Jan 3: (Thu 7:00pm): First Thursday Business Meeting.

Jan 10: (Thu 6:30pm): Second Thursday Training Meeting. 1-3-5 year WFD plan brainstorming. Focus on Building and Grounds. Special Projects: ISO to get to Class 8B. Community (Communication and PR): Education and safety, smoke alarms, and visits to set up WFD Community Zones. Recruitment: a simple brochure, and a formal application with copies on hand in the station. Other categories need review.

Jan 15: (Tue 7:00pm): Third Tuesday Oglethorpe Firefighters Association meeting (Farm Bureau Office in Crawford).

Jan 17: (Thu 6:30pm): Third Thursday Training Meeting. Canceled

Jan 24: (Thu 6:30pm): Fourth Thursday Training Meeting. Hose and coupling/adapter challenge. Hooking up hoses of different couplings and sizes to discharges/intakes of different sizes. Went through half a dozen setups using our collection of adapters and couplings. Made sure we had identical sets on each truck (need to order one – Ed wrote it down).

Jan 31: (Thu 6:30pm): Fifth Thursday Training Meeting. Discussed repairs to mailbox (box ok, post not). Reviewed radio protocol with Central and on the fireground. Jesse advised on Arnoldsville and Crawford alternative fireground channels. (Still doubts about MSRD and Fireground channels.) Recruiting from Lake Oglethorpe. (Summarized by Glenn Galau.)

Feb 7: (Thu 7:00pm): First Thursday Business Meeting.

Feb 14: (Thu 6:30pm): Second Thursday Training Meeting. Ran through nursing practice from tanker to pumper. Charleen and Jesse topped off the tanker.

Feb 19: (Tue 7:00pm): Third Tuesday Oglethorpe Firefighters Association meeting (Farm Bureau Office in Crawford).

Feb 21: (Thu 6:30pm): Third Thursday Training Meeting. Pulled hose off the pumper bed to check and count/inventory. Glenn’s summary is attached as trainingsupp130221. Basically there is 250 feet 1-3/4” preconnect and 900 feet 2.5” in three sets.

Feb 28: (Thu 6:30pm): Fourth Thursday Training Meeting. Made measurements of front of building for fascia replacement.

Mar 7: (Thu 7:00pm): First Thursday Business Meeting.

Mar 14: (Thu 6:30pm): Second Thursday Training Meeting. Preparation for Firefighter Weekend: made sure trucks were fueled and full of water, compressor on, batteries ok, etc. Discussed and rejected need for notes for auxiliary firefighters in case of fire over the weekend.

Mar 15-17: (Fri-Sun): Firefighter Weekend in Forsyth, Georgia at the Georgia Public Safety and Training Center (GPSTC). Firefighter Weekend. 48 hours contribution, 16 hours course time. WH and CF: PICO, Preparation for Initial Company Operations. EF and GG: ISO, Incident Safety Officer. Nominally 8 hours each of Saturday and Sunday, Mar 16,17.

Mar 19: (Tue 7:00pm): Third Tuesday Oglethorpe Firefighters Association meeting (Farm Bureau Office in Crawford).

Mar 21: (Thu 6:30pm): Third Thursday Training Meeting. Post Firefighter weekend and 3/20 Heather Place apartment fire. Some discussion there, and then we did nursing from the pumper to the tanker and back again. Hooked up with 3” hose.

Mar 28: (Thu 6:30pm): Fourth Thursday Training Meeting. First round of wildland fire training: constructing a fire break. We went through tools and worked with each one. Not enough to really try a hand crew line, but demonstrated. Then worked for 1.5 hours making 100 feet of fire break on east side of back property.

Apr 4: (Thu 7:00pm): First Thursday Business Meeting.

Apr 11: (Thu 6:30pm): Second Thursday Training Meeting. Went over the completed fire break line with Jim, who inspected and approved it. Discussed the schedule for the prescribed burn either Saturday or Sunday. Brought out the suppression tools and discussed the use of these. Put together four backpack sprayers. Put together a sign for the front roadside warning of “Control Burn Do Not Call.” Will put this out a day ahead.

Apr 13: (Sat 8am-5pm+): Special prescribed burn session. Prescribed burn behind Wolfskin VFD Station. Hours are approximate and not all share same time. Some spent 2-4 hours observation time after 5pm, others did not, or dropped by briefly to check things out. Jeff Jackson was instructor, and offered suggestions on conducting the ¾ acre burn.

