Chetumal!

Heading north, we bused out of Belize yesterday and crossed the border into Mexico at about 6:30PM.  We are heading for Playa del Carmen, but since we had the choice of hurrying for the bus, or getting a good dinner and spending the night in Chetumal, we of course opted for dinner.  So, we had a lovely seafood dinner at La Botana, and checked into a little hotel where we have stayed before where we know it is quiet and comfortable.

On the way to La Botana, we walked through the Centennial Park in the waterfront.  We've never been here on a weekend night before, and we were pleasantly surprised to see that the city has a festival atmosphere on a Saturday night.  Slides and jumps for the kids, little cars for the kids, people kicking around glowing balls, light-pulsing music-blaring buses, and a clown show all grabbed our attention.  The clown show was actually a little too much attention, since when we stopped to watch the clowns immediately noticed the only two white people in the crowd, and started exchanging silly patter with us:

You speak Spanish?

Si!

Habla Ingles?

No!

Where are you from?

Belice!

Le gusta taquitos?

Si!

Le gusta tequila?

SI!

Barratos!

Everybody laughed all the way through, and while it was a little uncomfortable to be in the spotlight, it was fun.

Today we are on to Playa, where there are more tourists.

More Beetle Burning

Last week, we burned two compartments, for a total of about 450 acres.  This week, we are working on getting some of the beetle spots destroyed.  Fortunately for spectator purposes, one of the largest beetle spots on the property is visible from the fire tower, so as the guys went out to burn Tuesday night, I climbed the firetower with binoculars and my iPad to document the burn.

We start burning in the late afternoon, so I climbed the fire tower right around sunset.  This is the view to the west.

This was the view to the east.  I have no idea what makes the rays in the sky opposite the setting sun, but it's beautiful, and I'm actually surprised that they came out so well in the picture.

This is the fire, just getting started.  By the time they finished, they burned 2 spots about this size on Tuesday night, and another small spot and two large spots last night.  Unfortunately the night pictures don't come out too well, so although a much larger area was burning, it was difficult to see in the pictures.

The guys are out right now clearing fire lines around some additional spots.  It's gray and drizzley and damp today so we won't be burning tonight, and we won't burn tomorrow since the crew leaves on Saturday, but we will pick up with the burning next week.  Our goal is to get most of the beetle spots burned, as well as another compartment, within the next few weeks.  Because the rain has mostly stopped and we seem to be into the dry season, it won't be too long before it is too dry to burn and the danger of the fire running wild will be to great.  Then we will have to wait until fall, and hope we don't have another year like 2013, when it was too wet to burn for most of the year.

Compartment Burn

View of the main fire

After spending an evening burning spots that had been cleared to prevent the spread of the pine bark beetle, we were warmed up (haha) to do a full compartment burn the next night.  The property is divided into compartments, each 200-300 acres.  Each compartment is defined by firebreak boundaries, either bulldozed roads, or natural waterways.  The man-made breaks are placed based on the geography, either where the bulldozer was able to go, or ideally so the geography around the break can help control the fire.

The compartment we burned is roughly a triangle, with a public road on one side, a bulldozed road on the next, and a creek forming the third boundary.  For this compartment, the creek and the public road were givens, so the man-made boundary was bulldozed from the road down towards the base of the hill to where it meets the creek.  This made a good firebreak, because fire tends to burn up, so it is unlikely that a wildfire will spread down the hill vigorously enough to jump the break, and when setting the fire, it can be set along the uphill side of the break and can then burn up the hill.

Ronnie and Tulio filling one of the water packs

Based on wind conditions, the plan was made prior to the burn to burn a break along the bulldozer road, and then set the main fire along the public road and let it burn down along the creek to the break.  The bulk of the crew was planned to go along the main road, with just a few guys going down the bulldozer road to burn the break.  However, when we got out there, the wind had shifted slightly, and because the bulldozer road was less cleared than the main road had had some dry grass growing in it, the decision was made to split the crew more evenly, with half going to one side and half to the other.

The whole crew, minus G, Jerry, and Tom, prior to the burn

Tom and I went with Tulio, Angel, and Arsenio to the bottom of the bulldozer road near the creek, while Salomon, Jose, Ronnie, and Myron went to the point where the main road and the creek meet to start the big burn.  When we got to the bottom of the bulldozer road and started trying to light the fire for the break, we had trouble getting it going because there was absolutely no wind down in the valley, and the tiger bush and grass were somewhat moist...no surprise considering we were in a creek valley in the evening.  Tulio and Angel chopped a path through the tiger bush a little higher up the hill and started lighting up there, while Tom continued to try to light up along the road.  Arsenio and I stood back and watched to make sure the small fires didn't spread into the road, and didn't really have to do much since at that point we were having trouble getting the fire to burn at all, and having it spread in a direction we didn't want wasn't really an issue.

