How dangerous is that spider?

 

As these images should show you, not very.   I spent the better part of 15min handling this spider to prove to people just how safe most spiders are.  I want people to know that the very common garden spider.. Araneus diadematus also called the "cross spider", is quite harmless.   Although any spider can be dangerous if you by chance have a rare allergic reaction.  Like taking medication.  Spiders should never be handled mainly because it is so dangerous for the spider.  It is very easy to expend all there energy or silk and kill the spider without knowing it.  So PLEASE DONT TRY THIS!  I just want people to know how safe they are.   So I took these shots in the hope that people will respect them and not spray or kill them when they see these webs in there yard.  

This shot was taken with my Fuji S1500 digital camera (10mp) and edited with digikam for Linux.

 

She did not want to bite me despite all the stuff I did to her.  Indeed she did not bite even once nor did I feel she came close to biting me despite wanting to get away really bad!  I had to capture her and then had her walking on me for at least 15 min.   That is allot of stress.. yet no bite reaction at all.  She clearly knew when she was on me and in contact with me yet she never bit.   That is how non temperamental they are.   I chose a healthy female for this test and returned her safely to where I found her.

 

This is the same species but of a slightly different race and thus color.   What people should know is simple.. this spider is harmless and in fact very beneficial in controlling dangerous insects.  I have been bit by this species back when I was a kid and a bit more careless.   I did not even get a welt.. just slight numbness and about 1/8th of a beesting in pain or so.

 

I don't usually handle spiders because they are traumatized when you handle them and can be very easily harmed.   Please do not try this at home with any spider.   Even handling pet tarantulas can be dangerous to the spider.   This can be of course very dangerous if done with the wrong spider and you never know what kind of allergic reactions you may have.. even though this spider is highly unlikely to bite.. please leave them in there natural environment.  I can't stress that enough.   I only did this to get a few shots showing how confident I am about how safe they are.   

 

After these shots were done, she was fine and so was I.    I found her at a good time when her web was already destroyed and thus she was ready to rebuild a web.   Handling a spider can prove FATAL to the spider so please don't do this!  If they use too much silk or get too stressed.. they will be unable to build a new web and die no matter where they are released.   Also NEVER attempt to feed a spider sugar water or anything else.  Pesticides are in nearly everything human.   The only way to feed spiders this way takes a small lab and special sources.   Also.. keeping spiders in such things as coffee cans or even some jars can lead to death due to pesticide residue.   There is so much pesticides inside coffee cans that you can't rinse one out enough to make it safe for a spider.   I learned this the hard way when I was a kid.   And we wonder why so many people are getting cancer these days!

  

And of course I continue to do what I can with my compact camera and my 35mm SLR.   These shots were taken with my compact digital slr and edited with Digikam for Linux.

Really?? This building has not even been built yet!?$# Right??

I have been working on sunset images on the tracks near where we live.  This is one of my favourite shots.  I hope it's not too dark on your monitor.  Some of my pictures appear too dark on some monitors due to gamma differences.  I'm working on viewing my website from other computers to insure this problem does not continue.   I may re-post old pics that seem to dark on other people's monitors in the future.

My wife and I wish to thank everyone who has prayed for us and helped us since the fire in 8/09.   I also wish to thank the local ham radio operators who have welcomed me to Portland.   Despite the steady stream of stressfully insane bills it will take most of ours lives to pay off.. we are doing ok and getting over the disaster one day at a time.  My mom, dad and family have been very helpful and a very special thanks goes out to them as well for everything.  Godbless.
--Gabe and Alina Beasley

FUN WITH FILM--THE NIKON FE 35mm SLR

When I first got into photography digital was hardly a thought.   Now, film is being very quickly replaced in nearly all aspects of photography.   However..film has qualities that you can't really get very easy with digital.  The look and feel.. the expectation and not knowing if your shot turns out until it's processed still has me hooked on film.

IMPORTANT
I want to thank the local ham radio community for welcoming me here in Portland.  I have been off the radio for a few weeks and may be so because of stress with bills and just dealing with all that has happened.  I'm sorry if I talked to you on the radio and did not respond lator or just been off air.   We have had to do all kinds of hard stuff to setup medical and dental for myself and my wife as well as continuue to proses what has happened.  We need some down time.. I'll be back on the air soon!  And thank everyone who has welcomed me here. 


WE HUMBLY ASK-->
We do humbly ask if anybody out there has ANY ham radio gear or photographic gear they would like to donate to a new ham trying to rebuild to please e-mail me.   I wish to thank family and friends for the donations of basics like furniture and other items.   It's amazing how much you lose in a disaster like this.    If you do have any surplus gear for a new ham trying to get re-started or photographic gear and you wish to help the e-mail address is olngwb@yahoo.com  I know it sounds like begging but with our expenses the way it is right now I hope it does not hurt to ask.  I am trying to rebuild.  If anyone thinks they can help you'd be surprised with what I can do with old camera gear.  I am so glad that this family in Guam was nice enough to realize that there Nikon FE might help me!  Yes it will!  No it's not digital but it's a start and makes me feel like a photographer again as well as lets me shoot stuff I can't do with the S1500.   EMAIL ME please if you have anything you would like to donate.

--ANY lenses, camera gear, flashes, film development stuff, tripods, cameras, video cameras..broken/old or not!

--ANY radio gear, ham radio stuff..antanias, coax, parts..etc. radios.

--ANY digital SLR camera

--A SIT DOWN WALKER!  I have avasular Nocrosys in both my hips and chronic pancreititus which makes it almost impossible for me to stand for more then about 10min without severe pain often causing me to squat even at the checkout line in a store.   Pancreititus is a very painful disease and I'm trying to get a POWER WHEEL CHAIR or scooter..  However my insurence is not good enough to pay for it.

--ANY POWER CHAIR/power wheelchair/scooter Electric scooter/  We don't have a car and having a dissability that makes walking just outside my apartment very painful it seems like they should approve me for a power wheel chair.. but they have stalled the proses.   It probably won't happen anytime soon. Too many people took advantage of those "little or no cost to you even if your insurance does not cover it.." claims on TV commercials.  This is something that could drasticly improve my quality of life letting me have a means of transportation to take pictures and run arrons..as well as a way to get arround without causing further dammage to my hip joints which painful walking does.  If ANYONE KNOWS OF A POWERWEELCHAIR or ELECTRIC SCOOTER they will sell for under $300 or donate.. please let us know!
send an email to: alinangabe@yahoo.com --or-- olngwb@yahoo.com
thank you.. this is my most important request.  I pray that sometime someone out there will read this and tell me they have one they don't need or use that i can have.  I can provide proof of my dissability if it's needed.

IF YOU E-mail me I can either find a way for you to send it to me in the mail (I will pay for that) or we can meet at say.. down town Portland or Beaverton.  Please..if you have anything..let me know.  My wife really needs cooking books and winter cloths as well.  We go to thrift stores when we have the money but it's not been very easy for Alina.

  God bless and thank you if you make the effort to help us in any way and God bless everyone who already has.

--Please just send us a regular e-mail at: alinangabe@yahoo.com --or-- olngwb@yahoo.com

 

I got the Nikon FE film SLR kit from a friend of my mom's who had taken very good care of it.   Complete with the case, it's a 1980s high quality professional SLR.  I even got a flash, a 50mm lens and a 40-205mm Macro lens which I used here to capture a funny moment with my wife.  No flash was needed here I shot this with ISO200 film indoors.

 

I used to love to process my own film and plan to do it again.   I just need the gear and the chemicals which here in Portland should not be too hard to find.  This shot shows the effect film has.   It was taken with a very low aperature setting thus giving it real depth.    It's been a while since I've used a film SLR and so these shots were the first few I've ever taken with this camera.  I bought a 3volt battery for it and the Nikon FE was ready to go.   It's got an auto-shutter speed that's very acurate, multi-exposure..and many other cool features.  However..shooting film these days this way is not very practicle since it costs allot of money to process.   However.. now that I have an SLR again..there's some stuff I can do with film and I can also most likely use the Nikon lenses that came with it if I eventually buy a Nikon digital SLR again.

 

 This shot was taken with a flash and allthough its a bit over exposed it shows the best way to capture a portrait.   Make sure you have a flash that can angle upwards brightly or to the side so that you don't hit the subject directly.  I angled my flash nearly up to the sealing for this shot.  I left the camera on auto shutter which would be 90 and put the TTL flash in the correct mode for my 200 iso film.  Aperature adjustment is critical when useing film with a flash because it's the only thing keeping your film from being overexposed.

 

 This is a nightshot long exposure.  I held it down for about 1/2half of a sec. or so..just enough time for a car to go by.  Of course the car is not visable because it was not in the picture long enough thus you only see the headlights and reflective surfaces.

 

Like the shot above this shot was taken on a tripod with a shutter release cable.  This is criticle when doing night exposures to avoid camerashake.  The exact same vantagepoint here only this time you see the local light rail (The Max) train going by.   It's lights and reflections made for more and more of an exposure.

 

Another nightshot of a local back yard.   This was a shot I just thought I would try on my own, holding the shutter open in B-mode.   Useing a shutter release cable with the camera on a tripod..it was probubly about 20-30sec exposure with iso200 film.

