Life as a Phoenix

My fire experience to date:

36 acre prescribed burn- Piney Grove Preservation, VA

70 acre prescribed burn- Owen Burn.  Vine, VA

65 acre prescribed burn- James River National Wildlife Refuge, VA

Other burns that teammates have gone on include:

198 acre prescribed burn- Piney Grove Preservation, VA

100 acre prescribed burn- Piney Grove Preservation, VA

Team total:

469 acres burned

Before picture

I can stand in fire

Avery... Our super villian

the 9th member of the team

Birding festival face painting

The toilets at the crew quarters were having issues, so we got to stay at a hotel for a night!  Best sponsor ever!

Sunset outside the crew quarters

Birding Festival

It is so weird setting prescribed burns.  Never in a million years would I have thought that this is what my daily life/work would be... but I LOVE it!  I could see myself applying to be a seasonal wildland firefighter after Americorps NCCC.

It's hot and you get super sweaty, not to mention covered in ticks... But it's amazing.  You can turn around and see the flames that you just put down and watch the forest burn.    And to think, I'm (kinda) getting paid to do this.

Yesterday was the 65 acre burn that I did in James River NWR.  We had another portion that we wanted to burn but it ended up being too wet, so we'll have to wait another day to burn it.  That's the way of fire fighters.  We have to be suuuuper flexible and our work depends completely on the weather.

Right before we started burning we found a stray puppy.  She was so cute and tiny... all skin and bones and COVERED in ticks.. They were all over her.  In her ears, between her toes, and all over her eyes.  So sad.  We all really wanted to keep her, but we didn't.  Sad day.  So she's at the pound and right when she got there they immediately took her to give her shots and frontline.  She was adorable and had to only be a few months old, so she'll get adopted real quick.

We also found a dog carcass that was being eaten by vultures.  That was unpleasant and had a nasty smell that kept wafting to us in the wind.

This round is my favorite by far.  A few of us have decided that we are not going back to our permanent teams just because we love this one and this project so much...  We'll see when I actually decide to come back.  If you hear that I've gone awol, the swamp would probably be a good place to look.  Just saying.