What was your day like?

[jadegil6]

You are doing such a great job, Crissi, and I am proud of you for taking your job so seriously, and working as hard as you do. Fires are so dangerous, and when one starts, then no one is immune from it's rage.
When I went out this morning, there was a lot of smoke in the air. I looked all around the immediate neighborhood, but I did not find any flames. I eventually left my neighborhood, and as I drove, the thicker the smoke seemed to get. I guess the winds were bringing it into my city. I live in Austin in Central Texas, and over the past several days, there have been 6 different wildfires burning all around my city. We have been in a terrible drought for the past year, and all of the brush and trees are so dry and brittle, that they can catch on fire very easily. So all it takes is for some smoker to toss a cigarette out their car window, and it can spark a horrible fire.
The biggest of the 6 fires is being called the Bastrop fire because it is located around the city of Bastrop, which is east of Austin. That fire is 6 miles wide and 16 miles long, and is burning out of control since Sunday. For those of you who don't know how long a mile is...it is 1.6 km. So far that one fire has destroyed at least 820 houses, and killed 2 people. Officials are estimating the number of destroyed houses could easily double because firefighters cannot get into many areas yet because the fire is still ravaging those places. Most of the homes in that community are upper-end homes, which are valued above $200,000. The other 5 fires are not that big, but they are also taking their toll.
Many of the schools in the areas that are experiencing the fires are closed, and are being used as evacuation centers. Tens of thousands of people have had their lives turned upside down because of these fires, and so many will return to their homes to find that they have not only lost their home, but also lost everything that they had inside of them. Their lives will be changed forever.
So my hat is off to you, Miss Crissi, for all that you do to educate those whose lives you cross about the dangers of fire, and the importance of being careful, and knowing what to do in case they are confronted with such an emergency. God bless you always.

[Edwin]

Where we used to live in the National Park, most of our fires were lightening strike fires, where the lightening would strike a tree and start a fire in the forest. In the 10 years we lived there, there were miles of forest trees burned. During that time I don't think there were any structures burned which was nothing less than a miracle. One of the biggest fires we had while there that threatened the most property and life was set by a young lady who had problems and was burning her journal out in the forest. I think she thought she had her fire controlled, but it got away from her big time. We did have several fire fighters burn up, and lose their lives, in a forest fire just over the ridge from there a few years ago, which was very sad.

Here we have mostly grass fires. When I was in my teens and twenties I used to fight those grass fires throwing dirt with a shovel, and setting backfires to create a burned area so the run would run out of fuel and could not burn any further. One of the biggest fires they had here just before we moved back here was set by a person, and I don't know why he did that. We had a neighbor a few years ago who lost a tractor truck, big rig, and trailer load of hay to a fire. He disconnected the tractor truck from the trailer, moved it about a thousand feet, and they both burned up, as they were both already on fire. The burned out tractor truck and trailer sat there for several years until finally within this last year they finally got it all cleaned up and removed.

That same neighbor had one of his tractors catch fire a couple of weeks ago, and his tractor burned up, and caught the surrounding area on fire, and it burned several hundred acres before they got it contained. I saw that fire as I was coming out from being on the internet to play the piano. As I sat down at the piano, I looked out the window, and there were 3 distinct smokes rising. I went to our kids' house as Carol and our daughter took our phone with them, so from the kids' house I started calling, and finally got a neighbor who told me that he had sent his adult boys with a fire pumper truck to the fire. The fire went big before it was controlled.

I agree with Michael, that you, Crisi, are doing a wonderful thing with your work for the fire department, and educating the kids to the dangers of fire, and what to do if a fire is started. Uncontrolled fires are so damaging, and often times we are at the mercy of those fires. My grand parents were going to move a new house they had built, as they bought new property, but the house burned before they got it moved. They figured it was a kerosene lantern that caused that fire. My nephew and his friend burned a barn down playing with matches, and their house burned just after they moved, infact they hadn't moved all their belongings before the fire. They figured it was a wood heating stove that caused that fire.

