What does it mean to be a Wife on Fire?
At face value, directly from Google, here’s what you get:
Ok, that’s good, there’s our English lesson for the day.
But what does that mean in the context of marriage?
Do me a favor. Stop for a moment and think about the vows you said on your wedding day. Were they traditional vows? Did you write your own vows? Do you remember them?
What did you promise?
Do you still mean it? Do you still practice it? Do you live out these promises in your marriage today?
Let me take it a step further…
…hold up, I know what you are thinking.
“Well, it’s not like my husband lives them out either.”
“This is just how marriage looks after awhile.”
So last week on Country Wife Chronicles, I shared Part 1 of this post, “Lessons Learned After 5 Years as a Wildland Firefighter’s Wife.” You may want to check it out to get a little bit of insight as to how I ended up 5 years into this Fire Life.
Over the years I’ve learned a few things to help me cope with the absence of Wildland Man while he is away fighting wildfires during fire season. It is always an adjustment and takes some intentional preparation, but I sort of feel like I’m getting it figured out.
It was the spring of 2012 when Wildland Man got his first taste of fire. He was hooked immediately and ultimately began to pursue his passion in the field of wildland firefighting and prescribed burning.
You can read more about how we found ourselves in this reality by checking out the post, “Living the Fire Life.”
Not long after that initial experience, I found myself spending my first summer alone while Wildland Man fought wildfires out west. It was an adjustment I wasn’t quite prepared for. And, now, after five years in fire, I can say that while I am certainly more prepared for each fire season, that first fire call still stings just the same.
I shared the following in, “A Day in the Life of a Fire Wife {Part 1},” but felt it was worth re-sharing in order to set up this post.
As I’ve mentioned before, there are two seasons when living the Wildland Fire Life—fire season and not fire season, or the off-season.
These two times of year aren’t necessarily written in stone, they are a general guideline, but each year is different and the length of each fully depends on your geographic location.
For Wildland Man and I, at least currently, the fire season seems to out-length the off-season. Something I’m still getting used to. For us, the trade-off is more experience for my husband during the longer fire season. Then, eventually, hopefully, we can afford to move somewhere with a shorter fire season.
But for the purposes of illustrating how a day in the life of a wildland fire wife looks, we’ll examine my day-to-day in both seasons over the next two posts: “A Day in the Life of a Fire Wife {Part 1}” and “A Day in the Life of a Fire Wife {Part 2}.”
As I’ve mentioned before, there are two seasons when living the Wildland Fire Life—fire season and not fire season, or the off-season.
These two times of year aren’t necessarily written in stone, they are a general guideline, but each year is different and the length of each fully depends on your geographic location.
For Wildland Man and I, at least currently, the fire season seems to out-length the off-season. Something I’m still getting used to. For us, the trade-off is more experience for my husband during the longer fire season. Then, eventually, hopefully, we can afford to move somewhere with a shorter fire season.
I never would have imagined this life for us…ten years post-college and we are both pursuing our dreams, a little delayed perhaps, but here we are chasing the fire life.
As you may have gathered by now, I refer to my hubby as Wildland Man…not so long ago we were high school teachers working in the same building and same department. Now I’m attempting the blogging thing and Wildland Man is, well, all about wildland fire. You can read more about our journey here.
This career change has come with some adjustments to what we were used to before, and a few major moves across the country; definitely some sacrifices along the way…but it’s been an adventure, a whole new world of exploration and learning. It is a life worth living and a life that is uniquely ours.
Wildland Man is the cook in our household. I know, I’m a lucky one. I can cook if I have to, but my hubs loves it, so I do the baking and he does the cooking. It’s a solid arrangement we have and I relish in it…until Wildland Man leaves to fight fires, but I guess that’s just part of “Living the Fire Life.” Then I’m left to fend for myself in the kitchen. When I’m a household of one in Wildland Man’s absence, let’s just say my meals usually leave a little something to be desired.