 

 The stars can be seen in this night exposure as well as some blur caused by the wind while the shutter was open.  I left the shutter open for this shot for nearly 60sec.

 

Another shot showing depth.. focus on what you want to see the depth in.  For example.. set your lens for f4 or it's lowest setting and then focus on the tracks.  Thus the objects in the foregroud will be in focus and the background will be slightly blurred giving a depth.   This time I focused about half way..giving a comprehencive view.

 

Shooting spiders is not easy and even harder with 35mm film.  Espeically with the limitied two lenses I have here and the fact that I have not used a film camera in a long time!   But I did ok and managed to get quite a few good shots.   This was when the spider was climbing out to catch a small fly that landed in it's web.

 

When shooting macro shots with a 35mm film camera I've found that it can be very important to use a digital camera to see what your pictures exposure will be like if you have one.   Set everything up exactly as the film camera will be, ISO, white ballence to sunlight..shutter and aperature.  Digital cameras are built to emulate film cameras so they can give you a good aproximation.   Most film SLRs have a sensor for light mesurement built twards the center of the immage.  But you will get an overexposed picture unless you set your shutter for a bright image.   So if shooting in direct sunlight, setup your shot (aperature and shutter for correct lighting) on something well lit with the same sunlight.  As a small spider or other reflection will not give correct readings with most film SLRs.  You can compinsate with EV+/- or by setting up a shot where most everything in the image is as illuminated as your intended subject.   Otherwize you might get an overexposed spider as in this shot.

This was one of the shots I just had to trust on. I used the flash and set the camera to both take advantage of that and natural light.   Setting up macro shots from a distance with a flash can be difficult but even older equpment often has charts on it to work out distance settings for the flash.  You can sometimes compinsate by covering the flashes sensor or setting it to manual and adding more light as well as upping the Fstop to F16 or higher to compinsate for the bright flash.  It will take some practice.  It's a good idea to mark your shots. Each picture what your settings were in a small log so you can go back and find out what you did wrong later.   I use a digital recorder for this purpose which stores files one by one.. so I can go to each picture and recall what my settings were so if it did not turn out I can figure out why.   This was the first time I've ever used a Nikon FE and the first time I've used a film SLR in almost 2 years.  It came back to me quickly.   The FE is an automatic camera except for the film advance and apaerature controls if you want it to be.   It also has a wide range of creative settings including multiple exposure ability and the link for a moterdrive.  When I was a kid and dreamed of taking pictures of spiders for the first time, this was a very expencive high-end camera.

This one turned out best although I wish I had better film to work with.   I also am limited to Wallgreens scanner which makes 1mb JPEG files out of my negitives.   That's not bad.. but not as good as it would be if scanned with a pro-scanner.

Webs are easy to capture in bright sunlight but often spiders wont' want to show themselves.  They can be coaxed out of there hiding spots but that does not always work.   This is a case where I should focus on a group of leaves nearby thats fully lit to find out what settings I should use for my camera and then use them on this area with the spider because the background is so dark.    The spider can very easy be overexposed if you don't compensate.   Make use of natural light when ever possible because it's the best light.    Focus will be very fine so be sure you set your f-stop to give you enough depth of field for the shot.  This is a small spider and the web was in a good place.     Shooting with film can be exiteing and interesting as effects happen with it that often don't with digital.  I also like the anticipation of not knowing how good the shot is and then getting better and better at knowing if it will turn out or not.   Once again.. a good mesure is to "clone" a digital SLR or camera to your film camera's settings and see how well it's doing.   Keeping logs of how well you did and what your settings were when you took your shots can be very helpful in the future.  It's all about practice.   You can use programs like Photoshop and Picasa to adjust some degree of color temperature in 35mm.  It may not be as good as a RAW file, but it is worth trying if your pictures are off color.

I want to express my deepest thankyou to Mike and Julle Mudd for donating this camera to me after all my SLRs were destroyed in our house fire.   It will take me years probably, but eventually I plan to buy a Nikon digital SLR now so that I can use the lenses I already have.   Even Nikon's older manual lenses can be used on new digital SLRs.  You just have to focus them manually and also remember to set the f-stop manually.   Hopefully by the time I can afford a new digital SLR that will still be possible because there are alot of good lenses out there!

You can't keep a good photographer down

The first thing I had to do after the fire was get my medical stuff in order which still remains to be done.   The first thing I wanted to do came next.. after moving to Portland right after a doctors apointment my wife and I went for a walk to a park I spent many of my teen years in.   It was a trip back in time to good memories as well as proof to me how much better life will be now that we have a public transit system and so many places I can go to take pictures.   Saddly, the first documentery I made on video when I was 15 did not survive the fire..however (I tell people now to DIGITIZE EVERYTHING).. I was able to walk back through memory lane and find many of the old places I have captured some of my best spiders and spider shots.   Right next to a max staition there is still a forested area and hopefully wont' get developed any time soon since it's the only place I've ever found the triangle spider.   That will have to come later..since I did not get a chance to go there yet..but it is only a light rail trip away and that means I can nearly go anytime I want.

 

Araneus diadematus (The Garden spider, Cross Spider)

Probubly the most commonly noticed spider in this area.  Development has pushed most compeditive species such as Argeope away.   However I hope to find some in isolated pockets.. I know a few places.  For now however..I was astonished at the number of large and harmless garden spiders that were out here.   About 2 or 3 per 10 square feet is my guess in the park.   They are all large this time of year as they only live one season.   This female may well be ready to lay eggs and was photographed right on the same sidewalk I used to walk to high school every day on.   

 

 Another one.. and this is not white ballence.  There are actually varriations in color just like you get with human beings.   Spiders have races and genetically pass there traits on.   In large populations like this it is easy to spot some that are slightly different colored then others and have some other different charicteristics.  This is no different then races of people.  A note on racisum here. Race is nothing but a tiny genetic difference.  I have no tollerence for racist people and don't understand racisum at all.   I strive to be colorblind when it comes to humans.   When it comes to spiders however I am interested in how these variations spread and what causes them.

 

As you can see I have near full control of my shutter and apterature with the Fuji S1500.   I am restricted in that I can't use high aperature numbers.. however getting arround that is not very hard.   If I had my pro-cams I'd be able to take this shot showing both the background and forgound in near perfect focus.  Most compact cameras are limited to F8.  Why I don't know.

Merlo Station High school.  I went there for the 9th grade when the school first opened.  I was among the very first students.  It's a converted Techtronics bulding.  I had a good time there.. allthough I can't say I enjoyed school.  I did not have a very easy time being a teen.   After being moved from one school to the next and one naighborhood to the next every year of my life it became hard for me to learn how to blend in and make friends.  I went to the Science and Technology program wich was the frist of it's kind allowing us access to computers (before the internet was what we know it to be now) to do most of our work on.   It's a good school and for the most part I liked most of my teachers even if I sometimes did not let them know that.  Being a teen is not easy.

 From there my wife and I walked down into the park access way through Beaverton school headcorters.   The park is really awesome and offers allot of really cool shots.   This was a nice day and I was able to walk through it dispite the pain I am in just because I am so glad I can finally be in the park again.  It is such an incredible feeling not to be stuck in The Dalles like we were.  That really was difficult.   Honestly.. even though I lost everything in the fire..we would have had to move somehow and I don't see how with our income.  Don't get me wrong, I would do nearly anything to go back and stop that fire.. but moving to Portland has been a Godsent for us.

 

My wife enjoyed seeing some of the park and stuff allthough she was more into her book most of the time.  She was determened to finish a book in two days.  I'm not sure if she shares my love for nature and the outdoors.. but she puts up with me taking hours to setup shots and stuff so that's just fine for me.

 

Besides spiders.. I could not help but notice the fungus and mushrooms growing in the park.  It was amazing.  This is a shot striaght up a large tree that had come down probubly in a storm.  You can see silk on the left hand side of the picture where a large wood louse spider has made it's home.

 Fungus does not last long.. but when you catch it you can get quite the picture. The right lighting and the right control of your camera and you can get a good shot with nearly any camera that has manual functions.

 More of the mushrooms and fungus..  I dont' know what type this is but most kinds are dangerous and should not be touched.  Also.. you should never destroy these things because for us photographers they make for great subjects!  Not to mention many spores are very harmful and stomping on mushrooms for whatever reason can be dangerous.  Some forms if inhaled are even deadly.

 

 Another shot from a different angle.. click on any of these pictures for a larger view and use your browesers back arrow to get back to my site.

 

 More of this kind of fungs/mushroom.  It was nearly as large as a dinner plate in some places.

 Mushrooms come and go very quickly.  They make for interesting shots.

 

 

Cyclosa conica or Cyclosa sp.

 I was watching this show on TV called "Hoarders" about people who keep there garbdige and junk until there houses are filled.   Well.. this is your spider equivilent.   This species of spider however does it to survive.  Keeping junk it finds in it's web, garbidge insect parts from kills, and even it's own skin sheddings which are often mystaken for dead spiders in a row with a zigzag pattern.   This spider is also harmless and very small so often not noticed.

