Horseshoe 2

With the summer fire season fast approaching we’d been discussing for some time whether or not Kevin should make himself available for assignments. 14 days alone with two little ones seemed a bit daunting to both of us. However, the overtime would be nice and it would help the budget at work.

I told myself that military wives make it through deployments of a year or more with their kids. Surely I can handle two weeks! Right?

So last Wednesday Kevin left to do BAER (Burned Area Emergency Rehab) on the Horseshoe 2 Fire in Wilcox, Arizona.

Almost a week on my own and I’ve found that I can handle much more than I thought. The key seems to be staying busy. We’ve gone grocery shopping, took the tricycle down to the park, took a trip to Arctic Circle, and just played around the house. I even got the back yard mowed. I’ve also been doing all of my household chores along with Kevin’s and  keeping up with my Couch to 5K program. Jack has been going to preschool. Tonight we (Jack & I ) start water babies at the city pool (Huge THANK YOU to the Robnett girls for watching Emilie during classes. You are lifesavers!) 

Kevin calls first thing in the morning and again before bed. Jack is missing his Daddy a bit. He keeps saying things like, “I go town and pick up Daddy.” or “Daddy get off plane!” A week from Wednesday will come soon enough and he’ll have his wish.

Las night Kevin sent some pictures from his fire and I thought I’d share.

The picture on the left is my handsome hubby in his Nomex. *sigh* Something about men in ‘uniforms’……. Top right is the Coronado National Forest where the fire is located. Bottom right is a mudslide they are working on fixing. They have entered the rainy/monsoon season down there and often have rain squalls in the afternoon. On the burned landscape that means mudslides as there is nothing to hold the soil in place.

He also mentioned that they have Killer Bees down there. (Seriously, I wish he’d just leave me in the dark on some of this….bees YUCK!) I guess you are not supposed to swat at killer bees if you disturb a nest. You should just run like crazy and not look back.

Kevin also, said they saw a really big black bear yesterday. Not as up close and personal as the one he saw last fall when he was hunting, thank goodness, but he was rather unhappy and rumbled off up the hillside when he saw them coming.