Some of the readers might know Mark Mann, he is currently a high school teacher at Norwood Disctrict High School. When I first moved back to Ontario I went visit Mark. While visiting we discussed doing a Search and Rescue Demo for his school in particular the Duke of Edinborough Awards program. Well, yesterday it all came together. Yesterday Myself, the STL and the CO drove to Norwood and met up with Mark. We setup a display of some of the eqpipment we use and then set up the football field for a Drop zone. At 1315 two SAR Techs made a freefall jump from 7000', at 3000' the open the chutes and then flew into the football field and landed in front of all the spectators. Then the Chopper that deployed them then lower a Stokes litter and the SAR techs that just jumped in prefomed and stokes hoisting sequences on the football field. After that the chopper came in and landed on the field and we let the students come over and check it out. We then headed inside and the STl gave a speech aon who we are and I gave a  speech on how the selection process works and on the training we do.  All in all it was an awesome oppitunity and experience, Thanks Mark!!

Then we I arrived back at work and was chatting with my friend Eric he remembered that there was an auction in town that he was thinking about going to. I thought since I was off the next day I'd go along just for fun. We went a little early to check out what was there, I noticed a 5 piece matching bedroom set that was in a style I liked. Eric noticed a few other things he liked so we went and registered and got our auction numbers. we had to wait for about half the Auction before they got around to the bedroom set. No one bid on it at the starting bid so the auctioneer kept bring it down until they decided to do a timed auction. The auctioneer would start a timer for 60secs and the highest bid at the 60sec mark got it. I ended up bidding against another person for it and at about 55sec I gave my final bid, well the other person slid his in just as the time was up. Oh well I guess the futon well have to do a little while longer. Then the Auctioneer annoced that they had to of the set and that if I still wanted the other set I at the final bid price I had first dibs. Score!! Now all I needed was a mattress for the Queen size bed. Well the mattress and box spring that was on the bed for the display went up for auction next and I score it with hardly any counter bids. Later on Eric nabbed a 42'' HDTV for less then half price. Luckily we both had pickup trucks so we were able to bring all the stuff home. I install the bedroom set this morning and then took some pictures. You'll also notice my new fridge and stove. The stove was free from a friend at work. so Monday turned out to be an great day, now if only I could find my pager!

I'm finally moving up in the world, I bought a house!! I've uploaded a bunch of pictures with explanations so theres not much to say about the house. I picked up the keys form the lawyers office then headed to Home Depot to pick up some cleaning stuff and a new shop vac (its cool).

Then I headed to my insurance agent's to pay for and sign my insurances. From there I drove north to my new house and started cleaning in side and out. I spent about 5 hours there before I had to head back for a hockey game. Our goalie didn't show up so I had to play net, we lost!

After the game I took a load of stuff to my house. And that brings me to now, so enjoy the pictures and if you have any furniture send it my way.

I've up loaded two sets of picture since my last blog so heres a quick comment on what I've been up to. I just got back from Lake Placid on thursday, there was three of there for a 72 hrs ex. Basically a chance to hone up on our outdoor skills, and pratice some navigation. We camped out the whole time we were there, the site was right at the trailhead for Mt Marcy(highest peak New York state.) We spent most of tuesday hiking/climing to the summit, it was abut a 25km round trip. The weather as you can see from the pictures was't very good. It started rain about 2hours into the hike and as we got higher it turned into sleet. By the time we reached the Summit it was howling about 60km/hr winds and the visibily was very poor, I'm sure the view would have been awesome if there wasn't any clouds. We quickly turned around when we reach the summit and headed back down, by the time we reach the campsite again we were pretty soaked. It was excellent training though because people never get lost or get into trouble when its nice out, hiking in bad weather, we were able to evaluate the gear we brought or didn't bring and come up with chances we would make. Wednesday we spent traveling around looking for and checking out climbing sites for some further training. Friday after we got back I was on pager so had the day free to do some admin, specifically going to my lawyer and sign the papers for my house that I bought. Monday I pick up the keys and start moving in. I'll post some pictures of my new place when i move in. I've only had one search so far since being upgraded and one call out. My pager went off Friday night when I was coming back from Rogers Video. I called in and then headed to work, I had just loaded the chopper when we were told that we were stood down. The rest of the weekend was uneventful being on call though there is still tonight.

