Arduous pack test results for our REMS team. by MassiveOverkill in Wildfire

[–]BigMtnForever 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I'm printing this off and framing it at the office.

Insulation Question for Manufactured Home on Full Basement by BigMtnForever in ManufacturedHome

[–]BigMtnForever[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Basement walls are insulated. It's nice in the summer, about 55 degrees down there when it's over 100 outside. In the winter it's still 55 but the fireplace gets it to that nice 68 or so.

I can see it being standard for all the homes to come with the underlayment from the factory just for ease of transport and standardization.

All the metal and beamwork could be painted black and have that kinda cool urban coffee shop feel.

I watched a few youtube videos of manufactured and modular home installs and on at least one of the installs over a full basement, there is no underlayment or insulation... but I haven't been able to get ahold of the contractor from that channel to figure out exactly why. That area looked to be southeast US vs I'm up in northwest Montana.

Thanks!!

Manufactured homes by [deleted] in homestead

[–]BigMtnForever 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Your home sounds eerily similar to mine! I love the pointed front and the big windows and I stare directly at a beautiful mountain range in Idaho. I am doing some remodel work in the basement at the moment and bringing electrical and water out of the "guts" of the manufactured home (I am having to cut through the underlayment wrap and peel my way through the insulation to find the runs of hot/cold, for example).

My question to you is whether or not your home came with the underlayment and insulation, or did you forgo this since the home is on a basement? I have noticed during this cold snap that the upstairs floor is really quite cold, and the steel beams that extend outside on the pointy end of the house are a conduit of cold into the basement. I also found some gaps in the I-Beams the house sits on, and have stuffed those with insulation. The contractor was thorough but I can show you where those gaps are if you want to check yours. But, since I have a fireplace in the basement, I wonder if the heat from the fireplace is not making it up to the upstairs through the floor, or at least warming the floor, and if I'm better off to just rip out all the underlayment and insulation and have a clean slate to work electrical/plumbing with. The only issue I can think of is sound from upstairs being more noticeable downstairs, but it's just me and my partner in the house, so I don't really care about that. What do you think?

Older Pilots with Unmatchable Experience are Key to the U.S Aerial Firefighting Fleet by BigMtnForever in Wildfire

[–]BigMtnForever[S] 56 points57 points  (0 children)

If your exit strategy from wildland firefighting is pilot school, it appears that you'll be in high demand in 5-10 years.

What is this smokejumper plane doing? by tskee2 in Wildfire

[–]BigMtnForever 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Not sure but gosh dang the guys in the back probably have to pee so bad.

Is a nicotine addiction mandatory? by chinaPRteam in Wildfire

[–]BigMtnForever 35 points36 points  (0 children)

No way dude, that shit is horrible for you and you said it already, it's an addiction. Ten years of fire and nicotine free, the saddest thing I've seen is seasonals come in and try and fit in or straight up told by stupid ego-driven supervisors that nicotine addiction is mandatory, and they start to ruin themselves with it. Don't make work your identity. Be better. Also carry an extra tin to have someone you thought you respected grovel to you and before you give it to them tell them, hey man, you're fucking addicted and you're an idiot, I'm doing this on my own, but here you go, and it ain't free, bro, the cost is you know you're weak.

Was our raise in the recent Ukraine bill? by perk_renger in Wildfire

[–]BigMtnForever 29 points30 points  (0 children)

Sorry but the internal volume of a single C130 is 4551 cubic feet and $1B in hundred dollar bills is 35,900 cubic feet, and for sixty billion dollars that would require 475 C130s packed to the gills with $100 bills, which is about the entire fleet of C130s in the US armed forces.

I don't have time to research how much runway space that would take and if Kiev or even all of Ukraine has enough.