[crisipicada]

You are doing such a great job, Crissi, and I am proud of you for taking your job so seriously, and working as hard as you do. Fires are so dangerous, and when one starts, then no one is immune from it's rage.
When I went out this morning, there was a lot of smoke in the air. I looked all around the immediate neighborhood, but I did not find any flames. I eventually left my neighborhood, and as I drove, the thicker the smoke seemed to get. I guess the winds were bringing it into my city. I live in Austin in Central Texas, and over the past several days, there have been 6 different wildfires burning all around my city. We have been in a terrible drought for the past year, and all of the brush and trees are so dry and brittle, that they can catch on fire very easily. So all it takes is for some smoker to toss a cigarette out their car window, and it can spark a horrible fire.
The biggest of the 6 fires is being called the Bastrop fire because it is located around the city of Bastrop, which is east of Austin. That fire is 6 miles wide and 16 miles long, and is burning out of control since Sunday. For those of you who don't know how long a mile is...it is 1.6 km. So far that one fire has destroyed at least 820 houses, and killed 2 people. Officials are estimating the number of destroyed houses could easily double because firefighters cannot get into many areas yet because the fire is still ravaging those places. Most of the homes in that community are upper-end homes, which are valued above $200,000. The other 5 fires are not that big, but they are also taking their toll.
Many of the schools in the areas that are experiencing the fires are closed, and are being used as evacuation centers. Tens of thousands of people have had their lives turned upside down because of these fires, and so many will return to their homes to find that they have not only lost their home, but also lost everything that they had inside of them. Their lives will be changed forever.
So my hat is off to you, Miss Crissi, for all that you do to educate those whose lives you cross about the dangers of fire, and the importance of being careful, and knowing what to do in case they are confronted with such an emergency. God bless you always.

Thank you so much! God is so good all the time.I always ask wisdom from God even I am at work or wherever I go. And the job that He has entrusted me, I give Him all the glory. I ask the Lord that I will be good steward of the life He has given me and to give Him all the best that I do including my work, family relationship, friendships and people I meet everyday.

[crisipicada]

September 6, we conducted fire prevention lecture and seminar at the same time fire drill. Attached are photos taken during the said lecture among college students.

[Edwin]

Thank you again, Crisi, for the photos, and the information on what you are doing! It is great!

[Edwin]

I had a very unusual day this day. This morning I helped my wife, Carol, carry our dirty clothes over to our daughter's place, so that Carol could wash them in our daughter's washing machine. She has running water. I then came back to our house, and I worked in my cellar I am digging. I lost all summer because of getting sick, and I was afraid to work that hard until the doctor would give me the go ahead. After losing 3 months of time, I realized I wasn't going to get it finished by this winter either, so I am just working on it as I find the time. We have lots of interruptions, and I am not getting upset about that because I will get it completed eventually, and it is such a severely hard job that it would not pay for me to try to work at it too hard. I did get more accomplished in a shorter period of time than usual. I guess that was partly due to me feeling like working hard, and it just seemed easier today, so I got a lot done in a short period of time. When I say a lot, it is relative, as I am working through hard pan, rocks and gravel, and a lot accomplished is actually just a small progress. I saw my horse limping, actually my granddaugher's horse, so I took a flat screw driver out to dig in his hooves. He is a very good horse. He lets me walk up to him, and lift and hold his feet up, and work on them. He knows I am helping him. I dug snow and ice out of his hooves that way, only I used a flat iron bar, and he just stands there and lets me hold up his feet and work on them without any rope, haulter or anything. He is such a good horse. I need to ride him as he is getting old, and I may not have him to ride much longer.

After lunch of stir fry vegetables and rice, Carol and I took the dogs and went over to my brother's property, and we picked a lot of rose hips. Carol is going to make rose hip jam, and that should be fun, and to eat the rose hip jam as well. We have lots of rose bushes around here that are loaded with rose hips. I tied my big dog, Scooby to a post while we picked. When we finished picking, he was anxious to go. When we went through the gate from my brother's property Scooby got loose from me. I followed him about 2 miles, and he was so happy to be free that I couldn't get him to let me put the collar on him. I lost sight of him in some tall rhye grass clumps and he circled around and headed home. I headed back to my brother's house because I had no idea where he had gone, but I was sure he would come home when he got hungry. Carol met him when she was coming looking for me. She had him get in the car, and she cam over and met me at my brohter's house. Actually she got there before I did, because I had to walk the 2 miles back after I didn't know where he went. We got home, put him in his yard, and Carol worked on clothes while I played the piano. Then we had cooked squash with some deer burger. I played the piano some more, and now I am eating peanut butter, honey, drinking milk and doing this!

