2 is the company name that Bdale and Karen Garbee use on the rare occasions
3 when we engage in consulting work.
5 We are not currently looking for new work.
7 ## Black Forest Fire 2013 ##
9 Our home which was the hosting site for gag.com fell victim to forest fire on
10 or about 11 June 2013. Our house was <em>very</em> close to where the fire
11 started, so we had very little warning and feel very lucky to have escaped
12 with our lives, our pets, and a few of our most precious possessions. This was
13 the second really significant forest fire in the Colorado Springs area in less
14 than one year, and is the worst fire in Colorado history in terms of
15 structure loss... the count of destroyed homes is over 500.
19 For those of you who have asked how you can help us restore and rebuild,
20 thank you. We are working on several wishlists and a registry of items we
21 need in the short term. Please watch this space as we will update the list
22 of lists and the contents of the lists as we find more time to work on them.
23 Here's what we have so far:
25 * [Crate and Barrel Registry](http://www.crateandbarrel.com/Gift-Registry/Elizabeth-Garbee/r5059713) *COMPLETELY FULFILLED*
26 * [Bed Bath & Beyond Registry](http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/regGiftRegistry.asp?wrn=-280550117&) *COMPLETELY FULFILLED*
27 * [Amazon Wish List](http://amzn.com/w/2UTFPG4214HV4) .. on this
28 one in particular, we know things may be available for less money
29 elsewhere. Please let us know or use the Amazon feature for indicating
30 you've fulfilled a wish by shopping elsewhere so we can avoid getting
33 Many of the others in Black Forest who lost homes actually need help much
35 we do. The [Pikes Peak Community Foundation](http://www.ppcf.org)
37 [emergency relief fund](http://www.ppcf.org/products/emergency-relief)
38 that specifically benefits victims of this fire.
40 If you'd rather send money to help us rebuild, PayPal transfers to
41 bdale@gag.com may be the easiest way to do that.
43 We are also deeply indebted to the three local fire departments that we know
44 were directly fighting the fire on and around our property:
46 * <a href="http://www.bffire.org">Black Forest Fire/Rescue</a>, the
47 department that serves us directly and were likely first on the
49 * <a href="http://www.wescottfire.org">Wescott Fire Protection District</a>,
50 an adjacent district whose personnel were fighting the fire literally
51 along the edges of our driveway when we tried to drive out, and who
52 ended up walking us out through the already-burned area to safety.
53 * <a href="http://www.falconfirepd.org">Falcon Fire Protection District</a>,
54 whose members showed us immense generosity in the days following the
58 * 2013 July 26<br>The remains of the two cars that burned were removed from
59 our property and sold as scrap metal.
60 * 2013 July 21<br>After a week spet interviewing contractors who might help us
61 build a new house, we made a decision! We'll be working with Doug
62 Strecker, dba <a href="http://www.rampartcustomhomes.com/">Rampart
64 * 2013 July 4<br>all web sites formerly hosted returned to normal
65 * 2013 July 3<br>gag.com web presence returns to normal
66 * 2013 June 28<br>gag.com mail service returns to normal
67 * 2013 June 20<br>Intenet service connected in the apartment
68 * 2013 June 18<br>First night sleeping in the apartment
69 * 2013 June 17<br>Started populating the apartment, almost entirely with
70 donated things. Initial registry links posted for things we could
71 use immediately to re-establish ourselves in the apartment
72 * 2013 June 15<br>Signed lease on 2-bedroom apartment in Colorado Springs.
73 * 2013 June 11<br>House destroyed by forest fire
75 <center><IMG SRC="http://blackforestauto.com/home/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/bfs.png" width="300" height="300"></center>
77 We're not sure who created the original artwork, but thanks to Eric and the
79 [Black Forest Automotive](http://blackforestauto.com)
84 * [Bdale Garbee](bdale/)
85 * [Karen Garbee](karen/)
87 ## Things We've Done ##
89 Some interesting projects completed by Garbee and Garbee:
91 * Ongoing package maintenance for the [Debian](http://www.debian.org) project
92 * PCMCIA modem support, device drivers, serial console support, and other
93 kernel work for BSD/OS in embedded systems
94 * Communications system design
95 * GPS data collection and GPS/GIS integration
99 * [Colorado Digital Eclectics](http://www.gag.com/code/)
100 * [Empire Digital Instruments](http://www.empiredi.com/)
101 * [Rockets](rockets/)
105 This site is powered by [ikiwiki](http://ikiwiki.info),
106 running on [Debian GNU/Linux](http://www.debian.org)
107 and [Apache](http://www.apache.org).