 

A low light shot I tried to enhance.   If I recall male and female Cyclosa have totally differnt abdominal colorations.  This is called sexual dimorphiszum.

This was a shot of opertunity.. this spider no bigger then a letter in a news paper article was hanging and I just happened to get it into focus in the right light as it hung down from it's web after I startled it.   Spiders have different escape proceedures depending on where they live.

 

 

 A classic Cyclosa and spider situation.  That is actually the former skin of the garbidge collecting Cyclosa.  The reason why they keep such things in there webs is to confuse preditors.  The zigzag patterns lined with remains of old kills and other items make it difficult to tell where the actual spider is.

 

 This was a difficult shot to get but I happened to get it.. this one is pale..possibly because it's a jovenile.  I'm not sure.

Another shot of a femaile A. diadematus, this one most certainly full and ready to lay eggs soon.  This is spider season and the population is very large.   They were everywhere!

 

Yet another sunlit shot of the same species.. this female has yet to eat enough or has yet to mate so that she can lay eggs.

 

And here we have a money spider.. or dome spider.  Family, Linyphiinae.  I have a picture which was on my wall of this species mateing.  A rare shot.  Now that I live so close to so many habitats and they are in range of the public transit system..who knows what I will find in comming months and next summer.  Some spiders do live through the winter here.   We are doing better and dispite limited equpment my photography will continuue.

THE AFTERMATH -- NEW HOME IN PORTLAND

Here we are in our new home. My wife said to me that any scenes of fires on TV can make her upset. Other then that she's been taking things very well considering. In my last article I did not really have the time to think much and I should say I was still more or less in shock.  I'm now using Ubuntu Linex to add this article to my site. There are so many pictures I have to show.. here are just a few success stories.. important moments, and other things I've captured since I got my new Fuji S1500 camera. Only one camera survived the fire.. a 35mm SLR with one lens on it. The story is below.


IMPORTANT
I want to thank the local ham radio community for welcoming me here in Portland.  I have been off the radio for a few weeks and may be so because of stress with bills and just dealing with all that has happened.  I'm sorry if I talked to you on the radio and did not respond lator or just been off air.   We have had to do all kinds of hard stuff to setup medical and dental for myself and my wife as well as continuue to prosess what has happened.  We need some down time.. I'll be back on the air soon!  And thank everyone who has welcomed me here. 


WE HUMBLY ASK-->
We do humbly ask if anybody out there has ANY ham radio gear or photographic gear they would like to donate to a new ham trying to rebuild to please e-mail me.   I wish to thank family and friends for the donations of basics like furniture and other items.   It's amazing how much you lose in a disaster like this.    If you do have any surplus gear for a new ham trying to get re-started or photographic gear and you wish to help the e-mail address is olngwb@yahoo.com  I know it sounds like begging but with our expenses the way it is right now I hope it does not hurt to ask.  I am trying to rebuild.  If anyone thinks they can help you'd be surprised with what I can do with old camera gear.  I am so glad that this family in Guam was nice enough to realize that there Nikon FE might help me!  Yes it will!  No it's not digital but it's a start and makes me feel like a photographer again as well as lets me shoot stuff I can't do with the S1500.   EMAIL ME please if you have anything you would like to donate.

--ANY lenses, camera gear, flashes, film development stuff, tripods, cameras, video cameras..broken/old or not!

--ANY radio gear, ham radio stuff..antanias, coax, parts..etc. radios.

--ANY digital SLR camera

--A SIT DOWN WALKER!  I have avasular Nocrosys in both my hips and chronic pancreititus which makes it almost impossible for me to stand for more then about 10min without severe pain often causing me to squat even at the checkout line in a store.   Pancreititus is a very painful disease and I'm trying to get a POWER WHEEL CHAIR or scooter..  However my insurence is not good enough to pay for it.

--ANY POWER CHAIR/power wheelchair/scooter Electric scooter/  We don't have a car and having a dissability that makes walking just outside my apartment very painful it seems like they should approve me for a power wheel chair.. but they have stalled the prosess.   It probubly won't happen anytime soon. Too many people took advantage of those "little or no cost to you even if your insurence does not cover it.." cliams on TV commercials.  This is something that could drasticly improve my quality of life letting me have a means of transportation to take pictures and run arrons..as well as a way to get arround without causeing further dammage to my hip joints which painful walking does.  If ANYONE KNOWS OF A POWERWEELCHAIR or ELECTRIC SCOOTER they will sell for under $300 or donate.. please let us know!
send an email to: alinangabe@yahoo.com --or-- olngwb@yahoo.com
thank you.. this is my most important request.  I pray that sometime someone out there will read this and tell me they have one they don't need or use that i can have.  I can provide proff of my dissability if it's needed.

IF YOU E-mail me I can either find a way for you to send it to me in the mail (I will pay for that) or we can meet at say.. downtown Portland or Beaverton.  Please..if you have anything..let me know.  My wife really needs cooking books and winter cloths as well.  We go to thrift stores when we have the money but it's not been very easy for Alina.

Godbless and thankyou if you make the effort to help us in any way and Godbless everyone who already has.

--Please just send us a regular e-mail at: alinangabe@yahoo.com --or-- olngwb@yahoo.com



HEROs
First of all..our heroic naighbor should be noted most of all.   When others were taking pictures and watching.. he got right in there with me and helped pull my wife out of the fire.   I don't know what to say accept a very humble thankyou.  When my wife was still in the house my plan was to pull her out as I figured in the less then 30sec we had to get out and shock of it all that was the only way for us to make sure she was safe.  She was afraid to go out the window since she knew the yard was on fire so I went first to check things out.

First on scene was the above man.. Ed Schenck. A man who truly is in our harts a hero for both being there and being one to do something (rather then just take pictures and videos or stare at it--I don't know which is worse!) as well as being there for me to help pull my wife out of the large somewhat high window.

At first I thought he was a fireman as the contrary to what the paper said.. fire was on scene as I was just climbing out the window. I thought it was one of the ambulance crew who was there standing by me asking if there was anyone else in the house. I was yelling for my wife and trying to show her where the window was since smoke was so intense. In hindsight I feel horrible because had I not been woke up from a dead sleep I'd have pushed her out the window before me and thus she would not have had such a hard time with smoke inhalation.

However.. she does not blame me and claims myself and Ed saved her life as she was not right behind me when I ripped out the screen to get out. I knew we both had to get out.. and figured she was right behind me and would follow. I became very afraid when I realized she was still on the bed coughffing inside and began screaming loudly for her and putting my hands in the window to try and lead her to it. She had trobble finding footing as she was unable to see.. the smoke came in so fast it was far faster then we thought it might. By the time I opened the door we had about 30sec to get out. Had I not opened the front door we would have had more time to get out and time to even save gear. I did save of course.. after seeing my laptop and grabbing what I thought was one of my expensive camera bags with a DSLR and my HD video cam in it.. WE GOT TO GO.. NOW no more time for stuff.

The only reason I grabbed my laptop bag was because it was ready to go and right there by the window. But right next to it was both my main camera bags.. also ready to go. About 20,000 dollars in camera gear. Destroyed in seconds by fire and water damage later. What of course is most important is that I realized when we had to go and did not keep throwing things outside.. I just went and knew my wife was right behind me. Ed got there as I was grabbing her hand leading her up into the window. I was not trying to pull her out by one hand as the paper says. This all happened so fast and the paper got it other things wrong when it came to timing and how events happened. I asked ED who I thought was a fireman "will you help me pull my wife out.." had I known he was civilian I would not have asked him to do so. I was about ready to go as I had just found her hand and pull her out myself when Ed was standing right next too me. The ambulance had just pulled up so I thought that he was a fireman and in better shape then I was for doing something like this.. that's why I asked him. I have picked my wife up before.. but getting her out was the most important thing and I am still angry at myself for not being the last one out. That will never happen again.   But she views it differently as she says.. I did all I could and more by trying and had Ed not been there I would have been the one to have to do it. In a situation like this I'm sure I could have, but in hindsight.. I should have thought to check and then push her out. I was not afraid for my life and running from the fire or something. In fact.. I was scolded by the fire-fighters for running back to the window when I knew my wife was safe to attempt to grab my wallet bag (with my ID and money cards etc..) from the window. Later I would find it burned up.. the entire room having been torched. However.. incredibly and thanks very much to Ed.. a stranger to me who vollentered on the spot to help.. my wife and I are alive and well. In hindsight had my wife not survived this.. there is no way I could have lived with myself. Not a chance. I also made sure that our naighbors whos' hosue caught fire due to heat alone from ours.. had gotten out ok. Had I not seen them there.. I'd have gone over myself and started to bang on doors, break windows.. or anything I could to get there attention. Something nobody really did for us except Ed. It's hard to tell if we are home.. but they knew we were because we mostly were home all the time since I am disabled and have a hard time getting around now days. We also cannot afford a car.. so there was no way for onlookers to know if we were home or not.

