We just had 15 smoke jumpers parachute on a fire on Lucky Butte.

[DemoTex]

That is way out of my A/O, but I have been following it pretty closely on the USFS TAC frequency. Round Mountain lookout to the west of me is co-ordinating along with Central Oregon Inter-agency Dispatch Center.

There was some concern about the winds, but it was determined that it was within limits and a safe operation. The SJs are on the ground safely, they received their supply drop, and they are fighting the fire. They estimate the fire will be contained and controlled by 10 pm. They will camp on the butte and mop up in the morning. During the drop-in, I couldn't help but think of the Mann Gulch disaster sixty years ago (August 5, 1949). What pure raw guts!

Tomorrow promises to be a bad fire day in my sector. The NWS has issued a Red Flag fire warning to the general public, and our fire weather reports predict high LALs (lightning activity levels), high winds, dry fuels, and bad Haines indices. I expect that we will be keeping late night lightning watch tomorrow.

I'll post pics of the smoke jump operation if and when I get them from USFS. Meanwhile, here are some interesting photos from around the lookout this afternoon and evening. As always, many thanks to EarlG for allowing my dispatches in the GD forum. Most past dispatches can be seen in my DU Journal ( http://journals.democraticunderground.com/DemoTex ).


Engine 34 scraped my road today. I heard them coming up and I thought their transmission was crapping out. Bwaa haa haa haa!


Nick in the desert talcum powder (that's what I call it).


Nick at the salt lick catching some deer scents.


The hawk that never flaps its wings. The hawk circles this butte for many, many laps on the updrafts (essay coming .. linked to Carl Orff's birthday yesterday and his Schulwerk).




My filthy dirty FolBot kayaks that I pulled out of the garage to wash and patch (the Aleut) this morning, until the wind kicked up and it got too cold to do a damn thing outside.


A little color in the desert rocks at the base of the lookout.


I've been in the lookout for seven weeks yesterday .. loving every minute!

[BlooInBloo]

1. Coooool! Stay safe! Do you have an oxygen mask or something, just in case?

[DemoTex]

4. I have a "shake-n-bake."

That's the thing you crawl into when the fire is just about to get you.

[robdogbucky]

22. When I held my card

we referred to our shelters as baked potato wrappers.

Be sure to have your gloves on if you ever have to use it. Many people have been found to have forgotten that very important point.

We had some storm cells, remnants of the latest tropical off Baja, make their way through NorCal today/tonight. The wind is turning to a gradient and we will have fire conditions all week down here with temps in the high '90s and low humidity. With the way the wind has been blowing all summer down here, fuel will be extra dry extra quick. I'm sure that is part of what you have described as your forecast up there also.

Stay safe, Demo and give Nick a hug.


Just my dos centavos,

robdogbucky

[Tuesday Afternoon]

2. love, love, love the pic of the hawk! Stay Safe DemoTex and thanks

for the update. :hi:

[bkkyosemite]

3. Sounds like we are gonna have a lot of lightning tomorrow (Medford) stay safe up there and hang on

tight..

[DemoTex]

6. I waxed "Old Sparky" for good luck.

"Old Sparky," my electric chair.

[ThoughtCriminal]

11. Is that for "Lightning Protection"?

:patriot:

[bkkyosemite]

12. Amazing how that thing works to protect you....

[Subdivisions]

5. How's your reading coming along, DT?

[DemoTex]

10. Right now I'm reading Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring" and ..

Kerouac's Selected Letters 1940-1956. In a fire lookout tower one has to have a Kerouac/Snyder/Whalen/Cassady work open at all times. It is a USFS requirement!

[GreenPartyVoter]

28. LOL

[The Straight Story]

7. Damned smokers...

Oh wait. LOL.

Thanks for all the wonderful posts and pics!

[DemoTex]

18. Damned lightning! LAL! (lightning activity level)

Lightning code: P6EK2A. Lots of off-budget overtime. Everybody loves it. My boss called at 5:58 pm today (I normally get off at 6) and said, "Lightning code, 8 pm. any problem?"

"Negatory! Can-do!" So I get paid OT to eat my MRE and listen to Sirius-XM Symphomy Hall until 8 pm! Life is good.

[ColbertWatcher]

8. Now I'm thinking I want to see this in coffee table book form. Well done. k+r, n/t

[Suich]

9. Most of Western Washington has been Red Flagged all week.

Lightning expected tonight. I'm hoping we get at least a little bit of rain...can't imagine how bad it is on your side of the Cascades!

Thanks for the update!

:hi:

[DemoTex]

14. Yep I'm worried about that Pacific maritime low (east flow).

A strong east flow and lightning tomorrow will be a deadly combination. Hang in there Suich!

:hi:

[bkkyosemite]

13. By the way love the pic's thanks...

[kirby]

15. What does scraping the road do? n/t

[DemoTex]

21. Depends .. upper road or lower road.

In early June we had some heavy rains that washed out sections of the FS-750 road (up to the lookout tower). The lower sections of the road are volcanic sandy, and recover well with a good scraping. The upper 1/3 of the 750 road is extremely rocky (volcanic) and a scraping only turns up sharp rocks (and I've already had one flat tire on my Tacoma up here!). The firefighters on E-34 were following the sled throwing rocks aside.

[elleng]

16. ITS ALWAYS SO GOOD TO HEAR FROM YOU!

and to see your pics!

THANKS FOR THE WORK YOU DO!