Apr 16: (Tue 7:00pm): Third Tuesday Oglethorpe Firefighters Association meeting (Farm Bureau Office in Crawford). Turned out to be Monday, and at the Rescue building. Need to find out if the usual venue and time for FFA has changed.

Apr 18: (Thu 6:30pm): Third Thursday Training Meeting. Checked out the effects of the burn (many blackberries and sweetgum saplings still intact). Plan to gradually stack remaining branches, etc., into piles for later burning. Went over hoses, male and female couplings and how to place in a hose roll, rolling a hose, names of couplings, adapters, and fittings, which we also handled and went over.

Apr 25: (Thu 6:30pm): Fourth Thursday Training Meeting. Did dump and drafting exercises by tanker to and from drop tank. Everyone cycled through dumping the tanker’s supply in one of two ways, hooking up for drafting, and operating tanker press/vac for drafting.

May 2: (Thu 7:00pm): First Thursday Business Meeting.

May 9: (Thu 6:30pm): Second Thursday Training Meeting. Set up the pumper fan to use as a positive pressure fan, operating from outside the kitchen door, and observed a significant flow rate to the outside at the open main bay entrance with all other doors shut. Took down fan info and checked on the specs: http://www.supervac.com/product/p-series/ It has 3200 cubic feet per minute shroud, and 5200 cfm venturi. (12,500 cfm was considered typical for positive pressure ventilation). Ours might more properly be considered a smoke ejector, but could still be used for ppv in a smaller compartment. I'm not sure what shroud and venturi refer to - the point in the air flow where the measurement is taken? It seems that it's the sort of thing that everyone knows so no one explains it. Their catalog pdf is interesting to look through, although no prices are given.

Also practiced popping the cab on the pumper, two at a time, and individually where feasible.

May 16: (Thu 6:30pm): Third Thursday Training Meeting. Got the hydrant off the truck and stowed in the kitchen area. Worked on planning for set the hydrant up as mailbox stand. Tentatively decided to set back with a small graveled pull off next to the road. Looked at the pumper bay siding and worked on some plans for completing this within the month.

May 20: (Mon 7:00pm): Oglethorpe Firefighters Association meeting (at the Rescue Building). Agenda is available, and one item is to determine the time of future monthly meetings.

May 23: (Thu 6:30pm): Fourth Thursday Training Meeting. To Oconee County VFD Station #1, Macon Highway, Walkinsville. We participated in hose tests, using 3-inch hose. Pulled off 1500 feet of hose from the trucks in five 300-foot forward lays, then connected all up to the pumper outputs at once. Initial low pressure charging to remove air, mark (ring) the couplings, and to check for low pressure leaks (one such length was found, removed, and replaced with another). Then charged to 250 psi for the required 5-minute test. Checked for leaks and for displacement of coupling marks indicating coupling problem during the 250 psi test. Hoses put back on the pumper bed.

NOTE: 1-3/4 inch hose done same way, but with 200 psi. Not necessary to run pump during the entire 5-minute test.

May 30: (Thu 6:30pm): An infrequent Fifth Thursday Training Meeting. Fueled both trucks (at Bolero). 45-50 gallons each. Added biocide (1/3 cup, maintenance) to each. Topped off both trucks with water.

Jun 6: (Thu 7:00pm): First Thursday Business Meeting. Determined next business meeting to be July 11.

Jun 13: (Thu 7:00pm): Second Thursday Training Meeting. Drop tank with tanker. Dumped water and drafted several times.

Jun 18: (Tue 7:00pm): Oglethorpe Firefighters Association meeting (at the Rescue Building). Mandatory meeting of all firefighters.

Jun 20: (Thu 6:30pm): Third Thursday Training Meeting. : Hose tested station 1.5” at 200 psi, 6 x 50’ lengths. All passed. Went out to 189 Lakeside Drive to check out brush pile for burning. Going to be hard to burn until winter, if then.

Jun 27: (Thu 6:30pm): Fourth Thursday Training Meeting. Hose tested station 3” at 200 psi, 6 x 50’ lengths. One failed, bad female coupling. Replaced with seventh hose and rest passed. Booster was pulled out for recirculation/cooling during pumping, but probably not used correctly. A lot of water seems to be lost in testing 3” hose! Refilled both trucks.