 One thing is for sure.. my wife is also the hero here. She's the one who could not sleep and for some reason thought to check to see if she'd left something on. She had a feeling that saved our lives. Had that not happened.. smoke may well have killed us in our sleep as nobody seemed to think to knock on walls, break windows.. or do whatever is necessary to make sure nobody is home when a house is obviously completely onfire!  I know I would in a situation like that if it was revereced.   In our opinion.. the Ed and the fire department were heroes in this as were the hospital staff. I will never forget what Ed did for me in helping my wife get out. A disaster like this is a true test of character.. and we saw that in many ways with many people here. Friends.. family.. neighbours. Most of it good.. some of it not so good and something I don't want to get into here. We are glad to be alive. We lost everything except my laptop and a couple of programable transceivers (HTs). However we gained allot of faith in family, friends and humanity. I was not under any illusion that I would get any money for my lost stuff. From antiques to my camera gear.. all destroyed and as we only had the most basic insurance.. there was no pay-off for anything. The neighbours are planning to rebuild I hear.. and a man bought the lot from my mom (thank God) letting her be free of payments on a morgage for a house that no longer exists.


The front page.  I finally made it into the paper.   Not the way I wanted to as a photographer.  However.. my day for that will come with the hope I have.

Good friends and good food greated us when we were in shock over the two weeks we stayed in The Dalles while my mom and aunt Kerolyn took care of very important business to move us and furnish our apartment. Thanks to Spencer and Jen Harrmon.. we had a nice place to stay, food, and a ride to our most important apointments with local offices. Honestly.. they have been the best friends ever.

Spencer really knows how to barbique chicken! Allthough the sight of flames and the smell of fire was not something my wife and I wanted to have.. the chicken was really good.

A moonscape.. that's all that is left. My house was gone before I had a chance to see if many items that may have surived did survive and recover things I knew did. One thing I also advice people is that if your house gets in a disaster.. be sure and be clear with everyone when the demolition is going to be. I lost allot in the fire.. but I possibly lost allot more then I had too. Judgeing by what I found that did survive even though our mattrus in the main radio room burned up nearly completely as did most everything else in the room.. I have questions about what might have surivved.. looters.. and really wish I'd have been given a chance to supervize the situation and check things out more in that room before they demolished everything. They were unable to find my firebox safe. Which was rated for med-temp fires. That's what they said. I trust the company to an extent.. since the contents of the safe were not worth anything.. I doubt that they were able to find it and I know they tried. I had dozens of computers, old radios.. backup files.. personal and legal logs.. and that safe which of all things I thought would make it. NOPE. The safest place in your home from fire is probubly your fridge. That firebox most likely just melted and even if it had been recovered the contents including my grandad's war dairy, my passport.. and other items would have been destroyed inside it from shear heat. Allthough questions remain that may never be awensered as to where it was and if anything was taken. 1 out of over 300 microcasstte tapes survived the fire. My friend Spencer found it in this moonscape on the ground.. leading me to think there were boxes of survied tapes. However.. they were either all thrown away.. or taken by someone. There were rumers of looting.

Where our home used to be.. click on this to see a panaramic shot of the entier site. The large tree on the left was very lucky.. had this fire been this month or later.. it would have been all dry leaves.. making for a huge romen candle which could have taken out several other homes nearby.

The room we escaped from and where some items survived the fire but were probubly just bulldozed and destroyed. Things that worked once dried out amazed me.. my laptops power supply.. my VX-7 6m/2m/220/440 HT charger.. 6 USB external hard disk drives.. and one radio as well as a film camera survived. We escaped from the far right window.

This is a picture of a 6m walkie talkie (49Mhz) you can't get these anymore except if you are very lucky. It was destroyed in the fire but behind it you can see the Wouxun Professional FM Transceiver which survived both being heated and completely filled with water while the battery was still connected. I let it dry out for days not thinking it had a chance in hell. I would find incredibly.. it survived and lived up to it's name. A relitively inexpencive 2m rig.. the rubber insulation for the mirophone port was actually taken off so water freely came into the radio. Despite all this.. it still works great on local repeaters and both TX RX there's nothign wrong with it after I got it cleaned up. A mil speck FT50R and a Bendix&King rig in the same area were not so lucky. Those radios made in China are not as cheap as some people think!

The 2m (TX RX 136-174Mhz) KG-689 Transceiver still showing full of water the night after I finally was granted access to the room again by the fire department. As you can see water is visable in the display.

The radio turned on after being aired out for over a week and recharged. The charger was in the "wrong bag" I grabbed. So after a normal recharge.. it's Litho batteries came right back to life and after taking apart an old SMA adapter burned in the fire.. I made a 1/4 wave ant for it's male SMA ant. The rubber duck antania for this radio was one item I saw that was undammaged in the fire and planned to retreve on my return trip.. but I returned to them having not only demolished but taken away everything before I got a chance to return.

Another view of the working radio. Two other radios turn on.. but there internal mirophones are destroyed.. this one lived up to it's "professional" standards.

Another view of the one radio that survived the fire and water.. the Wouxun Professional FM Transceiver in full working order.

Another find.. this camera was in a small cabinet along with my main software. Some disks are corrupted some are not. I was lucky that allot of my PC software survived because it was in this cabinet and thus isolated from most of the heat as was this camera. Smoke alone got to it and covered it in a black film. The UV lens filter saved it's lens from fire damage and upon clean-up it seems this camera will work fine.. I have yet to put a roll of film and light meter battery in it.. but I think it made it. The case was too baddy damaged but protected it from some of the heat.
The Minolta 35mm SLR after cleanup. I used mostly water and raggs to scrub the outside of the camera. Inside.. the seal in tact.. the shutter and curten are in good shape.

This bag was possibly the most amazing find of all. Clearly you can see it was on fire. It was full of hard drives.. about 8 of them or so.

These hard drives SURVIVED THE FIRE! With one eexception in this picture.. the 2nd on the left which did not activate when I hooked it up to USB. I think it just did not have as much protection. The WD drive was the most amazing. A Wesetrn Digital HDD survived even though it's side clearly was on fire and melted. These hard drives were also completely virtually submurged in water in this bag and were extremely wet. After letting them dry out in a barbique.. most of them came right up on screen. I have yet to see the scope of pictures that survived.. but I know this..external hard drives are the most easy and survivable form of backup possible.. as 99% ..well over 2000 CD/DVDs were destroyed in this fire including my entire music collection and video libaray which was extencive on DVD and VHS.
The Western Digital survived even though it had a melted side that was clearly on fire. Nothing in that room stayed cooler then 200 degrees.. I found this less then five feet from a metal antania tuner that had litterally melted.

One box of tightly packed negitives and pictures surived and made it out simply because they were all in one place and in a spot that did not burn. If you seperate them while still wet.. pictures will recover and survive. Negitives also made it.. however.. all of the negitives I personally developed were destroyed..along with many other things from my childhood that cannot be replaced. It's extreemly painful. Alina lost her few only posessions and cloths..yearbook and her computer which in the intence situation she actually took the time to shut down while I was tearing out the screen to get out the window. Had we not had that airplane window that opens out like that.. I would have had to push out the aircon and keep the other window open.. my wife may not have made it out in time.
A slightly dammaged Canon Rebel XTI with battery grip. There are so many things I did not even find. In theory I still have this stuff as it's at a friends house in storage but somebody might steal it. I plan to put these camera's up on ebay someday if I can get them back. Who knows.. they sell everything else on Ebay!! All my cameras 4 digital SLRs.. a bunch of nice film cameras.. antique cameras.. and all lenses and extensions were destroyed. One lens.. a 300mm macro may have made it I don't know since I have no Canon digital SLR to test it on any more. Had I not been on a sleeping pill at the time and woken up out of dead sleep.. I'd probubly have had enough time to throw out the main camera bags which were right next to the laptop bag. I will spend a very long time wether I like it or not.. asking myself why I didn't have time to throw those bags out. It all came down to knowing we had to get out and I did not have time to think about stuff. It was just pure luck my laptop was visible and right there.. as was the VX-7R radio.. and I was so out of it from waking up to this nightmare on sleeping pills I grabbed the wrong bag and did not even get to my wallet bag. Smoke was comming in too fast to think about things after I opened the front door not knowing that I'd recive 2nd degree burns. A back-draft burned me instantly from the heat and oxigen getting into the house.. It was like literally being in that movie.

The burns have healed up nice now and miraculously healed quickly and well. Thanks possibly in part to the blessing my wife and I got from the LDS Church when we were at the hospital.
Our Wii System..slightly charred. After some talking my friend Spence was nice enough to get them to order a new one for us. They actually honoured that contract and gave us a new Wii and by some miracle I found the Wii Sports disk that was missing from the box brand new and Goodwill in Portland for 15 bucks!

A few items survived.. my pocket watch stopped at the time it was destroyed. The glass cracked and the mechinizum wreaked. Kays did not give me the replacement even though I was supposed to get it because they were supposed to give me the new one with a chain. I should have argued that point.. but they did not let me get a new one and of course I could not afford to buy one now. That was pretty rude given the circumstances and the fact that they had agreed to give me the other one in exchange because it did not come with a chain. Whatever.
The warrentee only lasts as long as I payed for it on credit. The spider books survived! I've had the book on the left which incredibly was sheltered from both fire and watter for the most part since 1985. That's about 25 years now. I was really lucky to get that back.

