Wildland Firefighting

This summer was my first year for wildland fire deployments. When I started working for Logan Fire, I wanted to find somewhere I could contribute to the department. I started talking to some of the guys and I thought I'd give wildland firefighting a shot. 

For our first deployment we went out to Box Elder County to Promontory Point. There was a bad lightning storm the night before and it started some fire on the ground. Off we went. The couple of days we were there was full of making sure the fire was out and driving around to make sure there were no new starts. I learned a lot in this week. There is a lot to fighting wildland fires. It was crazy when I heard from the guys say that the fire will lay low until about two in the afternoon and then off it will go. They were right. 

There was another fire about 6 miles out and we got called to it to help. This was the fun part of the fire. Grass fires take off so fast and quick and it is hot. It was fun driving off road and in the brush where normal trucks won't go. It is also crazy to see how fast a juniper trees can go up in flames. Some of the views of the fire was awesome. I went out with Aaron and Jason and I learned a ton from them. It was a good time. 

When we were moved to a new fire, we were with a group of people who were staging. As we arrived to where command wanted us, we all looked around and felt the wind shift right towards us and command told all of us we needed to move quick and get to a new staging area. It was crazy to see how the fire shifted and was moving towards us. The big column of smoke was crazy to see. We were with a few tenders who needed to stage for filling stations. Ken Mathys had what was called pumpkins, or a big plastic pool that held over 6,000 gallons of water.  

This is where the helicopter came to fill. Once this was done, I went out with Ken Mathys and protected a grader as it worked. I was amazed to see how much earth it could move to make a fire line. They had a plan once a big enough fire line was made to burn off about around 3,000 or so acres to stop the fire from spreading faster. I was amazed how Mathys was driving his truck and how the dirt was so soft. There was a lot to take in during this week.  We did a lot of staging during this fire and it was getting me antsy. 

During this time someone made a comment to Mathys about scorpions.  He said there were no scorpions around here. As we were staging, Mathys got tired of standing and he scraped the ground to sit. Just as he sat down, I saw something move by his foot and it was a scorpion! 

I looked at Mathys and told him to hold still and not move. I grabbed a tool and picked it up just as Mathys was about to come out of his skin. We all laughed and said, "I thought you said there were no scorpions here!" After the funny show of him being freaked out, someone cut off his stinger and he became a pet for the day. It was crazy to see people hold it and have it on there shirts. It was a fun time. 

I also had an opportunity to go to a controlled burn in Logan Canyon. I had fun doing my first burn off to help hold the line when the other fire came in.  While we were there, we saw this tree go up in flames.  It was so cool to watch because it started out slow but then boom!  It was engulfed.  The tree actually did make a boom sound as it caught fire.  It was so loud!

I can't wait to go out next summer.  Hopefully we have more fires, though, because this summer was a bust on fires all over the state.

Top of Utah Half Marathon 2019

I participated in the Top of Utah Half Marathon this weekend.  This was the first half marathon I have done since having Charlotte and surviving cancer.  It felt good to get out there and race again.

This is the second time I have run this race.  The last time was 4 years ago.  Top of Utah Half Marathon is a beautiful course through Blacksmith Fork Canyon, Hollow Road in Nibley, through Millville, and ending at Zollinger Park in Providence.  The majority of the course is downhill which really helps with times.

I loved having Russell and the kids out there cheering for me as I ran passed them.  They met me at mile 7, 10.5, and then at the finish line.  I loved hearing them cheer for me.  

The race was really good and I felt good during the whole thing.  My goal for this race was to get under two hours.  Because this was my first half in a while I wanted to be realistic.  I ended up achieving my goal and getting a time of 1:55.  That is not a PR but it is a PR since getting back into running so I was pretty happy with the results.

I am working toward a bigger running goal this year of running in the St. George Marathon.  That race is in October so only about 6 weeks away.  I am glad my family is so supportive of my goals and are willing to put up with me and my crazy running schedule.  Russell is always good to follow me on my long runs whether in the car or on his bike.  Emily is awesome about watching the other kids while we are out running.  

I am so grateful for my health and my body's ability to do these things that I love to do.  Never take your health for granted and do whatever you can to stay healthy!

First Day of School 2019-2020

Well it is that time of year again: Back to School time.  This year Emily is in 5th grade, Colby is in 3rd, and Logan is in 1st grade.  All of them will go all day this year and have lunch at school. What am I going to do with my time?

The annual first day of school pictures are always interesting.  Especially with three excited children.

Emily is growing up so fast! I can't believe she's in fifth grade.  I remember when I was in fifth grade!

Emily's teacher this year is Mrs. Lockhart.  We have heard a lot of good about this teacher and were told by many sources that she is the best fifth grade teacher.  We are very excited to get to know her and learn from her.  Emily's best friend, Ayzleigh, is in her class again this year. Emily was excited about that too.

Have you ever seen a more handsome young man than this:

Colby is ready for third grade.  Mostly he is ready to see his friends again and play at recess.  Colby's teacher is Mrs. DeCoursey.  We are excited to get to know her and her teaching style.  We haven't heard a lot about her so I hope she will be good for Colby.  

Logan is really growing up.  He absolutely loves school and was ready to go to first grade:

Mrs. McDaniel is Logan's teacher this year.  She seems really cute and excited to be teaching first grade.  Mrs. McDaniel is a new teacher at Canyon so we are enthusiastic about having her this year.  Logan loved her from the first day they met at Back To School Night.

