Just had an update on the Archie Creek fire 13 miles to the north of us. It consumed 72,000 acres of forest land in 12 hours.
I hope you're making it through unscathed Logger.
We are worried about a wind shift later this afternoon. After that the weather pattern starts a beneficial shift with west winds likely to bring more humidity and perhaps even some drizzle at the beginning of the week. We are prepared as we can be, but the real challenge right now is visibility - or the lack there of. We couldn't see a fire at the bottom of our south meadow - less than a 1/2 mile away. I brought our fire trailer up to the house and its ready to go. One slight advantage we have is that we knew when we built here that fire was our major vulnerability. A lot of the other places being devastated could not have reasonably expected to be overrun by a fast moving fire. Our house/shop was built with fire in mind. Hardie Plank siding, metal roof, no wood decks, mowed clearings on two sides, no trees on one side, 100 ft to the treed BLM boundary to the west, underground power lines, 7000 gallons of underground water and 4 large pressure tanks to push the water if needed. It is times like this, however, when you get increased clarity as to what more can be done. If we get through this ok, this fall/winter will be spent pushing our fire boundaries out away from the house/shop area. Time does move slowly when we are just in a wait mode.
