A Month Hiatus...

It's been a month since I last made a post here and for that I apologize. I really don't have a glorious reason as to why I haven't posted an entry for so long. I would love to say that I was exploring the Sahara or skiing in the Pamirs or climbing some remote unknown peak. In reality I just got lazy over the past few weeks. The start of our crew was a blessing for me. Our first day was the 12th and we hit the ground running...literally in that sense as well. For the first couple of weeks we were PTing twice a day which I welcomed considering how out of shape I was yet still dreaded. We spent most of that time training: helitack operations, orienteering, NPS training, initial attack wildland firefighting, etc. Our first taste of fire came in our second week when we did a small prescribed fire within Zion National Park. With our helicopter coming on last Thursday, we started doing a lot of project work over the weekend which also led to our first fire! I don't have any pictures (considering I broke my camera skiing last month) but it really wasn't much. A single juniper tree that got struck by lightening. Considering that our first fire last year didn't come until 15 June, this is a very good sign as to what will come of this fire season. I'm in debt right now and I'm trying to buy a new truck (no one tell my mother!) this summer so hundreds of hours of overtime will definitely help!

I started working 4 10-hour days on Saturday which makes my particular work week Friday through Monday. I'm going to try to travel as much as I can between visiting Maleigha in Boise and being close to Las Vegas' Airport. Hopefully this is a premise to more exciting journal entries!