One Moment of Kindness and A "Warm Fuzzy" After Glow

We had a First Response call Friday night and it's been a quiet couple weeks. It was good to put the uniform on again and at the same time, kinda sad. I was thinking this could be a really quiet Christmas holiday with no pages.

But we did get a call and we responded quickly. An elderly woman had been having problems breathing while talking with her son on the phone. He had hung up and called for help. 

When we got there we assessed the situation and it was interesting watching 3 grown men take such gentle and caring time with her. I don't know what the problem was because I didn't fill out the paperwork this time. One or the other of the guys, as I watched and learned, would talk to her softly, ask her permission to put on the oxygen mask or the heartbeat monitor, and ask her permission to get her purse and retrieve things, what the concern was, etc. We do this with everyone, but it really got to me this night as I watched. I went with one fire fighter each time he had to leave the room to get something. Always work in pairs. Have your partners back.

At one point her dog came from behind her chair with drooped head, ears flat and tail tucked under his butt. It looked sooooo sad and lost.  Command got down on one knee and whispered in it's ear, patted its head a bit before getting up to show the Paramedics where we were. It was heart warming to see him take concern for her pet. I glanced over to see how or if the patient would react; she had tears in her eyes. She was being cared for by two great firefighters and her dog was in gentle hands of one, too.

Ambulance got there about 5 min after we did and took over. When we got back to the hall, I took the clipboard to do the truck inspection. I really didn't want to talk to the guys because I was still processing what I was feeling. Why did this particular situation affect me emotionally? I'd been on a few calls similar to this. Why this one?

Then I realized what it was. If these guys I volunteer my time with. Willingly spend time with helping others could treat total strangers with such care and kindness, then the possibilities of what they showed their wives and kids was even more precious.

I'm blessed to be working with 22 super heros and know their wives and kids. I am so proud to work with these guys and see there are a few great men in this world. It gives this single woman hope.

All About Possible Scenarios

Fire practice was different than normal. We were given a scenario on the whiteboard for a fire and then divided into two groups of five to come up with a strategy to put out a fire. It was really fascinating considering the situation. A fire in the basement, laundry room corner, and the fire is spreading through the main floor and smoke coming out the second floor. Only five of us could respond to the fire on first call. What to do? How do we work it to keep it safe, etc.

After we were done with the first scenario we moved on to another one. One about a fire in a trailer that had hit a power pole and live wires over top. People trapped inside. Again only five of us could respond.

We discussed with the project Captain on each situation and about our thoughts on protecting the community, business, etc and keeping ourselves as fire fighters, safe. He talked with us about where we could improve our ideas and even liked some of our ideas too.

The chief and one of the captains took time to prepare a nice Christmas snack for us as we were out learning about the new headsets for the trucks. He did a cold cuts platter, cheese platter, veggies and dip:) It was great to sit and enjoy time with the guys, laughing, joking and hanging out.

We are taking next Wednesday off from fire practice. Have a great week and Merry Christmas everyone!

Meetings don't always run smooth or on time

Fire practice last night was about checking the fuel and liquid levels in all the machines and trucks before our meeting. 

We discussed old business, new business and plans for the future in the hall. Yeah pretty boring I know. But it's kinda funny when in the middle of a meeting someone pipes up "can we talk about the turkey?"

Silence in the room as we all look around to see first who said it and what do they mean considering we're discussing budgets. Chief asked for the person to repeat the question....silence then the question is repeated by a member, not the same person as the first time though. The Chairman wants to know why it's important to discuss now. Original person pipes up, "because we bought it for the Christmas dinner and it didn't get cooked. It's on the budget."

Ok, so our fearless leaders are trying very hard to keep a straight face AND maintain order in the room. Not going over very well as we're all cracking up. The Chief very politely told the gentleman we would discuss the issue of the bird after we'd finished what was already on the floor. 

