On September 12th, we got the truck out of storage for the last time. We brought the truck over for 2 reasons 1. to test fit it and 2. we were taking her down to Wheeling at 7am the next morning and didn't think the guy who's barn we were storing it in would like us coming to get it that early. :)

So we drove the truck to the house and it was time to try putting Ember in the garage and see how she fits. Besides the strange looks from a couple of the neighbors (and taking a small chunk out of the neighbor's tree with my mirror, sorry Peggy!), she fit in perfectly! When the truck is in the garage, we can fit one or two more cars in the other bay. I probably would have gone 5 or 10 feet bigger on the side and back but it will work. You can see Will hard at work pressure washing the truck.

Welcome back! So you want to know what's new with Ember? Well, I've been really busy lately as you will soon see. It all started prior to August 18th. We met with One Day Garage to see about getting a new garage built to house the fire truck. The weeks leading up to August 18th, we refinanced the house and secured financing to build a 20 foot x 30 foot x 16 foot garage at our home. Construction on the new addition began on August 18th. A small work party was formed to help get the brush and rock and existing shed moved out of the way.

On August 23rd, the first of 2 crews from One Day Garage came out and demolished the existing concrete pad from our old garage (which we tore down 4 or 5 years prior), prepped the ground, spread out gravell and began laying out the pole barn style footers. All of this was done before lunch. After lunch, the cement truck came and the pad for the garage was poured. By the end of the day, I had a driveway, concrete pad and footer for the new garage done.

A few days later, the second crew from One Day Garages came out and over the next three days, the framing, roofing and siding would happen.

The garage was nearing completion. All that is left to do is the garage door, garage door opener and electric!

We made it back to the Lansingville Parade! Woohoo! Barb, Jess, Paul, Lisa, Capt Anthony, Allyson and Jeremy all met up with us at the St Matthias line up. This year we also picked up Flo from Chicago. Her relatives were riding on another float and there wasn't room  so we picked her up as part of our crew for the parade (hope you are all jealous!).  After a brief visit with the crew from Engine 9, we took our spot in the parade. At the end there were hot dogs, snow cones, cotton candy, chips and drinks for everyone in the parade and in the neighborhood. We love the little neighborhood parades. Wonder if the Pleasant Grove section of Youngstown can get something set up?

We took Ember to the Niles Fourth of July Parade again this year. We didn't make it last year because of a scheduling conflict with the McDonald Fireman's Festival. We were the last unit in the parade which was cool. At one time during the parade we were being escorted by 3 Niles Police units. We also had four new crew members for this parade. Janet, Elizabeth, Claris and Mitchell joined us for the ride. After the parade was over, we took the truck back to Austintown.

Well this year at the McDonald Parade, things were dry. We had a slight issue with the electrical system on Ember. We kept tripping the circuit breaker with the roof lights. They worked before so we are leaning towards an electrical short somewhere on the truck that we will have to track it down. This years parade features a fire truck agility course prior to the parade. It consisted of driving around trucks full of baseball players, avoiding cars and pedestrians and backing a fire truck up a closed road with hundred thousand dollar fire trucks to the right of you. We passed! I want my certificate of completion. :) On the truck this year were Barb, Jess, and Paul. After the parade... quarter pushers and steak hogies! Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

We had a request by our friend Doug to bring the truck out to his church for a neighborhood fun days they were planning. After graciously moving the date back a week, we took Ember over, turned on the lights and sirens and gave truck rides in the parking lot. The kids had a blast. Doug's church also allows us to use their facilities as a meeting area for our local scanner club.

We moved Ember to a storage location this fall. This winter she will be inside a nice big building with other RVs and boats and classic cars. No more being out in the elements. That will hopefully make things a little easier next spring with the work we need to do on her.

I can't remember exactly what the date was so this is as good as any place to stick this. Ember is looking good sporting a new hosebed tarp (well it's not new but it is for her) and some parts for inside the cab. She's also loaded with some discarded supply line to make her look pretty. Soon it will be time to put her in storage once again. Not sure where yet. We can't take her back to N. Bloomfield so I'll have to get a move on finding her a place to live temporarily.

At the request of a family friend, we took Ember to Austinwoods Nursing Home for a car show and fund raiser. It was a nice day and we got to talk with a former Youngstown Firefighter and a retired volunteer from the area while there. We had a slight problem when we were ready to leave. I couldn't get the truck started. Turns out, yeah, I didn't have it in neutral :) Minor issue. Once the truck was put into neutral, it started right up and away we went.

We were only able to participate in the McDonald, Ohio parade this year. Unfortunately, the Niles parade was scheduled for the same day and time and we had some electrical issues which prevented us from going to the Lansingville parade. As we waited for the parade to start in McDonald, the skies opened up and we discovered how difficult it is to stay dry. Even Barb and I in the cab were soaked from the water coming in through the roof. The rain stopped just before the parade started and we went on with it as usual. We still had fun though and we went back later in the week to play the quarter pushers at the festival.

