Mietzke's POST Holden Adventure

Dave and I have been busy this week. Dave is training to be the fire chief and I have been training for the volunteer fire brigade. We have a fire fighter Named Jeff who has come up to do the training and it is a lot of information in a small period of time. We have been learning about fire behavior, recognizing and responding to fire emergencies and search and rescue procedures. We had two days of class work and three days of practical skills which include putting on fire suits, working a fire hose, using air tanks with air tight masks, searching smoked out buildings and assessing a situation according to the perceived information. We have also been learning how to work as a team, to listen and communicate clearly and concisely.
We have been dressing in Turn out gear and responding to emergency drills. The first practical day we learned all sorts of different rescue holds and practiced different ways of carrying victims out of buildings. Then we dressed in turnouts and practiced doing searches on our hand and knees with low/ no visibility with air tanks on. We learned how to check our air regulators and how to turn our emergency motion detectors on and how to turn off our emergency alarms that go off if you stop moving for any reason. Then Jeff filled Chalet 11 with “smoke” and we practiced rescuing people and putting out fires with gear on. We had to follow each other using the wall as a guide and holding onto the fire fighter in front of us as we made our way through the building. The whole experience was pretty intense.
The gear is really heavy and I found I was exhausted at the conclusion of the day. I got used to breathing through a mask, but I certainly prefer the mask with air attached.
The second practical day we worked in Lodge Two. The upper floor was filled with “smoke and we did drill after drill each filling a role. There are searchers, a chief (Dave) who directs and makes decisions about the best way to deal with the scene, a porch captain, who organizes all of the searchers and fire brigade members. A hose team, Rescue squads who search for victims and help to get them out of the building, back up fire fighters who man the large fan at the door and are at the ready to back up the hose team and rescue team when needed. The are the hose house teams who work to get the hoses to the fire scene and to the fire brigade members, and searchers who do the initial search and act as runners for things that are needed to secure the scene. We also have first response teams at the ready to respond to victims and help weary fire fighters. It takes a lot of coordination and teamwork to effectively put out a fire and deal with victims.
Yesterday after the third or forth drill I was so ready to be done. I could hardly wait to take my mask off and get out of those heavy clothes. The first drill I went in as the Hose team to put out the “fire”. It was half way down the hall on the right hand side and had not gotten out of control yet, so it was put out easily and we stayed inside to mop up the mess and make sure the fire was out completely.
The second drill I was the porch captain and I was directing the others what to do and coordinating with the radios and keeping track of where people were and what areas had been searched, and what the needs of the hose team and search team were. When they found a “victim” I had a second team go in to help them. For me that was the most stressful part. I was so afraid of messing up, and making clear calm communication over the radio took a little getting used to. I will need more practice, hopefully not in a real fire situation.
The third drill I went in as a Searcher/Rescue team with Trevor, and we found a “victim” in the bathroom on the toilet, and he was a big guy. I had to climb into the stall with him and used my whole body to move his legs over which had blocked the door. Once I had gotten his leg our of the way, we pulled him as gently as possible off of the toilet and out into the main bathroom and drug him out of the building. It was hard not to giggle, but giggling takes lots of extra air from my pack. It took three of us to get him out, (He was in actuality a brigade member in turnouts so he was even heavier than normal.) Plus, we were trying to get him out and deal with all of our gear. The air tanks take up a lot of room and it was difficult to move him while trying to deal with the air tank which kept getting caught on the door. When we finally got him out, and it took one of us at his head, and two at his feet, and a fourth on the radio calling for first aid.
For the forth drill I was a back up team and had to go in to relieve the hose team, whose air had begun to run out. I went in with my partner and we finished putting the “fire” out. I had about had it at that point and I spent the drill trying to chill out, but when it was over I was wiped and I couldn’t get that mask off fast enough once I went outside. It was a long day.
Today I am sitting in my living room, knowing that we have a big drill happening at some point, so I am waiting for the wail of the fire alarm to go off. I woke up with nervous anticipation, and a bit of excitement. I really want to be ready, and calm and appropriate in my response. I want to know that I will be ready if I ever have to respond to a real fire. Oh... there goes the wail, I will have to continue this later...

Patterns in the Trees

The wind blows patterns in the trees by the river
wild heads
bow
and
bend
ebbing and flowing
like waves on the sea
pushed and pulled
by the will of the wind
They move,
dance
and
sway
completely taken over by the winds song
as I stand here waiting,
I am enveloped
I hear nothing but the winds symphony
moving through the valley
I feel nothing but its sting
on my cheeks, bear arms, and legs
I see nothing but the wild world
stirring and churning
My hair is blowing straight back from my face
Flickering with unsettled friction
I feel the freedom dancing across goose bumped arms
Chilling me and driving me forward
Every surface of my body is reminded of life
As the wind blows patters within me

First let me apologize for the lack of posting lately, I have been pretty busy, but that’s really just an excuse for my lack of inspiration on the writing front. There have been several events in and out of the village that I have thought of writing about, however I just haven’t had the discipline to sit myself down and do it. Next I must warn you that this is an exceptionally long post.

