STOP, DROP & ASK

I enjoy being able to help my husband out , where I can. When he's gone on extended assignments, he usually comes home with a good stinky (14 days worth of sweat, smoke & ash) bag of dirty laundry. When he's on a burn project or a smaller local fire, his clothes smell like smoke but not so stinky. I have learned some very important lessons regarding the cleaning method of these clothes.
LESSONS LEARNED
STOP and hold your breath while stuffing the stinky clothes in the washing machine.
DROP the laundry out of the cloth bag. It's something about reaching into a bag of sweaty & dirty laundry that makes me a bit queezy.

And most important lessons I've learned (drum roll please) is:

ASK......
Is everything out of your pockets??? I have discovered by accident that a compass and a pocket knife can survive the total submersion of warm soapy water. So after these accidents, I error on the side of caution, and have him remove everything from those hidden pockets on their fire shirts and lovely stylish green pants. (Yes, my husband works for the U.S. Forest Service "aka: GREEN PANTS".)
ASK.....
Before you touch your husband's dirty laundry make sure he didn't work in any poison oak. This is an obvious one!! Lucky for me (knock on a forest tree) I have been fortunate in not getting poison oak. I love it when he tells me after I've grabbed his pants and shirt off the floor to put them in the soapy water, "Oh, don't touch the pants, I worked in poison oak." Gee thanks for that warning.........I think I feel itchy now!


So while we teach our young children the important lesson of STOP, DROP & ROLL, we as Wildland Fireman's Wives should STOP, DROP & ASK.