Update on the fire and the heat wave

Here's a link showing video of the fire in the Owyhee mountains of Malheur county, Oregon . The view on the video is the same as I had from my living room window here in the Spirit Ranch area. I heard on the news tonight that 70 square miles have been burnt. Amazing. The heat and dry weather combined with high winds did a nasty job but nature always restores and next spring the burnt area will probably be full of wildflowers. Most of the area is rabbit bush and some cedar and sagebrush. Hopefully there will be a lot of survivors. The fire tankers were flying in and out all day from Gowen Field in Boise http://www.museumerica.com/national-aerial-firefighting-museum-concept.html. I didn't see a sign of any smoke today so I think things are well under control.

The wind from the storm that caused this fire was gusting at least 40-50 MPH. The next night the wind from a similar storm reached gusts of 60-70 MPH here at the ranch! It did a lot of damage to the roofs in the neighborhood and knocked down a few tree's here on the property. I had a huge, half dead elm take a fall and it messed up some of the old farm vehicles here but not too badly. I spent most of the morning chasing junk out in the adjoining fields and picking up plenty of dead wood (read:firewood!)

The heat wave ended yesterday with a high of 102 degrees and today it got up to 98 degrees and is slowly going back to normal. It was rough working on the ranch and in the garden but life is good and God is good. I found myself enjoying working in the "cool" 90 degree weather today. Odd how fast we adapt to natural conditions. But, I still drank plenty of water and Gator Aid!
Take care everyone until next time..........