I've been offered a summer job (5/24 thru 10/10): USFS

[DemoTex]

I've accepted the offer. I'll be staffing one of the finest fire lookout towers in the country! I'll be 40 miles SSE of Bend, Oregon, in the Deschutes National Forest.

Just call me,
Ranger Mac

[NMDemDist2]

the Fire Service guys work hard

enjoy your beautiful forest

:yourock:

[kwassa]

1. You're on top of the world!

Just don't play with matches.

Smokey wouldn't like that.

[Catshrink]

2. Congratulations!

When I think of Deschutes, I think of this:

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

3. Any chance to leave the surface of the earth...

And you are there, aren't you? Amirite? Huh? Huh? ;-)

On the other side of the coin, I'll bethcha it's gonna be hell getting decent BBQ there. You might want to take a smoker with you.

[leftyclimber]

9. There's some great BBQ out there, but it's a few hours' drive away.

Salem has some, as does Portland. Unfortunately the best of them all (West Brothers, in Eugene) left some time ago. It was tragic.

-lefty the BBQ fiend

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

16. You really must understand...

Tex is a real Son of The South. If his blood/BBQ levels fall below a certain threshold, terrible things could start to happen to him. Terrible things. We don't want that to happen.

That is why, as a service to my friend, I am including this link. I am sure that the Forest Service can see that Mesquite and Hickory are air-dropped into him on a regular basis, due to humanitarian needs:

http://www.jrenterprises.com/newsmoker.html

[leftyclimber]

20. That sounds like a very sound plan.

Occasional good (and by good I mean legit Southern) BBQ is available out there, but it's not easy to get by any stretch.

We must keep Tex's blood/BBQ levels at the appropriate threshold. Finding mesquite shouldn't be too much of a problem. Finding good hogs to smoke over said mesquite, however, might be an issue.

[DemoTex]

29. Bwaa haa haa! Thanks! But I've made arrangements.

Dozier's of Fulshear, Texas, and the general store in Harralson, Georgia, will ship frozen BBQ (mainly sausage) to me C/O the head ranger's office. I'll have a 65-gal cooler with newspaper-wrapped dry-ice to keep that meat in until I can cook it in a gumbo or stew. Besides, I'm an equal-opportunity-bbq-lover. I might even like bbq Oregon-style.

BTW: I plan to re-invent lookout cooking. I'll have a garden if the USFS allows is (water being the main limiting factor). Imagine, a fire lookout tower with a tomato and basil garden!

[leftyclimber]

30. It's a xeriscaping landscape there, DemoTex.

I'd recommend doing a couple of wine-barrel pots on your porch, but you're going to have to water them. You ain't getting much rain where you're going. :)

[DemoTex]

40. X-actly!

East Butte Lookout is one of the few with a water tank. It is potable water, but it is there primarily for fire fighting. Waste not, want not. Any garden I have will be a xeriscape and/or gray water garden. Or a low-water potager. I'll let the USFS guide me. It's their (no, OUR) land.

[leftyclimber]

42. The folks on the Deschutes are good people.

They'll hook you up.

[DemoTex]

12. "Be prepared, that's the Boy Scouts' marching song ..

Be prepared, as through life you march along .."

Lenny Bruce?

[BlooInBloo]

4. Grats! Have fun! Drink lotsa water!

[Suich]

5. Congrats, Ranger Mac!

It's beautiful country...hope you'll be able to post from there!



:hi:

[DemoTex]

13. I will ..

Solar bank electrics. Verizon reception. My generator and battery bank. Ham radio on VHF, HF (SSB).

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

47. Oh yes!

Way up high, too! What kind of antennas are you gonna take? Shouldn't be too hard to take a VHF Yagi or Log-Periodic with you to do the do on VHF. Tuned Long Wire for HF? Hey, some UHF fun and frolic shouldn't be that hard, either.

How are they fixed for temperature inversions out that way? ;-)

[Joe the Liberal]

6. How much do you get paid to do that?

[DemoTex]

15. Thousand and thousands of pennies!

Hell, I offered to do it for free! But the GS-PAY will make for a free summer for me, plus a little for the bank.

[sandnsea]

7. Oh cool, you will love Bend!

Ever been out this way?

[DemoTex]

18. No, but a great US Airways bud and his wife (a law prof) live in Eugene.

Plus, Dr. DemoTex and many friends are planning visits. Dr. DemoTex will probably spend a week a month at the lookout with me. Nick-Nick will be there the whole summer.


Nick-Nick in the Blue Ridge Escarpment (Mountain Dog)

[sandnsea]

22. Lots and lots of great DUers in Oregon

and you don't even have to include me, hehe. You are planning a visit to the coast though, right? Because it would honestly be a terrible shame not to make that drive, and the Columbia Gorge is spectacular too. October is quite often a beautiful time in Oregon, we have late falls. So maybe when fire season is over, you can plan a week for some scenic driving.

[DemoTex]

31. Yeppers. I'll do as much of Oregon as I can.

Coastal Range hiking. Deschutes fishing. Rogue River kayaking. Summer Lake basking. Portland eating & drinking. And guess what .. I'll be 61 and running rings around much younger whip-dicks!

[leftyclimber]

8. I know exactly where you will be, as I have been there many times as a visitor.

I will send you a virtual "hi" as I'll be trapped "Back East" this summer and won't be visiting that place like I did every summer when I lived in Oregon.

Best wishes for a beautiful, fire-free summer (the B&B Complex fire a few years ago should have taken care of most of it for you).

I can't tell you how envious I am. Take a deep whiff of sage for me while you're out there, if you would.

[DemoTex]

21. It is a gas ..

I'm still pinching myself.

