Kyle Miller

3 years, a 50th anniversary, 7 and 10 year buckles. Now I guess I'm starting to close in on a 20 year buckle.

This year's calendar is up on the Eric Marsh Foundation's website. All proceeds go to the foundation to help with their mission of helping wildland firefighters and their families in times of need. @ericmarshfoundationfire

How about a little smoke with that breakfast burrito. Just remember when you think the smoke is bad down in the towns, it's normally worse up in the spike camps close to the fire where the forestry technicians are camped.

How do we sleep? With the night light on of course. I've been asked about how we sleep on fires and this is pretty typical on a hotshot crew. Most opt for just a sleeping pad and bag. We tend to stay mobile so if we set up a tent, we're also taking it down every morning and setting it up each night, two tasks I personally despise before and after shifts.

I'd hoped to take a few pictures and videos of the opening but instead I carried an appetizer around for 20 minutes hoping to eat it at one point. It'll be up at the Center of the West in Cody through July 27th. #wildfire #wildfirefighter #wildland #forest #firefighters

Seasonal applications for the Wyoming Hotshots are open on USAjobs.gov. Use the announcement numbers to search and select Greybull for the duty location. The Wyoming Hotshots are located on the Bighorn National Forest in WY. The area offers excellent hunting, fishing and other outdoor recreational opportunities. Included in this post are photos of our saw cache, food trailer, and barracks. For more information contact myself or Eric Levy, we're both listed in the post. Besides the Wyoming Hotshots, the Bighorn National Forest has multiple seasonal positions available now too. The forest is broken into three districts with multiple engines, a fuels crew, and a wildland fire module. For their specific announcement numbers please contact me or reach out to the forest.

Building and then burning all the frames for the exhibit has definitely taken the largest block of my preparation time. The frames are all made from 1" pine boards. The burning takes two torches, a small one for corners and developing the charcoal pockets, and a larger one to broadly toast the rest and bring out the grain. The exhibit opens this Saturday in the John Bunker Sands Photography Gallery in the Center of the West in Cody and will run through the end of July.

It's about that time of year again. Applications will open October 24th on Usajobs.gov. I don't have an announcement number yet but you'll need to select Greybull as the duty location. If you have any questions about the crew, the process, facilities or expectations please give us a call. Please wait before calling Eric until the beginning of November. After the applications close we will get the applicant list most likely in early January. It's always a good idea to call crews you're interested in before the hiring events to learn more about them.

The bane of the PNW, the blackberry bushes, not ole Saporito. Nothing is more fun when you're trying to light at night than trying to pick your way through blackberry covered hills.

I'm finishing up all the last minute things before the museum deadlines. The final frame is mid-burn and all but this print's label is finished and ready to be sent to the printer. I'm not sure what to say about this one. All the other captions on the snagging pictures pretty well cover hazard tree removal. It might just be that I'm always amazed at the neat lighting situations we see and I enjoy capturing it. My favorite shots are typically from the calm, low intensity fires. I did take a few more high intensity fire photos this year, but only because I was ordered as a fire line photographer to the Wapiti Fire. This is a 20x24 metal print in a 23.5x27.5 frame and is one of 31 photos in the exhibit.

The biggest challenge of family pictures is just keeping the kids moderately cooperative and trying to catch the one or two shots where everyone is at least sort of looking and not completely grumpy or fussy. Thanks @nathank1221 for coming out and helping with family pics.

Print 4 from the ones going in my exhibit is an old hiking out picture of the crew from back in 2017. Like most it's printed on 20x30 metal and set in a 24x34 burned wood frame.