Deer Hunting

Back in the middle of October the girlies and I went out to join my family on the annual deer hunting trip. It’s been several years since I have been able to go. My parents, and another family (friends of my parents) have been hunting together for years out of mind; my sister’s family and Ang, the girls, and I join them when we can. In the last few years they have been hunting in an area that I had not been to yet. It is in north central Washington only a couple of hours from Chelan and not to far from the area that we had hunted in the past. Ang couldn’t join us because she was to go to her Waldorf training in Vancouver BC the next week and couldn’t take two weeks out of the village. The girls and I went out on the Thursday before opening day of the general season, and drove to the camp. I hadn’t been there before but getting there was pretty straight forward. Even so we met Mom and Dad, coming to meet us when we were about five miles from camp and had already made the last turn. I think Grandma couldn’t wait one more minute to see the girlies.

Friday, the day before opening, Dad and I went out to look at the area we were to hunt the next day. This was especially important since I hadn’t really any idea of the lay of the land, or how to effectively hunt it. It is some absolutely beautiful territory, but more covered that the area that I had hunted before. As the day progressed more and more hunters started arriving. With the Boeing strike I think that every striking employee was out there with us. In the campground we were in there were groups from Graham, Orting, Puyallup, and many other west side communities.

Saturday morning, opening day of the general season, Dad and I went out and hunted the area that we had walked the day previous. We split up planning to meet up in a big open area later in the morning. After about an hour as I was just getting ready to take off my outer jacket, I saw a big deer butt disappearing over the hill in front of me. I just saw it long enough to see that it had a big set of antlers, and then it was gone. I went where I thought I might see it again if it were to show it’s self, but no luck. Later Dad and I met up and were walking together, Dad showing me some more of the lay of the land, and we came over a hill right on top of two more bucks with at least three points on their antlers, the minimum to shoot mule deer in that area of the state. Well the deer saw us as soon as we saw them and turned and were gone in the brush almost before we could get a good look at them. All things considered not a bad opening morning, seeing three shoot-able deer, I would have preferred to have a shot at one of them, but you can’t have everything.

The next morning Jordy came out with Dad and I, we hunted the same area in almost the same way. Jordy and I surprised a white tail deer in the brush, but we never got a good look at it. As it happens it ran out in front of Dad and was a doe. So I guess our hunting tactics worked, at least in the sense that Dad saw the deer we kicked up. We didn’t see any more deer that day.

Monday morning Jordy, Dad, and I were out again this time in an area that we hadn’t been to before. Unfortunately we didn’t see a single thing. That evening Dad and I decided to go back to the area we hunted Saturday and Sunday mornings. We decided to hunt the west side of the hill, rather than to come in from the east. My nephew Alex decided to come out with Dad, and Jordy stayed in camp. We parked the truck and I started working my way across the flat to the hill. A couple of minutes later a white tail doe jumped up from her afternoon nap and went up the hill and toward where I thought Dad and Alex were. Pretty soon after she disappeared I noticed that there was another deer following her but being much more careful to keep it’s self out of sight. I never got a good look at it at all. I figured it must have been her boyfriend. I had the breeze at my back so I thought that would be the last I would see of deer that evening, but it turns out that Alex is a pretty good brush beater, if not shall we say quiet in the woods. A few minutes later I looked up the hill in front of me and there is the biggest buck I have ever seen. It was working it’s way up the hill looking back at where Dad and Alex were, totally unaware of me. This part took maybe a minute, but it seemed much longer. I moved to get a better rest for my rifle and momentarily lost track of it. I watched the hill in front of me until It came in sight again a little higher up. I waited until I had the sight picture I wanted said a little prayer and squeezed the trigger, everything happened exactly as I wanted it to. The deer went down like a rock. Dad heard the shot, and called on the radio to hear that I had got him. In retrospect I think it was the first deer I saw on opening morning, it was right over the hill-crest from where I saw it that morning. It turns out that Dad and Alex were on the side hill almost level with the deer and had not seen it, while I was down about a hundred and fifty yards from it. We got to it at about the same time, and began dressing it to drag back to the truck. We got it back to the truck just as the sun was going down, and back to camp a few minutes later to be met by the rest of our hunting partners.