BTW: MIL-dear has us "splitting up" in her incessant town gossip. We are 35 years into a wonderful marriage, no kids, and a great tolerance of just this sort of thing. Also, some friends think I am nuts. Nay. I am happy, they are not. But then again, they have no idea who Gary Snyder and Phillip Whalen are. Maybe they have heard of Jack Kerouac, but few remember how he relates to fire lookout jobs (Desolation Angels and Dharma Bums).

[DemoTex]

10. I should add this .. and it is very important to me.

I'll be working the fire lookout on the 60th anniversary of the Mann Gulch fire (August 5, 1949). If you don't know about Mann Gulch, look it up .. or, better yet, read Norman MacLean's book "Young Men and Fire."

[leftyclimber]

17. Mann Gulch determined the history of wildland fire management in the US.

The public was appalled at the loss of life (and the Forest Service was ... mortified? humiliated? no good word here). There was a concerted movement at that point to make sure that no more lives were lost fighting forest fires.

(Side note, but it used to be that "wildfire" was a term used only for fires that were not under control; it's only been fairly recently that term was applied to all wildland fires, which is why the term "forest fire" is rarely heard any more.)

Because of the tragedy at Mann Gulch the Forest Service moved to a policy of fire suppression. Undergrowth built up; trees that needed fire to seed naturally had no way to do so. When forests caught fire they flat-out exploded because of the fuel load. Until fairly recently they did not have the science to know that they'd screwed up so monumentally that they were going to be playing catch-up for an extremely long time to fix the ecological mess they'd made to save face by avoiding another Mann Gulch.

ETA: Currently 50% of the USFS budget goes to wildland fire fighting. Go get 'em, DemoTex.

...

In memory of the 14 Prineville Hotshots who died on Storm King on July 6, 1994. I went to college with some of them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuEuoaMpWWI

[DemoTex]

34. Looks like you understand my motivation.

Thanks, Lefty!

[leftyclimber]

35. Raise a glass for the Prineville hotshots on July 6, too, if you would be so kind.

It will be 15 years this summer.

The forest I will be on this summer (the Monongalia) is made of asbestos; we rarely burn above 40 or so acres.

I will never forget the stench of the B&B Complex Fire; I drove across US20 the weekend they opened the highway. There was still a glow over the mountains where the Jefferson Wilderness was still burning, and hotspots a short distance from Sisters. And I have a personal stake in the Biscuit Fire that I would rather not discuss here.

Thank you for what you're doing. It isn't just about fires. It's about so much more. Too complicated to explain unless you've lived it.

[DemoTex]

36. I will indeed raise that glass.

And I do know that the Biscuit was a bitch .. but that's all I know. It got the historic Snow Camp lookout.

Sounds like we need to stay in touch this summer.

[leftyclimber]

37. Definitely.

I'm glad you'll be there making a difference. All the best to you. And be sure to stop by Crater Lake. You'll be a stone's throw away.

[DemoTex]

41. Oh my God .. I just listened to that clip. Oh my God.

It is from the point-of-view of foreman Wagner ("Wag") Dodge. Heavy stuff, that.

[babylonsister]

11. Congrats! Please take pictures and share. nt

[DemoTex]

23. I'll choke DU with PICS!

Get thee broadband!

[babylonsister]

26. Excellent! Weather, too, when I'm

dying in Houston from the heat, I hope you are more comfy. After hearing about AUS, I fear about any season now.

[stevedeshazer]

14. Welcome to Oregon!

The stars at night in those parts will blow you away.

[Shakespeare]

19. I'm SOOOOOOOO jealous!!

I've wanted to do that for years, ever since I saw a documentary awhile back on fire watchers.

Take LOTS of pictures, have a great time, and give us a report from time to time. :hi:

[DemoTex]

25. I remember a "Hardy Boys" book on fire lookouts ..

In the late 1950s.

[applegrove]

24. Cool. I had a job in a tea house on a mountain one summer. Was

glorious to be so out there in nature the whole time.

[lonestarnot]

27. Woohoo! Keep an eye on it! No sleeping!

:D

[Subdivisions]

28. Wow! Congrats! I'm green with envy. How do you get a job like that? n/t

[DemoTex]

32. Start here:

http://www.firelookout.org/LookoutJobs.htm

[mrbarber]

33. Perfect location..

to defend in the case of a Zombie Invasion.

[DemoTex]

38. Historically, they watched for the Japanese invasion ..

Specifically, the incendiary balloons.

[DemoTex]

39. BTW: One last thought ..

Contemplating this coming summer at East Butte, I am the happiest I have been in years. Dr. DemoTex sees it. My friends see it. Funny what makes one happy.

[file83]

43. I live in Bend!! I love riding my dualsport motorcycle all around Central Oregon.

Sounds like you'll be near Newberry Crater which is a HUGE volcanic caldera. This whole area is surrounded by volcanic buttes, lava flows, pine forests, white water, etc.

You are going to have an amazing summer. You'll never want to leave! (I haven't!!)

[progressoid]

44. Ranger Gord!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DU3Iru0XoLM&feature=PlayList&p=4FD9D30EDC74652B&playnext=1&index=15

[pa28]

45. Glad to have you out here DemoTex

It's beautiful country and if you love the outdoors I know you'll appreciate it.

:toast:

[bahrbearian]

46. I've been in this situation before, All the Marmots will be standing around sizing you up,

and all the Camp Robbers will be watching. You have got to go up to the biggest Marmot and tell him you don't feed the wild life.


http://tbn1.google.com/images?q=tbn:dRNZKGXhHRNVyM:
http://tbn2.google.com/images?q=tbn:xn_m9-bSEqjV8M:

[Red State Rebel]

48. That's not a Fire Tower - THIS is a Fire Tower!

My father did this job when I was born - this was in our front yard. He said that some mornings he made those last sets of steps on his hands and knees.