Jul 4: (Thu 7:00pm): First Thursday Business Meeting moved to July 11.

Jul 11: (Thu 7:00pm): Second Thursday Business Meeting (note - postponed from July 4.

Jul 16: (Tue 7:00pm): Oglethorpe Firefighters Association meeting (Farm Bureau Office in Crawford, unless it's at the Rescue Building).

Jul 18: (Thu 6:30pm): Third Thursday Training (first one of the month). Ed led training. Reviewed basics of 250 gal (ours) propane tank. Fill valve, on-off control, regulator, pressure relief valve. Function of firefighters in emergency: turn off gas supply and call gas company. Park away from tank, uphill, and upwind if possible. Discovered locked brakes on pumper. Run trucks weekly. Possible solution, brakes on and off repeatedly, with forward and neutral transmission until unlock. Practiced backing up to a cone-simulated “loading dock.”

Jul 25: (Thu 6:30pm): Fourth Thursday Training. Opened pumper cab and located air brake cylinders. Glenn found the drain valve, located under the front bumper. Added two quarts castrol diesel engine oil (30W?) to engine oil reservoir (needed it!). Located pump oil reservoir on passenger side accessed by removable plate behind front of ladder. Also primer oil reservoir accessed same way and in center of compartment – hard to get to. Pump oil fine, did not check or fill primer oil reservoir. Tanker: drained air brake tanks and brought back up to full pressure. Ran both trucks, took pumper down to Old Edwards and back. NOTE: Wolfskin resident stopped by and asked about the street sign she’d ordered and paid for some time back. I texted LV but no reply as yet.

Aug 1: (Thu 7:00pm): First Thursday Business Meeting.

Aug 2, 3: (Friday night and Saturday all day) VFIS Emergency Vehicle Operations training. Friday night is classroom, and Saturday is driving obstacle courses all day in fire trucks. I'll have times and places updated.

Aug 8: (Thu 6:30pm): Second Thursday Training (first training of the month). Hauled out the SCBAs and checked for battery condition and replacement. Last check was 7/19/12, so just about a year. We replaced all batteries (8 AA per pack). Found only one with mild leakage, easily cleaned. Found two BA packs that were problematic in other ways (cackling mic, or tank air delivery), took out of service and put air cylinders on pumper. Also demo’d and set up the portable lighting system for charging (Charleen stopped by on Saturday and returned it to the pumper).

Aug 15: (Thu 6:30pm): Third Thursday Training. Search and Rescue Management Class at Oconee County Civic Center. Instructors usually teach this as a 16-hr+ course, and OCVFD Chief Bruce Thaxton told me afterwards that he would like to host that course sometime in the future. This is the 1-hour version. Instructors touched on use of the book “Lost Person Behavior” and using it to develop profiles and statistical expectations of lost persons (a 7-year-old child was used as example). Presented the bicycle model (hub, spokes, reflectors) for search strategies. Touched on clues, changing the initial planning point (IPP), extended searches, percent outcome rates (33% rule), see attached long summary and handout. Final review of actual 2008 Cloudland Canyon State Park search. Questions at end focused entirely on search dogs.

Aug 20: (Tue 7:00pm): Oglethorpe Firefighters Association meeting (Farm Bureau Office in Crawford, unless it's at the Rescue Building).

Aug 22: (Thu 6:30pm): Fourth Thursday Training. We did hose testing on 2 x 200 feet of pumper crosslay (1-3/4). Laid out the 2 x150 feet of original hose, and added a 50-foot roll of untested hose to each end for a total of 200 feet each. 100 psi, marked with sharpie and dated, then 200 psi for 5 minutes. All passed. Nursed to fill pumper from tanker, then JC/EF took tanker to fill. Meanwhile GG, WH, and CF put the two crosslays back together. We replaced the 50-foot rolls from the trucks with tested station hose.

Aug 29: (Thu 6:30pm): Rare Fifth Thursday Training. Outfitted Kenny with PPE, reviewed requirements for Forsyth beginning Sep 23. Checked pumper coolant level since red warning light has been on. Coolant full, so may be thermostat.

Sep 5: (Thu 7:00pm): First Thursday Business Meeting.

Sep 12: (Thu 6:30pm): Second Thursday Training. Ladders. Reviewed attic ladder, roof ladder, and extension ladder. Carries, raises, leg lock. Used pumper ladders

Sep 17: (Tue 7:00pm): Oglethorpe Firefighters Association meeting (Farm Bureau Office in Crawford, unless it's at the Rescue Building).