My sister wrote a beautiful description of what occurred after we got back to camp in a letter to Angela, here it is:

Dave’s Deer

In your blog post on the bear hunt you had all kinds of questions about the emotions around the hunt. So I thought I would write about what I saw when Dave brought in the deer Monday night. I’m also trying to get Alex to write about what he saw and felt; he was out with Dad and Dave when Dave shot the deer and then gutted and drug it out.
First of all, we were all incredibly excited and proud. The deer was so big, and so pretty, and it had been so long since Dave had shot a deer (it was when I was pregnant with Ian). Ian and I both ran for our cameras to get pictures of Dave with his deer before they started skinning it. And then we all went into “take care of it” mode. It needed to be hung and skinned and wrapped up for the night and it was already dark (he shot it at about 5:30 pm). Mom and I got the bags and needle and thread out. Tom got out a knife to help skin. Dad and Steve helped them get it on the gambrel (the rig for hanging it); then they stood back to watch and give advice. Steve got his chair (thus providing Dave with a cupholder for his soda) and his camera to document the event. The girls, especially Jordyn, watched and helped hold the knife when the guys needed to readjust things. They were so excited and happy for their Daddy we had trouble getting them in for dinner. I think everyone of us in camp was just really excited. When I ran into one of the old guys from the camp next door on my way back from the outhouse, I couldn’t help but tell him about the deer. So then all of the guys from over there came over to exclaim about how big and pretty the deer was. It was pretty cool to see all those guys exclaiming over Dave’s success.
I was also really happy that Alex had been with them when Dave shot the deer. He told us he was a little nervous at first that seeing them gut the deer would make him throw up. But once they started doing it, it was just really interesting. He identified each of the innards and learned that it wasn’t so bad. Seeing that it isn’t such a horrible thing as he’d imagined it to be was really good. It was a really good thing for Alex to experience, I think that Dave and Dad were sensitive to Alex about the whole thing, even if they weren’t aware of it. One of the reasons Ian wasn’t able to shoot the deer the first year he hunted was fear of what came after the deer died; Alex doesn’t have this fear now. Alex told me that his feelings were all in a jumble when the deer died, but that cleared up pretty fast from the sound of it. He really found the biology of it fascinating, and he seemed pretty proud to be able to help the guys. Alex carried Dave’s pack as they drug the deer to the truck, which was quite a drag, especially since the deer was so big.
As we were all helping Dave when they got back to camp, I kept trying to think about what emotions were around so I could share them with you. Really it was pretty simple, it was a lot of excitement and pride, we all wanted to give Dave a hug, and he was smiles from ear to ear. And once the deer was in camp, we all knew what jobs we needed to do to get the meat taken care of promptly, and we all pitched in to do them. The men helped with the hanging and skinning, Mom and I helped with the bagging and sewing and getting the guys what they needed (washing knives, heating water for them to wash up with). The kids helped hold things, run for things, and provided ample adoration. It really comes down to a lot of ‘doing’ more than feeling. Once the animal has been killed, the work really begins, and we all really focus on that.

There were more adventures that night, with rain, and a bear trying to pull down the deer hanging in the neighboring campsite, but it's late and I'm off to bed now.

Last night the whole village sat and listened to NPR's coverage of the election and There was true Jubilation from all when Obama's success was announced. I realized that it was the first time I have felt politically hopeful in years! I feel like our country made a statement about race, religion, and our stance on violence in the world in electing Obama. I am encouraged about the potential for change. For weeks I have been holding dread inside of me and fear, and it feels good to know that the political climate can change. I don't know how the next few years will pan out but I feel like the People of the United States finally woke up and are willing to stand against all of the atrocities that have occurred in the last eight years. I want to thank all of the Obama supporters and those who have been speaking out against the war. Way to go Voters!!!!!

This week has been crazy, with power outages that last for hours, and inventory needing to be done in the dark, starting a new job, and Halloween. I spent the day setting up the dining hall like an enchanted forest for the Halloween party. I went out into the woods with Bill who is working as my helper this month and gathered large branches just for the occasion, then we brought them back to the dining hall and brought the forest inside. We made pinecone bats and ghosts and lanterns, and hung blue, green, and red lights from the ceiling and branches. There were caramel apples and Christmas cookies and chocolate covered nuts, and pudding with gummy worms and broken up oreos in it. The children spent the afternoon pressing apples into cider in the cider press, helped by Chuck Carpenter, and then they carved pumpkins and helped with the last of the decorating.
The evening festivities started with a haunted Holden Evening Prayer vespers where everyone came in costume and Tom played the whole service in minor keys. It was fun and creepy, and we all laughed and worked hard at trying to sing this familiar service in a different tune. When the service was over we all headed up the hill and the whole village trick or treated and whoevers house was next would run ahead of the mob and prepare for the trick or treaters.
It was a lot of fun. We ended trick or treating at the dining hall where we held a dance and a pumpkin carving contest, and enjoyed the food and festivities. It was quite a night. Jordyn made her own costume and was a pixy who sparkled from the top of her head to her feet. She was all stripes and had made striped wings and wove thread into her wings like spider webs, it was so creative! Nyrie was a Monarch butterfly her class has been studying the migration patterns of the monarch and she really had a vision for her costume. Dave was dressed like our beloved maverick Dan and had him down to a tea. I was a television evangelists wife and I had a dark wig on a white dress and a crown.
Matt and Steph did a great job with the music and we had a lot of fun dancing and being silly. We ended the party at 9:00 and then hosted two scary movies one for kids and one for adults. All and all the day was fun and successful! I get to take the day off tomorrow and my feet will be happy.