Hay Barn Fire

Sunday morning I got up at 0230 to get ready for work. Worked 10 hours in dispatch. Came home. Got K and Chris and we headed to East Canyon for dinner with the parents. Kickin back relaxing and enjoying the night. 

 We left there around 7. Had to come home and take Kennedy to Brigham where Liz was watching her for the night since the sitter needed Monday off. Chris and I were talking about how we were so excited to go home and get to bed before 9 that night. We were exhausted and ready to sleep. We were just in Perry on our way home when his pager went off for a structure fire in Willard. We had just crested the Hargus Hill in Willard when we could see the huge plume of smoke. Dark smoke. We made it to the station as the first truck was pulling out and we came in the second engine. I got the back seat, my favorite. Chris, Taylor and Rod were inside.

 The closer we got the more flames we could see. They had told us it was a hay barn on fire.

 We set up and started making a good perimeter and protecting structures. The thing with a hay barn fire is you really cant put it out quickly if its fully involved.  You just have to let it burn. Make sure nothing else catches on fire and protect any structures and just wait. There were 250 tons of hay inside, a tractor and trailer. You can only put out a hay fire once you can start breaking the bales of hay apart and with a fire like this its not going to happen for a long time. Maybe even days. So all of these pictures were taken AFTER we had put out the other fires around it and were just keeping an eye on the perimeter pretty much.

Chris

 Taylor and Chris

 Ryan, Randi and Lindsay

We were cooling down the barn next to the fire 

 The roof had collapsed by this point. It looks short but the poles that are standing had to be 20 feet tall

 Taking a drink break

 View from the top of the engine running the deck gun to cool the other barn

 Zack on the north end wetting down some weeds

Me

 Chris and Nic running the water monitor about 4 hours into the fire trying to knock out part of the south end that had finally burned down enough to put out

 Chris and I about 1am taking a drink and jerky break.

 It was HOT outside especially in structure gear. We all worked really hard on trying to stay hydrated. It was just Willard Fire fighting this. We had a Weber Fire engine respond for mutual aid and they helped us for a while. They were great! The first crew of us were finally released about 0230 that next morning. It was the first time Ive ever been glad I didnt make the first truck because they sent the 2nd truck home first. I was completely EXHAUSTED. I had been up for 24 hrs straight. Worked my normal job and then worked hard on this fire. I was supposed to be getting up for work when we were going home. I knew I couldnt do it so I had to call in. We went home, showered and fell into bed to sleep for a few hours. Chris went to work at 6 that morning and I went back out on the fire to relieve people about 830-9. 

That morning we had a 1/3 of the people to clean up and finish the fire. There were 5 of us there and that was all. We loaded up all the extra hose and got our trucks pulled back up.

We were worried about hot ashes starting another fire since we were going to have to leave it smoldering and check on it frequently. So we talked with the home owner and did a small control burn in one of the highest risk areas. I lit the fire.

 We burned half of it on one side and weed whacked the other to clear it away from the other barn there and then burned that side. We cleaned up everything and headed for the station.

 But we were far from done.

We had to wash all the hose we used. We rolled out over 700 feet of 5 inch hose alone.. plus 1 1/2 inch and 1 3/4  inch hose. We have to wash it all on and then load it back on the trucks. Clean up the trucks and make sure everything is back in place. Our Chiefs son was the cutest little hose washer. Such a good helper!

 One of our guys wife brought us burgers and root beer for lunch, which was great because I hadn't eaten since dinner that night. 

We got everything put back together and cleaned up. I got home about 230 that afternoon right as Kennedy was getting there. I took a shower, she made a TV dinner (God bless those things!!!) and I passed out for about 2 hours. She kept coming in while I was sleeping and kissing me on the forehead.

We were all pretty tired. Everyone did a great job and worked so hard.

Week 30- Veggies full, Malad, 80 yard challenge

Our garden keeps growing and growing! I love that we are getting veggies now. The jalapenos are almost ready to pick, we trimmed our potatoes this week, onions need about another week and our tomatoes just need to turn! Its so exciting!

 I picked a bunch of green beans and thinned out my carrots some more this week. 