As Tulio, Angel, and Tom moved up the hill lighting the fires, they were easier to start.  Arsenio and I drove the truck up out of the valley, and continued to watch the progress to make sure the fire didn't go the wrong way across the road.  For a long time it did exactly what it was supposed to do, burning 30 to 50 feet into the bush away from the bulldozer road and creating a line that the fire coming from the other direction wouldn't be able to cross.

Tom using the drip torch along the bulldozer road

We were about halfway up the hill, before the road starts to flatten out, when Tulio and Angel came jogging back to the truck to grab the water backpacks for Angel and Arsenio.  The wind had shifted slightly, and the bush was dryer, and suddenly the back burn was moving forward and trying to cross the bulldozer road.  I was dispatched with the truck to retrieve Ronnie and Myron from the other side, where we could see the fire they had set along the road burning quite well, and coming towards us.

The fire lighting crew along the main road

G had arrived on the scene with his friend Jerry, and G was directing the efforts for getting the burn going on that end.  He said they had burned far enough towards the point where we were heading, and since the triangle was narrowing at that spot, they left the fire they had started, which had burned well in from the main road, and G, Jerry, Salomon, and Jose moved to the intersection of the main road and the bulldozer road and started burning down towards us so the break would be wide enough all the way along the bulldozer line by the time the main fire reached it.  I dropped Ronnie and Myron off to work with Angel and Arsenio to keep the bulldozer break clear, and Tom and Tulio continued to set the fire to form the break, moving towards the top of the bulldozer road.

Jerry using the drip torch along the main road

Despite having to work a little harder than expected to form the break and keep it from jumping the bulldozer road before the main fire reached it, everything went well and G declared it a textbook burn.  The fire stayed within its boundaries, it stayed within the range it was supposed to as far as flame height and heat, everything burned well, and nobody was hurt.  The only bummer is that it was almost too easy, and Tom and I feel that we still have a bit to learn since we are going to need to be faced with a bit of adversity and misbehaving fire before we can really figure out how this works, and we need to know how to deal with wildfires since they do happen up here, and Mother Nature doesn't always cooperate with planning for where to start the fires and wind conditions.

The view from the truck as I shuttled people and equipment

The burned break in the foreground, with the main fire coming towards us from the main road

Beetle burning

Part of this job is doing controlled burns, both for the general health of the forest, and to destroy the pine bark beetle.  We started this job in August of last year, and since that time the weather has been consistently wet, and we have not been able to learn how to burn...until now.

Things have finally started to dry out, and G decided that we can start to do some of the burning maintenance jobs.  Last night, for our maiden voyage, we went out and burned five spots that had been cleared because they were infested with the pine bark beetle.  We took the afternoon off, and late in the day hooked up and filled the water trailer, and put all the fire setting and fire fighting equipment in the truck.  The guys had an early dinner, and around 5PM we set out for one of the larger beetle patches.  

We burn late in the day because we want the fire to be controllable, and late in the day the wind tends to die, the humidity goes up, and the temperature goes down.  Plus, when it gets dark, it is easier to see sparks that may blow out of the fire into surrounding areas.  Tom and I were the only ones not experienced with controlled burns, and the crew immediately started their jobs with some picking up fire starting torches, and others filling the water backpacks.  They spread out along the already cleared fire line, and started the fires.  They figured out where to start them based the breeze and the area that had been cleared, and very quickly had the area burning.  Everybody walked around until the fire had burned well towards the middle and there was very little chance of it jumping out of the planned burn area.

When the first fire was under control, we moved to a different beetle spot and burned that.  By this time it was completely dark, and it was easy to see which way the fire would head.  The second site was smaller, and it only took about 45 minutes to burn the area until the fire was contained.

The third, fourth, and fifth areas we burned were areas where Jose had pushed all the downed trees into windrows with the bulldozer in the middle of the cleared areas.  These were relatively easy burns, since we just had to light up the windrows and get them burning, and very little perimeter maintenance was needed.  We deemed the last one safe at around 9PM, and headed back to the farm.

The weather is still favorable for fires, so tonight we are going to do our first compartment burn.  The property is divided into 200-300 acre compartments, with compartment boundaries defined by either roads/fire lines or natural waterways.  Tonight's planned burn has roads on two sides, and a creek on the third.  It should be interesting...photos to follow!

Bush bridge building pictures

Here are some pictures of Tom and the guys building a bush bridge.  The only non-jungle material they used was some old zinc that had been pulled off of one of the roofs because it was full of holes.  I think the pictures are pretty self explanatory with Tom's comments, but let us know if you have any questions.

Three primary support logs from a tree cut just next to this location - so no transportation or milling overhead.

Pushing the fourth main support into position with the bulldozer.

Cutting the fourth support to length prior to lifting it into place with the tractor.

Yes, even Tom can work like the rest of the guys sometimes.  Adjusting the fourth support.

Adjusting another main support.

Measuring to make sure we are within jungle variances.

Starting the first layer of cross stick for driving deck support.

First layer of driving deck in place, time for scrap metal roofing to prevent dirt from washing through the bridge.

Metal layer in place.

