Up and away early this morning, Yesterday, Lost my first game in the tournament, then Our social bowl and supper then home to entertain Nanaimo visitors. Was a good day with lots of birthday wishes.

We worked all through the night and as it started getting light around five am we tied the guard into the starting point. 

  I told Jules to go around the fire a second time and fix up any areas that appeared vulnerable, before he started I took him over to where I had found the wet spots and the swampy area, “When you get finished with the guard, scrape down into the ground and see if we can find ourselves at least some water.” I told him.

  I went around the fire once more and told half the crew to stop and go have a sandwich break, when they were finished to go and relieve the other half.

  “I’m going down the road and see if I can make contact with Vanderhoof but it’s probably still too early, so I may have to go right into town and see about some relief for you guys.”

  I headed out stopping every few minutes to try the radio but there was no response, so finally I just stepped on the gas and headed in.

  When I got to the office I found a list crew list of twenty- five men  that George had left on the counter, obviously he had anticipated my needs and was all organized, “8 am” was written and encircled at the top of the list. I attached a note to the list saying we would only need fifteen this morning, but would need the other ten about midday and I would check back in by radio through Fort St. James around ten. I added “things are looking ok.” I took another five back pumps, filled them with water and headed back. By the time I got there the fire guard had been touched up and the crew were starting dry mop-up. Jules had started scraping a shallow depression and water was oozing in to it, but after watching for a few minutes I knew that we would never get enough water to accommodate one of our pumps, even a small one.

  I took one of the crew aside, told him he was now a strawboss and to keep the mop-up going. I told the rest of the crew and that I had to head back into town again. Then I took Jerry back to the tie hacking operation to get Jules’ pickup. “I want you to keep the back pumps full, for now you’ll have to run back and forth to the small creek back down the road four or five miles.”

  I had an idea on how to utilize our inadequate water reservoir and without proper communications it meant another trip back.

I checked into the office as soon as I got back, George greeted me as I went through the door with, “ Sure glad you left that note, I figured for sure it was goin’ ‘over the hill’ in all that down stuff.”

  I replied, “It was tough with only a D2 and hand tools, but the night air and no wind made the difference. I’ve found a really small supply of water but I have to make some kind of a pump that will handle it. Can you get hold of someone from the hardware store and see if they’ll open up to sell us a washing machine pump? I’m going to see that fellow on the edge of town that does lawn mower and roto-tiller repairs.”

  A short while later the Forest Service were the new owners of a used roto-tiller engine and a brand new washing machine pump. Corny, the dispatcher arrived just as I got back to the office, together we screwed down the motor and the pump onto a small rectangle of plywood and after another call to the hardware store owner and some more purchases of some pulleys, a couple drive belts and almost all the garden hose he had in stock we had us something that should pump water.