Fire Watch : Day 5 -7 Update

 Yes, we are all safe. I'm sorry I haven't posted the last few days - we just haven't had much free time. If we weren't working on roads or trimming and hauling grubbed trees

we were both fielding SO many phone calls! Plus, we're still juggling cattle business and needing to brand calves. I needed to get the rest of the garden planted and add mulch.

On the fire front, it moved a lot throughout Monday. Monday morning they reported that 8,971 had burned and Tuesday morning it was sitting at 15,857 acres. 

Not a lot of activity on our property on Monday. The boys worked on clearing more trees 

and the next day DH pushed a road out to give us a second option should our main entrance ever be compromised. The skidsteer track came off, but we just stuck wood pieces in specific spots between the teeth and  we were soon back in business

They brought a water truck out

And set up a portable water storage (they called it a pumpkin). It holds 3,000 gallons.

He only had enough water to fill it half-way so we filled it with water from the spring and let them move on.

It took about 6 hours to fill it

As dusk settled in, we could see that the fire had crawled up Capitan Mountain

In this shot, that's the mountain on the right.

High winds were forecast again on Monday afternoon and through the night, but with the exception of a few gusts, it was mostly calm. Proof of your prayers at work! Thank you! As we closed out the day and crawled into bed, I felt guilty knowing that hundreds of first responders were not going to be sleeping, but working through the night and into the coming days and weeks until the area is blessed with rain. Lord, please place a hedge of protection around each and every one. Presently, there are 834 first responders and support personel crawling through these mountains. Currently, 32 crews, 36 engines, 6 helicopers, 30 water tenders, and 6 dozers are on site.

Tuesday night it looked like this, but that's quite dramatic so I turned off my night mode

This is a more accurate depiction of what we saw. That's about 2 miles from us.

This was our view from the deck the next night

The road to town is still closed, but they will let those of us who live here pass through. I put in a grocery pick-up order and ran in for that as well some horse feed, hay and mulch on Wednesday, but first I needed to unload the things I had loaded in case we needed to evacuate. I hadn't been to town in 12 days so I came back with a load

We are still under a level 3 evacuation order, but we are fine. In fact we had 90% humidity this morning. No rain, but a heavy misty, fog covered the mountain and that's a huge blessing.

I am impressed with the amount of information the incident command center shares 2 or 3 times a day via the inci-web and Watch Duty apps. 

As of this morning, the fire sits at 16,703 acres burned. The majority of the activity has moved west, away from us, so although this is still a long way from being out, we are grateful for a bit of a reprieve, but our prayers continue for those working the fire and for those in it's path.