Keeping a feller warm

[smokechase II]

Anyone else have a better way to keep a feller warm than heated handle bars?

 

[Sizzle-Chest]

nice, smokey, was that you in the picture? they look like professional fotog, where was that?

 

[Kate Butler]

Great pix!!!!!

 

[Husky372]

Cool pics. well cool probably aint the right word. Problem with that kind of heat is that it is at a time of year when needing heat is last thing you need. Still nice pics.

 

[Sizzle-Chest]

wait, dont tell me, I want to try a CSI on your picture . . . obviously east side cuz the tree is pine, but im not sure which type yet. my guess is white pine or possibly sugar, but I'll go with white. But that leaves all of the east side. Now, the cutter works for an agency because of hardhat, and my first guess is that he's state because of lack of gear (state doesnt seem to care as much about this) but I dont quite see an ODF logo on his hardhat and definately not a patch on his shoulder (not all ODF shirts have this). I can also see newer nomex under his FSS chaps, so that points to FS, but here are some real indicators that its FS: his nomex shirt is good and dirty, but ODF likes employees to wear clean shirts where-as FS lets you where the same shirt all summer without once washing it. And his gloves are inside out, which is also distincly FS. Now the question is, who wears yellow hard hats. Deschutes wears white, Oakridge wears red. Umpqua wears yellow, but their west side . . .

 

[smokechase II]

The guy in the photo is Michael Vinton and it was 2003. This is not too far from Mt Bachelor. He went on to the the Prineville Hotshots.
What impressed me about him was how fast he was learning on a saw. One of those naturals. Took me years, he was coming along in months. Very well thought of by his co-workers.
His cuts were not perfect. But good enough and made nice photos.

 

[GASoline71]

Wow, what's the life expectancy of a saw in those conditions? I'm sure they get beat on pretty good.

Gary

 

[jp hallman]

wait, dont tell me, I want to try a CSI on your picture . . . obviously east side cuz the tree is pine, but im not sure which type yet. my guess is white pine or possibly sugar, but I'll go with white. But that leaves all of the east side. Now, the cutter works for an agency because of hardhat, and my first guess is that he's state because of lack of gear (state doesnt seem to care as much about this) but I dont quite see an ODF logo on his hardhat and definately not a patch on his shoulder (not all ODF shirts have this). I can also see newer nomex under his FSS chaps, so that points to FS, but here are some real indicators that its FS: his nomex shirt is good and dirty, but ODF likes employees to wear clean shirts where-as FS lets you where the same shirt all summer without once washing it. And his gloves are inside out, which is also distincly FS. Now the question is, who wears yellow hard hats. Deschutes wears white, Oakridge wears red. Umpqua wears yellow, but their west side . . .

Hmmm...your CSI skills need honing. It's a White Fir tree.(There are Red Fir's on the east side too) ALL government agencies require you wash your Nomex. In fact, bigger fires have laundry service onsite. Soot in Nomex greatly reduces it's ability to protect as designed. Yellow hard hats(MSA brand)are standard issue in Region 6, as are FSS chaps. Every fire-fighter I'm seen with issue gloves turns them inside out. They're much more comfortable this way. Everybody gets PPE's on a fire. You don't have to be agency, and all the gear's the same. What I'd like to hear is Mike's fire shelter is on his belt out of the picture. I've seen folks demob'd for less.

 

[Sizzle-Chest]

Jp. . . . . . . . . . . . .

 

[jp hallman]

Jp. . . . . . . . . . . . .

Your point? I live about thirty miles from Mt Bachelor and fall timber in the Deschutes NF, and the area this picture was taken. Look at all the baby firs in the background and the limbs close to Mike's head. Sure looks like a White Fir to me.

 

[Sizzle-Chest]

i hate to use my 200th post to flame you, but . . . my point is that the tree he is cutting is clearly white pine. more sure I could not be. The needles close to his head are long (look again), the bark is broken into small squares (a distinguishing feature of white pine) and the wood inside is obviosly PINE!

Now, as for the other parts: not all government agencies require you to wash your nomex. they like you to wash your nomex, but it isnt a requirment. Soot reduces fire protection (every firefighter knows) but it increases coolness factor (which a firefighter is more concerned with). Furthermore, only very large fires have laundry services (and if that was a large fire it would be a faller not an agency worker cutting that tree). Hard hats are standard issue in all regions, but region six is not exclusively yellow. That would be assisnine because you wouldnt be able to tell one fire crew from another. Region 6 fire crews where blue, white, red, yellow, so a person can narrow down the search by knowing the color of a hardhat. Of course everybody gets PPE on a fire, but not all the same. ODF has older gear (such as non-cargo nomex pants or the ones with green velcro), private agencies have to buy their gear, FS has the newest and best gear (black velcro, ankle straps lower back packs in red). ODF usually wears yellow web gear, older and they hardly wear backpacks. I'm guessing that his fire shelter is on his bag, which is just out of the picture with the oil/gas because its a pain to cut and where a bag. If he was odf he could be wearing just a belt and fire shelter and not have to take it off. Yes, you could get demobed for not wearing it (even fired by the IC) but come on, everyone does it. When i see a man about a horse at a fire, i dont carry my fire shelter with me.

