(no subject)
After that last entry we ended up getting called to a five day fire in the Sycamore Canyon Wilderness on Memorial Day. So this wannabe survivalist decided to hike into the wilderness to test his skills and didn't bring enough food and water bc i guess he though he could live off the land? Anyways he started a signal fire that no one saw so then he decided to light several fires and it blew up into a 100 acre wildfire. Because the fire was pretty far in the wilderness we all got helicopter flights into the fire which was AWESOME. First helicopter ride ever and I even got the front seat on the way back. My phone died instantly so of course I have no pictures, which made my mom roll her eyes since I never have pictures.
After the first few days, most of the hard work was done and we were pretty much just monitoring during some high winds and then we bounced outta there and had our lil one day off. I spun weather, and did hourly weather reports and I think im gonna make that my unofficial new job. All in all it was a pretty good fire to learn on.
Big things have happened since then though. There was an inapproriate gesture from that Marine dude to Syd and even though she didn't make a big deal out of it, he got weirdly defensive about not wanting to apologize for it and ended up having a sit down with our bosses. With all the harassament stuff going on in the Forest Service they are really cracking down on that stuff and Im glad they kinda threw down the hammer on him. I am not in a truck with him anymore and might not ever be again, Im not sure. They might be trying to seperate us until they fully trust him in mixed company.
Initially we got kicked out of that truck so our boss could drive one of our dudes to the hospital because he freaking dropped a tree on his own leg. We were digging a really short piece of handline on one of our prep areas when he dropped the last tree of the dig on himself. It was a snag (dead tree) which are more complex trees and he was supposed to be cutting it to kinda prove himself because he had been demoted from being a B sawyer to just being an A sawyer. Rightly so as it turns out. I like the dude and had worked with him kind of a lot, considering the teeny tiny bits of time we have had to cut. Working together he definitely seemed like he had weird ideas about what good sawyer habits are and most definitely was overconfident in his actual abilities. He even tried to give me and the other two girls on my crew advice on how to run saws but we all ignored it and Im glad we did. And our sawboss had only watched him cut maybe two times before this incident happened so he didn't really know where the dude was at, although he was the one who demoted his sawyer status.
Not to bore you too much on tree talk but, we went and looked at his stump and could see what had gone wrong and it was 100% a situation that could have been avoided if he had just had better habits and a greater respect for the tree. I think he is self aware enough now to maybe get to that place but it sucks he had to fuck up his leg to learn that lesson. He ended up getting a nasty puncture wound and breaking his tibia. Our boss said he'd be out for 2 months but seriously, I don't see this guy really having a full fire season after that. All we do is hike and use our legs so I don't really get where the two months fits in. We all have also been careful to speak ill of him as a group, including our bosses. I think thats a good thing but in a way I am annoyed by it because I can't help but wonder if that would be true of one of us girls had done the same thing. They really put alot of misplaced faith in this dude's abilities and I think I am extra annoyed by it because I still feel very undervalued. Anyways he fucked up big time, its going to be a pretty serious situation that will not reflect well on our crew. I am also a little annoyed because if our forester had given us and exemption that allowed us to run saws after 9 am, we would have gotten waaaay more practice time and this whole incident might have been completely mitigated. We are often watched as we cut and given feedback but nothing can replace having trigger time and solidifyiing good habits with muscle memory. If this dude comes back to the crew and gets put on another saw team, I will lose my shit.
I am feeling a little remorse for not returning back to my old forest, especially since theres a big fire raging up there right now. But more than that, I just keep feeling like I would have had more mentors who really believed in me and I don't quite feel like I have that yet. It might come as the season progresses but Im feeling a little weird about it right now.
On a much better note, Alex is flying down this Thursday! It'll be a short trip, but I am looking forward to it. I am pretty sure we will not get called to a fire and that it will all work out but who knows. Our relationship feels good but a little weird when we're apart bc I get so used to being on my own that it almost feels more odd to be together again. Side effect of pretty much being single for the first 25 years of your life probably. I think Im gonna try and take him to some swimming holes.
Alright, we have a 630 start tomorrow so I guess this entry is over!
After the first few days, most of the hard work was done and we were pretty much just monitoring during some high winds and then we bounced outta there and had our lil one day off. I spun weather, and did hourly weather reports and I think im gonna make that my unofficial new job. All in all it was a pretty good fire to learn on.
Big things have happened since then though. There was an inapproriate gesture from that Marine dude to Syd and even though she didn't make a big deal out of it, he got weirdly defensive about not wanting to apologize for it and ended up having a sit down with our bosses. With all the harassament stuff going on in the Forest Service they are really cracking down on that stuff and Im glad they kinda threw down the hammer on him. I am not in a truck with him anymore and might not ever be again, Im not sure. They might be trying to seperate us until they fully trust him in mixed company.
Initially we got kicked out of that truck so our boss could drive one of our dudes to the hospital because he freaking dropped a tree on his own leg. We were digging a really short piece of handline on one of our prep areas when he dropped the last tree of the dig on himself. It was a snag (dead tree) which are more complex trees and he was supposed to be cutting it to kinda prove himself because he had been demoted from being a B sawyer to just being an A sawyer. Rightly so as it turns out. I like the dude and had worked with him kind of a lot, considering the teeny tiny bits of time we have had to cut. Working together he definitely seemed like he had weird ideas about what good sawyer habits are and most definitely was overconfident in his actual abilities. He even tried to give me and the other two girls on my crew advice on how to run saws but we all ignored it and Im glad we did. And our sawboss had only watched him cut maybe two times before this incident happened so he didn't really know where the dude was at, although he was the one who demoted his sawyer status.
Not to bore you too much on tree talk but, we went and looked at his stump and could see what had gone wrong and it was 100% a situation that could have been avoided if he had just had better habits and a greater respect for the tree. I think he is self aware enough now to maybe get to that place but it sucks he had to fuck up his leg to learn that lesson. He ended up getting a nasty puncture wound and breaking his tibia. Our boss said he'd be out for 2 months but seriously, I don't see this guy really having a full fire season after that. All we do is hike and use our legs so I don't really get where the two months fits in. We all have also been careful to speak ill of him as a group, including our bosses. I think thats a good thing but in a way I am annoyed by it because I can't help but wonder if that would be true of one of us girls had done the same thing. They really put alot of misplaced faith in this dude's abilities and I think I am extra annoyed by it because I still feel very undervalued. Anyways he fucked up big time, its going to be a pretty serious situation that will not reflect well on our crew. I am also a little annoyed because if our forester had given us and exemption that allowed us to run saws after 9 am, we would have gotten waaaay more practice time and this whole incident might have been completely mitigated. We are often watched as we cut and given feedback but nothing can replace having trigger time and solidifyiing good habits with muscle memory. If this dude comes back to the crew and gets put on another saw team, I will lose my shit.
I am feeling a little remorse for not returning back to my old forest, especially since theres a big fire raging up there right now. But more than that, I just keep feeling like I would have had more mentors who really believed in me and I don't quite feel like I have that yet. It might come as the season progresses but Im feeling a little weird about it right now.
On a much better note, Alex is flying down this Thursday! It'll be a short trip, but I am looking forward to it. I am pretty sure we will not get called to a fire and that it will all work out but who knows. Our relationship feels good but a little weird when we're apart bc I get so used to being on my own that it almost feels more odd to be together again. Side effect of pretty much being single for the first 25 years of your life probably. I think Im gonna try and take him to some swimming holes.
Alright, we have a 630 start tomorrow so I guess this entry is over!