:hug:

[TahitiNut]

17. Carl Orff's "Schulwerk" ... I hope you love it at least half as much as I do.

What a GREAT vacation for Nick ... he's gotta be in 7th heaven. :hi:

[DemoTex]

19. You, dear friend, turned me on to Orff's "Schulwerk." Remember?

Imagine watching a hawk soaring .. never ever having to flap a wing .. with Orff's Musica Poetica playing softly as you watch the hawk. Sublime beyond description. And on Orff's birthday too! Essay in the works.

[TahitiNut]

20. Yup ... very well. I'm happy you enjoy it. That's a terrific place to listen to it.

It really does great things for my head. :pals:

[PDittie]

23. Really enjoy your postings.

[Born_A_Truman]

24. Mac, check your MREs--

http://www.wildlandfire.com/hotlist/showthread.php?t=9363

DO NOT CONSUME MRE Dairy Shake Powder


The Food and Drug Administration has determined a Minnesota dairy cooperative may have shipped nonfat dry milk (NFDM), fruit stabilizers, whey protein, and gum products potentially adulterated with Salmonella sp. to their commercial customers between June 2007 and June 2009. NFDM from this cooperative is known to be an ingredient used by manufacturers in the production of MRE and UGR-E Dairyshake Powder, Fortified with Calcium and Vitamin D.

Facts:

Three manufacturers provide the MREs that we have through the National Interagency Caches, procured through the General Services Administration

Ameriqual Packaging
SOPAKO Packaging
The Wornick Company

Ameriqual MREs that were manufactured on or after April 25, 2008 are GOOD
SOPAKO MREs that were manufactured on or after March 28, 2008 are GOOD

~~~~~
Thought you should be aware if you didn't know yet.

Pat

[DemoTex]

26. Thanks. My US Gov MREs are Ameriqual Packaging

But I don't see any Dairy Shake Powder. My case package date is 09/25/06. There is quite an assortment of meals in the case: jambalaya, chicken with cavatelli, meatloaf with gravy, etc. Sounds good. But wait, no ham and lima beans?

[Cybergata]

25. My husbands family have been connected with . . .

the forest service and forest firefighting. I know how they suffer when a fellow firefighter is injured. Take care and be safe.

[cboy4]

27. What a difference a year makes. Northern California was in flames

at this time last summer due to dry lightning.

[sandnsea]

29. That's what they scrape a road with?

That explains so much. Silly me, I always thought they used a regular scraper on the front end of a truck.

Weather still crappy over here. Do you have a habit of traveling with storm clouds over your head??

[Born_A_Truman]

32. Here in the desert on our dirt roads

what they are doing, we call "dragging" the roads.

[Catshrink]

30. Thanks!

These posts are so fascinating!

[DemoTex]

31. I'll just tag tonight's (Sunday) dispatch to yesterday's. Slow day.

The bad lightning that was forecast for my sector did not happen. I only saw one down-strike. I did assist with a cross azimuth on a fire to the west (small lightning fire easily contained). The US-97 corridor, across the Newberry Rim, had a lot of lightning and several fires. But all is quiet tonight.

I did have to stay on duty until 7 pm, so I guess I won't get into Bend tonight (I'm off Monday and Tuesday). I'll eat a Mountain House MRE tonight and get out of here early tomorrow.

My brother-in-law and his 18-year old daughter are getting in late tomorrow night. He is a Presbyterian minister and she will start Clemson's Honors Program in August. They will spend the week at the lookout with me. Actually, they will spend the days hiking and the such. He can't wait to see the USFS fire operations. He fought wildfires with the USFS near Tahoe in 1979, after his junior year at Clemson as a forestry major. Dr. D. will join us next Saturday.

I guess there will be some prayin' over the MREs in the lookout tower (I will cook some regular meals too). I always pray before I eat a MRE: "Dear Lord, please protect me and keep me, thy humble servant, from whatever chemicals, poisons, and pathogens the low-bidder has smote this MRE with in an attempt to maximize his profits. Amen."

[bkkyosemite]

40. Yea no lightning here either.

[nadinbrzezinski]

33. Smoke jumpers, the elite of the elite in the fire service

as I keep saying, keep safe... and thanks for letting us see what you guys do.

And to the smoke jumpers... stay safe guys and gals... here is a clue folks, the paratroop training, guess where it was first developed? Yep, the smoke eaters of the Fire Service.

[DemoTex]

34. I cannot imagine dropping on a fire.

It boggles my mind. But it became scientific and much safer after 8/5/1949. The deaths of those 13 smoke jumpers at Mann Gulch forever changed the US Forest Service.

Mac

[nadinbrzezinski]

39. Trust me, neither can I

I was invited to train with the Paratroopers at the Red Cross many decades ago. I wasn't that delusional.

:-)

Those people literally jump into disaster areas where there is NO OTHER way in to set up the early disaster response. I don't even know if they are still up and running...

[DemoTex]

35. OMG! I just had the best Mountain House MRE ever!

Beef Stroganoff with Noodles. That big Wolf range back home might not ever get used again!

[MellowDem]

36. Are lightning strikes a danger for your lookout?

Being the tallest object around and all, do you have some close strikes?

[DemoTex]

38. In a word .. no. Lots about the subject in past dispatches at my DU Journal.

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/DemoTex

[Cybergata]

41. I love your photos. n/t

[lunatica]

37. Thanks for checking in!

I always look forward to your photos even with your minimalist updates.