Try and image the best way to spend a beautiful Fall day on the Thanksgiving weekend, now I'll tell you what you're imagening. Sleep in until about 0800, then take your time getting up and going for breakfast. On the walk to and from the mess hall you'll notice that there isn't a cloud in the sky and that its actually fairly warm for this time of year. Now at 1030 hop on your BMW motorcycle and go for a short ride to 'work'. Once at work you meet up with two friends then pack up your clothes and don your drysuit. At 1200 you grab your parachute and walk out to the awaiting Herc'. After take off you stand up and start putting on your parachute and do a prejump check on each other. Its now about 1245 so you move to the back of the Herc' and hookup your static line and look out the spotter window, you notice that you're approaching Ottawa. The Team Lead points out a little lake below you. The ramp comes down and you get a spectacular view of Ottawa/Hull/Gatineau area from 2500'. The team lead has the loadie drop some wind drift indicators over the target then the Herc goes into a bank. Now the adrenaline is starting to flow, the Herc' levels out and the team lead gives the 30sec notice. You quickly put your fins on and then check yourself one last time and then you move down the ramp and jump out. Once out of the Herc' everything is quiet, except for the flapping sound of your parachute as it opens. You look down and notice your team leader spiraling down to sent up a pattern for the approach to the side of the boat.  You stack up behind him and fly your parachute down, with a nice flare for a soft water landing. Once you remove your parachute harness  you swim over to the awaiting boat and climb in, once in you notice a big crowd was watching the whole thing and is now clapping(your the star of the show). Two other friends are waiting on the boat for you, they help your don your Helicopter harness and then call in the chopper(the shows not over). Chopper soon appears on the horizon and is head for you. It slowly approaches in a hover and lowers a hook to you. You hook up and then loop a horse collar around one of your friends and give the chopper the thumbs. You see the slack come out of the cable and then your off your feet dangling beneath the chopper. It hoist you in and you grab a seat then they hoist in the team lead and you're done. A quick flight back to the awaiting Herc' that you just jumped out of to change into so normal clothes. You grab a quick bite to eat and then its time to take off again. Once airborne you move to the spotter seat to spend the rest of the 30min flight looking out the large plexiglas door at the beautiful fall colours of Ontario from 3500'. You then land unpack your gear and hop back on your BMW motorcycle for a nice warm ride home thinking the whole way 'when will I awake from this dream'. You arrive at home and take your helmet off looking up at the still cloudless sky realizing you do this for a living. Thank you Lord! I love my job!

As you can tell from the title this about the recent release 'The Guardian'. Basically its about the Rescue Swimmer trade in the US Coast Guard, it star Kevin Costner and Ashton Kutcher. When I first saw previews for it I though it looked a little cheesy and it might not be that great of a movie. Thankfully when I saw it I was pleasantly surprised. It was a little cheesy in areas but overall they did a good job of making it accurate to the way it would actually be. For a normal civie it would be a very good movie, however because I actually do all the stuff you see in the movie I was able to find alot of little error. My overall opinion is for Hollywood its a pretty good job. The rescue swimmer trade or AST(Aviation Survival Technician) in the USCG is very similiar to my trade (Search and Rescue Technician), however we learn to rescue in more ways than just jumping from choppers(Mountian, Scuba, Parachute, Arctic....). Our course is a year theirs is only 16 weeks, plus we have about 6 months of upgrade training once we finish the basic SAR course. That s the difference between Canada and the US, we have one trade that does everything, they have a separate trade for each. Funding and Personel are the main reason. FYI we have the same Motto 'That Others May Live'.

This is a little late of a entry for my time in North Bay, but you know what they say:'better late then never.' On Sat the 24 of Sept an advance party of various military personel headed up to the base in North Bay where the annual National SAREX was to be held. The weather wasn't the greatest but we arrived safely and were able to get most of the setup done. We had pick a older hangar at the end of the runway to setup a HQ for the SAREX. By the way SAREX stands for Search and Rescue Exercise. Basically what we do for SAREX is divided the main skills we have evolving aircraft into separate events. Each major SAR Squadron in Canada sends a team plus a combined SAR team from the minor units, so six teams. These teams compete in each of the events with a trophy being awarded for each event plus a best over all trophy. The events are as follows: Parachute Accuracy, Search event, Rescue event, medical event, maintenances event and a fun one the Bell Ringer event. The events are pretty much self explanatory except the BellRinger, this is where all the over 40 SAR Tech present at the SAREX do a jump, a timer starts as soon as the SAR Tech touches the ground and stops when they ring the bell, hence BellRinger. Needless to say the best time wins, Oh and they have to leave their parachute on(very funny if there are higher winds.) With out going into alot of detail My Sqn won the rescue event and the best overall award. We were up there for a full week though most of the events were crammed into two days because of unfavourable weather. It was a fun week, I was able to meet up with one of my course mates and had a good time with him(even snuck in a freefall from a chopper with him.) The only downer was I picked up a cold that was going around and I'm still getting over it. Overall the SAREX was a great success and alot of good training and fun was had, you can rest assured that if you get into trouble in the outdoors you will be in good hands. RESCUE!