and bad decisions all made for an unhappy group. Most of the crewhad never been on fire before, but those of us who had been "in the biz" for a while were pretty disappointed/frustrated/RAGING ANGRY. Yeah that was a joke. One of the nicer guys on the trip was threatened to be sent home for being a "bad influence" on our morale and he has "rage problems". I still can't get over it!

We were out for 21 days; 4 days in the beginning were travel days, as it was an all National Park Service Crew and 8 of us from Rocky had to meet the rest of the crew in Albuquerque, New Mexico. There were folks from other parks in New Mexico and Texas. From there we ended up first at the base camp in Orleans, CA. I ran a saw for a day and decided that cutting real trees down is much more fun than cutting brush up steep slopes on hot days. I'm just getting soft I guess, ha ha! We were soon moved to a spike camp that was actually nicer than the base camp in Forks of Salmon, and went from day shift to swing shift to night shift and all of us, our biological clocks were just jacked. At night we'd hold the line when they were burning out; which then turned into babysitting a COLD dead fire; which then turned into sleeping in a gravel pit all night, waking up for about 2-3 hours in the morning, then trying to go back to sleep in a mobile sleeper trailer (the "catacombs"). Blah. I'm done complaining about it, at least we all made it home safe and ALIVE. Two folks died while we were out there; one was burned over on the Panther fire, north of us; one was on the Olympic National Park fire crew and was killed by a falling tree. After we left, that helicopter went down and 9 more people died. It's been a bad year.

I'd love to go out again this year, just to make up for how unsatisfying this last roll was. Doubt it will happen until September or October, if at all, with the amount of work we have to do here at the park!

We are on hold with cutting trees down at the park while we do a site analysis for every front country area in the park. We should be done early this week; then I think we're just going to clear cut EVERY SITE. We're calling it a "buffer cut". It's the safest way to do things, given the high chance of trees falling over from the wind.

I have to move out of my crappy cabin by Sept 15th, thank goodness. My living situation will improve; however, there is a required class I need to take for grad school at Colorado State in Fort Collin every Friday. Surprise! I wasn't going to take any classes until January when I am off work so I can live in Estes and be around for school, and for pre-season work next spring. So now, once the road closes, every Thursday night I need to drive the long way around just for a 2 credit class on Friday. I want to get a place to live in Estes, but I can't pay double rent! I'll have to get creative...

Hopefully the east side crew leader gets that promotion they should be flying soon and I can put in for his job so I can get back over there and this won't be an issue, but we'll just have to wait and see!

Yesterday I finally went and got a new tattoo... actually, 4 baby sea turtles swimming across my back. One for myself and each of my siblings. Linda and I both wanted to get Galapagos Island-related tattoos since that's our goal to go there some day, which will probably be in like 20 years... 2 hrs 15 minutes and I think that's my max time I can sit under the needle. Very cute though! I'd like to add more water/bubbles/something to tie it together more and give it more "movement" but we'll see when I get the money/pain tolerance to hit it again. ;)

Other news is that I've been going through some very tough stuff lately; if you don't know what it is, then don't worry about it, I've got my mom doing enough of that as it is! ;)  But thank you everybody who has been supportive and kept my spirits up. Things aren't back to normal or "good" but I'll get through it...

From Ukonom Comple...

From Ukonom Comple...

This is how firefighters have fun in camp when they're supposed to be sleeping... shaving mohawks into people's heads