Another layer of stick in the next direction.  Yes, we keep changing direction on each layer for more support.

Cover with dirt.....

....and more dirt so vehicles can drive across smoothly.

Bulldozer on top of bridge.

As you can see, the bulldozer can cross safely without falling through!  Yes, always a worry when creating "bush" structures.

Bridge done by the best crew!  Great job, team!

Only 1.5 days to complete the job!

...and more field work

Tom and I have both managed to stay busy outside for the past couple of weeks.  I spent the better part of a week seemingly meandering through the pine forest behind Angel, continuing to map the beetle spots.  Tulio deployed the whole crew to chop the perimeters of each and every spot, and then assigned Angel to be my guide.  I had all of the previously identified spots tagged on my GPS map, Tulio had shown a few more to Angel, and between us we plotted a route to hit all of them, and then walked the edges.  We found that the GPS didn't work so well in the very small spots, so we ended up skipping some of the three or four tree sites, and we merged a few of the close-together smaller sites.  We also cut a few spots short when we would have had to risk our lives to climb down a cliff to incorporate a stump into our map, and I could only wonder who had balanced on the side of the cliff to cut the infected tree down in the first place.  Many of the spots are on steep hills going down into jungly creek bottoms, so we spent a lot of time carefully making our way over very rough terrain.  Angel was quite patient about waiting for me, and even going at my slow pace I found that I was exhausted at the end of the day, and was in bed and asleep by 7:30, and not awake and waiting for the alarm at 6am the next day.  I thought I was pretty fit, but this project was an endurance test...but now it's done, and we just have to put the GPSed lines into the mapping program to see how many acres are affected.

I also learned to drive the farm's tractor so I could bush hog the horse pastures.  They were bush hogged just before we brought the horses up last July, and with all the rain we have had since then, we haven't been able to get out there to clean them up until now.  There were a lot if weedy sticky things that the horses don't eat that needed to be knocked down, so I spent two afternoons driving in circles and cleaning up the pastures.  Now we can see the horses even when they have their heads down grazing, and we can see Kismet when she runs out to round them up.  Now we need just a little more rain so the new grass can grow.

Tom has been busy in a variety of small projects, with the most fun probably being putting in a bush bridge on one of the crossover roads.  The bridge washed out in the October floods, and we have been working on bigger projects, but it was this bridge's turn since the two concrete approach bridges are fixed.  The smaller bridge is really more work than the bigger bridges, which only really required gravel and fill to be dumped on the approach, and then running over the fill to pack it down.  For this smaller bridge, the old bridge had to be pulled out which involved a lot of digging, and then big logs need to be set into the banks before sticks, roofing, and fill are placed on top.  It's a lot of work, but with a crew of seven plus Tom, it's a two-day project.

Field work

My lack of blogging, or online interaction in general, has been due to being very busy out of the house and away from the computer, not from not doing anything.  I have been continuing the beetle project, and have made a first pass through all the data and forwarded it to G to incorporate into his maps and beetle data base.  In addition, I have been working on getting the area of all the affected spots, which entails walking around each area with a GPS, and forwarding the track to G so he can use his software to get the exact area.  The spots range from just a few trees to large tracts of 25 acres or so, and so far I have been very impressed with Dave and Tulio's rough guesses, which have been pretty close to the actual areas I've walked.  I've walked most if the easily walkable spots, and after spending 1.5 hours traversing .5 miles of beetle border the other day, through tiger bush and deep jungle, over fallen pine trees, and up and down cliffs (really!), I am now at the point where I am going to take one of the guys with me to chop the trail, or perhaps to just climb through the really gnarly parts on his own with the GPS and meet me at the other side.  Tulio also has all of the guys chopping borders around some of the chopped beetle spots so they can burn them if the rain has really stopped, so some of those borders will be easier for me to map.  One way or the other, over the next couple of weeks, I hope to have a real measurement of how many acres have been damaged by the animal, aka the beetle.

While I have been hacking my way up and down mountains through deep jungle, Tom has been facing another challenge...learning to operate the bull dozer!  The British Army needed to get their men, equipment, and trucks out to Baldy Beacon, and knowing the roads were in bad shape, they contacted us for help.  On Saturday, Jose drove the bull out to the road where BATSUB would pass, and on Sunday, G and Tom went out to fix, flatten, and reshape the road so it was passable by the military trucks.  As training, G let Tom figure out what to do...

...and Tom knocked some bank into the road so he had material to fill up the mucky spots, and then proceeded to try to flatten it.  At one point he had three or four Mennonite pickups backed up waiting to pass, so G stepped in to help until they were through, but Tom kept at it and by the time the military went through, they all made it, no problem.  Tom went back to clean up on Tuesday, and between Tom and Jose, the road is now in decent shape, so with any luck the British military will be able to get out in a few weeks.  And, Tom is getting more comfortable with the bull!

At this point in our lives/careers, we never thought Tom would be driving a bulldozer and I would be hacking my way through the jungle with a machete, but we can't think of any place we would rather be!