What a god damn fucking hot day.

One of our crew members went down with heat exhaustion today, so I made sure to give my squad members enough breaks to rest up and water up, and they all performed wonderfully. It was hot, you guys, and we were mopping up very hot areas with very little shade. We did, however, complete our objectives and will earn our rest tonight.

I’m on the bus ride home now. The crew purchased about 5 pizzas from Pizza Hut, which they gave me cash for so I’ll be paying it on my credit card. We all deserve this. I want this. It’s been a long but amazing past ten days, and we’re all exhausted. I’m exhausted. I’m getting better being squad boss, making today go much smoother and easier stress-wise. There’s still a lot I have to learn and be cognizant of, but I know that stuff comes with time and more experience.

I’m having the time of my life, and I know I’m going to miss it tremendously because this will be my last fire of the season. I have to get back to work next week.

What a long day. It’s 10:27 PM, and I’m still at it. Turns out, I’ve a lot to learn as squad boss. I didn’t take the initiative when I should have, and I instead did what I usually do, which is work on the fire. I needed to look at the big picture, though, which I didn’t do, unfortunately. Maybe tomorrow.

I took my first squad out today.

This fire has been one of the best ones I’ve ever been on. And by fire, I don’t mean like any particular fire, but the entirety of the time I’ve been out. I left last Tuesday, and here we are again on a Tuesday and three fires later. We went from the Couture Fire in Arlee to the Elk Fire in the Bison Range, back to the Couture Fire for a few more days, and now we fought the Garceau Fire in Polson. It looks like we can milk this fire for a few more days, which is awesome because I’m finally making Squad Boss wages, which is $2 more an hour than what I was making. I’m so happy.

I was really nervous today. It was all on me now, and I really let that get to my head, but after a bit of working the fire and getting back into the groove of things, things settled down and it was really fun being a boss again. I was a boss in McDonald’s, and now I’m back at it. A lot of those lessons still apply. It’s great.

But yeah… It’s late and we have to wake up early. Good night y’all.

I’m home.

We finished containing the Couture Fire today. Actually, we contained this fire on Thursday and have been milking this fire since then. We got off the hill early and waited at the staging area for hours. Half our crew watched Portlandia skits on YouTube. That was fun. It wasn’t until we drove back to the Division of Fire that shit went down.

While we waited to be demobilized, a thunderstorm rolled into with winds of over 40 MPH. We listened intently on the radio as report after report of lightning strikes hit the Rez all over the place. Instead of going home for good, we’re coming back tomorrow at 6 AM to see what fire we’ll be going to. So I’m at home and ready to go to bed. I’m actually in bed as I write this on my iPhone. Since I’m still firefighting, I’m going to post all of these once I’m officially off.

This is going to be fun.

We did a whole lot of nothing today. We were supposed to grid the same area we did yesterday, and we did for a little bit, but then we took a break, which turned into a lunch break, which turned into a get off the mountain break because a thunderstorm rolled in above us and it was too dangerous for us to work. The whole fire there has been a downed power line right smack in the middle of the fire, and the power company has done nothing about it. Over the past week, the power pole holding the last piece of the line up is falling forward, and one bad fall could ignite that line and potentially spark a new fire.

But it looks like tomorrow will be our final day on this fire, unless something sparks tonight. There’s supposed to be high lightning activity tonight, so we’ll see. Another short entry but I am tired and it is late. Only 29 more days to go.

Another day, another dollar.

We spent the entire day gridding the bottom of the fire to the very top. And we didn’t just grid, we gridded. That meant our entire crew lined out on a line with about five feet between us, and we dug the ground and felt the dirt with out hands. We did this for hours. I wish I could explain how slow and tedious and back wrenching this work was. My back is killing me. And I know this entry is going to be short again, but I should be sleeping and not writing right now. Firefighting is hard work.

We had a pretty slow day today. We finished fighting the Elk Fire, which didn’t take very long. We thought we were finished, but we were told earlier in the day that we were going to go back to the Couture Fire in Arlee, which is where we’re at now. It looks like we won’t demobilize until Sunday, maybe even Monday. More days means more money. I’m fine with that. I did get injured yesterday, but it wasn’t that bad. Just cut up my shin.

You know what? I’m exhausted and sitting here in my tent is making me more tired. I will write more once I’m back home; I promise.

It’s been a long day.

I’m lying down in my tent out in the Bison Range on some pretty hard ground but comfortable enough for me to sleep on. The stridulating of the crickets provide the only sound and it’s so peaceful. I love camping. I love nature. I love today.