A few items shown as I learn to use my new camera. My station log and other stuff we bagged up on my first and only return to the sight before it was demolished.
The MP3 player I was listening too that night actually melted! I shutter to think what would have happened had my wife been able to sleep that night. God was giving her a sign. I had been pleged with disaster dreams for months and not knew why. Since this happened.. they have stopped. I was amazed by how hot things got. I had the headphones hooked up to this mp3 player when my wife woke me up. It erree almost like looking at the stuff they found in the Titanic or something. About 15 years ago.. a house fire happened next door.. and a lady died in it. So that area is not new to fires. My house was built in 1946. And saddly destroyed in 2009. It makes my stomch turn and makes me sick to think of all this.. but I want people to know our story and to learn something from it. Smokers be ware of danger. Smoking is the number one cause of house fires.

COMPUTER SOFTWARE and backup disks.. some of it works.. some of it is corrupted even though the disks are in good shape.
My Canon EOS 10D with minor damage. Things just melted.. burned..I found my wife's wedding ring melted into her laptop as she takes it off every night before going to bed.
Memory cards were about the only thing that surly did survive and they ALL did. CF and SD cards can be submerged and subjected to all sorts of stuff before they are damaged. Static electricity is there biggest danger. The transformer exploded for our housing area when my wife and I were just out of the fire. I assume that's because the breaker box melted and shorted the main lines which are not fused (before the meter).
My hand went through several phases.. 2nd degree burns mean pain and loosing skin.. but it got better fast and burn cream helped. I recovered well and was very lucky to not have inhaled this fire because it was about 5x hotter then a camp fire or normal open flame. This was superheated air and a superheated fireball that hit me. Like putting your finger through a candle.. exposure to open flames wont' hurt you usually for the short time it took this damage to happen (about 1/4 a sec.) however.. in house fires temperatures of the fire can get hot enough to melt steal and do instant damage. The door knob was not hot and we saw no fire out the kitchen window.. my first thought was the only door to the house not blocked by fire. Had we waited longer.. or not had that other window that was upgraded.. we would not have made it through this.

I just bought this camera a few months ago.. the guy said "..your spending $200 bucks on an HD 1080p video camera.. you should get the protection plan.. what if you drop it.." I was headed for a hamfest and had I done that I would have not had the money to buy some of the stuff I now don't have so I wish I had gotten the $50 protection plan!!!! I don't drop cameras but this damage was unavoidable.
The Canon EOS XTI.. I removed all the memory cards and those camera's last pictures are on them. It hurts so much to look at what we lost.. I switched operating systems to Linex ubuntu 9.0 and leave now my windows partition to itself. Thanks to my mom I will have recovery disks for windows but since playing with Linex.. I like it allot. It's faster.. it does allot of things I thought it would not.. and it's got many advantages I can't count them all. However.. you need to know more then the average about computers before you can even try it which makes it hard and I'm not really sure how secure it really is.. all I know is what Ive read. These cameras were a total loss. As I say.. maybe some collector somewhere will want them on Ebay if I can get them back from my firends house.


A 2m radio that was left hanging on the antania tuner that burned and a Yeasu ft50r that my friend Keith (K7RKH) gave me. It was a total loss to say the least.. and the other rig basically melted. There's not much left after a house fire and just about everything burns or melts.
The aluminum tuner this was hanging on actually melted down on each side so this radio got HOT! It was an inexpencive radio.. the most expencive losses were my cameras and Ocilloscopes as well as huge collection of electronic parts and tools.. only a few vaccume tubes were recovered. Nothing else remains and the rest I was planning to get was desmolished before I had the chance. I will be upset at that for longer then I want to be.

My so called "submergeable" GPS. This $400 GPS did not survive dispite the fact that it should not have filled with water in the first place being sealed. Batteries inside were probubly what totaled it. Rust and heat may be the main reason why it does not work. Having a GPS for me is very important. I mark waypoints at bus stops, places I need to go.. and places I want to go. It is one of my most used tools especially for someone who has to get arround on the bus and transit.. I need a new one..I just don't know when I will be able to afford even the cheapest model.

It's hard to believe that Spencer found a working microcasstte tape right here in this moonscape that was once my home. So much was lost.. it even hurts to think of the spiders and stuff that died because of this. The plants we had.. the life we had. This is not how I wanted to move to Portland.


Alina and I and my VX-7 surviving radio.. it's even got HF AM so I can listen to shortwave stations. I have been meaning to write an article on apartment antanias. One trick really works well.. even if you don't have a land line phone connected.. try plugging in a phone cord and wrapping it arround your shortwave radio. You just might find that you have "cable" for your shortwave radio without all the fuss of making loop antanias and longwires to hide.


The YEASU VX7R. An all arround amazing radio with endless features and abilities. I grabbed it simply because we could not find the phone and I figured that I may have to call this in directly. I can talk on police frequencies if there is a life and death emergency and that's exactly what I was planning on doing.. the hosue burrned for at least an hour or two before anyone dailed 911. It was late at night.. but still.. people don't notice. When I first got out the window only then did the ambulence pull up.
My hand healing greatly.. it's now nearly totally healed but a bit sore if I put it in the sun. No more creams needed.

Leaving The Dalles.. I tried to say goodbye to everyone on the simplex freq. and local UHF repeater but it was down (443.35).. so I could not get ahold of anyone to say goodbye and left in a hurry with only what we could fit in a 4 door small car. Our microwave and TV..as well as many other items and my recovered items are still with friends and we don't know if or when we will be able to get them back. That's ok.. things happened so fast we are both still in shock to some degree. It will take time for things to heal. Thank God my wife's voice is coming back finally. I was so worried about her. I only cried once when we were in the hospital when I got scared that my wife might not make it.. she was coughing so bad it was so hard for me to hear. However.. we are doing allot better and moving on with our lives. On 9/11/2009 I have been 5 years clean and sober. Thank God we have our lives, thank God for our friends.. and the heros who helped us. God bless everyone who helped us, prayed for us.. and gave us things. A special thanks goes to the Red cross as well for there help financially and in getting refills for my meds. It's very difficult to move for me because I have to find new doctors and that takes time.. my old one can't just call in prescriptions.. and then there is the disability gov. stuff. A special thanks goes to my mom, stepdad and aunt Kerolyn for there quick action in helping us when they did not have too. Going out of there way.. and Spence and Jen for there hospitality and driving us to all our important apointments and places to go. We have many people to thank for this.. and there has been many heros in this. We wish we could have talked to thew news papor and told our story but they did what they did. It was not entirely accurate.. that's the press for you. And a big thanks goes to Ed for helping me get my wife out of course.. there are allot of heros out there, some people who don't even know they are until the time comes. Events like this are a true test of charictier as well as many lessons.. our harts go out to other people who have lost there loved one's and possessions in fire and disasters that continue to plegue the area. I only wish we had lots of money to spread around.. if we won the lotto I think we'd just give most of it away to friends, heros, and family.

I WILL continue to update this site and add pictures of spiders. I don't know when I will get my pro-rig back.. but in the mean time I will use my skills scavenging and building my own lenses/working with compact cameras to make the most of my 10mp S1500 and the 3.2mp HP733 digital camera I bought for 15bucks at Goodwill. It's got some old school features you can't find anymore on compacts and it takes good pictures. This is just the begining of my photographic life, I don't give in, give up.. or let self pitty or guilt bring me down. Both are just as useless. We got lucky to have what we do and the help we got and to survive. That is what matters the most.. time and good planning will take care of the rest. I've got more pictures and new macro pictures that will be posted when possible. Thanks be to everyone involved for any help given.

"Patients is worth more now then all the money I will ever have in my entire life.."
Gabe W Beasley --8/2009

OUR HOME DESTROYED BY FIRE

"We are alive and that's all that matters" is what I have been saying to everyone. Arround midnight on 8/20/2009 (if I recall right) my wife woke up to thinking she had left a burner on.   It was not.  It was what we can only call message from God (since she did not smell smoke and we would never have gotten out if she'd ignored the thought) My wife discovered that our entire back wall was on fire. We literally had less then 20sec or so to get out of the house. Thanks to the help of both the fire department and the best local neighbour ever.. we got myself and my wife out the window.   She was in the hospital for a day and a night with severe smoke inhalation.    I was also admited for minor somke inhilation that night night for 2nd and 3rd degree burns on my face and hands.  We are alive and
that's all that really matters.
However thank God I managed to grab my laptop and my VX-7 Yeasu handheld radio (6m/2m/220/440 TX), my laptop (complete with 3 hard drives, wedding photos, important pics.   As well as another bag which I thought was my main primary digital SLR camera bag but later realized that it was just a radio back with a V1000 UHF, Icom T8A and a high end scanner in it as well as battery chargers. That was good because everything, (I lator found that 6 hard drives out of about a dozen survived the fire and water dammage!) Destroyed was all those important momentos.. pictures and personal information/records.  My of my hard drives.. DVDs backup archives of pictures.. and about 20 grand in pro-camera equipment was basically vaporized.  Nothing except my big knife found under some stuff protected and my wife's wedding ring found melted into her laptop was worth recovering. And I will see no money to pay for any of it.   IF YOU DONT HAVE RENTERS INSURENCE OR PROPERTY INSURENCE GET IT NOW!  Thus I did not and wont get any money to repalce any of my gear, cameras or otherwize.