What does the fireman do? He looks under the table! "What's on the floor? Should we get a mop?" Ok, that pretty much ended the society meeting right there. After that, everything kinda went to hell in a hand basket. We did get the meeting finished and the RDOS one too but things ran later then normal. Then we all pulled out the leftovers from the party and had dinner together:)

In the end the turkey was donated to Helping Hands along with a charity cheque from the hall. We did get it all worked out but with much laughing and a few stern looks from our Chief...hee hee

Twas Another Wednesday Night Fire Practice

Wednesday night again and all is quiet at the hall. 
Not a fireman hollering, not even a call. 
28 Stockings where hung under the whiteboard with care, 
in order of older to younger, me in the middle somewhere.
Garland up on the ceiling with style while the red lights glowed from the corners for miles.
A crew put up the Flagpole in a hurry, then...what was that noise,
a clatter and crash, not to mention the roar of laughter... such a scurry and dash as we rushed out to see what was the matter. When to our wondering eyes we saw
not a flag on the mast but a wee little fire fighter up there trying not to fall. He clung with his life way up the pole,how to get him down we pondered while we stared in awe as to how he got up there.
I was told to stay around as he was too short and wouldn't stay on the ground.
After we brought the stranded man down and flag went up without a hitch we went inside shaking our heads and talking at a low pitch. 
Not a moment later we hear the chief shout, "Clean the equipment or the party is out!" We scurried to and fro, scrubbing and polishing the gym equipment till it glowed.
Some of us were sent to finish the party trims and sweeping up after the tinsel had been found.
At the end of it all we sat around the table, nodding to each other and grinning our silly grins.
We had done good and now it was time to play. 
See you all Saturday night, with our party shoes on and empty tummies to be filled.

Happy Wednesday to all and a good night!

Rode a 1000 Gallon Pumper. You Try Saying that with a straight face!

Last night's fire practice was a bit more relaxed. Nothing extreme to report other then we were getting the christmas lights tightened on the roof of the fire hall and turned on. At one point, I was hanging over the edge of the roof (trust me it's not easy when there's nothing holding you in place while you reach for a fallen string of lights). I have longer arms then my partner did, he grabbed me, I grabbed the lights. Other then that little excitement, we pretty much hung out on the roof watching cop cars driving around and wondering what they were up to. Looking for someone? LOL

After we were done on the roof, 2 of us got a lesson in driving the 1000 gallon pumper truck and went for a ride. First time my partner got to drive the truck and I sat in the back with another member as he explained our roll in a call to a  structure fire or MVA from this place on the vehicle. It was really fascinating. Kinda funny how the more you learn while training to be the best fire fighter you can be the more you want to learn and the better you want to be.

I'm put out a challenge there for all my readers. No matter what you are doing in your life, career or home, figure out what you are passionate about and go for it 110%! Trust me, it's the most amazing thing to see what you can do. Never give up on yourself. Because when you give up on you, others will too. But if you are dedicated to what you want, you'll be surprised at the people that are drawn into your life to support  you, motivate you and lift you up.

We all deserve a moment in the spotlight; no matter where that light shines... up a chimney, down a sewer tank, underground covered in dust, out in space, on stage or taxiing people from place to place. As long as you are loving what you are doing, nothing is going to make you dim or dull, but you.

I'm taking a physical test on Saturday for something I dreamt about doing all my life. I don't know how I'm going to do, I've been told I'll do just fine but I am still cautious. There's nothing wrong with being cautious but I don't want to stop myself before I've even tried.

I'll keep you posted as I go through the rest of the days. But take it from me. If I hadn't of joined this amazing group of guys here at the OK Falls Fire Hall I would not have known what I was missing and perhaps regretted it for the rest of my life.

I salute ALL volunteer fire fighters and all those that are taking a leap and seeing what they can do to become one of us!

"Quick! I'm limp!" And other firefighter quirks

Hello and welcome! Our fire practice night was entertaining to say the least. We washed trucks! Yeah!!! LOL I know, I know, you're all going WHAT?!? Actually it was pretty funny and fun.

Let me tell you why we enjoyed it so much. One of our Captains, pointed at us randomly around the table, including me and said, "you five come with me" then pointed to another group of guys and said "you six will go with 'him' " directing to another Captian. We all looked at each other, shrugged and sure enough, five of us followed him out. We came together in front of one of the trucks and he disappeared! We looked around, "where did he go?" One of the guys wandered to the tool room, nope not there, then went back to the main room, nope not there...came back looking rather confused. We were told to follow but where? Not sure what we were suppose to do next we figured it was better to wait as a group then to spread out and hunt. 