[Edwin]

I ate one beagal cut in half with butter on it, and it had raisins in it. I ate 6 large chicken eggs with that beagal, and drank about 12 ounces of milk. Our daughter loaned me their electric chain saw, so I sawed some filber tree wood, and we burned a little of that in the stove today. I played the piano quite a little today, and Carol requested that I play Christmas music, so I got my new Christmas music book, and I played every song in that book today. The book has 91 pages of Christmas music, so that took me a while. I also helped churn butter today, as we were completely out of butter. I ate one hamburger with two pieces of the whole grain flat bun. It was very good with onions and pickles in it, as well as mustard and mayonaise. I also played some hymns/songs out of my church book. It is from the Hope Publishing Company, and I think it is a book that many Baptist churches use, and it is very good. I think it is my favorite hymn/song book. I play out of all my song books, but it is a favorite because I enjoy the people who wrote the songs. Then I took my dogs and went walking. I have to go early now as it gets dark very early. My big dog went on by me when he came in the sliding glass door, but he stopped right in front of the entertainment center, and waited for me to put his harness and lish on. He knows that is necessary before we walk, and he is glad to have me put them on him, as he loves to walk. The other dog loves to walk also, and they have more fun. They mark their territory as they go, and especially the big dog, Scooby, and at the end of 2 hours he tries to mark, but it is all gone, but it is amazing sometimes when he can still do more marking at the end of the 2 hour walk. I helped Carol find some Christmas decorations that she had lost track of, and didn't know where they were at. I helped her with the trees, we have 2 of them, found one at the dump where we used to live. I strung an electric chord to light up one of the trees. For supper we ate whole grain bread with gravy over it, and gravy over the beef steak that was so tough we couldn't eat it last night, so she cooked it in gravy, and you can not believe the difference. It was good; I wouldn't say tender, but definately chewable. Carol browned it first, so it tasted really good. I drank my 12 ounces of milk as I had with my other 2 meals. Then I played the piano some more afterwhich I ate peanut butter, honey, and drank some more milk. Now it is just about time to go to bed, and it has been a very good day.

At my birhday supper a few days ago, on the 2nd, my granddaughter and I were blowing out candles at the same time. She on her cake, and me on my peach pie. My granddaughter asked me if I blew all my candles out in one breath, 66 of them. I told her I did. Someone asked what was my wish, and Carol spoke up and said to go to the Philippines, and I said yes, but my granddaughter said that if I tell my wish it will not come true, but I think it will before long; I hope anyway.

[Edwin]

Yesterday was an unusual day for me. Our daughter called me a few days ago and asked me what I was doing Thursday, December 8th. I told her that I didn't have any plans particularly. She asked me if I could take her and her husband to Spokane. He is a Native American, and he is plagued with a problem many of them have in that he has a debilitating type of arthritis. He has to take medication to be able to get around without pain. Then he sees an arthritis specialist in Spokane ever so often. It maybe that he is required to see the doctor before they will allow him to have his medication. That is true for many people including my wife who need medications especially for her diabetes, and other health problems as well. When we live where it was not convinient to see the doctor that was a problem because she just about had to see the doctor ever so often so she could get her medications. Our daughter and her husband are cutting firewood for a living, so when he suffers from arthritic pain until he can't hardly get around, it is a problem. I drove to Omak, then on to Disautel where they live. Carol gave some extra yarn she had to our daughter to give to some Indian ladies who wanted yarn. One of them said that she was going to make hats for all of us, and I think she just needs the yarn to keep her occupied. Our son-in-law's mother makes shopping bags for people, and gives them away to people who are having funerals, and so on. A lot of the yarn was given to us, and then I found some of it at the garbage place, where I used to process garbage where we used to live. The yarn was actually in give away boxes for anyone to take, and a lot of the people in that place were into crocheting and kniting. Now Carol has more than she needs/wants, and she is giving some of it to people who want it or need it. We drove to the medical center in Spokane, our daughter and son-in-law and daughter saw the doctor, and we drove back to their place. Then our daughter gave us some deer meat, and we love to eat it. Our son-in-law being a member of the Indian Tribe can get deer more often than the rest of us. They ate a lot of it, so they were happy to let us have what was left, and now we will enjoy eating it. I left to go pick them up at about 10 a.m., and I arrived back home at about 8:30 p.m. I had breakfast, oatmeal and milk, and I forgot to eat lunch as I was not hungry, and my kids didn't say anything about being hungry, so I ate my supper about 9:00 p.m., and it tasted good with some meat, whole grain bread and gravy, as well as a couple of carrots. I also ate 2 pumpkin muffins made with granola ingredients, with butter on them, and always a tall glass of whole milk. Then I ate my peanut butter, and honey, and drank another tall glass of whole milk. After that it was time to go to bed, and it had been a very good day.

