Beaver Fire

We are realizing that the effects of this fire will be present for a long time to come.  Burnt leaves continue to blow in, as well as these annoying black beetles that get in the trees and are everywhere across in our pasture where it has burned.  The changes in our land, in my hiking domain, are startling!!  A forester came this week to look over our land and we are proposing an emergency plan to log our acreage to salvage any good life in the trees that will die anyway.  Our house doesn't smell so much of the burn anymore and our water does not taste smoky, but for a long time our water will be affected and we will find ash everywhere.

On Tuesday, after things had settled down around here and the fire had come through our property, the wind came back up in the afternoon and the fire started coming back towards us.  It jumped the river and went on the island between our place and Oak Bar across the river.  It also made it's way up the hill behind Oak Bar.  The helicopters were fighting the fire non stop.  There was around 4 helicopters circling around our place, dipping from the river right by our house and pouring water like crazy to try to keep the fire from spreading on the other side.  It was even more hairy than the night before because there was actually fires on all sides of our house.  We had permanent fire fighters watching our property (dry grass) below and on both sides of our place.  

the glow  The pict doesn't do justice but it was so hot you
could see all the embers

Some of the smoldering from the night before came back to life.

burnt leaves

this is looking down below our house and towards Oak Bar

the fire to the west of us

Thankful for these 2 who worked hard all day Monday to get our water back up
and in working order!!

towards Oak Bar

Thankfully, the helicopters were able to get the fire out and then we actually had some rain on Wednesday and for the first time in quite a while I saw blue sky on Wednesday!!!  The Beaver fire is now mostly put out.  I think they may still be fighting on edge of it down river from us (west).  Unfortunately, we are still not smoke free.  There is still much smoldering and more fires in the area.... such a dry time of year!