Too big for their britches

I had to cancel my trip to the   Pa. Fire Expo   this weekend but that doesn’t mean that YOU can’t go.

I’ve been getting some pics and updates from the floor in Harrisburg and it looks like I’m missing a great show.

I had intended to spend some time in the  FoxFire  booth with Zach Green and his crew. They are setup with  The Fire Store  in the North Hall, booths  817-826. Speaking of  The Fire Store, be sure to check out their link above. They now have all the FoxFire products on the front page as well as many other great fire service products. You can find my recent “Product Review” of the FoxFire Products  HERE .

If you guys get the chance … stop by and take in this Expo. Be sure to swing by The Fire Store and FoxFire booths and meet Zach and the crew. Tell em Ironfiremen.com sent ya … oh yea .. it’s also Zach’s birthday today .. wish him a happy and successful one!

While you’re there, also take the time to pay a visit to some other good friends and family of Ironfiremen.com (all in the North Hall) ….

Fire Rescue Magazine  Booth N 726

Go Forward Media  Booth N 722-724

The just introduced  Go Forward Fire   Booth N 722-724

 

 a Brotherhood Instructors  Booth N727

Wall Shields  Booth N725

FD Live In  N 725

The big guy pictured on the far right is one of my two favorite “Nicks” from FDLiveIn.com.  He’s also the one that I won $50 from arm wrestling while in Indy for FDIC 2011. .. Yea .. he’s “THAT” big and I took $50 from him..LOL

Again, take the time to visit the Pa. Fire Expo this weekend in Harrisburg, Pa and be sure to visit all the folks I’ve just mentioned … trust me … you wont regret it!

The reason I’m not there is two fold. First, I couldn’t get today’s shift covered. The prettiest day we’ve had in months and I’m stuck here at the station …uggggg.  The second reason is that I simply have too much going on around the farm this week. The break in weather means the beginning of hay season etc.

We’ve also been having some Fire Department training on the farm….well HazMat training anyway. (see a previous post  HERE ). 

Roanoke City and Salem both have “local” HazMat teams for their respective jurisdictions and then combine to make a “Regional” team covering a much larger area of the State. This week, the “Regional Team” has been training on the farm.

Yesterday ended the 3 days of training with A-shift.

That’s where the title of today’s post comes from … “too big for their britches”.

You see, all of our guys are good. I explained that in an earlier post. They HAVE to be good. They mess with the stuff that kills ya before you even know you’re dead.

Some of them though .. just “some of them” mind ya are a little “too big for their britches”.

Well, too big for those HazMat britches anyway … LMAO

Those holes are NOT supposed to be there. You shouldn’t be seeing their uniform pants under the suits ….LOL

They literally ARE “too big for their britches”

They do make a happy couple though … just look at the two   little   fellas … two peas in a pod … or two bears in a sack! LMAO

Look at the “little” one on the left … notice the yellow stripes at his waist line?? Tape to hold the suit together … LOL

They thought they were going to get out of the “decon” detail by trying to explain that the suits didn’t fit. The IC thought they were just making excuses. Turns out, they were right but obviously, the IC held his ground as well …LOL

All kidding aside, I think the guys received some really good training over the past 3 days.

Training is always better when you’re out in a more realistic situation / conditions etc.

For the City guys, I’m sure it was also nice to get outside of the city limits and take in a little clean country air.

Thanks to Battalion Chief Teddy Adkins (Roanoke) and Kevin Tottin (Salem) for allowing us to be a part of this training by providing the location ( The Catawba Sustainability Center …aka.. The Tech Farm and myself)

And, while the guys were hard at it training, the Buckaroo and I were just as busy.

We had equipment to unload and hook up in preparation for our evening chores plus we had a load of square bales to deliver that morning.

Loading the hay turned out to be quite the experience. It seems as though a nest of snakes had taken up residence in our loft. Now, they were just black snakes but they were also mean and feisty. They thought that since they had moved in … they owned the place.

 Had they have went on about their business somewhere else, everything would have been fine. Oh no … they figured to say and fight for what they thought was theirs … little did they know that they were fightin the famous Buckaroo!

We had to shoot 4 total and this one was the baby of the lot. The biggest (and meanest) was near 6 foot long and  about 3 inches in diameter. One of the biggest I’ve seen. Somehow or another, the two largest of the 4 made their way onto the HazMat team’s ATV…. LOL …. I don’t know how they got there.

 I didn’t have my camera then but one of the brothers on the team (Mike Elliston from Salem) took some pics and will be sending em my way shortly … I’ll get em up when I get them.

We also had some garden work to do in the evening.

This was the first dry day we’ve had in about 2 weeks or more and if we don’t soon get a crop in the ground, planting season will have passed us by.

Despite, the dry day, the ground was still SOAKED. A muddy mess is what it was but good friend and partner Kevin Tottin had just the trick.

Kevin just bought a smaller “compact” tractor. At 30 hp she has plenty of “pepper” and she’s also light enough that we could get her into places where the bigger tractors are just too heavy.

Like most of em, it was a long hard day we survived. I’m not sure what good it done us because some are saying that 6pm tonight is the  ” End of Days”.  If it is …I’m ready to go and will be standing my post here at Lucky #13. That said, I also hope they’re wrong … I got too much stuff to do tomorrow!

I’ll check back with later on tonight …. until then, stay Safe and in House!

Captain Wines