Sep 19: (Thu 6:30pm): Third Thursday Training. Tanker crosslays. 2 x 4 x 50’ lengths of 1-3/4” hose. Added a previously untested (yellow) length to 150 feet so both are now 200’. Used the tanker fire pump (after checking oil – Ed added some) and that did well at 200 psi 5 minutes.

Sep 26: (Thu 6:30pm): Fourth Thursday Training. Checked out all five available BAs for possible leaking batteries after Kenny discovered his BA to take to Forsyth had leaking batteries 2 months after replacement with new ones. Ed called ISI, and they said BAs should be checked monthly since batteries drain constantly even when units are off. Once one (of eight) batteries is depleted, leakage is possible. Do not mix ages, makes, or energy modes. Suggest checking own BA at each business meeting. May not even have to removed from pumper panel.

Oct 3: (Thu 7:00pm): First Thursday Business Meeting.

Oct 10: (Thu 6:30pm): Second Thursday Training. Various: CF recombined BA parts to produce one complete BA, possibilities of another. Cleaned one power pack. Checked thermal temp of pumper radiator/engine block after running awhile (recall hot water light is on). Kase Crawford interviewed, toured station. Glenn took confined crawl construction to AFD for training. Planned for Firefighter Festival obligations on Saturday.

Oct 12: Saturday, 10am-4pm: Oglethorpe County Volunteer Firefighters Association 1st Firefighter Festival. At Oglethorpe County High School, football stadium parking lot. Six competitions, lots of fire trucks, everyone welcome.

Oct 15: (Tue 7:00pm): Oglethorpe Firefighters Association meeting (Farm Bureau Office in Crawford, unless it's at the Rescue Building).

Oct 17: (Thu 6:30pm): Third Thursday Training. Did recycling, cleaning up of trash part of station.

Oct 24: (Thu 6:30pm): Fourth Thursday Training. : Hose testing, beginning pumper bed. Driver’s side 1-3/4” preconnect, 5 x 50’, all ok. Also did last two 1-3/4” rolls stored on tanker. Jim photographed and bug bombed the well house to begin determining problem with pump.

Oct 31: (Thu 6:30pm): Fifth Thursday Training. Fire extinguisher training. Jim Kitchens went over the limitations and uses of extinguishers for A, B, C, D, and K fires. We all took multiple reps working with an ABC extinguisher on a contained gasoline fire.

Nov 7 (Thu 7:00pm): First Thursday Business Meeting.

Nov 14: (Thu 6:30pm): Second Thursday Training. : Planning for holiday party, Dec 12. Checked fuel on pumper and tanker, estimated tanker weight (without 20,000 lbs water) at 39,500 lbs. Need to check Big Creek bridge weight limits. Measured furnace pipe for top priority replacement (really can’t be used until it’s replaced).

Nov 19: (Tue 7:00pm): Oglethorpe Firefighters Association meeting (Farm Bureau Office in Crawford, unless it's at the Rescue Building).

Nov 21: (Thu 6:30pm): Third Thursday Training. Not training, per se. Attended the Girl Scouts’ appreciation dinner for emergency responders and law enforcement. WFD had best representation – possibly two BFD attendees but they were more in the role of rescue. VFD represented by Douglas and Nicole Spencer. Some EMS and SO reps.

Nov 28: (Thu 6:30pm): Most likely our Fourth Thursday training will be canceled for Thanksgiving. And it was.

Dec 5: (Thu 7:00pm): First Thursday Business Meeting.

Dec 12: (Thu 6:30pm): Wolfskin Holiday Party.

Dec 17: (Thu 7:00pm): Oglethorpe Firefighters Association meeting (Farm Bureau Office in Crawford, unless it's at the Rescue Building). I don't have the word yet on whether the OCFFA will meet or not.

Dec 19: (Thu 6:30pm): Third Thursday training. Inventory. Except for a few loose ends that Glenn will attend to, we accounted for everything and indicated any transfers to and from pumper, station, or tanker.

Dec 26: (Thu 6:30pm): Fourth Thursday training. Canceled.

Jan 2: (Thu 6:30pm): First Thursday Business Meeting. Was postponed to Jan 9 due to unavoidable absences by many.