Have no fear, Our Captian came back! ha ha ha He'd actually gone to the storage room and brought out brushes, special stainless steel cleaner, soap for the water hose then proceeded to tell us what we were in store for that night. One of the many Chris' said, "I hired a baby-sitter to come and clean trucks?" I thought he was going to leave, but as we got going on the cleaning he realized we were having so much fun, he stuck it out. 

At one point we were laughing so hard that no one could stand up properly. You'd thought we had drank the cleaner! One of the guys was using the hose to rinse the trucks down in stages and he yelled from the back of the truck, "Quick! I'm limp!" Oh man, that did it...we were killing ourselves laughing. We had no idea what he was talking about but we figured it must be something good. He then clarified it with, "My hose just dribbles!"

As you can imagine with a room full of guys, it got worse from there. Funny thing about being in the fire hall as the only female. None of the guys think twice about how they treat me, I'm either one of the guys or their my "father". Some will swear and look over at me immediately and appologize. I say, "Don't worry about it. I'm around drivers who know a lot more words then you say." But it's really nice that members respect me enough to think about their language.

At the end of laughing, getting soaked and cleaning trucks we went back to the hall for our meeting, and then got started on the Christmas party plans.

I bet you're wondering what the other six guys got to do while we played with water. They had to do CPR practice on a dummy :P I think I enjoyed my evening more then they did...ha ha ha

All in all, I didn't get home till after 11 and certainly didn't get to bed too early. LOL But what a fun way to break up the week.

Pictures save a 1000 words

Gooooood Morning! It's been a busy week for me this week, but all quiet so far on the OkFalls Fire Department end. Apparently they had a couple call outs yesterday while I was at work. Nothing they couldn't handle without me. Hee hee

Ok, so this morning I thought I would change things up a bit. Instead of talking about my boring practice night last night where I was the "man down". Literally! I ended up being the one brought back to safety and told to "sit this one out, we got it". My knees were a little worse then I'd thought. Ugh...anyway, we don't want to know about that do we? No, I didn't think so... Here is a blog of some photos instead:) I've got a couple more "action photos" to add when I get them later today, hopefully.

Enjoy! And have a great week!

Tim and me beside Engine 171

I'm in the water rescue craft for our fire fighters

Tim and I

Tim got to sit in the driver seat of Engine 171 wearing a Captain's helm.

At the back of our Pumper truck.

As you can see, our Engine 171 was custom built. It's kinda neat what they've done to it.

Me inside

At the back of our old pumper truck. Still used, just a lot smaller.

O_ooo buttons, levers, knobs oh my! The air tank on my back is one of our newer ones. Much lighter then what I've been training with.

Yes, it says Smart on my helmet! My parents might not think it's the smartest career move but it's one of my better choices in life <3

Our old pumper truck

Tim was having a blast.

Oh my Knees!! Can We Do it Again!?!

Last nights fire practise left me a little raw. No I'm serious! Literally my knees are raw! Ugh, and I have to wear my rough denim pants to work...ouch. I'm not putting bandages on the knees though. Forget that, they need to figure out how to heal on their own. If I put band-aids on every sore I got from work, practise, etc I'd be a walking mummy. Oh wait, I am a walking Mommy. LOL

Ok, let me start from the beginning. I got to the hall for our weekly meeting/practise and just before the meeting started I asked everyone permission to take a couple pictures of them gearing up, etc one of these days. I've been told that I needed to ask the Chiefs permission to write about the hall, practise, etc because of confidentiality and he needs to make sure that I'm behaving.

You know me... do I behave? hee hee ok, leave that alone. When I mentioned that it's coming from my prospective as a new recruit and the journey to being a fire fighter he didn't seem to have a problem with it. I'm sure he'll read my blogs now. "Hi Chief!" and I'll be getting a couple action pictures from the Oliver Chronicle to post that I've got permission to use from this past summer grass fire we were at.

So pictures are coming. I'll keep writing and we'll keep enjoying each others company. Deal?

