September 2017!

Wow…  It’s September already!  Where’s the year gone?  I’m going to cram this month into 4 ‘weeks’ using the dates FEMA’s using on the National Preparedness Month calendar ~ just for the sake of convenience.  I’ll be posting to Facebook on the Rogue Rabbit Limited site and Twitter under @JVittieMPA for National Preparedness Month.

• Week 1:  September 1-9              Make a Plan for Yourself, Family, and Friends
  • 01 Sept: Opening Day!  Dove Hunting (and maybe squirrel, if I see any)
  • 07 Sept: CERT Unit 2
  • 08 Sept: Center for Urban Research and Analysis at THE Ohio State University panel – Tactical Urbanism: Does it Make a Difference?
• Week 2:  September 10-16         Plan to Help Your Neighbor and Community
  • 14 Sept:  CERT Unit 3
  • 15 Sept:  Ohio Woodland Stewards conference: Woodland Fungi and Dove hunting afterwards
• Week 3:  September 17-23         Practice and Build Out Your Plans
  • 17 – 22 Sept:  Ohio Military Reserve Annual Training (Full Brigade) ~ Camp Perry Joint Training Facility, Port Clinton Ohio.  Part of this year’s OPLAN involves an exercise with the Ohio National Guard’s G-1 (Administration/Personnel) section
  • 21 Sept: CERT Unit 3 (going to miss this one)
  • 22 Sept: Ohio PIO Symposium (Probably going to miss this one as well)
• Week 4:  September 24-30         Get Involved!  Be a Part of Something Larger
  • 27 – 29 Sept: TEACH G290/G291: Basic Public Information Officer series in Butler County, Ohio
  • 28 Sept: CERT Unit 4 (most likely going to miss this one)
  • 28 Sept: International Rabbit Day AND National Chocolate Milk Day!  (One of the best days of the year!)

 

August 2017 Plan

August…

• Week 1 (T 01 – U 06)
  • H 03 ~ Monthly Writer’s group ~ I wrangled up a USA Today Bestselling Author to come in and speak with our group
  • S 05 / U 06 ~ Drill Weekend (HHC S-3)
• Week 2 (M 07 – U 13)
  • M 07 – W 09 ~ Teaching G290/G291 (Basic PIO Series) in Warren County, Ohio
  • F 11 ~ SBDC Business session 1/3
• Week 3 (M 14 – U 20)
  • F 18 ~ SBDC Business session 2/3
  • S 19 / U 20 ~ Drill Weekend (Training Academy OCS Platoon)
• Week 4 (M 21 – U 27)
  • F 25 ~ SBDC Business session 3/3
• Week 5 (M 28 – H 31)
  • H 31 ~ CERT Class 1 (first of 9 sessions)

… and a pile of personal business to tend to.

June 2017 Plan / Schedule

June 2017 will start out blissfully non-chaotic, which will be a nice change of pace!  How the month progresses and fills in remains to be seen, especially since it’s front-loaded right now.  So, without any further ado ~

• Week 1 (01 – 04 June)
  • H 01 is a busy day
    • Meeting with my Community Emergency Response Team coordinator to do a debrief on the first exercise I planned / executed the week before
    • Monthly writer’s group meeting
  • F 02 ~ Meeting with a communications pro / follow up from StartUp Week Columbus
  • S 03 – U 04 ~ Drill Weekend
• Week 2 (05 – 11 June)
  • T 06 ~ public meeting with ODOT re: SR-161 project in Worthington
  • W 07 will be a long day
    • Last class for my Infrastructure protection certification from TEEX at Franklin County EM/HS
    • Small Business marketing class through Ohio Small Business Development Center 1/4
  • F 09 ~ Leading the monthly full-moon dog hike at my local park
• Week 3 (12 – 18 June)
  • W 14 ~ Small Business marketing class through Ohio Small Business Development Center 2/4
• Week 4 (19 – 25 June)
  • W 21 ~ Small Business marketing class through Ohio Small Business Development Center 3/4
• Week 5 (26 – 30 June)
  • W 28 ~ Small Business marketing class through Ohio Small Business Development Center 4/4

March ~ Something about Lions & Lambs?

This month’s schedule is, well, something…

• Week 1: 01 – 05 March 2017
  • 02 – Appointment with the accountant ~ First steps to setting my my LLC and delving into the realm of consulting
  • 02 – Monthly writing group meeting
• Week 2: 06 – 12 March 2017
  • 07 – Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Wildlife’s Wildlife Diversity Conference (at THE Ohio State University ~ Columbus, Ohio)
  • 08 – TEEX class AWR-213 (Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience) at Franklin County Emergency Management / Homeland Security
  • 09 – #GSMchat!
• Week 3: 13 – 19 March 2017
  • 17 – Mid-Ohio Management Association meeting
  • 18 – Stuff You Should Know session 3 of 4 (Masonic Leadership training)
• Week 4: 20 – 26 March 2017
  • 23 – #GSMchat
  • 25 – KickBUTT Columbus: A Highway Clean-Up Event (I’m leading Team #27: Rogue Rabbit and looking for a few more volunteers)
• Week 5: 27 – 31 March 2017
  • 30 – Next round of Community Emergency Response Team Training starts at Franklin County Emergency Management / Homeland Security
  • 31 – Last scheduled day at Ohio Department of Transportation ~ working on stepping into the next stage of life’s random and non-linear journey

October Plan / Schedule

Blissfully, it looks like I have a second straight month in Ohio.