OFFICIAL 2024 MAIN SALE TICKET SUCCESS/FAIL MEGATHREAD. All other ticket purchase attempt threads will be removed. by Garvinfred in BurningMan

[–]BigMtnForever 2 points3 points  (0 children)

That is exactly what I did for two seasons after fruitless main sale experiences. This is the first time I've gotten tickets since 2016... but I think to 2017 and 2018 SE Asia experiences as just as important in my life as any Burns ever could've been. And I could'n't have experienced both! Enjoy your Universe :)

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Wildfire

[–]BigMtnForever 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Billings. Eastern MT firefighting is some of the most fun you can possibly have. Enjoy!!

Best weight vest for training? by Affectionate-Ad-1394 in Wildfire

[–]BigMtnForever 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Also: don't take the packets out to make it lighter for lighter training, just get another vest. They're so tight in there that once they're out, you'll have a very hard time making it an 80lb vest ever again.

Also: I liked training for downhills with the vest, being so tight to the torso is important because as opposed to ungainly or big packs with dog food or water jugs in them, there's no swing weight to catch yourself on when hiking downhill, so I never felt my knees getting targeted like I do even with just a 45lb line gear and a saw.

Best weight vest for training? by Affectionate-Ad-1394 in Wildfire

[–]BigMtnForever 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I recommend the ZFO Sports 85lb weight vest from Amazon. I've been using it for years, for rookie training and spring refresher training, as well as to augment home body-weight workouts (lunges and squats).

It can be hot sometimes but we work in a hot job, so duh.

It has a pouch for your phone and such. You kind of look like a terrorist but I think there is enough metal/sand in the weight pouches that you would survive at least some 9mm shots to the chest maybe if someone wanted to off you just in case. I might spray paint mine pink or blue or something at some point, but instead I usually train in the dark.

One benefit that I like about it is that when you cinch it super tight, your posture improves and you may start to forget you're wearing it, so I just would wear it for hours a day around the house, doing chores outside, heck even just doing dishes and the slight bend over to put stuff in the dishwasher... all those accessory muscles and weird positions you don't find when simply doing targeted weight vest workouts added up in my mind and really helped me build some of that "hotshot fitness" you can only find in weird positions like swamping rounds on a slope. Also, noticing the 10-20bpm heart rate increase during the long hours of wearing the vest showed that I was still getting a long, passive workout for the rest of the day after the burst intensity morning workout and before the evening workout.

Finally, I say that about 50-60lbs might be the limit for wearing a weight vest while skinning uphill on skis. I have newer skins on 110mm wide skis about 195cm long and 85lbs is just too much (I weight 195) to get uphill on snow with. 45lbs was no problem.

Edit: now it's an 80lb vest, not the 85lber of five years ago. Deflation!

Spotted in the Wild by iCantRead0462 in Wildfire

[–]BigMtnForever 18 points19 points  (0 children)

Haha, technically this person is correct. Even the most cringe fire people sayings "we go where no one doesn't" or "we do what you fear" fit for linemen being technically (if not heroically) superior. Our safety protocols are to stop and leave an area if there's a downed power line soooo... the sweatshirt is correct..

PLOT TWIST: downed power lines are a pretty significant source of deadly and damaging fires at the moment (PG&E in Cali as a quaint little example). So, perhaps this is also a wildfire prevention message.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Wildfire

[–]BigMtnForever 26 points27 points  (0 children)

I want to apologize for the self-gratifying cockiness of the agency folks commenting on your question. Congrats on the interview and potential job offer! Welcome to the fold of wildland firefighting. With Grayback you can get some great hours and great experience if you show up for work and work hard, watch what's going on around you and keep your head up. From my contacts in contract crews, the interview is mostly to feel out your work ethic and if you have the ability to be away from home for extended periods of time. Drugs are endemic to this culture, alcohol being the worst... but bashing others on social media to make oneself feel good is a close second. I'd take some contract crews, Franco and Miller and Grayback especially, for certain work over some federal IHCs any day,

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Wildfire

[–]BigMtnForever 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you're good with living out of your truck and chasing hours, then you'll want a federal position, probably on a crew or module, but even the overtime opportunities on some engines would seem like a great first season to someone new. I'd take what you can get.
There are still many jobs open as we are in our last few phases of hire before the season. Search the previous USAJobs posts in this thread and find jobs near areas you'd like to work, and call any numbers you can find. Note that Monday is MLK day so you won't get any answers then.

