It's Election Day!!!

And you know what that means!!!!!

That's RIGHT! Calendars!

Oh yes, I have spent my morning at our local community building, right after the polls, trying to schlep pander sell the calendars we have made for the fire department.

Calendars you ask? Why, the very calendars that my good friend from Memories by Melissa Photography (see side bar) spent hours of her time making. She went to different training activities, and even a bonfire, as well as driving from station to station taking pictures of fire trucks. Then, she edited them, uploaded them, made them look fancy, and shipped them off. Then we chewed off all our nails developed ulcers waited patiently for them to arrive. Then we jumped up and down with happy shouts for the fact that they came out SOOOOO good! Then we nit-picked it apart for flaws and mistakes because we are perfectionists. Then we figured nobody would really care, and were happy again.

Today is our big push to sell them. We are asking $16 each, and if when we sell them all, we will have brought in $800 for the Fire Department Association to fix up the antique truck. Now typically, raising money for an old truck is not in my realm of even remotely interesting. But there's a really nice tidbit of info regarding this particular truck. It happens to be not just any old truck collected to be neat in parades, it was an actual firetruck in service in our hometown. Well, it's Bill's home town, but he has so darn much enthusiasm for it that it's grown on me. You know, kind of like fungus.

Anyway, the truck was sold many years ago to help pay for a new one, but when that owner put it up for sale, the Association (not funded by taxpayers) bought it to preserve that little piece of history.

And I. Like. History.

Especially local, small town history.

So, can I interest you in a calendar today to support the Fire Department Association in raising money to refurbish the 1936 Diamond T antique fire truck? They are only $16 each!

A Tutorial... AKA My Longest Post Yet...

So, back in November of last year, I think, we lost the transmission in our blue van. Well, 3rd gear, which is the one that let's you drive faster than 40 mph. We then got a new one, and the blue one sat in our yard. All. Winter. Long.

Collecting snow.

A. LOT. Of. Snow.

I have pictures of it, almost invisible with a solid foot of snow on top of it, but that's from before my new toy (meaning external hard drive), so I had to borrow a photo from an old post!

That's the van, the mound of snow behind the Christmas tree that found "new life" in the front yard for a few months!

Anyway, then spring, or mud season, came to Maine, followed by construction season, which is drawing to a close, and we still had this big ol' hunk of metal in our yard. With 185,000+ miles on the engine, and a gone transmission, it wasn't worth much.

Someone we know with a similar hunk of metal, but less miles, needed a couple of cheap parts, so I offered the parts to them.

Someone else with a less than similar hunk of metal wanted a seat belt strap, and you know me, I am ALL about safety, so that went, too.

Bill suggested we offer it to the Fire Dept, for extrication training, and said we could scrap it for the metal, maybe clear a hundred bucks. I said, "Sure."

We found out it might be worth more in scrap than we originally thought, and I toyed with hiring someone to haul it. The people who took parts needed to buy a bumper, so I thought about selling it to them. And, in the end, it was still sitting here the day the FD was ready to do some cutting, so off it went. Decision made.

But, I asked Butler, the FD guy who works for the towing company, if I could come take pictures.
I call this one, "They've come to take me away, ha ha, they've come to take me away!"

'Cuz Bill would've said no, the spoil sport.

I guess they needed tail light covers, too.

Best seat in the house!

Anyway, Butler said yes.

Muhahaha!!

Here they are Megan, as you requested!

Turns out I wasn't the only camera happy person there! This is one of JFD's "Hotshots", a term for high-school kids who come and help out.

Firemen play with Lego's!!

Here's Bill, working on a crashed car that was donated. At least I think that's him, hard to tell 'cuz he opted for the summer FD jacket, intended for hot days, forest fires, stuff like that. It doesn't carry his number.

Which is 48, BTW.

Here they are ruining an almost-brand-new windshield. That I never would have replaced if that darn Farmington cop hadn't harassed me about getting it inspected. The creep. $100 deductible, down the drain. There's another Hotshot in the background. They don't get to help. They did get to pillage the trunk of a car that's owner hadn't bothered to clean it out. Mine? SPOTLESS.

Here's Bill, having transformed said donated crashed car into a convertible.

Now might be the time to tell you that we like them to cut up cars. Jaws of Life are not the most common thing to use, and if you already have experience, you can do it faster, know where to cut the seat belts, and retrieve an injured person much faster. Most car accidents that require extraction also mean that time is of the essence. Life or death people. I'm just sayin'.

And occasionally your favorite police officer needs to be rescued from his cruiser lodged in a tree. Helps to have practiced in such sticky situations.

Anyway...

You may have noticed that surrounding our van is largely Livermore FD. That would be because awhile ago, when JFD got their new fire truck, they also got new extraction equipment. So they gave the old stuff to LFD, who didn't have any, and had to call in for mutual aid from other departments if they had an accident that required those jaws.

Remember that time thing? And for you out-of-towners, route 4 in Livermore is known for it's bad traffic accidents. It's a thruway for the area here, and very lousy passing opportunities. People get impatient, and unsafe.

OK, I'm off my soapbox.

So, the JFD was training the LFD to use their new toy. LFD's new toy, that is, JFD wasn't ABOUT to share THEIR new toy!.

They got my van, 'cuz it had 8 different cuts to make. And those nice firefighters, they passed the toy around, sharing nicely.

Rare.

Here's my van, a shell of it's former self.