Ok, back to the hall... After our brief meeting to find out what we were doing... Chris (the other newbie) and I got split up and I got put on Tag Team 1. Mike says we are the A-Team. Ha ha ha Complete bunker gear, tanks, masks, the whole nine yards had to be put on for this practise. There was three people to each team and we went out first. The fire hall was blacked out and filled with smoke (like they use at rock concerts). I was the one who had to test the door. Don't worry I did it with the back of my hand and checked the level of heat. We had to go out with a hose through the fire hall on our hands and knees. I got the axe and was second in the line. hee hee It's ok, we're all safe with me having sharp things.

Mike was third man on the hose and fed it to us while we went searching for victims. Marty was in lead and as we were going in the dark he would tell me where to go. Before we started out the door he told me I had to hold on to his right boot while going through so we wouldn't lose each other. So while we were crawling (thus the raw knees today) I kept hold of his right boot with my right hand while hanging on to the ax with my left hand. Do you know how hard it is to crawl with your hands full? ha ha ha 

We found a victim, but it wasn't the one we were looking for, it was a "man down". I helped drag him out of where he was and we had to call for more oxygen for him, he was running low and couldn't get out because of the "broken leg". All in all it was a great experience and I really had a blast.

Ok enough yammering. Have a great day everyone!

Call Outs Keep Me Learnin

Two call-outs today. One was for First Responder, the second one was for a structure fire. Both times I didn't go out on the calls as there were enough senior members who showed up. But I got to hang out in the radio room and see what goes on back at the hall while the trucks are out. It's kinda fun!

I got to do the paperwork too. Yes, I know how boring...paper work. LOL Trust me, it's exciting listening to the radio chatter, taking notes, filling in the times, incidents and everything else. Eavesdropping with permission. Ha Ha Ha

There is a routine in the firehall that I never really expected. I always thought it was grab your gear and get out to wherever you had to be. Helter-skelter scramble, but I've come to appreciate that our firehall has a great chain of command and everyone is important. No matter how little training I have I still feel like I'm able to contribute. I get handed a job, they ask if I can do it. I do the job, the best part is when I do come up against something I haven't done and ask questions, there is always 2 or 3 members who are willing to tell me what I need to know and don't mind sharing their knowledge! After three times of being told the same thing, in three different ways, I don't forget that part of whatever job it is I was asking about. hee hee

It's a blast hanging out with the chief and guys at the hall while the rest of the crew heads out to the job. I miss the excitement of being on the call, but it's still busy back at the department. From gathering the faxed reports, listening to Dispatch and filling in our paperwork, filing, cleaning the debris that comes through the open doors after the trucks leave to preparing the check-lists for when the trucks get back. Everything has it's time and place. Kinda nice to see so much organization in a Volunteer Department.

Well, gotta go grab a tea. Sorry Mom I'm stealing one of your chamomile teas tonight...lol need to slow down and get some sleep. Dang that adeline rush :P Night all!

Aluminium is Not Safe to Use With Fires

I'm not sure if you know this but an interesting fact that the woman at the structure fire learnt this evening. 

Aluminium is not something you want to put your ash in when cleaning out the wood stove, fireplace, etc. It actually traps the heat in from any sparks still live in the center of the pile and will radiate heat out 10x the actual temperature of the ash. If placed on a wood or duro-deck, it will heat up enough to start a fire. 

2 Things should be done when putting your ash outside: 

First Make sure its cold. Don't clean out the ash while its still warm. If you have to, then make sure that you put it into an ash bucket. Most hardware stores, fireplace shops have them and they really aren't expensive. When you take it outside, spread the ash on the ground away from the house and run water over it. Soak it good:)

Second thing to remember is never leave the hot ash bucket on your deck! If you are just going to be a minute, that's all it takes for a spark to fly or depending on the temperature of the ash, to radiate through to the dry surface.

The woman who had her deck catch on fire, didn't know that the heat through the aluminium would actually catch her wood pile on fire, below the deck slats. It melted her duro-deck, vinyl siding and shattered the first layer of her patio door glass. It happened in a 5 min time span. She thought it was safe on her deck while she lit her fire before taking it out to the compost. 