My mom and family has been fantatstic in helping us recover..from getting us a new apartment in Portland to funishing it for us for the most part.  Our family saved our lives here.  I can't tell someone what this feels like however.   To lose everything since the stuff your grandpa gave you when you were a kid.. and the pictures and negs.. my first cameras..my most important cameras..my passports and my GED.  DESTROYED.  Firesafe boxes are USELESS!  You have a much better shot at putting your vallubles in an amry surplus ammo box in the back of your fridge.  That was the safest place in the house.  It will take months if not years to have our lives back to some sense of normalcy.  The shock of looseing everything is not easy.   However if there is any hope to be found I find it and can follow the hope into the future useing the stepingstones made of minor miricles and generous acts.

THIS WAS MY MOMS HOUSE
And my mom did not do so well with this.. since her insurance (she's the owner and landlord) will not even pay the value of the house. We are terrified of legal situations but we are just very glad and blessed that everyone lived and nobody was seriously injured. I'd say my wife was the most injured one, she suffered severe smoke inhilation and still has trobble breathing as well as laryngitis. This was litterally waking up to a nightmare.

Sorry about spelling I was unable to find spellcheck on this computer.


What is even worse is that the neighbours house also caught fire due to the heat from my deck burning. No it was not the dry grass.. said the fire marshal Dan H. He was absolutely sure of that. They lost everything except there pickup as well and I have not been able to talk to them as my cellphone burned up in the fire with all my numbers. The cause of the fire is still under investigation.. there is a chance according to them that since I smoked it was my butt can.. but we can't be sure. This leaves a deep pit in my stomach and makes me sick. The feeling I would not wish on my worst enemy. There have been several other theories, but what is definitely sure is it was not my ham radio station or camera gear. The dry grass, blowing wind, heat.. and that deck all went into play that night to produce this fire. 

All naighbors on all sides of us smoked.
That about summs up the situation.  Our nighbors next door walked arround with ciggerettes in there mouths on both sides of the house..the back was an ally way. We may never fully know what happened.  Placeing blame however is not tops on my list here.  Accdience do happen and my yard was too dry.   I know I was being careful with my smokes.. but I quit that night and have not smoked since.  Whatever caused this fire..and it may actually have been the air conditioner or a spark from the naighbors right back where it started (where they smoke) is not nearly as important as the prevention I should have taken to avoid this situation or at least make it better.  However.. I refuse to live in self pitty or replaying what I did wrong and right over and over in my head.   It was an accident of some kind and I'm sure it involved smoking.  This was the 3rd ciggette related house fire this year in The Dalles.. a really small town.    And I was being careful.

We were asleep for 2 hours before we noticed and as The Dalles Chronical paper here said, we "narrowly escaped with our lives". Had someone died in this fire I'm not sure I could live with myself. I have not been able to talk to the nighbors who lost everything as well but were not injured.  And we are blessed it was not worse.   Very blessed.

Alina (my wife) and I made it out alive and you have to pause and realize, sometimes with a tear in your eye.. how important and amazing that is.  Despite all the stress.. from dealing with so much loss of personal items..the bills that can't be payed.  We survived and had help, I have a light I now can follow again to build back and get a new camera and better lenses and gear.  Even if it takes me a very long time.    Patients right now is worth more to me then all the money I ever have had or ever will have.   I've been lucky.   We had to find me doctors, my wife doctors.. get us established hear..figure out how to deal with the bills..and finally only now am I starting to get out of shock and back into thinking of things in a stable way.   That could take a while for both of us.(added/updated 10-32-2009)

The really good thing is, both the fire department and everyone else including our best friends Spencer and Jennifer Harmon have been very very helpful. The Red Cross helped us with a relief card to get some basic items. However, our money situation is devastated and we may not even be able to afford winter cloths for a while but things have a way of working out thanks to God.   Basically nothing survived the fire but there were some incredible finds.. all my pictures and the main copies of the pics on this website have been destroyed as hard drives melted and got soaked, the few CDs that seemed ok due to where they were are sometimes corrupted.   There's nothing left.   I was only able to recover the memory cards from my 4 digital SLR cameras.  Only 3 cards were recoverd.  The cameras were melted but the flash memory is fine and thus the cards not only are fine but still work great.   The memory cards I was able to recover out of my other digital cameras also survived but a couple of the doors were too melted to recover the card from.  I did not escape the fire with a single camera.  I only realized this when we got to the hospital.  

I simply did not even have the time to grab my wallet/keys/stungun beltpack bag/main and secondardy digital SLR bag even though they were right by the window ready to go!  Had I been awake when my wife alerted me to the fire and not out on sleeping meds (legal and prescribed)--I deffinately would have been able to save my cameras and wallet.   Damn that hurts.   What hurts more then anything is remembering my wife screaming.   I never want to hear that again..and I broke down crying for the first time in many years when I thought I really might lose her.   Terrible stuff.   Even though this fire may not have been my fault.. having my wife go through this nightmare is not something I would wish on anyone.   I have had a hard time dealing with that personally.   I know I must remember it was life or death situation and I had to consentraight on getting my wife out first.  By then..there was no going back.    Luckily, I was able to get my laptop but a problem caused it to crash just after the fire. So I am waiting for my dad who has been an incredible help to order CDs for me so I can recover the system. That was my fault I had to uninstall Linex to make space and I did not do it right.   UPDATE: I was able to re-instal LENEX and its GREAT! Also got the recovery disk.  Things are getting better and better very slowly.  Now as I proof-read and update these articles I should say..we were very lucky and I am humbled that God saved my wife and I as well as everyone else involved in the fire.. whatever caused it.
 

My mom has been extremely supportive and taken this very very well even though this was her house. I can't thank her enough for her help and understanding and to thank my step dad Jeff.  My aunt Kerolyn should be mentioned here as well.. witthout her help we would not have been able to move to Portland.   They have been great and worked tirelessly to try to find Alina and I a place in Washington county so that we can be closer to family and have more stuff to do. For now we are staying at our best friends apartment here in The Dalles.

The ham radio community has been very supportive as well and I want to thank them for that. There are so many people to thank. The fire department was great and did an incredible job stopping the fire from burning down any more homes despite radiant heat. My burns will heal with time and my wife is getting better every day.  We have each other and the love for eachother which has continuued to get us through this and it's aftermath.

I managed to get myself a great little camera with some of the Red Cross money and took some photos. As you can see there is not much left.. the door was here above the deck. I received these burns in literally less then 1/4th a second of contact to the superheated fire when I opened the door to go outside thinking it was safe. Dispute the fact that the doorknob was not hot enough to be alarmed.. a back draft flash-over effect hit me in the face and hands. Alina was in the hospital for one day and one night and had to return after symptoms got bad for a few hours.

My eyes could have been destroyed and I could have fried my lungs if I had inhaled quickly. I was very very lucky. I am just so glad my wife did not get any burns and was standing behind me and the dryer when the back-draft happened. The FIRE ALARMS DID NOT GO OFF until it was way DEADLY too late. Had my loving and amazing wife Alina not stayed awake worried about leaving a burner on for no real reason.. we would almost certainly both be dead. I had to open the window and rip out the screen to get out.


This was one of my main radios right next to me that fateful night in bed while I was sleeping.. Less then 8inches from my head.  The one I did Ham radio net check-ins to the emergency radio nets here in The Dalles on. Plastic burned, melted, and what was not burned was full of water. My Mp3 player was made of aluminium and melted. Many items I just can't find.. they were simply vaporized. Nothing is really worth saving unless somebody wants to buy stuff like this on Ebay. You never know.
Hard drives.. I had nearly a dozen of them full of pictures (master files) and they were all either burned or soaked with water and mud.  6 of these drives ACTUALLY SURVIVIED THIS!!!!  Incredible.  (update-10-23-2009)
Canon EOS10D pulled out of the $250 weather-resistant camera bag.
It looks old and broken.  All she needs is a bit of lens cleaner and a light coating of Armoral--back to new!  My Cannon Eos10D digital SLR. As you can see.. cameras did not survive much. I wonder how much I can get on ebay for this one now.. it's only slight superfiscial dammage:)

Other cameras.
My Nikon D40 and a $250 lens filled with watter and partially melted.
Our WII entertainment system. Incredibly, Nintendo has offered to replace it. We'll see, but thanks to phone calls made by my friend Spencer.. we might just get a new one from them. Our insurance however.. will pay for nothing when it comes to my camera gear and other stuff.  We got a new WII!  Thanks to Spencers call and the fact that we got a protection plan with it when we bought it.  I know.. it's an extra $50 or something.  IT's WORTH IT!  I used to never buy those things.. now if there's anyway to do so I will!  Most important.. CHECK OUT WHAT KIND OF INSURENCE YOU HAVE..how much..what does it cover..document what you own and keep those records at a friends house of safety deposit box.   (Photos of all your gear..jewels.etc)

Family heirlooms, pictures, school yearbooks, old radios.. and antiques all destroyed. We escaped from the window on the right with the window hanging off of it. My wife is going to be ok now.  I finally know that.. this is so important because I love her so much I can't put it into words and I can't even immagine life without her.  (Update-10-23-2009)

Another front view.. this is an unbelievable nightmare and we want to thank everyone who has helped us through this both emotionally and financially. I will be checking my email:
alinangabe@yahoo.com when ever I can.  
FAMILY AND FRIENDS:  I'm really sorry if you just found out about this. I still have not called alot of people because I lost all the phone numbers I had in my cellphone. One of my best friends Jeff Damn does not even know yet and I still have family to call.   Just about everyone knows now.. we are doing well living in Portland.   I will be getting back into ham radio here soon but we have had allot of stressful stuff happen and things we have to take care of so down-time and time to process all this is important.   That's why I've not been talking much on ham radio.  I appologize to everyone for that.. I just don't want to sound bad and sometimes don't feel like talking.  Everyone needs time to cope after something like this.   I did get the QSO card from Kristin.. K7KWT..thanks for the great chat. And the e-mail from Steve..thank you for thinking of sending us a card.  It will take me a while before I feel like getting on the radio much.  It all depends on how I feel.   Once I know the bills are in order, my hard to get meds are in order, and we are working twards our goles to rebuild and recover.. I will feel like I'm getting my life back and be more social.  Both of us have had to cope with this and we are sorry if we forgot to call people or email.   It's just a mater of time.