We did our traditional walk to school on the first day.  We basically ran because Emily thought we were going to be late for the first day.  They were all thrilled about starting school.

We had to pose for one last picture before going into the school.  First day of school and 2019-2020 school year here we come!!

Charlotte thought she needed a first day of school picture as well.  She knows she is as big as everyone else so she has to do everything they do.  It is just Charlotte and me at home now.  We play and watch movies and just hang out all day until the other kids come home.

Final Summer Adventures

As summer came to a close and the first day of school came closer, we tried to cram in as much fun as we could. We did this by taking the kayaks out any chance we got.

Our first time was to First Dam in Logan. The kids had an absolute blast paddling around this river. The water was full of seaweed so we didn't like swimming in it. The kayaks were perfect though because they floated right over the seaweed.  As we got passed the seaweed, the river opened up and was quite deep. We could see a lot of little fish swimming around under us.

We liked paddling out to the deep part and then over to the bridge. The bridge was too low for us to go under unless we laid down on our kayaks so we just stayed in our area.  Charlotte had a blast as well. She really thinks she can do anything the big kids can do so she decided she could kayak by herself.  She grabbed the yellow kayak and oar and paddled herself out and around the river.  Russell and I stayed near her the whole time but we were really impressed with how well the little 2 1/2 year old was doing on her own.

She also loved just jumping in the water and getting wet. 

At Russell's summer party for his work, Emily won a tube. She had been wanting to try out her tube for a while so we brought it along with the kayaks.  She had a good time floating alongside the kayaks in her tube. The hard thing was that the kids arms and legs were a bit too short to go over the side of the tube and paddle very well. The seaweed was also a problem for the tube.  These things did not stop the kids though. They figured out a way to hook the tube onto the back of the kayak and then took turns pulling each other around on the tube.

They also were able to fit all four of them on the tube and swim around.  They really had to work together to get anywhere without going in circles.  We sure had a great time.

We had so much fun that we went out and bought two more youth kayaks for the kids. So now we have five.  The next weekend we took the kayaks to Hyrum Dam. 

This was the maiden voyage of the pink and blue kayak and they did amazingly.  The water was a little choppy so it was harder to paddle but the kids did great. 

We paddled over to the floating dock and dared the kids to jump off into the lake.  They were so scared but we kept pushing.  Russell even demonstrated how to do it.  Finally Emily got brave enough and jumped. She loved it and wanted to go again. Then Colby said he would do it if we were right next to the dock with the kayak.  When he jumped he tried to jump into the kayak and almost tipped me over. He did decide it was pretty fun and tried a few more times.  It was another fun day in the sun!

At the August Pack Meeting, Colby was able to help with the flag ceremony.  This was the last requirement he needed to get his Wolf badge.

He had worked so hard during the summer earning a bunch of belt loops in order to get his Wolf badge. He was excited to finally get it.

At the county Fair Logan and Charlotte wanted a picture in this cop car.

It looks so real in the picture but it is really a photo prop.  

Finally it was time for back to school haircuts.  

This was probably Charlotte's second real haircut.  She was so excited and held so still.

We had all of the kids get professional haircuts this time.  Russell usually does the boys but he has been really busy with wildland fire lately. I love how the cuts turned out.  Now they are ready for school!

Our garden finally decided to produce this year.  It was definitely a late bloomer.  It ended up being a good year for some things and a not so great year for others.

We planted potatoes, cucumbers, watermelon, pumpkin, butternut squash, corn, and beans in our big garden area. In the little garden boxes we planted tomatoes, peppers, peas, onions, carrots and lettuce.  This was the first year we have ever been able to grow corn and green beans.  The corn we might have picked a little too late because we weren't sure when to pick it.  The corn still tasted good though.  We were getting worried that the beans were not going to do well but then they just took off.  We had so many beans we could pick a pan full everyday for dinner.  The cucumbers also did very well.  I made 3-4 batches of pickles and still did not make a dent in the supply.  I did discover how to make really good baby pickles though.  Instead of letting the cucumbers grow so big, I am going to pick them when they are tiny babies and make pickles out of those.  They were so good!  

Our potatoes and onions did really well too.  We would go dig up a few potatoes every week and they just kept producing throughout the summer.  Our onion supplies will definitely last through the winter.  Our lettuce just kept growing and growing until we finally pulled them out because we couldn't eat it fast enough.

Logan planted the watermelon plant at school and we watched it grow from a seedling in our house.  Then we transplanted it outside and hoped it wasn't too shocked to grow.  It grew like a champ and we were able to get two watermelons off of it.  Boy, were they good.

I think the only things that did not grow were the pumpkin plants and the squash plant.  We got one butternut squash and two mini pumpkins that really couldn't even be called pumpkins.   The reason they did not do well was because of the cursed squash bugs.  We had a major infestation of those stupid things.  We would go out every day and kill a million of them and it still did not help.  We got tape and used it to take the eggs off the leaves and still they found a way to reproduce.  It was so bad that I was having nightmares about those bugs infesting the house. Oh I hate them!!

Other than the squash bugs, we had a pretty good harvest though.  We did learn that we need to plant onions or radishes or other strong smelling plants near the pumpkin and squash plants because the squash bugs don't like the smell and will stay away.  We are going to try that next year.  Hopefully it will be better.

We sure have had a great summer. I wish it was summer all the time but I know it can't be...  We are ready for school to start again and we are looking forward to another great year.