Happy Monday! I hope everyone had a good weekend and got out to enjoy the beautiful weather. I wish I could say it was an exciting weekend but it’s probably better that is wasn’t since I was working all weekend. Excitement when I’m at work usually means a fire. Unfortunately, when I’m working I don’t take photos, especially when we just doing everyday stuff, which described this weekend so I don’t have any cool pics to share.

The reason we were staffing again this weekend was because the fire danger is still very high and people still seem to want to play with matches, guns, or other fun objects that create flames and sparks. Tonight it appears like it might be Mother Nature’s turn to play with fire as we have thunderstorms with lightening predicted. With another round of crazy winds along with some lightening it could be a very interesting Tuesday. Add the wind, very dry fuels, and our unusually warm temperatures and you’ve got a hazardous fire conditions or a Red Flag Warning. Mix in a little lightening and well, it could get interesting.

Since we didn’t have any fires this weekend we were painting trees that have been infested with the mountain pine beetle. Soon we will come back and cut the trees down and remove them. We are working in a campground and the idea is remove these trees before they die and become a hazard. Here’s a video of what we do once we cut the trees. This was made last spring but it’s what I’ll be doing again in the next couple of weeks. Enjoy!

Chasing the Beetle from Rochelle Plocek on Vimeo.