Peter was great! He explained to her about warm ash and what would have happened if she had of put it in the composter as well as how it had caught her deck on fire.

So this winter, please watch out for that ash... you never know for sure. Like a cigarette butt that you think is out, only 1 tiny spark is needed to burn a forest down or in the case of a house fire, warm ash.

A Pause in the Fire Practice

No fire practice for me last night. Worst migraine I've had in ages and just couldn't do it:( But still had work to do. Paper work seems to take longer with migraines, then normal. Gee I wonder why? LOL

Been up since 4:30 AM, the pager was going off. Smoke alarm going at one residential where no one lives...nothing to report there. All clear. But as Engine 172 (pumper truck) was off for that call they called Rescue 171 (a second vehicle) to come check out a scene they were passing up by the old Warehauser plant. A car was parked on the side of the road and someone was down behind it.

172 got there and found a woman with a broken leg. All good, ambulance got called and both trucks and crew came home to roost after 45 min.

Other then that, it was a really quiet evening. We did get a call out during fire practice last night tho'. Cut the practice short (they got set up for smoke out practice and then dispatch paged.) By the time the guys came back it was 9. So I really didn't miss anything. Next week I'll be back in full swing.

Well, it's Thursday and I've got some chores to do this morning. Head is still feeling the pressure. So I don't want to be on the computer long. Have a great day everyone!

Three Isn't a Crowd

Fire practice was pretty much the same as the week before. LOL but this time Chris and I were joined by Mike. We didn't do the smoke out because there was hardly anyone there.

So we three worked with the airtanks and gear while the other 6 guys did the rope practice. One thing that was different though was at the end, we were timed. Because I'm the newest member they went easy on me. ha ha ha

The firefighter book says we have to be able to don the airtank n gear in a minute or less. According to the old timers, this is ridiculous because you have at least 10 min in the truck to get to the fire and the RIT team has 10min to do that after the first team goes in. But Rob wanted to see how fast we could put these tanks on. So the race was on...

The first time Mike did it in 1:58, Chris did it in 1:38 and I in 2:08. The second time we did it Mike 1:32 Chris in 1:44 and I in 1:58. Then Rob says "best out of three" so we did it again. Mike did it in 1:04, Chris in 1:34 and I did it in 1:44. Yeah! I didn't do it under the 40 mark, but I'm happy that it was progressively better. Concidering Mike has been with the hall 3 years, Chris joined 5 months ago and I only 6 weeks. They had classroom time as well, I haven't had that.

Next week is halloween and so we aren't going to pull the trucks out to train on. The Captains decided that we will do the smoke out in the hall that night. We don't want to run over all the little kiddies. hee hee

Have a great day everyone! Happy Thursday:)

Put On, Tighten, Check, Take Off, Clean and Repeat

Wednesday, middle of the week breakup, Fire practice. I'd been told last week that we were doing inventory checklist and pulling christmas lights down to make sure they were ready for Dec 1 lighting. We were to also be checking the tower. Nope not even close tonight :P

Both us newbies had our fire gear training tonight. More like air tank review for the other newbie and learning for me. Putting on, tighting, check gadges, take off, clean and repeat. Full bunker gear and tank practice for 2 hours. Ok, I'm going to be sore tomorrow. LOL after an hour of putting on (over head) taking off (jacket style) my shoulders and arms were acking, then we had to change tanks and do again. Oiy! I'm going to be doing it in my sleep tonight! ha ha ha

Seriously, it really is important to know how, why and when to do things on the tanks. There really is an order to putting the gear on, tank, etc. I won't bore you with the finer details. Just be greatful that the firefighters who go in to a house fire really do take the time to do these lessons and practice, practice, practice.

Next week we are doing a complete smoke out in the hall and having to be able to find people in the dark. This is going to be interesting. Gear, tanks and systems ready.