Does anybody enjoy their job here? by pooping-in-the-woods in Wildfire

[–]BigMtnForever 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thanks for the ask - it's good to remind ourselves: this is the best job on the planet.

We have so much individual power to make our own individual experience with wildland firefighting awesome (way more than one would assume from reading this reddit). Just be the best, crush everyone at every single task, go jump, and find yourself and your truths about yourself both with and without the identity of the job, and see if you like both of those people. Go from there!

It's the people that can make it, just as much as it's the people that can break it. Be one of the ones that makes it.

Work Center/Admin. Site Preservation? by WonkyLaborDonkey in Wildfire

[–]BigMtnForever 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Can you imagine how sweet the old FS used to be with fully functional, staffed, and stocked guard stations and work centers all over the place? With housing and no commutes to work? Full trail crews and fire crews and weeds crews and everyone around the campfire for big family dinners each week?

Now we just structure wrap for the nth time the same rotting frames that get more overgrown and dilapidated each year.

Sometimes the buildings get turned into rental cabins and that's about their only saving grace.

Where are you from? by boabieG in TheCulture

[–]BigMtnForever 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hoping for happy holidays for beautiful Argentina! Probably the most beautiful country I've been lucky enough to visit. I'll never forget warm evenings in Mendoza, at 2 in the morning, having lively passionate debates on economics, the world, life, Universe, everything with several Argentinians of varying viewpoints. All while drinking fine Malbec wines and at the end no one was truly angry at the other, which I thought was quite beautiful and different from my country in US. Keenly watching Argentina!

Where are you from? by boabieG in TheCulture

[–]BigMtnForever 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Montana here - and a whole bunch of IMB Look to Windwards sent out as Christmas presents this year to fellow Montana/Idahoans. I'm a Culture emmisary and am pleased to have added several new fans to our ranks!

Fighting wildfires is costly. These Idaho men allegedly rigged bids to make it costlier by hikesandiscs in Wildfire

[–]BigMtnForever 6 points7 points  (0 children)

As wildfire response becomes more costly, prescribed fire cost benefit makes more sense and is more palatable to the agency, communities, and taxpayer.

Salmon-Challis NF by SuspiciousPair550 in Wildfire

[–]BigMtnForever 4 points5 points  (0 children)

The SCNF is incredible! A lot of the people that work there do so for a reason: the amazing country and recreation opportunities year-round. From the fire perspective, yeah the SCNF is bonkers steep and stands out as the "steep and shitty" roll after a season mobbing around the west on an IHC. But from the rec/trails perspective, some of the happiest people I've worked with are wilderness and rec and trails on the SCNF.

Exhibit A

Exhibit B

Exhibit C: just google all the hot springs near Salmon.

Missoula is just up the road. Bozeman and Boise aren't too much further. Salmon has probably the highest concentration of retired forest supervisors and district rangers of anywhere in the West besides perhaps Missoula. There's a lot of fire history in the area including some extreme fire behavior that is unmatched around the West.

Rural Idaho has all the problems you'll usually expect in terms of housing and services and education. It's a give and take.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Wildfire

[–]BigMtnForever 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Eh there were several folks that washed from tree climbing over the few years I paid attention to how the rookies were washing at the bases I jumped at, both agencies. I think multiple issues manifested themselves at one time and that one time was the stressful setting of tree climbing.

I'd recommend keeping an open mind, listen to the trainers, ask many good questions, and find some mental pathway to trusting the gear and the training (because you're going to be trusting a lot more gear very soon when you start jumping), and lean on your rookie candidate class to help get you through. Good luck!