Written Updates &Thoughts
About living and working in the Columbia River Gorge area
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11/5/1999
     Today is my last day with the Mt.Hood District.  I'm being layed off with the rest of my crew. Jenn is still working. She has been working in Clackamas which is on the other side of Mt. Hood, but she is going to start working over on this side now which means she won't be staying over there at night - Woohooo! My brother, Clint is being "de-mobed" (de-mobilized) from the Big-Bar complex of fires that have been burning in California for most of the latter part of this season. I'm hoping to go see him soon in Olympic National Park in Washington where he works before he heads back to Arkansas which I think is his plan. And of course that I'm one of America's unemployed now - I have all the time in the world to see him. I'm not a complete slacker, though - I have been looking for jobs via the internet. I've sent an email to nearly every Web design firm in the Gorge and have only garnered a few responses informing me that they didn't need anyone currently. I have also been looking into the option of attending a flight training school like Embry-Riddle but initially it seems that it is FAR to expensive! Soon I will have many hours to figure out what to do for the time being and for the future...who knows what's next!

 

10/16/1999

Living:
     We have a great setup here in White Salmon.  Our landlord/housemate is a wonderful guy with a big heart.  He even loves our animals - including our psycho cat. We have a big fenced yard (although Loch has escaped a few times and had high adventure in the neighboring trailor park). The house is big and we have a nice room with hard-wood floor and enough room to live in. We have a bathroom with shower right next door to the bedroom and Doug's room and bathroom are upstairs. I'm not sure we could get a better living situation! We see Mt. Hood on the way to work and Mt. Adams on the way home. We drive through pear and apple orchards and see crop dusters occasionally. Driving across the Columbia on the Hood River bridge is fantastic except that it costs $.75 everytime you get on it! I thought the 20 minute commute would really get old but it really is so spectacular - the weather is different every morning. Not looking forward to having to drive it in the snow, though! Hopefully La Nina will keep it dry  with relatively little snow. Come up and visit! We'd love to have you. 
Working:
     I've been on some great fires! I love the physical work, too. When not on fires we've been cutting down big trees for wildlife habitat.  That makes me a certified B class faller. The fires are a little different than when I was in Idaho or Colorado - "Urban Interface" is the key phrase. Just last night I was on a 3 acre fire that was in between some homes and air tankers with retardent were called in and about 20 people and 8 fire engines were there. We try to stomp fires out to try and save homes. It's an intersting scenario, though.  Unlike urban firefighters (structural firefighters) we aren't allowed nor trained to fight fire inside a building.  We don't have things like police backup for crowd control (a family came down the fire line last night with their flashlights in the pitch black blowing smoke). The landowner that caused the fire by accident brought pizza and fresh cider for us and we were pretty sure that he didn't know that he was going to be charged a hefty sum for our work. 
     It hasn't rained which means that I'm in work but Jennifer is out of work. Without rain she can't survey for slugs and snails because they just aren't around. However, next week she and her crew will start surveying for the Red Tree Vole. Apparently it lives in the tops of trees that are as much as 100+ feet tall so don't ask me how they are going to find the little suckers, but I will let you know when I find out. 

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