 I got my first pepper harvest

 This is how I spent a chunk of the weekend.. cutting and sealing veggies

 Green beans blanched and sealed

Anaheims

Bell peppers diced and sealed

I took the baby carrots I thinned and blanched them and sealed them too. Figured they're perfect for a stew this winter

 We have a neighbor just down the road that sells corn and other veggies from a stand in his driveway.. we pass by several times a year and I finally stopped to get some sweet corn. He sells a Bakers dozen for $3.50. 

 Husked it, cut it in half and blanched the corn too

 Then I sealed up a bunch of corn halves.

Miss Koree and Kinlie came over to play for a while. Koree and I had to take a nap. She slept so good!

 You can tell when Chris has had a long week at work when he comes home and this is the first thing he does. 

My sisters work wrote this cute thing about her and put it on their Facebook

Good job Lysha Lou!

I found the most amazing thing this week. My leg has been ridiculously painful and nasty since I slid into 3rd.. It helped a lot to cover it but the rash was too big for a large bandaid and gauze was horrible. It stuck inside. Finally I had enough and went to the store where I found these.. 

AMAZING

I love them and they actually do what they say on the box. They dont stick at all and do absorb

 Totally a must have. I cleaned it twice a day and gooped a ton of Neosporin on it and kept it wrapped

This is one of the more healed pictures... like all that nasty leg hair I cant shave in there..drives me insane.

 Finally we started to get it more respectable looking!

Daddy mowed lawns. We tagged along for moral support

We took a run to Malad to go get some logging permits

Chris cant leave home with out his radio.. he might miss hearing about a good fire

 We had to stop for provisions.. diet coke and donuts

Now to find some time between our busy lives and hunting season to get these filled!

 This weekend we also cleaned out the playroom upstairs and turned it into the bow room

 Taylor came over to shoot one night.. Zack stopped by and had to run home to get his bow. They actually talked Chris into shooting with us. Normally just Taylor and I shoot and Chris hangs out with us. Chris doesn't believe in practicing.. hes just that good. It started off as just normal shooting.. 20-30 yards..

I told them to stand closer for a picture and I get this...

They were all laughing too hard trying to be serious

 We had 3 targets set out in our backyard. One for broadheads ( I was shooting those practicing for the elk hunt) and two for field tips that Chris, Zack and Taylor were shooting at

 Then things escalated quickly... 

They moved back to 50 yards and then it was well lets see how far we can go from here

 Then it was the side of the house out to 60 yards

 60 wasnt enough so they had to go to the road at 70 yards. You only have pins and are sighted in for 20, 30, 40, 50 and 60 yards generally unless you've sighted in for something different. They were only sighted into 60 yards but just held high and adjusted

 and of course 70 wasnt enough.. we had to cross the street and they shot at 80 yards. One shot, one watched the target and two watched for traffic.

 80 yards is a long dang shot!

After they got done shooting it was time to play with the dirt bike. A few weeks ago it just stopped running. We were riding it and it just stopped. We hadnt had time to mess with it. So we tried to start it. Checked the spark plug, oil, gas etc. Everything was good but it was flooding. Zack decided we needed to pull start it to by pass the flooding and see if it would help. So the boys pushed Chris down the street

 That wasnt good enough. They needed a little more force and a little more constant speed so they hooked it up behind the 4 wheeler... and drove all over like this trying to start it. They had no luck this way either so they pulled it into the garage and took off the carb again. The main jet had came undone and was just floating inside. They tightened it and we were good as new.

 Saturday morning Willard Fire Dept rented out a theater at Walker Cinnemas for the fire dept members and their families to see Planes: Fire & Rescue. We had a really good turn out! Kennedy sat between Uncle Zack and Uncle Taylor so she was in heaven. My mom came too with Parker. The show was super cute!

 Kennedy didnt want to be left out of shooting. After the movie she wanted to get her bow out and practice

 That night Taylor came over to shoot again. Its pretty much a nightly thing. I only have 21 more days til the elk hunt starts. He talked me into shooting 70 and 80 yards. Crazy....

 Then it was back to yards between 5-35 yards practicing for my big bull Im gonna find... Id had enough shooting circles on a bag, I went and got my elk target to make it more realistic

 Hopefully this will do!