• Week 1+ (01-09 October 2016):
  • T 04 ~ Science Pub: Human Sexuality with Therapist Cynthia Leif Ruberg
  • W 05 ~ Meeting with my co-instructor for November’s Basic PIO Series
  • H 06 ~ Bexley Fiction Writers monthly meeting
  • S 08 ~ Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Wildlife workshop: Whitetail Deer Recovery (Shreve, Ohio)
• Week 2 (10-16 October 2016):
  • W 12 ~ COPIN (Central Ohio Public Information Network) Quarterly Meeting
  • H 13 ~ Sit in on / assist with CERT Unit 6
  • F 14 ~ NDPTC’s course: AWR-331 Winter Weather Hazards (Epicenter’s Chris Tarantino will be in town to teach this one!)
  • S 15 ~ The Write Stuff Writer’s Conference
  • U 16 ~ Leading my monthly Full-Moon Dog Hike at the park
• Week 3 (17-23 October 2016):
  • H 20 ~ Sit in on / assist with CERT Unit 7
  • F 21 ~ OSU Byrd Polar and Center for Urban Research and Analysis workshop: GIS for the Rest of Us.
• Week 4+ (24-31 October 2016)
  • H 27 ~ USDA’s RDPC course: MGT-405 Mobilizing Faith-Based & Community Organizations (Kenton, Ohio)
  • H 27 ~ Sit in on / assist with CERT Unit 8

BONUS:  T 01 – H 03 November Teaching G290/G291: Basic PIO Series at Ohio EMA

#NeverStopLearning

Building Fences

As it turns out, I didn’t get to chop wood 😦  I was reassigned to building fences.

This deck is nice and new ~ but, unfortunately, it comes with a lovely view of the generator.  We need to fix that!  Plus, the new redesign of building the deck atop the old septic tanks eliminated some fences providing a better view towards Peach Point.

Fortunately, I learned a fair bit of carpentry / handy-manning from my Uncle Jerry.  I was able to pass on some of that knowledge to a gentleman about 30yrs my senior and teach him the basics of using a circular saw, adjusting it properly, and making solid and straight cuts.

The fence is really coming along.

Working on finishing the fence around the opening we built a gate for.

Group of volunteers after the job was done. 

Newton ~ The Rock’s organic, all-natural, semi-environmentally friendly Goose control device: canis familiaris is thoroughly unamused by the squirrels running up the trees to evade him.

Checking out the R/V GS-3: SeaGrant’s newly acquired vessel from Ohio Department of Natural Resources.

Those engines though!

Perry’s Victory Memorial.  (Not a monument.  Not a lighthouse.)

Sailing vessels.

Random flowers.

Interim Director Chris Winslow, Ph.D. ~ about to give us the business on Harmful Algal Blooms and some of the research grant money flowing through.  It’s great to hear how many institutions are all working together towards common goals for the Citizens and state agencies.

Stone Lab is all about the #Social!

Loved this picture on the wall in the conference room.

Respect the DANGER NOODLES!

Nighttime fire.

Nothing big planned for the morning ~ just the typical brekkers, quick walk around the island for the bird watching thing, then departing back toward home.

As always, it was great to be here and help out ~ but I’m looking forward to heading home and sleeping in my own bed!  Then, in a few months, I’ll be looking forward to coming back in Spring!

August 2016 Plan

Ahhh… August already!

First week:  I’m home and getting ready to head back to FEMA’s EMI.  03 August ~ I’m interviewing for an EM volunteer coordinator.  04 August ~ G191: ICS/EOC Integration at Franklin County Emergency Management / Homeland Security.  My monthly writers’ group meeting and traveling to EMI.

Second and Third weeks: FEMA’s Emergency Management Institute in Emmitsburg, Maryland for 4x classes that will wrap up my 4-wk/152-hr Emergency Management Professional Program – Basic Academy certification.  Can’t wait for this exciting opportunity!

Fourth week: Nothing major on the calendar – just some volunteering hours with my park district and wrapping up some administrative items for the last exercise I served as Lead Evaluator on for County.

Fifth week: 01 September will be our final session for Ohio Department of Natural Resources – Division of Wildlife’s “Learn to Hunt” program ~ a Dove Hunt on state lands with the girlfriend and other classmates, lead by our very experienced instructors!

 

June 2016

June is shaping up to be a moderately laid back month.

First week:  Beginning a Learn to Hunt program sponsored by Ohio Department of Natural Resources – Division of Wildlife.

Second week: TEEX NERRTC will be in town teaching MGT-315 – Critical Asset Risk Management (part of their infrastructure protection program).  Applying my new HSEEP training to serve as an Evaluator for a Functional Exercise.

Third week: At Ohio EMA for four days learning to be a NIMS / ICS All-hazards Ops Section Chief (which will help me to end up on a Type 3 Incident Management Team (I hope!).  Teaching a supplemental unit for my CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) on how to do a proper Head-to-Toe assessment and giving our responders time to practice in a supervised setting.

Fourth week: Mostly a low-key week.  I will be leading a Full-moon hike at one of the parks I volunteer at and presenting a program on fireflies early in the week then taking a CERT supplemental training on Fire-Fighter Rehab.

Final week: Burying myself in networking and outreach before heading to Emmitsburg!