Headed to build practice fire line on the Gila. The weather is dry. The sun is shining. Cloud cover low with lots of dry tall grass among the pines. Good pressed coffee in the belly. New buggies are riding smooth with a steady flow of road dust flowing in to the back. The cold I have been fighting is well into the recovery stage. Most of the morning is spent ridding my throat of flem these days. Crew moral is good. Word is spreading of fires and prescribed burns on the docket for when we become available nationally. How could we not be excited. Andrew (a Americorps alum) has discovered my blog. Apparently he used to follow my 08 season. I'll have to watch what I say, haha. In the past I got in trouble a couple times for not being politically correct enough. I stick to first names and keep incriminating pictures to myself. The plan right now is to get some funny videos. Today is our saw certification of me and Zach the newest additions to the 2011 Gila saw team. He writes for ski magazines and speaks of lots of Pacific Northwest saw experience. That translates to dropping lots of big trees (hooters). Hooters is in reference to the (hoot) sound you make as a you celebrate the experience of a successful drop and the fantastic sound it makes. Not meaning anything else one might imagine. Now to the new buggies. I'm typing this out on my old Ibook G4 while riding in the buggy. Something that I was never able to do in past Hotshot seasons. Every seat has its own power hook up. SWEET! On my travels west my new Macbook Pro lost Wifi capabilities. I dropped it off at a the genius bar in Knoxville TN and it should be shipped to Reserve Ranger District office this coming week. Just got confirmation the practice line is in Devils Park. Not sure where on the forest but the name might speak to the county we will be in come an hour from now. Another big change from 08 is the addition of cell service in Reserve. What a world of difference that will make for keeping in touch with people back home. In other news, we got the over heads good blessing to put some new crew jackets together. Sierra Design makes warmer gear than our Carhart jackets. Pro deals are also going to go in soon. New Smartwool sox and Smiths can't be ordered soon enough. Other changes are the crew shirts. Gila IHC has moved from brick (pink) colored shirts to light brown. For years the crew was famous for its shirts making us well known in fire camps and in the hotshot world. Its sad to lose the reputation which comes with pink shirts. I wouldn't give up my new ones though. Note to self: Order large or x-large. That medium fits like a belly shirt.

Practice fireline at Devils Play ground complete. Re-certified as a class B sawyer. Dropped four frees right off. Good cuts went right where I wanted them and quick. Only correction was to spend 90% of time looking up for falling limbs 10% watching your cut. Safety first and limbs do come down. Cut first tank of gas on the practice line. The line will be burned eventually as part of a prescribed burn. Which translates into our work being useful to the forest. As the spring progresses into summer you might find some of my views on forest management coming through in my writing. Fire use and prescribed (RX) fire are in my humble opinion paramount to forest health. Back to cutting, it went well and just added to the anticipation of getting on the first fire of the season. Word around the base is Monday RX. Dewy seems confident we will be out on a fire by Saturday. Gila is the only available IHC in New Mexico if spark comes to grass.

Tonight? Crew bonding around the campfire perhaps?