Life feels like stepping onto miricle after miricle and kind act after kind act both from God and from are family and friends twards the light of our dreams no matter how distant it may seem.  One light at a time.  One dream at a time.
--G.Beasley 10-23-2009

KF7DFP my callsign! I got my ticket!

MY HAM RADIO STATION

UPDATE-- 9/15/09 Saddly all the gear you see here with the exception of one HT was completely destroyed in the house fire in article above.   Fire destroys everything.  Everything burns or melts.. it amazes me what did.  The metal ant. tuner on the left melted on each side.   The HF rigs, o-scopes, and everything else were destroyed as you can see from above photos.   At present I have my VX-7R and I'm lucky for that.. very lucky..giving me 6m/2m/220/440 coverage and general coverage recive.  My ICOM T8A also survived because it was in one of two bags I grabbed.. We only had about 20sec waking up from a dead sleep to figure out what to grab.. my camera gear was right there..but I had to chose to get us out first of course and only saved my laptop and my VX-7 because I did not know if anyone had called 911 first.   MY ID was later found in my burned up wallet.   All my camera gear was ready to go.. had I not been woken up like that.. I'd have been able to throw it out the window very easy..with my wallet and important stuff all in a bag as well.   I have been disaster-preparied since going through a typhoon and earthquackes before.    Yet in a hosue fire..you have so little time waking up to it that often nothing is saved and nothing survives.  Incredibly one HT works having been found under the table shown here.   All other equpment was destroyed.   Mike, WB7QXU was very helpful in giving me time to pay back the 110 dollars I owe him for an antania that I may not be able to get back.   Virtually nothing survived, so my advice to people is PREVENTION. Check your butt cans.. keep your yard from being a fire hazard and get insurence on your vallubes.   Fire boxes and fire safes may cost money but from my experence and the advice of Dan.. our local fire chefe..they are useless.   Only very expencive high end safe's offer the kind of protection from fires like the one that claimed our home.   The safest place in that house was the fridge.. my important documents should have been in the back of the fridge in a sealed ammo box or something and they may well have been unscaved.. especially those army surplus boxes that are watertight.   Just some advice.   You don't know what you have or really appricate it until it's gone and you realize how difficult or impossible it is to replace it.    We are on a very low income and much of this gear was donated to me from friends.   I have chronic pancretitus and am on pain management therefor I've had to be on dissability since I got it five years ago.  I like to work and absolutely miss it.    However.. my painful condition flares up way too often for me to get a job.. not to mention the fact that I'm on pain meds that make it nearly impossible to get hired.   It's a difficult trap.. I appricate anyone who understands and does not view me as some kind of jerk living on wellfare.   I used to work hard and long hours every day.   When you get a dibilitating painful disease there's not much else you can turn too.   Often I'm unable to walk even a couple of blocks without sitting down and am currently working with my doctors trying to get a powerchair.   I want to thank Mike and anyone else who has shown compassion.. as well as Jeff WA7MLH for his understanding because he left allot of his stuff at my place.  

I humbly ask if anybody out there has any ham radio gear or photographic gear they would like to donate to me to please e-mail me.   I wish to thank family and friends for the donations of basics like furniture and other items.   It's amazing how much you lose in a disaster like this.    If you have any surplus gear for a new ham trying to get re-started or photographic gear and wish to help the e-mail address is olngwb@yahoo.com

--end of update post fire

After waiting almost exactly 20 years another life-long dream has been realized when I passed the test and earned my Technician class Amateur license on the 6th of May 2009. My license then came in the mail less then 2 weeks later! My first contact's name was Hue, KF7LN on one of his local repeaters. Repeaters are used by amateurs to communicate with each other and by businesses (on other frequencies) to do the same across longer distances and or with lower power radios. Finally, I am now a fully licensed ham radio operator with all VHF/UHF privileges, 10m (28.3-28.5 phone (voice) and CW (Morse code) privileges on 10, 15, 40 and 80meter bands. I have been very humbled by the local ham community here in The Dalles and how nice they have been. Because I'm on such a low budget, I've been given a number of items I could never have fit into my budget like a brand new dual band antenna for my roof from WB7QXU to most importantly a large number of radio and radio-related gear from Jeff, my long term mentor in electronics who also provided transportation to the Seaside ham fest where I passed my exam. I did study and learned the Morse code, although I only made it to about 5wpm at my best. That would have been enough to pass if it was still required. Now I have a serious interest in learning it more and getting fast enough to chat around the world with this international language on HF.




My station just before I installed the Icom 2720 dual band mobile radio that K7RKH gave me! People in the Ham community have been very supportive and even give gear to other hams. It's like having a whole bunch of instant friends you can almost certainly trust. Bad things about people like people who steal radios and such go arround really fast in radio.. so they don't last long! Unilke the highly restricted CB schene (11m). I've been on the CB and other license free bands for a long time, but they are nothing compared to ham radio and the quality of people you meet in ham radio. I could write a book about ham radio here, but it's not my intention to do anymore then show people how easy it can be to become both an asset to your community in an emergency and have a great and exiting hobby at the same time. The one thing I should stress more then anything else, is the difference between ham radio and CB or other walk talkie bands like FRS. Because you have to pass an exam about radio and electronics which takes some serious dedication the people who are just on there to here themselves talk or talk trashy almost never get on and if they do, they don't last long as ham radio operators have a strict code of polite operation. Ham radio can be a door to having friends, building awesome stuff, accomplishing goals, and using communications equipment connecting with hams all over the world as well as doing many other things on your own such as operating radio beacons for science.

FREQUENCY
HF is generally for long distance communications. From about 600kc BELOW the AM broadcast band to about 30Mhz very long distance Communications becomes possible on a regular basis at certain times in certain bands. A "band" is just a frequency map. Your AM "band" radio tunes from 0.500Mhz to about 1.7Mhz while FM tunes much wider and at a higher frequencies about 88 to 108Mhz. AM and FM just refers to the mode of transmission, not the frequency. An FM broadcast could happen in the "AM" band but it's bandwidth would be too wide and not very practical for that frequency. AM and FM modes are just two of a half dozen modes commonly used to modulate radios. CW or Morse code, is still one of the most common means of communication over long distances as it is very reliable. When Jeff WA7MLH and I wanted to find a band that Aircraft operate on several HF and VHF bands. There is an in-between band called 6m (50Mhz) which offers the best of both worlds! And then there is 2m and 2m SSB for long distance comes and 2m, (144Mhz)FM, 220 and 440Mhz for more local communications with occasional skip happening during certain times. Put simply, ham radio does take some serious study to earn the license, however.. once you get your license it can be a door to all kinds of people, places, and things that you may not otherwise be able to achieve. Becoming a ham radio operator is not like joining a chat-room on line or texting your friends on a cellphone. It's a way to make friends and learn a great deal, as well as participate in radio communications in general. Ham radio licensees participate in relief efforts and help with communities and other things during emergencies and even aid in search and rescue sometimes. It's just allot of fun to talk to someone on a radio you repaired, refurbished, or an antenna you built yourself. Or maybe if you have a big budget (unlike myself) you can get on a radio you built entirely yourself! For me, it's a way of meeting people and personal achievement. I've always been into electronics in some way, and with ham privileges I can do allot more and have far more fun. For information about amateur radio be sure to check out the ARRL website. Just Google ARRL or Amateur radio to find it. There are plenty of books, study guides, and the test questions, tests session times and places and details can be found on line.