Here's the Peanut Gallery. We invited the Hurleys 'cuz Melissa has talked about doing a calendar fundraiser for the FD. I'll let you know if it comes to fruition, so you can all order one.

Look at Donovan, the one in orange and blue for those who don't know!

No, they aren't putting gas in it. That, my friends, is a Jaws of Life. Ever wonder how it works? Well, it is very thin, and narrow, they put it in the crack where door meets vehicle, and then, with compressed air pressure, the blades, or "jaws" open, popping the door off. The strap is to keep it from falling, I suppose, and to help pull at it.

I think the tool they used to cut is a different tool, let's find out together, shall we?

I was right, on the top, Jaws. On the bottom, Pinchy. That's what Dustin nick-named it anyway.

So, after popping all the doors, they cut all the posts.

Off goes the lid!

Steady... steady...

And yes folks, a convertible mini van.

Does it need a spoiler? Tell me honestly...

NOW I will let him drive!! ;-)

This one, that is, not the new one!!

No, we are NOT pregnant!

Good grief, any of you out there who read that I had a surprise and thought that doesn't know me very well!! First of all, Bill and I aren't having more children because we would have to pack our crap up and haul it somewhere else move, and secondly, I don't keep secrets like that very well, when we are ready to tell we just tell, no hinting, and thirdly I'd be too busy crying to blog it!

So, my news is that my dear, wonderful, fantastic husband received a wonderful honor last night. At the Jay Fire Department Mutual Aid Supper, he was awarded Firefighter of the year!



I was told at the Christmas Party on Dec 1, and sworn to secrecy. I did tell Linda, Bill's mom, inviting her to attend. It was supposed to happen on the 3rd, but with the big snowstorm it didn't. Unfortunately, George (Bill's dad) could've come that day, but last night he was working.

Linda, the boys and I snuck in as the supper was finishing up (not an easy task with 4 children in winter coats!) and were ushered around a corner when Bill wasn't looking. Things were such that in order to actually see the presentation Bill would have seen us and suspected, so we caught only the look of shock on his face. He saw us walk in and said, "When did you get here?!" I was afraid he might get emotional, he sees the award as such an honor, and when we talked later he agreed he might have if he hadn't been so surprised!



Even as Tim Toothaker was describing that the award was was going to a man with a large family he contemplated people with large extended families on the department! It wasn't until Tim said, "And young boys that he even brings to truck inspections to help out," that it dawned on him what was happening!! He's just so unassuming, and I think he feels like he hasn't made too many calls lately that he forgets how appreciated he is when he is there.

As a bonus a retired firefighter from out of state, Paul Ripa, that Bill met through Goodwin's and came to really like was there to see the award as well! Paul is writing a book, and he and Bill talked fire fighting for days when Bill was sent to his place to try to get water to his barn awhile back. All in all it was a great evening for him, and we are very proud. I also really appreciate how the folks on the department regularly acknowledge the families and that it's a sacrifice to go without a family member on so many different occasions. And we got to bring home the leftover cake! People were implying it was a lot of cake to deal with, but I assured them it will be gone by the end of the week!!


Ok Tim, you were right, I should have fought the crowd to get a picture right side up!

On the wall of the station when we were waiting, I looked at a picture depicting firefighters from 9/11. They have a saying, Firefighters run in when everyone else is running out. If you know anyone who has served in this capacity, you know there is a kind of love and determination that you don't see in many people. Thank them, as often as you can, because you never know when it's your house, or your car accident, or the one of someone you love where they will be needed next. Mr. Ripa pointed out that in paid fire departments you know if you have three engines you have 18 fire fighters, and here if you have three engines show up you may have three people. Appreciate those folks, I know we sure do!

Firemen

Many of you who will read this will already know that my husband Bill is on the volunteer fire department here in Jay. For those of you who didn't, now you do.

His chief sent out an email today, of firefighters in California, fighting the (apparently) recent forest fires. It's chilling, and it causes me to appreciate the men (and women) who are willing to face such an obstacle as a fire, and put their lives at risk for the protection of their friends and neighbors, even complete strangers in a faraway state. They have to be a little crazy to do it, so they certainly aren't without flaws, but let's all be grateful and tell them we appreciate what they do.

And if you need a moment to feel humbled in order to truly appreciate them, check this out:

http://www.latimes.com/la-burnover-f,0,732907.flash?coll=la-home-center

How Many Children Do I Have?

It's quite the challenge to answer that question some days. I wanted to post a picture from the Jay Fire Department's family barbecue. I didn't get to go to the whole thing, my church calling got in the way, but I did catch a volleyball game

Then, as things seemed to be slowing down, Brian decided to chill out in the overgrown black pipe that sits at the ballfield. So Bill, aka the 5th child in our home, thought this would be fun

For those who wouldn't recognize him, that's Tim up there helping. They're rocking it back and forth. Which looked like a lot of fun, if you like being nauseous.

Apparently the kids liked being nauseous. They would take turns sitting in the pipe, and rocking it until it rolled a couple of feet. Zachary supervised, though I think he did take a ride or two. Problem is, we have soccer practice there now, so guess what my boys want to do... yeah, that's it.

At the JFD, Zachary is often referred to as "Little Bill". Partly because he's Bill's littlest, but also cuz we went and named him Zack, when there was already a Zak hanging around the firehouse, Zakary Toothaker. The other boys are still named regularly by the color shirt they are wearing that day. Blue Jones, Gray Jones, you get the idea. Of course, those darn Shinks are no picnic to keep track of either, so I don't mind a bit!! Whatever works!