My how my life changes from day to day. Work was done. My helicopter flew away to the Continental United States without me. Kitty and I are in the process of moving. Right in the middle of going through and downsizing all our stuff, I got the call. 32AT was working in Oregon with it's new mechanic and his relief person had to bail. Could I go to Oregon for a couple days?

I talked to Kitty, we weighed the pro's and con's, and off I went. The Lower 48 is burning up. My old helicopter has been working nonstop in Oregon. Conditions are right and theres fire.

Improvised windsock with bubbles!

You know, this was an unexpected pay check and I got the chance to see what my new camera can do. Check these out. When I got to the helibase which was nothing more than a cleared hilltop, there were two helicopters working...mine and an A-Star belonging to a local company.

Before the first day was out, we got the notice that our LZ was closing down. We were moving five miles down the road as more helicopters were being called in. The helibase went from two to five helicopters overnight. The sixth bird was showing up the day I came home.

Two heavies, two mediums, and two lights, all helicopters are flying six hours a day to put out the fires. Check out the Sikorsky S-61. This is a heavy, flown by Coulson Aviation, a Canadian company that specializes in aerial firefighting. Rogers Helicopters out of Alaska has two Bell 212 medium helicopters on this job. The A-Star is operated by FireHawk Helicopters out of the Lower 48. These companies have FaceBook pages. If you have found that you like helicopters you should check them out!

One thing that surprised me was the foliage in the area. Blackberries, which you can't find in Alaska are a weed in Oregon. They were everywhere. The bears love them. So do I! I did my picking and brought a gallon home with me. Kitty and I turned them into blackberry jam last night, enough to last the winter for us!

I's time to go back to going through our stuff. You don't realize how much stuff you carry with you until it's time to tighten the belt and lighten the load. ArcticArtique is gearing up for winter. Ebay sales are already starting. Projects are getting finished. We are moving forward!

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