I don't have a 2m rig that can generate PL tones other then HTs. (Handy talkies) so these two make up two main local repeaters. The Quenching and Realistic HTX-404 which is connected to my homemade 3 element yagi. The PL tone is required for most US repeaters now. Which means my old 1980 era 2m base/mobile rig shown above the HF rig (the top large radio) cannot talk into the repeaters. So I made do by getting myself an external microphone and hooking up the little 4 watt HT to a large dual band antenna. I made all my own SMA to BNC or PL-259 connectors myself being on a low budget I also had to eliminate the battery on this HT so I could run it on AC. It required an odd voltage of about 8 volts. 9 would have been too high, so I finally found that an old video camera power supply of mine worked very well and plugged it in. The Quenching now is my main repeater talking radio while the large rigs are for simplex (radio to radio) and can put out 25watts. The HF rig can put out 100W in all bands on all modes but she's getting old and I'm worried about the band selector. I go between 40 and 10m since I have not yet got a good 80m ant. setup. The wire will have to be more then 66 feet on each side! That means I need my entire yard and more for the antenna.



This is my HF antenna tuner for working DX on 10meters SSB/AM and CW on the other HF bands as well. I don't have any antenna switches yet so I have to switch cables allot, homemade dipoles makeup my HF antennas. I have one outside for 40m that is only about 5 feet off the ground. Despite it being less then 33 feet long on each end (a total of about 65 feet of wire--you do need some room for these kinds of antennas) it tunes well to 40meters with my homebrew ant. tuner. It's a simple system. I gutted this old linear amp so that just the capacitors and variable coil are there. Two PL259 connectors in the back lead in and out. It's done all with coax for maximum efficiency. A simple circuit but it took a while to put together and get right. Antenna tuners and a good SWR meter is very important to any HF station.


As is a power supply. I got this nice little number with a heat sink in the back (the device just behind the red box which is a makeshift 10min timer--hams must ID every 10 mines during conversations--) this was before I put it into a box. I had problems with RF noise and it was in danger of being damaged by something falling on its sensitive circuit boards which could cause immediate catastrophic damage. Since these things sell for about $300 new, and not much less used.. this is something to protect. A 12VDC valuable power supply that can handle 40amps. That's enough to run a couple of 200W radios. Since it's switching and smart, it has overload protection which is VERY important. I've blown too many power supplies and fuses I could not replace quickly because of a simple short which could happen at any time in your station. If your power supply does not have overload protection, fuses are an absolute must. Even still, fuse should exist on both ends of the power supply from each radio to the supply and from the supply to the wall outlet.


"On the right track" I took this just before we left for Portland and got married. I got my marriage license and then told my wife "there's no reason why I can't get my ham license finally now as well". And so I did. Studying for about 6months or so. I recommend long study to insure you pass. I watched people fail, you don't want to fail. What's the use of going to the somewhat rare tests done by volunteers if you are not ready to pass!? Study long and hard, know the question pool and you will score in the 90s+ I missed one question, and to this day I don't know which one it was. Funny thing is, I failed my driver's license exam by 1 question. I could have missed as many as 6. It may well have just been me being nervous having waited 20 years for this and marking the wrong spot as I recall remembering each question because I studied the entire pool on my computer with my wife's help.


"On the right track" I took this just before we left for Portland and got married. I got my marriage license and then told my wife "there's no reason why I can't get my ham license finally now as well". And so I did. Studying for about 6months or so. I recommend long study to insure you pass. I watched people fail, you don't want to fail. What's the use of going to the somewhat rare tests done by volunteers if you are not ready to pass!? Study long and hard, know the question pool and you will score in the 90s+ I missed one question, and to this day I don't know which one it was. Funny thing is, I failed my driver's license exam by 1 question. I could have missed as many as 6. It may well have just been me being nervous having waited 20 years for this and marking the wrong spot as I recall remembering each question because I studied the entire pool on my computer with my wife's help.


Yaesu and Icom make some of the best radio gear. Period. This $12,000+ rig is complete with a spectrum analyzer and a mapping computer system that covers every common and even not so commonly useful frequency imaginable. Airplanes are sometimes outfitted with radios made by Icom in other countries that have been modified to operate on the HF aircraft bands. If you want to listen, San Francisco tower is on USB 5550-5554.8 or so.


Yaesu and Icom make very good radios. I was so broke, I bought one radio for about $150 and I got really lucky. A used Icom T8A. There was a line of guys planning to buy it so I was lucky to pass my test quick and then hit the hamfest early. Free stuff comes later, getting there early is realy important for the best used gear. The T8A came as a tri-band 6m/2m/440 but I took it apart and modified it so that it also operates on the 222Mhz amature band, I just have to switch antanias. It was a really good deal and a great find. I could not have asked for a better time to pass my
From antania's to batteries people sell commercial and homebrew gear. Unfortunately I was so engaged by the fest and gear --just looking-- that I forgot about my camera! Something I don't do very often.


ALL THIS STUFF I can feel this way only at two kinds of places, a ham radio fest.. or a large camera store with used gear or a camera gear fest something I have not yet gonto yet but hope too! I took a few shots to get some ideas for homebew antnias. Guys make money making antanias. I have made some really good dipoles as my 11m dipole (now converted to 10m) with my ant. tuner)

In the end, this was the most important thing I took away from Seaside. My ham radio licence. I am going to frame it just as soon as I have the money to buy some new frames. As you can see, photography is never far away.. and is not far off from my mind. Just before we left for the ham fest I got some of the best spider pictures of this year with my Nikon and a homemade macro setup.

This is a crab spider, and it's a male. This one was in a great spot. I shot him with my Nikon D40 and a 200mm zoom lens with a home made dioper. I took these the day before my exam day outside just waiting. I found two of these males in different spots and got a number of shots I thought were worth posting.

I did not shoot this with a macro lighting system either. Unilke many of my direct lighted shots, this spider was shot with a high power above camera flash. I got high brightness for F30 operation by holding my finger over the flashe's light sensor.


I used the same setup here, all of the black crab spiders I've found arround here have been males, leading me to think that there is a serious color difference

Crab spider on leaf.. it's great to get them in natural shots! I got lucky this day, early morning or late afternoon is usualy a good time.

The SPIT BUG --uncovered

I was hunting for spiders with my Canon 10D SLR and my macro flash extension tube setup. I came upon a couple of really cool sights. First I saw spit bugs, lots of them... and then found one that was actually in the process of making it's spit cocoon! I did not have to wipe this guy off. I actually found it like this making for a really cool shot since I did not want to risk harming the fragile insect by scraping away it's spit cocoon.




A rare look at the world of the spittle bug. Usually totally covered, this one probubly moved or was in some stage of life change to be out in the open momenarily.


I got several angles but my movements scared it into making even more spittle.

Finally it ended up coverd up quick. I got lucky finding this shot!

"HUGE OPASOMA"
This common hunting spider spins a sack and catches insets by feel like the sack spider. This female had a huge abdomen, she was almost certainly ready to lay eggs. I caught her by hand on my wall.



And this guy put on a show! Watch the palps just below the eyes! It seemed to have seen it's reflection in my camera lens and that's probably why it was displaying to me, it did this for several minuets.


And one more shot as it moved it's palps up and down. Probably an intimidation strategy.


And he just kept going!


This is a tiny Zebra spider. A jumping spider, out in the sun shot with my Canon 10D. This spider could fit on my smallest fingernail twice.


This is why they call it the Zebra spider. You can clearly see the markings in these shots.


So no, I have not forgotten photography or spiders! Finding things to do being disabled is very important. Watching TV all day is no fun after a while. So I found in photography and in Ham radio new worlds to explore and hopes for my future.

CLOSE UP shots of the week

I waited for the right moment with my heavy but ergonomic Canon EOS 10D DSLR and lighting setup to catch this shot. I was really elated when I got it because moments like this can be hard to capture. It is pictures like this I've been dreaming of catching since I was a kid and saw them in books. Just last night I got lucky and was in the right place at the right time with my camera as this beetle decided to fly. They spread there wings and hesitate just a moment before liftoff which gave me just enough time to keep my cool and take a focused shot.

I am not sure what kind of beetle this is yet, I think it's some kind of june bug, but I could be wrong. I will be looking it up sometime soon here.


And incredibly, it spread it's wings yet again for me when I had a clear shot. This beetle was captured with a Canon EOS 10D, extension tube, and a home built macro flash system.

CLOSE UP --The Grass Spider

This is one of my favorate species of spiders. She is related to the crab spiders. Useing a small plastic petree dish, I got some serious close ups on this Tibellus oblongus. They are hard to find since they blend in so well with grass and folage. That flying beetle shot was nice, but spiders still have the most of my interest. This one made it to my outside light last night.

Here you can see the eyes which are actually quite small for a hunting spider. Her main senses can be seen in those hairs on her limbs. They are highly sensitive to vibration.

On the underside we can see her clearning one of her limbs, and clearly we can also see her female reproductive organ, the small black mark on the abdomen, the epigynum.Another shot of her cleaning her limb. Spiders often do this and keep themselves quite clean.

The full underside as best as I could with the setup I had here. It took me couple of hours of shooting to get these shots.

Here she is about 0.5mm above the ruler here but this gives you some idea of her size, she could grow to have a body 10mm long.

Hanging out here, as you can see she's in the plastic dish and just about 0.5mm above the surface here. To take these shots in doors, I used a LED flashlight to see through the SLR viewfinder well.
I tried my best to get through any glare and get the best shots I could of this spider as she was in the dish. She's nearly fully grown but they get a bit larger.

Then I let her go right where I caught her, this is the typical way they sit in wait. They are a sly and very quick species.