High Tech Fire Training

For the past two weeks, the Reems Creek FD has been training with a fire simulator trailer owned by the county, but which rotates amongst all the various departments in the county. Its a semi trailer which has a pop-up second floor, sides that extend out, and a simulated apartment inside.

This is a view of the front side of the trailer.

and a view of the rear side showing the pull out extention.

The interior is set up as a maze and the walls can be moved around to change the maze so every trip inside can be different. There are several points in the interior that can spew propane-fueled flames. Temperatures inside can build up to 800 degrees before the automatic ventilation fans kick in to start ejecting the heat to the outside. There is a smoke generator to compensate for the fact that the propane flames don't make any smoke. It is completely dark inside and flashlights are useless once the smoke banks down to the floor level. There are stairs up to the second floor and you can enter on that level to simulate fighting your way down to a basement fire or there are two different entrances at ground level to simulate various kinds of entry.

This is a picture of the kitchen area on fire, with flames shooting from the oven. This picture was taken from inside the control room as it's too hot and steamy in the actual fire area to risk taking the camera.

The basic drill consists of a two-person team entering with a hoseline, trying to get through the maze in the dark and smoke to find and extinguish the fire, then searching the rest of the apartment to look for a dummy victim, which you then drag back through the maze to safety before your air tank runs dry. It's a very realistic simulation which is run from a computerized control room. There are even sound effects for barking dogs, crying babies, etc to add to the stress level.

Here a team has just entered with their hose and is searching for the fire.

With the flames knocked down, the team can begin their search for victims.
After five minutes to catch your breath (and for the instructors to move the maze walls around), its time to go back and do it all again. After about 3 hrs of this, you're beat.

And this is today

Six-seven years after those last photos: Moki decided to watch what was happening in the kitchen from a different vantage point -


When Cheryl goes for a walk, Lu will often act like he wants to go, but then, when the leash comes out, he changes his mind. Today he really wanted to go. Here he sets off on the usual around-the-house warm-up.



Little did we know how ambitious he was. Cheryl's pedometer said he walked about a full mile and a quarter - up and down the hills of our neighborhood! But he's showing signs of fatigue now, unable to stay awake for the football game.

remembering their cute days

Not much going on here during our latest cold snap, with Norris taking a firefighting class and Cheryl taking an HTML class. Cheryl was looking through photos trying to find a specific one that seems to be missing and ran across these that a couple of our readers might enjoy -

A very young and extremely playful Moki - look at those bat-like ears. Moki was a tiny kitten, almost too small for the 7-8 weeks she was supposed to be.



Lu showing off his good looks, just home from the Pet Smart adoption event. Lu was a huge kitten, but we trust he was only 8 weeks old.

And here's one more of Little Lu - it's no doubt the best kitten photo we took - and we took more than a few.

Find the Hidden Visitors

You can really appreciate how well devised camouflage is -


(view from our driveway upwards, and toward the neighboring lot)

I would not have spotted them myself, except one moved - that one could actually still be in the picture - but there were more I spotted after trying to follow the first one. I went back in the house and got the camera, and wasn't even sure they were still there at first.

Need a little help? They are right in the middle of the photo above and there are two of them.

Ok. here's the answer - no larger view by clicking on this picture - this is cropped at full resolution from the above photo.

Visits from Wildlife

We had grown a bit bored with our snow pictures this week - every hour, every day it was pretty much the same view: All Snow, All the Time. Sometimes it fell thick and fast, sometimes it just fell. But today we woke up to sunshine and melting. And this afternoon we've had quite a few visitors - the roving male wild turkeys first, and then a herd of deer. Now, our readers in the suburbs would not be thrilled but we hardly ever see deer and they don't bother the landscape plants at all. When we do see them, there are usually only two or three at a time. Deer in these parts are a meat-case-on-the hoof in the winter, so they are very shy.

Cheryl had time to get the zoom lens on the camera to take a few pictures of the last doe and fawn because, although the baby crossed the road not long after the rest of the gang, Mom lingered a long time - we think she was licking up the road salt!


While taking shots of the deer, this little woodpecker provided a somewhat closer photography target.


According to All About Birds, this would be a Red-Bellied Woodpecker. We know, that makes no sense from our photo since the head is red and the belly is white, but the Red-Headed Woodpecker is plain black on the back, not striped. You can read all about it at the link - Red-Bellied Woodpecker. Apparently, this bird would have a patch of red on the belly that's usually hidden by feathers - hey look, among the photos we took as the bird moved up the tree we got this one!

Snow Winding Down

For most of the last few days, we haven't been able to see across the valley because of the low hanging snow clouds. Today the snow is letting up and we can again see the ridge line across Reems Creek Valley. You can click on the picture to enlarge it.

Perfect Camouflage

While the news is all about this "monster" snowstorm, it didn't affect our neighborhood so much that it would prevent Cheryl from taking her regular walk. The sights look like other pictures we've taken during a snowfall, but today for a change, an Eastern Towhee waited for a photograph -


As described at the Cornell University "All About Birds" page on Identifying the Eastern Towhee, we far more commonly hear these little birds than see them, Perhaps he knew his colors - including that flash of white under the tail - let him blend in today, because he sat long enough to be captured by the camera (thanks to the zoom lens.) After the shutter clicked a few times, he flew off.

But on third day, the real snows came back

Four inches in the last 5 hrs and still coming down hard

two days in a row

We woke up to a bit of snow yesterday - after the sun came out it looked like this.

There's something of a natural crystal chandelier effect going on when you're close.



And a sugar frosted look from a little distance




That's about what our snows are usually like. We got the same treat today, but Cheryl doesn't have time to take Lu for a walk this morning. Lu likes to go up the neighbor's driveway (they have a long driveway and a series of spaced boulders he can travel along, hopping from one to the other). At the bend in their driveway was a small tree with these brilliant red clusters on the ends of the branches.

Sesquicentennial

Premier quilt historian Barbara Brackman has just launched a Block of the Week blog to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Civil War. She's accompanying the blocks with photos and facts from the era. Cheryl was thinking about making the blocks when Dorry launched the idea to the International Round Robin group, and that pushed Cheryl to the commitment.

Here's Cheryl's first block, Catch Me If You Can -

Cheryl didn't want to buy any new fabrics and has only a few in the Civil War Reproduction-category (and those only for use making blocks for other quilters who love them.) This project will use other lovely fabrics collected over years of quilting that have not necessarily made it into a quilt.

More photos to end 2010

While driving around Reems Creek with Cheryl's brother and his wife looking for photo opportunities, we stopped at this old tobacco barn along side the road. It's on a property that has been abandoned for some time. It was quite picturesque in the snow.

The barn still has petrified tobacco hanging inside. Tobacco hasn't been grown in the Reems Creek valley for a number of years, so no telling how long this tobacco has been drying here.

2010 Ends

Cheryl's brother Jeff and his wife Joanna spent the last few days of 2010 with us. They had cold weather with slippery ice to negotiate for the first few days spent visiting local sights, but yesterday was warmer so we poked about the grounds of the nearby Vance birthplace which was unfortunately closed for the holiday. Joanna took some great photos - Cheryl also took a few.

Here you can see how little is left of our record-breaking snowfall of earlier in the week -




Mostly, the days were wintry gray, as they appear in the photo below -



...but we were happy to get a few glimpses of blue sky - not usually as rare as it has been this week.



A shot from the interior of the spring house -

The door to one of the outbuildings - We like the local stone and wood!