[Edwin]

My day actually started before breakfast. I started a fire in our wood cookstove as it is very cold in the mornings in the house lately. Then I went out and cut some wood with an electric chain saw. I fed the dogs, and then we ate some breakfast. We had one beagal with crab apple jelly, a bowl of cooked oatmeal with milk, and then a tall glass of milk, as well as 3 small pieces of bacon, from the pig we raised. The reason I hurried with the wood cutting is because today was the day I had to haul water for our house. We have no running water yet, but maybe it will happen next summer. We were getting pretty low on water in the house, so the time had come to haul it. I use a wagon much like the kids play with only built a little better. I haul the bathroom water first in 5 gallon containers, and they are heavy. I carry 2 of them at once. This morning it took 8 of them, or 40 gallons to fill the 5 gallon buckets I have in my bathroom. We then carry them to the other bathroom to flush the toilet. I pour water into a 2.5 gallon bucket out of the big buckets to carry to the other room. I then haul our water that we use for drinking, cooking, and washing dishes, as well as water for the dogs. The wagon holds 18 one gallon jugs, and I usually make 3 or 4 trips, depending on how low on water we are. I had to pump air into one tire before hauling water, and by the time I was finished it was soft again, so I will need to take the tire off and fix the leak in the tube.

Then it was time for lunch. We had deer meat in whole grain buns with mustard, pickles, and mayonaise, with a tall glass of milk again. I drank a lot of water, and brought the big dog, Scooby in the house to put his harness on. It is really a horses' haulter, but don't tell him that! The doggies start to cry when they think it is time for their walk, as they are afraid we will not go and they will miss their walk. That happens, but I walk every chance I get. Scooby is really happy to have his harness put on as he knows that means he is going for a walk. We, the dogs and I, went for our 6.5 mile walk. We have to leave by 2:00 p.m., or we get back after dark, the days are so short. We then ate some supper. Supper was potatoes cooked with deer meat, dried tomatoes, and apples, all cooked together, with a tall glass of milk, and boy was it good. I spent the rest of the evening playing the piano, except the smaller dog made me play ball with him for a while a couple of times. We have 2 tennis balls, and I toss them for him to catch, and he is really good at it. Sometimes if he thinks I am going to get a ball, he tries to get there first and then keep that ball from me. He sometimes tries to keep both the balls, and that is tough, but he puts one between his front legs,and one in his mouth. When he gets to a ball before I do he puts his front paw on the ball so I won't get it. I played the piano until Carol went to bed, and now I am doing this. We will be going to church in the morning.

[Edwin]

Our son-in-law brought some wood pellets home from his work; 20, 40 pound sacks, so we will have pellets to burn for a while, and keep the house warm. They helped unload them and I put them in a large walking closet that is like a very small room. I took the hot water tank out of that room as we don't have running water anyway. I put the empty hot water tank in my reefer, and when I get my cellar finished it will go there as well as the water pressure tank, and everything for the running water. I discovered some cold air in that room, so I took all my paint cans out, weatherized it a little more, and put them back. The kids stayed and ate supper with us. We had beet top greens, and a bean dish made with corn chips, salsa, tomatoes and onions, and boy was it good. We ate it all!

Last night late I churned butter. What I do is that I play 2 songs on the piano and then I get up and crank the hand churn for a little while, until my arm gets tired, and then I go back and play 2 more songs on the piano, and I repeat that until I have butter. If I would keep turning the crank continuously I would get tired, and turn the crank slower and slower, and then it would take me a long time to churn the butter. But, the way I do it I am able to turn the crank on the churn really fast for a short period of time, and in no time at all I have butter. Then I ate my peanut butter, honey, and drank my milk. I had some honey in a huge glass that went crystalized, so I propped it by our wook cook stove oven, and managed to drain it all out of the small honey jug. I love to eat crystalized honey, and I just finished it last night, but more will crystalize as it does that faster in cold weather. I also wrote a little on this forum last evening. I have fun putting names of Philippine towns in the google search, then I click on images, and I look at all the scenery and people pictures from that village, town, province, or island, and it is fun. The last thing I do before I go to bed is brush and floss my teeth. I am happy to brush, but I will admit that I hate to floss, but I do it everytime, because I want my teeth to remain good. The reason I hate to floss is that my teeth or so tight that it is a chore to get the floss between them, and I end up with floss stuck between them and then breaking the floss; then they feel tighter than ever, but I do it every time anyway and will the rest of my life.

This morning I slept a little late, like after 8:30 a.m., then I fed the outside big doggie, Scooby. I then shaved and washed my face. Carol cooked me some oatmeal with apples sliced and milk in it, and it was good as always. Then I went out and cut some wood with the electric chain saw, and while I was doing that, our daughter brought over some coffee grounds for Carol; she drinks coffee, but I don't. We have been a little short of coffee lately, and our daughter has been keeping her in coffee.