Night all! I'm going to get a snack, drink my water and hopefully get a good night sleep:)

Up the Tower and Hauling Hoses

Meeting at the firehall tonight was all about business...clean up for the first half hour then the rest of the time was hashing out the business of running the fire hall. I was kinda glad cuz I've had a yucky headache all day and really didn't have the energy to do anything real physical. LOL 

I did climb the tower and lower all the hoses that were dry down to the guys below so they could roll them up however. That was fun. First time up there by myself...a bit freaky without my gear on and leaning over the edge of the railing to grab the rope, tie hoses on (3 at a time) and lower them down was a bit nerve-racking the first couple times. If I was afraid of heights I would have been dizzy...lol oh yeah, I was squeamish when looking that far down. The guys look really small from 75 ft up...ha ha ha no, not really.

Well, I'm off to bed now. Night all!

No Sleep, Bake Brownies in between Call Outs

Couldn't sleep again last night so got up just before 11 and played games on the computer for an hour. Just as I was thinking I should try and get some sleep at midnight my pager went off. "Oh good! A reason to NOT be sleeping!" I dressed and ran to the hall. Went on the call and got to fill out the paperwork again, Yeah!! Yes, It makes me happy. I can contribute to a first response call while observing what is going on! hee hee Multi tasking is always a good thing.

The guys at my hall are great! They're really calm, efficient and thorough. I like working with them. Each call has a different group of guys who go out. You never know who is going to get in the truck first. LOL That's pretty much how we do it. If you're in the truck, you go. We could have, like last night, 9 guys n a gal respond, but only have room for 5 in the truck. The rest stay at the hall for back up and when the truck comes back they do the checkover on it.

When I got back from the call it was almost 1...do you think I could go back to sleep again? So I made brownies...hee hee Ugh, gonna be a long day today I think.

Have a great day everyone! It's the middle of the week and I think it's a good day for chocolate and lotsa coffee... :P

Fire Hall Cleaning and Tim Hortons!

So fire practice tonight wasn't really a "fire practice" more of a house cleaning kind of night. Trucks cleaned inside, windows washed, hoses rolled and put away for future use, bays swept, etc. We also had a meeting about radio uses: how, when and what to say. I have a pager and can only listen when people are on the radios talking. "Hold, count a loooong 1 then speak, release, listen, hold down, count a looooong 1 again then speak, release." Makes logical sense. I know that there have been times when I only get half a sentence over the radio because the person on the other end was talking while pushing the button.

Much of what they were saying made complete sense to me. Especially the part about "loud and clear" or "5X5". Anyway, bottom line, I might not use a radio yet but I definitely took mental notes because one day I'll be handed a radio and told to use it. This way I won't say "errr" or "ahhhh" and freeze live on air. Kinda like stage fright. hee hee

The highlight of the boys' evening was the TimHortons donuts that got provided for our meeting tonight. The guys were double fisting, I'm sure. LOL I held out till the very end and then couldn't resist seeing if my favorite was in the box. It was! MMMMMM Apple Fritters:) Took it home to relish. Ok, it didn't make it home, but my sticky fingers did. Ha ha ha

Night all!

Rode in the Truck During the Parade

Had an interesting day yesterday here in Ok Falls. I was called at 9 AM Saturday morning from Caption Rick, "Do you want to ride in the fire truck in the parade this morning?" I replied that I thought I was suppose to go over and help setup the booth for the festival. His reply was "Yes, but I thought you might like to do something different." I said absolutely! and off I went to the parade.

It was sooooo cool! LOL Friends took pictures and Shaw was there filming the parade along with a couple newspaper reports. Not sure if I'll get a picture but if I do, I'll share. I think the funniest part was hearing the occasional person say "That's a female fire fighter!" ha ha ha Plenty of clapping and waving. One little girl said she wanted to be a fire fighter and her dad said she should be, pointed at me and told her that I was a good roll model. I sure blushed but I'm greatful that the community has welcomed me as part of the fire hall team so easily and readily. The hard work is worth knowing that I'm doing some good.

Then last night as I was just crawling into bed around 9 I got a page to an emergancy response in the park. Changed, ran back over to the hall and while we were taking care of one person we got paged for another emergency across the road at the hotel/pub.