 

[Sizzle-Chest]

Look at all the baby firs in the background and the limbs close to Mike's head.

you must be joking, as sure as the sky is blue and the grass is green those are pines. im not trying to be mean jp

 

[jp hallman]

i hate to use my 200th post to flame you, but . . . my point is that the tree he is cutting is clearly white pine. more sure I could not be. The needles close to his head are long (look again), the bark is broken into small squares (a distinguishing feature of white pine) and the wood inside is obviosly PINE!

Now, as for the other parts: not all government agencies require you to wash your nomex. they like you to wash your nomex, but it isnt a requirment. Soot reduces fire protection (every firefighter knows) but it increases coolness factor (which a firefighter is more concerned with). Furthermore, only very large fires have laundry services (and if that was a large fire it would be a faller not an agency worker cutting that tree). Hard hats are standard issue in all regions, but region six is not exclusively yellow. That would be assisnine because you wouldnt be able to tell one fire crew from another. Region 6 fire crews where blue, white, red, yellow, so a person can narrow down the search by knowing the color of a hardhat. Of course everybody gets PPE on a fire, but not all the same. ODF has older gear (such as non-cargo nomex pants or the ones with green velcro), private agencies have to buy their gear, FS has the newest and best gear (black velcro, ankle straps lower back packs in red). ODF usually wears yellow web gear, older and they hardly wear backpacks. I'm guessing that his fire shelter is on his bag, which is just out of the picture with the oil/gas because its a pain to cut and where a bag. If he was odf he could be wearing just a belt and fire shelter and not have to take it off. Yes, you could get demobed for not wearing it (even fired by the IC) but come on, everyone does it. When i see a man about a horse at a fire, i dont carry my fire shelter with me.

I could be wrong, sure I could.
Needles look shorter than White Pine to me. White pine has longer needles and five of them. Looks like Fir to me. And white Fir wood looks like White Pine wood in a picture taken on a fire. We have some western white pine on the Bend Fort Rock district at higher elevations. I've seen it behind Tumalo Falls.
The rest your a bit dated on. When was the last season you worked fires?
Large fires have plenty of FALC's on them as well as agency cutters. On any fire large or small you never leave your shelter with your pack. It stays on your person. Most fallers I know, and I know plenty, have the shelter on thier chaps. I shuck my pack when felling a tree, most of the time. Unless it's just one tree that'll come down quickly and then we move on. Anyway, I work fires and I've seen change.

 

[jp hallman]

OK, let's just call it a Lodgepole and be done with it.

 

[ShoerFast]

Just a swag, sort of an FNG here, but the picture of the pine on the ground as it shows the end cut, sure dosant have a the bark thickness that a fir would have.

 

[Sizzle-Chest]

OK, let's just call it a Lodgepole and be done with it.

lodgepole it is, but now im thinking maybe its giant sequoia or japanese maple. just kiddin. the last season i fought fire was summer 04 so im pretty sure that im still up-to-date, however i was with the ODF for a few years, so maybe my FS knowledge is dated (i havent worked for them for a few years). at any rate, you be the logger man, so dont let me tell you whats what. its really a stupid thing to debate anyway. no hard feelings?

 

[jp hallman]

Just a swag, sort of an FNG here, but the picture of the pine on the ground as it shows the end cut, sure dosant have a the bark thickness that a fir would have.

Naaa, White Fir has paper thin bark too. However, White Pine has thin bark too, like Lodgepole. So much in fact white pine snags and lodgepole snags are similar "from the road". To me anyway. I'll never argue over a picture again. If I can't see it, touch it, and smell it it's just a picture of a tree.

 

[jp hallman]

lodgepole it is, but now im thinking maybe its giant sequoia or japanese maple. just kiddin. the last season i fought fire was summer 04 so im pretty sure that im still up-to-date, however i was with the ODF for a few years, so maybe my FS knowledge is dated (i havent worked for them for a few years). at any rate, you be the logger man, so dont let me tell you whats what. its really a stupid thing to debate anyway. no hard feelings?

No hard feelings at all.
Only fire I worked in 2004 was the Log Springs fire on the Warm Springs rez. Couple pumkins' was about it.
I'd appreciate not being called a "logger man" though, thanks. Sounds like a great lakes fish.

 

[Sizzle-Chest]

No hard feelings at all.
Only fire I worked in 2004 was the Log Springs fire on the Warm Springs rez. Couple pumkins' was about it.
I'd appreciate not being called a "logger man" though, thanks. Sounds like a great lakes fish.

aint you a logger? i only said that cuz its in your profile.

 

[jp hallman]

aint you a logger? i only said that cuz its in your profile.

Sure, I'm an Oregon Logger. Not a "logger man". <snicker>