February 13

The Ben Report

By Benjamin

I had a bit of a cold last week, and as a result I missed out on two things: a helicopter ride on

Monday, and framing the storage shed on Thursday. I was feeling okay on Monday morning,

and debating whether or not to go out and work, but I decided to wait until after lunch.

However, at lunchtime, I learned that they had been looking for me to take me on a helicopter

ride, because they needed someone as extra weight for a training exercise.

Then, after feeling better from Monday through Wednesday, I woke up feeling bad again on

Thursday and didn’t go to work. That was when I missed out on helping frame the small storage

shed being built. Thankfully, I got back to work yesterday, and we covered the sides of the shed

with wood sheets, built rafters for the roof, and put wood sheets on the roof.

On Friday, we went to see the Chiricahua National Monument, which features a lot of very

unusual rock formations. We drove through it, but didn’t do much hiking because there was

snow on some of the trails. It was a really interesting place. There should be a picture of it

somewhere down below.

This morning, we worked on installing the soffit and facia on the storage shed, and just before

lunch we got started on shingling the roof, which is something I’ve never done before. I’m not

yet sure if we have enough shingles, but at least we can do as much as we can. I think we have

enough to do one side of the roof.

Tomorrow will be an exciting day. I’ve been signed up on a helicopter scenario they’re doing

tomorrow. Me and a helicopter trainee will get transported by helicopter into the nearby Swiss

Helm mountain range, where we will be dropped off at a landing site. The helicopter will then

leave for a while to drop off some cargo at a different landing site in the mountains. It’ll

eventually return to pick us up and transport us to different landing sites. It’s an all-morning

event, and I think it’s supposed to help the pilots get accustomed to real-world tasks that they’ll

be carrying out.

We went to the Chiricahua National Monument on Saturday and did some sightseeing and walking there. 

After that, we  went to Whitewater Draw to see the sandhill cranes,  and saw a bobcat in the grass.  If you look really closely, right in the middle, he's there.

We had snow on Saturday, and on Sunday morning the mountains were beautiful, covered with snow.  It disappeared by evening though.

Working on the strorage shed.

Making valentine cookies for coffee break tomorrow.