"Everything is awesome!"

Well I almost got away with it... writing updates that is. A call home to family resulted in reminders that I have been falling behind in my Australian adventures update. So here it is, the last three weeks in my time in the land down under.

 When I last left off I had finished with all my rappel training and was on my way to Gilantipy for my general firefighting course (GFF). I left with several other rookies on ground crews from nearby depots early Monday morning from Heyfield. Once we arrived in Gilantipy we were quickly organized into our cabins for the week before beginning training for the day. There is too much to tell in relation to the training. It was quite similar to what I learned at new recruit bootcamp back home when I first switched to fire crews. However a few interesting things to note is that while at the camp I discovered that there were two other Canadians attending. One was a rappel firefighter from Alberta and the other was from Williams Lake. It’s crazy enough to run into someone from your hometown while traveling but another thing to be at the same rookie camp in international territory. The other cool part about being in Gilantipy was seeing my first koala. Two of them to be exact: a mother with her baby. They were climbing in a tree behind my cabin so I was able to get quite close to them, however they blended into the tree so my camera wasn't able to capture the best picture. I heard a few other koalas during my stay. They are the weirdest sounding animals as they making a strange snorting/grunting sound close to a pig sound. Plus they growl. I heard something growling at me from the bush and I expected a wild dog to run out and bite me. Another rookie told me it was actually a male koala hiding in the bush. During my week in Gilantipy the other rookies were in Ovens (the other rappel base in Victoria) aiding Emily in her dispatcher training. The rest of the crew lucked out and got the first fire of the season on December 10, the same day we got our helicopter. I think it set a new record for fastest dispatch after starting a contract for the season.

I rejoined my crew Friday afternoon when I got back to Heyfield. I passed all of my GFF exams easily enough and was able to leave first thing in the morning. That weekend I was on standby with my crew but instead of fires I was holed up in the house due to torrential downpour. I went to bed Saturday night with it raining, woke up in the middle of the night with it still raining, and waking up Sunday to have it continue raining throughout the day. Many nearby places and roads were flooded from all of the rain. Tom got back from the city late Sunday night and said the roads were a wreck from people training to drive through the high water levels (think water up to bottom-mid door height).

Finally done with training I returned back to normal daily works at base. Lot of the days here are spent maintaining driving/walking tracks and campsites throughout the Maclister district. This includes putting in signs, cutting away overgrown vegetation, removing danger trees and hangups, etc. Wednesday after work the household and I went on an excursion out to Braig to find us a Christmas tree. Apparently at some point in the past someone thought it would be a grand idea to plant pine trees in Australia. We went out to some know plantations and walked into forest edge from there in search for a wildling (a seedling that escape). Emily and I found what we dubbed to be the perfect Christmas tree, but Tom and Shannon felt differently and also cut down their own tree. So now we have two Christmas trees in our living, with the boys being so tall its top is currently bent over. Friday I took the day off work to relax and pick up a few needed items in Sale. I took the bus into Sale from Maffra and met the cutest little girl. She couldn't of been more than three years old and was such a little chatter box. She asked me several different questions ranging from my name, where I lived and where I kept my "chooks" or chickens for those not familiar with the term. She also was very

SHRIMP ON A BARBIE!!!

concerned that I was traveling alone because she was concerned that meant I had no one to play with. After I finished my shopping in Sale I returned home to Maffra to set up for the evening. We hosted a work Christmas BBQ in backyard and I, of course, did the most stereotypical thing I could think of. I cooked "a shrimp on the barbie!” actually five of them to be exact (and to be fair, they were prawns). Tom, my housemate, was very upset with me because this wasn’t something Australians actually did. He apparently didn’t share the same humor as I did about the situation. The night went really well. I had my first BBQ eating Dim Sims, Houlueme cheese, and drinking Australian wine.

Bagged me a pine tree

By Monday my crew was back on standby for the week and got my first fire call just as I sat down after work on the couch with my tea. There was only one problem that we encountered when we got to the depot: we had no helicopter. Somehow in the mass chaos that ensued with some fire starts, our helicopter was robbed by another district. So the end result was we were stood down in hopes we would be able to get a rappel machine back. Now that the weather had heated up we had to stay close to the base for the potential of being dispatched (regardless of the fact we were helicopter-less). By Friday things had calmed down a bit and our helicopter returned to us in Heyfield. After we had a season briefing with everyone from Maclister district we headed over to our helispot for recurrency rappels.

I spent the weekend on standby and therefore stayed close to home. Normally on Monday the crews switch upness for standby, however I switched with an A crew member his Christmas standby for my New Years standby. So this week I hung out with A crew: Bill, Emily, Chili, Tom, Aaron, Pat and James. Monday we washed the helicopter and put up a brand new sign for Maclister district depot. Tuesday we continued working on the sign as well as cleared out a few lots in Heyfield that were overgrown and needed some love. Wednesday (Christmas Eve) we had a wonderful Christmas lunch with everyone from the depot. Most of A crew spent the morning cooking lunch comprised of Lamb, Pork, and Beef roasts, roasted veggies, salads and buns. The lunch was a hit a filled me to the point of not needing dinner that night.

At home myself, Emily and Tom opened each other’s Christmas gifts to each other. Emily got me a tea cup with a Koala on it, and Tom got me some Aussie candy, seeds for our garden, aloe vera for the inevitable sunburn I would get in Australia and a blue tank to match everyone else at work. Emily left to spend the evening with her family and Tom and I just vegged out at the house watching TV/movies.

Our happy family