Barb, Paul, Lisa and I went up to North Bloomfield to check out the truck today. We started her up and took her down the street to Quinns for some fresh diesel fuel. Soon we'll be getting ready for the 2009 season!

Paul, Barb and I took Ember to the Papa Bruce's Donut Jamboree Car and Bike Show. Normally, we don't do car shows but we brought the truck to Newton Falls for the day because the person planning the show was a friend of Paul's. They had a great day for the event and quite a few people turned out for the event.

 Unfortunitly, at the event our resident electrician Paul was run over by
a truck with really big wheels. We were able to reinflate him with the air compressor
system on the fire truck. :)

My wife Barb's family was in town and since the truck was only about 5 minutes away at my parent's house for one more night, they came over to check the truck out. The rains stopped long enough for us to pile on the truck and go for a spin around the block. Of course, since they went for a ride and we're part of the crew that day, we took a group shot for the site.

Barb, my sister Jess and I took Ember to the Alliance Pump-In and Muster at the Glamorgan Castle in Alliance, Ohio today. It turned out to be their biggest event to date. There were over 30 pieces of apparatus from all over the area. There were trucks from Damascus, Craig Beach, Berlin Twp, Atwater Twp, Beloit Twp, Sebring and Franklin Twp as well as several privately owned pieces of apparatus. There were two Ahrens Fox's, three Mack's, a John Bean/Chevrolet, a Seagrave 25th Anniversary engine and a Sutphen/Diamond T. It was a great turnout and the weather was almost perfect for the event. Don't believe me? Check out the pics! I have more from the Alliance Pump-In and Muster but the ones here all include Ember. We didn't get to try pumping like I had hoped. By the time we got there in the morning, all the pond shore spots were taken and after the parade, several of the trucks that were pumping either left or were shut down while the crews went and participated in some water battles. Oh well, next time. We did however get to meet Fozzie. Fozzie was a very photogenic bulldog which my wife spotted walking around the event. His owner was nice enough to bring over him to our Mack Truck to pose for some pictures. Too cool! Look for a few pics of Fozzie in the photo gallery.

I can't convey how nice it is to have friends who have truck pump expertise. There are some things Paul and I can do but knowing the intricacies about fire pumps isn't one of them. The good news, the pump works but you have to engage it manually right now. The bad news, there are a bunch of leaky valves so we won't be able to draft this weekend at the Alliance Pump In and Muster. We were able to fill up the tank a little with the garden hose and try pumping from that. SUCCESS! We were able to pump water from the crosslay! For the first time since I purchased the truck, it was able to pump under it's own power. Slowly, we will get everything rebuilt and back up to speed but man it was nice to see it pump even if it was just for part of the evening. If we were able to hook up to a hydrant or have someone pump into our truck, we could test the pump out even more. We'll have to see.

My good friend Brian and his fiance Beth had a request for me not long ago. see Brian was a volunteer firefighter and I don't know how he managed to convince Beth but they wanted a fire truck at their wedding. What luck, I just happened to have one available :) So we took Ember back into Youngstown to Fellow Riverside Gardens in Mill Creek Park. The weather was beautiful and everyone in the wedding party looked great as well. I got the opportunity to drive the bride and groom and all of the wedding party a short distance to the Glacier Boat House for photos and then back. They also posed for some pics on and around the truck. So for those of you keeping score, that's 1 birthday party, 1 graduation party and 1 wedding so far this summer :) The new Mr and Mrs Brian and Beth Morgan should be getting back to town here very soon. Can't wait to see how the professional photographer's pics turned out. Check out the pics, the really are nice.

We brought Ember back into the city for a brief visit for the Lansingville Neighborhood Parade. It was the trucks second appearance. We had several members of the mahoningvalley.info forums riding with us in the parade including Mr. Peanut. It was a nice parade. We even got the chance to photograph YFD's current Engine 9 who also participated in the parade.

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We took Ember to the Fourth of July parade in McDonald, OH. My sister went around the truck touching up the striping with black sharpies and a tube of gold automotive touch up paint. We gave the truck a good wash and polished the chrome the day of the parade. I picked up some flags from K-Mart (and dodged all the old people in the process) and we taped them on the truck. I'll have some photos and video posted shortly!

One of the latest projects on the truck was taking the hard suction off and removing the mounting feet from the trays. We then reattached the hard suction trays back onto the truck. The hard suction now looks closer to the way it did in 1981 when the truck was delivered.

Although the day started rocky, rainy, and muddy, Paul showed up and we did some work on Ember Sunday evening. We were pretty productive. Ember has her deck gun mounted. I bought a booster reel for $50 and we temporarily mounted the utility reel. While we were working between rain showers, we were rewarded with the following scene and what else can I say, it's all good!