Forest Fire in my area

[bracabric]

Larry sorry to be so late, but have been at the farm the last week. Take extra good care brother remember that (selfishly) we need your expertise and advise for years to come!! It looks as if you are as well prepared as you could be and with the water tank brimmed what more can you do. I so understand the lack of rain and dryness thing, it's just the same here, one spark and whoosh . God be with you and Ester as are our prayers, I think Elton's idea of a lawn sprinkler on the roof makes good sense.

Dick

[tuffytractor]

Hey Larry,

Sorry to hear of the threat of fire in your area. By the pictures of your overview, you look fairly well protected. Hope things work out so you have no problems.

Doesn't sound like they took your offer of the dozer very seriously, to bad. I'm sure you would have been a big help. They just can't figure out how to pour piss out of boot with the instructions on the heel. Their loss.

Be thinking of you and hoping for the best. Good Luck.

[3RRL]

Larry,
In speaking with you last night I completely forgot to ask about your fire situation. How is that going now? Are you still under fire? Has it died down at all. Your forest might be in danger, but I doubt your home is. You have it well cleared and cut down in all directions. How are the winds?

[tjcarothers]

OK, Larry. The maps from the NM Incident Management Team are really badly labeled. Where is the leading edge of the fire from you? It looks as if it has advanced past you? Update us if you can, please.

TJ.

[studor]

Larry -- Hope and pray the fires go some other way!
Dick -- When I read the paper this morning I noticed a volcano decided to erupt in Chile -- no where near you I hope?
Man the people on this forum seem to have a lot of trouble with fire!!

[GuglioLS]

All;
Due to the winds finally dying down, 900 ground crew, and air support the fire is nearly 75% contained. Seems we are out of danger for now. Got an email from Mike, he was allowed back home, his place was spared.

Now it,s Dicks previously 9000 year extinct volcano to be concerned about.

Larry

[tjcarothers]

Great, Larry. Glad to hear you are OK for now.

Dick - Hope everything is fine for you.

TJ.

[bracabric]

Larry, real glad you are safe !! and TJ,and Studor, don't be concerned, it's a thousand miles south of us, the government and military have evacuated the places in danger, my concern is the poor animals without food or water.

Dick

[bracabric]

Further to my post above, the news is full of video of the eruption, clouds of dust heading upwards and outwards across the Andes and off to the Argentine.
The military here who are very well equipped and trained evacuated two towns near the Volcano, one with 4,500 inhabitants was cleared in two hours! The area for miles and miles around the volcano is covered with 6 inches of ash and it looks like a snow fall. The problems are that the ash covers any vegetation and pollutes the water supply and the abandoned animals have nothing to eat or drink, and then there are the pets, dogs,cats rabbits etc. lots of Ministry of Agriculture veterinarians are being drafted south the help, our eldest daughter may be going today, but I fear that largely it's to put the animals out of their misery.
The other reasons for the evacuation are 1/. possible crater collapse (like Mount St. Helens ) 2/. pyro plastic flow carrying everything before it and 3/. the possibility of large emissions of carbon monoxide killing everything at a lower level for miles around. Not a happy area at the moment.
The Government here got a bit of a kicking over the launch of a huge new lower carbon transport system for Santiago (about 7 million inhabitants) that went far from smoothly but their response to the Volcano disaster has been first class, quick , efficient and coordinated and that while we have large resources in other countries around the word helping others. It's a rare thing to applaud politicians these days , but the Government here (at the moment) have my admiration and appreciation.

Dick

[quikduk]

Larry, Dick:

Glad you are both o.k.

Ken

[tjcarothers]

Glad to hear you're OK, Dick.

I live in the effected area from Mt. St. Helens, and was involved on all that. It sounds like the government there was much better at handling it than the one here.

Take care,
TJ.

[bracabric]

TJ Thanks, well the government get somethings right and somethings wrong you know, this one thank God they seem to be doing well.
Can't remember if I mentioned it before, but when I was in my late teens and early 20s ( a long,long time ago ) I was in the Fire Service in the UK ( in the days when there were firemen and the very occasional fire women, as apposed to now with just "fire fighters") so we have something else in common (as well as Tractors).
Love your avatar !!!

Dick

[tjcarothers]

G'Day Dick,
Thanks for your service, and thanks for the kudos on the avatar. Isn't it funny how the PC police change our way of speaking. I, too, remember firemen, and 'firefighters' were the 'occasional' woman there. I will say, though, I know a couple of female firefighters that can out-do almost any man in the service! So, I guess it's all for the good, ya' know?

Again, thanks for your service.

TJ.

[GuglioLS]

Hi All,

Update on the fire and drought - yesterday afternoon, it finally started to rain, and rain and rain some more. All yesterday afternoon, last night and all day today. It was a nice steady ground soaking for about 36 hours. 1.31" total, I know for most of you that does not sound like much, but for us, that represents a little over 1/8 the total moisture we receive in an entire year.

The dirt roads are slick as snot. A cement truck loaded with 8 yards got lost, then stuck in the ditch just around the corner from our house. I tried to yank him out with the dozer but it was a no go. It was just to slick and the truck too heavy. I brought the driver over to the house so he could call his dispatcher and a wrecker. The wrecking company said no way were they going to even attempt a rescue mission, as they know the area and how bad the roads get. A co-worker of his came over in a 4WD truck, they dumped all eight yards along the side of the road, washed out the drum and headed back into town. They will have to wait till it dries up before the truck can be extracted. The Dozer got trashed, the tracks and undercarriage were completely caked with muck, so I spent at least an hour pressure washing it. What an exciting day it was.





Larry

[studor]

That driver must be the guy who was supposed to deliver my concrete a couple of weeks ago! I'm still waiting .
Did you try and yank him out after he dropped the load too?
Too bad about the load -- sure you could have dreamed up all kinds of uses for it (like a pressure washing pad ;D)
Oh well -- it never rains -- it pours
regards
Steve