6° of Lanark

I lived in the Ottawa Valley for a spell. (Best time of my life)

One of my neighbours Andy had been a forest fire fighter for 16 years. He suggested I should do it. I wasn’t entirely certain about doing it full time, but I liked the idea of at least knowing how to do it, so that if the need ever arose in my neck of the woods I could go and assist.

I went and took a course which trains you how to fight forest fires and which got me my S-100 certification. This is a requirement for Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources to consider you for the job. Great course, great instructors.

One of the instructors was an old guy, already in his 70’s. He had been fighting forest fires for decades, and was a wealth of info. He figured out before too long that I was very comfortable out in the woods, and we chatted quite a bit. During the course of conversation it came up that I was living in Lanark County.

“Oh, I know Lanark pretty well. Where in Lanark are you?”

“North of Lanark, the town.”

“Hopetown?”

“Nope, north of there.” 

“Brightside.”

“No, even further north. I’m north of the power lines.”

“Old man Lalonde must be your neighbour then?”

Uh, wow, yes. “Well, his son Andy is my immediate neighbour, but he is down the road a ways.”

Turns out he knew Andy from fighting forest fires all over Ontario and points beyond. Knew his wifes name. He knew exactly where I was, knew the names of the lakes and hills around me, could even tell me which sections of forest had burned and when. 

It really is a small world.