I laughed at the second lead in the first responder, he said after we'd been there 10 minutes "I was hoping for more than just a blackout. I wanted something exciting for you too see. Blood, broken bones, something. This is too easy." Ha ha ha I told him to go gentle on me, as this was my first emergency responder event. The second one was a bit more exciting. Another member and I had to go get the ambulance stretcher and I learned how to unload it, lock, carry and all that good stuff:)

All in all, it was pretty exciting hour and the rest of the night was very quiet. This morning I'm to report to the station at 9 for debriefing, clean up and sign off on the task.

Let Sunday begin! I could use some fun this weekend and lots of love.

Working the Hose and Learning the Ropes

Wednesday firehall practice ran late tonight. Did I mind 3 hours of practice? Nope! I got to run the 1 1/2inch water hose and the foam hose. Then we went to a 2inch water hose...holy cow there's a lot of pressure coming in that half inch difference. We had a team of 2 on the smaller one but it took 3 of us on the bigger one. It was really cool! 

Then the hard part, we had to hang the lines up the tower. Remember the 75 foot one I told you I took my test in? Climbing that ladder system in fire gear w/o tanks is much easier:) Try hauling 9 hoses up there and hanging them with a rope and pully system, three at a time. Great upper body work out. I'm going to feel it tomorrow for sure...lol MIke and I were at the top hauling the hoses up to hang while Kris and Chris were at the bottom tying them on for hauling up.

I'm on standby this weekend as well as helping out with our booth at Western Days in OK Falls! It starts at 11 on Saturday. Who's coming!?!

We are also in the parade too:) Bring your cameras...lol I'll be the one in the OK Falls VFD tee shirt and jeans... ha ha ha can't man the booth and be in the parade, they start at the same time.

Ok that's it for this weeks blog from the fire fighter recruit. Until next week. Stay fit and have fun...oh wait, that's an ad... well, have fun anyways!

Learning to be One of Guys

Second fire practice/meeting tonight for me:) I had a written test too. Aced it! Of course...But then History was always my best subject...lol

The best part of tonight was being able to put on my fire gear and go for a ride in the truck...ok, so we went around the block then back to the firehall. One of the guys was getting tested on hooking up to the fire-hydrant tonight and I got to watch, my instructor walked me through the how, why and when of it. My test coming later in the month. ha ha ha No actually it is... have to remember - 28...sorry...got sidetracked... where was I? Oh yes, then we went over to ladder truck while a guy was being tested on the process for that. Again, my test on ladder procedure after hydrant test, October maybe? Yes, I'm on a schedule of nothing but learning and testings. Got a lot of ground to cover in 2 months. Hee hee I do get to go out on the calls if I'm home, as an observer, I don't participate yet, until I pass my tests...2 to 3 months before I get hands on. But safety is always a priority.

This is my story of being a new recruit. How is it so far? "It's all in fun until someone loses an eye." Oh sorry, shouldn't use quotes like that in my story...lol

The guys are all really warm, friendly and inviting about having a female on their team. One of the guys tonight, said "Now that you've joined maybe you can convince a few more females to join. Not just here but all Fire Halls need to see more females come out and do what you're brave enough to do." So I'm putting this out there for all you ladies. If you're looking for a way to get more involved in your community, stay fit, have fun and be an inspiration for your kids, come out and join the Fire Department in your area.

Even if you apply and don't get in, you'll never be the same. It's a stretch out of the comfort zone for women, but what an amazing feeling to know you can be a part of something like this. I feel more alive then I have in a very long time and excited about my life and future.

Well, that's it for tonight, folks. Good night and I'll be around again.

Fire Practice Entry Test. I'm Now on the Crew!

Good morning, Happy Wednesday! After an hour and a half at the fire hall last night, I got home unable to sleep...not a good thing when you have to work the next day. LOL However, it's all good. I had a fabulous time meeting the guys. They asked me questions, I answered, I asked, they answered...

Then the fun part came... I got to put on my new gear and test it out! Weeeeeeee I actually had to do a physical test while wearing the fire gear! That stuff is heavy but not near as heavy as I had been lead to believe. Nice! What an adrenaline rush!!

No pictures this time, sorry, I was just focused on getting through the test. Which I past with flying colors apparently:) and I'm going to my first official practice tonight! I'll see about pictures soon.

Well, Beef Veggie soup is in the slow cooker and my breaky of muffins and eggs is ready. I will catch you all later!