We were sent out on the little fire that broke out yesterday, which was awesome, but we had strong gusts of winds today — upwards to 30 MPH — which caused a tree to torch and then create spots all over the place. We all started running up the hill to where the spots were, and in my clumsiness, I fell and cut open my shin. I immediately got up and resumed my run up the hill again. We were able to contain the spots, fortunately and were ecstatic right after. Our adrenaline went down, as did our heart rates, and we have good stories to tell for years on end.

Unfortunately I’m exhausted, so that’s where I’ll stop today. I’ll write more about today later; it was quite memorable and fun.

I can’t overstate how much the quality of a crew makes or breaks a fire. I love my crew, and even though this fire was out before we even arrived to it yesterday, I love how they made it fun and tolerable. It looks like we’re going to be here one more day, which is great, but I don’t know if we’ll be sleeping together as a crew again.

I’m writing this again in my Day One app, which I’m loving. Writing is writing. It doesn’t matter if I’m writing on my laptop or on my iPhone, writing requires thought and discipline, and as a writer, I have to be “on my game” at all times. It’s been a long day, and it’s late, and I’m tired, but I’m still writing. I have to.

We mopped up again today, but I like yesterday, where we actually found hotspots and took them out, we found nothing today. The fire is out. So by noon (our day started around 7:30), we took a break and sat down, ate, relaxed, goofed around, for a few hours. When we began to work again around 3, there was a call on the radio that there were reports of smoke up by the Bison Range near Dixon. We all listened intently as the helicopter flew over to the fire and reported back what it saw. It was 1 acre, about, but it had a chance to spread. Command asked for a ten person crew, and seeing we were the only ten person crew around, we were called out to fight it. Needless to say, we were excited. For many of the rookies, this would have been their first time hotlining a fire. They’ve mostly mopped up this year.

So we go down the mountain, all eager to go fight this fire, and on our way there, we were told another crew was on its way to fight it. We were called back. Naturally, we were all sad. We went to the gas station, bought some snacks, drove back to the fire, and spent the rest of our shift on our asses, goofing off and having fun.

And exciting news everyone, while I was writing this entry, our crew boss called us in and she told us that we are going to the fire tomorrow morning. That means we have to wake up earlier than everyone else, pack up, and be on our way by six AM.

That is my cue to bid you all adieu.

Turns out, if I get a call to go out on a fire, I will, without question, say yes.

I’m in my tent right now as I’m writing this. I’m using my Day One app on my fully charged iPhone to write this entry, and I mention that because it is true. I’m having so much fun on this fire because of the people on it. The crappy, very very shitty crew boss from last time is nowhere to be seen, replaced instead with familiar faces and more competent crew bosses.

The fire is in Arlee, off Couture Road. Naturally, the name of the fire is the Couture Fire, and it’s about 17 acres big and mostly out. This was the same fire I was called out on Sunday Night, so that crew worked all day yesterday to take out most of the big stuff. My crew is 10 people big, and we were brought to help that first crew mop up the rest of it. We did a few hours of that today. Very easy work that went by very quickly because of how much we were all laughing. It feels so good to laugh on the mountain with good friends again. I’m reminded why I love fighting fires. That bad taste from the last fire is gone.

Our camp is on a camp ground inside of Arlee, and instead of sleeping on the rocky and hard mountain earth, we’re sleeping underneath an arbor on astroturf or something like it. It’s a beautiful night with a soft breeze coming from the south. We have bathrooms and showers and are being fed crap — lots and lots of crap — but at least it’s free. I’m trying not to eat so much considering how well I’ve been handling my diet and exercise this past month.

We were told the fire might be three days long. I think we’ll get most of it done tomorrow, with possibly one more day to make sure. We might be lucky and spend another day on it, but I don’t believe we’re going to need it. We never know, though. If nothing breaks out before then, and if I don’t get called out within a week of this fire’s predicted end, I do not think I’m going to fight another fire this year. And if my feelings about next year hold up, this might be my last fire of my career.

But I don’t want to dwell on that right now.

I’m going to try not to forget to write every night I’m out here. I want be honest with myself and to all my readers. I set out to write 365 daily entries, and I knew fighting fires were going to prove difficult, but nothing is worth doing if it’s not a little difficult, right?

Right. One last thing before I go. I didn’t take any photos today, so this entry will be picture less. I hope to take more pictures during the rest of my tour here. They could mean something to me later.