Er, how did THAT happen?

Clearly my storming through the staff area almost in tears after Friday's fiasco with Mussles had an effect. At muster last night I was chatting with a few people and everyone is pissed off at him, not just for what he did to me but for the way he's been acting towards everyone.  Huh. He's SO going to be voted out of Lt position if he's not careful. Everyone prefers Prowsie anyway since he's much fairer and nicer. We got paged shortly after gearing up, I got thrown on the Tanker. Wheeeeheheheheheeeeee!!! Page said girl stuck on shipping container at Cranbourne West primary School. So it was a rescue call. We got there and waited for the Pumper crew (who take precedence at a rescue until the RAR Crew arrive), there was a red gum in FULL bloom right where we were which was just incredible!!!! Due to the fires at Churchill and Gippsland destroying many flowing gums which provide food for so many lorikeets and rosellas,  they've ll flown down into the suburbs! There are massive flocks of them EVERYWHERE!!! First time I have seen scaly-breasted lori's down this way wild. We watched them a while, lamenting neither of us have a camera. Then Pumper crew came back and put over a Stop; Malicious Hoax by some little kids who had the uber jesus scared out of them by Crossy.
I should explain. Crossy is the Leading Firefighter, as such he often takes charge of the practical stuff at fires, esp when the Officer in Charge or the Fire Officer do not go to a call. That's common for the OIC, fairly uncommon for the FO not to go but not unheard of. Even so the FO will often leave it to Crossy to sort stuff out. He's tall. He's solid. He has an Arfikaans accent. He can be very scary looking. He's actually an extremely nice bloke who I really like and respect, but yeah he can rip you a new one if he has a mind to. Anyway, we headed back to station and lined up for muster. Did the usual then we're released to fall out, get out of gear and go to the meeting.
Just as Matty and I fell-out Crossy asked us to come over. We looked at each other and went OH SHIT WHAT HAVE WE DONE?!?!?!? But it was all good, he just wanted us two to join the Open Day Commitee. :-) Which we were both happy to do. After the meeting *snore!!!!* and a bit of dinner we joined Cross, Dave Lillywhite (another of my uber favourite staff), Mark, Rachel and a couple others in the Staff Room to sort out the beginning of the Open Day.
I'm in charge of organising the official photography (i.e Al!) and video taping of the event (i.e ME!) plus Rachel and I are teaming up to do the powerpoint and video presentation which will be running on a contiuing loop during the day so people can see pictures of what we do. I have 6 large photo albums to go through to pick up photos and articles to scan in, plus I will be contacting Keith Pakenham to see if I can get a few of the Dalsen's fire, plus Rachel has some shots of other stuff as does Chrissy. So I have to pick out the best stuff and make the presentation. I've used Power Point before so it shouldn't be toooo hard to learn. I'll probably try and get the basic's done on night shifts so I can use work's Power Point.
Kinda happy I got singled out to help with the day. :-)
Also have to go dow to the station today with my diary and book myself in for the BA course *gulp!*
No real plans for today as yet. Want to go to Carrum Downs and walk through where that huge fire ripped through and maybe get some shots. Don't think I will take the dogs tho. Other than that, just relaxing before work tomorrow.

Two New Horses at my Paddock

So I went down to the paddock to check on my beasties. They're fine. Desi is really fat which is freaking me out since there is NO feed in the paddock any more. She's still chubby. Figure that one out.  Dan is looking pretty good. Desi was a little out of sorts as there is a new mare in the paddock in with herself and Bundy. It's a very pretty 23year old Arabian named Missy. She's a wee old thing and a bit nervous at the moment but seemed happy enough to meet me and have a pat. She's staying well away from Desi and Bundy at the moment, and they seem interested but not nasty to her. She's that beautiful burnised gold chestnut that I adore so much. I swear, chestnut is my absolute favourite colour on a horse. As long as there is some white. And if they have that red-gold tinge then I pretty much go stupid. :-) I think I love it even more than I love pinto and that's saying something. Met Missy's owners who seem very nice. Melissa, you know the lady who had that pinto at our paddocks? They're her friends, she was there. With her cheeky and very friendly 14 week old black and white staffy puppy named Chip Monster aka Chippy :-D and their old red heeler who was acting very mumma-like over the pup. Desi was a bit taken aback that I'd stopped to chat with them and came over demanding attention. She didn't even mind when the puppy ran around her legs, just gave this long suffering sigh as we quickly moved it out of the danger zone.
The other new horse isn't SO new; he's been there a couple months now I guess. He's a 3year old rising 4 TB gelding, again a burnished gold chestnut and a total DARLING. Complete back-pocket horse, absoutly adores attention. I don't know his name but I've been calling him Red. Original, hey? he's looking for a rider or a new home. If I had the money I would be taking him in less than a heart-beat because even tho I normally go WIDE around anything like a TB, this horse is just such an utter sweetie!!!! He's got such a heart, he'll make someone one heck of a horse. He was playing and being silly when I got there (on the other side of the paddock and before I could get my digi cam ready he'd calmed down) due to the new horsey sharing his fence line and holy shit can he MOTOR!!!! I've seen fast horses before, but nothing like this. I just ITCHED to saddle him up and go!!!! Would have died, but there you go. :-)
Took a couple pics. Please pardon the state of the grass, we've had no rain for a long time now and seering temperatures. There IS no green grass. Anywhere. Red wouldn't move out of his normal poo'ing area either so it's a bit mucky. I'll try and get him into a better position next time I'd down there. That's the only issue with pocket-ponies; they won't bugger off far enough for you to get decent shots :P

( So close they could be twins! )