Evacuation and aftermath

Where to begin? I don't know, and I'm not sure I can do this in chronological order, but I'll try. Just don't hold me to exact dates and times. As the danger has now passed, let me not keep you in suspense. The ranch did not burn down, and all of our animals are safe and healthy, except Rajah, who is doing better. Now let me see if I can fill in the details.

To get the timeline of the fire itself check out the official website: Black Cat Wildfire.

My timeline goes something like this...

• A while back: there's a fire in the area, lots of smoke in the air
• Not as far back: the fire is on our same mountain range, about 5 miles away
• Two weeks ago today: a Sheriff's Deputy is stationed at the bottom of Mill Creek Road, says that if they order an evacuation, we will have 90 minutes to get out.
• Two weeks ago tonight: we decide to get the horses out because 90 minutes would not be enough time. There is a good story here which I intend to write about more fully. The summary is that Christie rounded up a bunch of people and trailers and we got 30 horses (26 of ours and 2 visiting mares with foals at side) off the mountain in the dark.
• The next day: We learn some of the horses tried to make a break for it in the night. I guess they didn't like their temporary home, so we went over there to secure the pastures better. We took a couple of the troublemakers to our Arlee evacuation site to ease the pressure on the fence work.
  
• That evening: Karen & Aud celebrate their anniversary with a steak dinner (cooked on the gas grill, not the fire pit!)
• Later that evening: A sheriff's car drives by shouting on his loudspeaker that we have 30 minutes to evacuate. We pull out of the driveway at 32 minutes (Karen kept the time for us).
  
• Some indeterminate amount of time later: Our caravan of four vehicles, the Silverado with horse trailer attached, the dodge, Aud's Father's minivan, and Janice's car arrives at Katy and Paul's old house. (Katy & Paul are my brother- and sister-in-law.) The house doesn't even have furniture, but it does have electricity, running water, and A/C, which we gratefully crank up.
• The next couple of days: Drop off cats and goats at a shelter for evacuees, located at the fair grounds. The Houdini horses aren't in a very secure pasture, so we decide to move the rest of them to our Arlee evacuation site. Our near-Blue-Mountain-Road evacuation site needs hay so we pick up a ton from our suppliers in Arlee and deliver it. At some point I lose track of how many times we drive up and down highway 93, gawking at the fire each time. We pick up a refrigerator from Bug & Paul to put in their old house. There is a community meeting at the Frenchtown high school.
• Monday, 20-Aug: I use Katy & Paul's basement as a temporary office. Meanwhile, Karen, Aud, & co. are able to make a trip up to the ranch to get some of the important stuff we forgot in our haste. There is another community meeting tonight.
• Tuesday: Something like normalcy. Karen, Aud, & crew check out downtown Missoula while I work. Karen will fly home home on Wednesday so we grilled steaks and I got a cake that said "Thank You!" from Coldstone. Evacuation is lifted as of 10PM, we decide to stay in town for the night.
• Wednesday: I work from Bug & Paul's (do you see a pattern here?). After work, we go up to the ranch. Everything is fine once you get past the first few miles of burned land and the National Guard checkpoint. The ranch is unharmed except that everything is in disarray from our hasty departure.
• Thursday: Sleeping in my own bed instead of on the floor is too good, I oversleep by three hours. After a late start, I get to work. Karen fixed lots of little things in the barn, stall doors, broken mangers, etc. They head out in the evening to sleep in town and get an early start on their driving.
• Friday: All alone at the ranch, I work my day job. Sarah comes over in the evening with a pizza and we watch a movie.
• Saturday: Lots of helicopter activity, I hope that means they are controlling the fire. Rajah is not himself, seems sick. Took his temp, 104.2 which is high. Decided to take him to vet. Since we are still on 1-hour evac notice, I take everything I'll need in case they decide not to let us back in (including Maya). At the vet, his temp is 106, they immediately start trying to cool him down and get him on IV fluids. They figure out he has pneumonia and keep him overnight.
• Sunday: visit Rajah a few times to try to keep his spirits up. Put Christie on speakerphone so she can tell him she loves him and wants him to fight this illness. Stayed at Bug & Paul's old house so I can be close to Rajah.
• Monday: Move Rajah from emergency vet clinic to Four Paws as the emergency clinic only operates on evenings and weekends. Work from Bug & Paul's basement, again. Christie flies home about noon and checks on Rajah. The vet doesn't have the facilities to keep Rajah overnight, so we stay at Bug & Paul's old house again. We learn the 1-hour evac notice is lifted for us!
  
• Tuesday: Take Rajah back to Four Paws for more observation, he seems to be a bit better. I work from Bug & Paul's basement. Vet thinks we can take Rajah home and switch from IV antibiotics to oral. Christie rides up to the ranch and sees the fire damage for the first time.
• Today: Rajah is breathing easier and seems to have a bit more energy. He ate some leftover steak, and is drinking well. I work from HOME, alleluia! Christie went to town to pick up cats and goats from the shelter, and the first load of horses. If we have the energy, we'll go back for another load of horses tonight.
  
• Tomorrow: More of the same, and life continues...
  

Fire on the mountain

There have been fires every year, but this one is pretty close to home.

http://www.inciweb.org/incident/938/

According to GoogleEarth, it is about 5 miles away, down Black Cat Gulch. I don't think we're in much danger, but there is a chance. If this fire were to burn along the crest of the mountain it is on, it would come right to us.

We have started working on our evacuation plan, but it is really hard to know how far to take it. Should we start trucking horses off the mountain, or just load all our keepsakes into the truck? We've had numerous offers of assistance, for which I am very grateful. With our three-horse trailer, it would take something like 8 trips to get all the horses down to the evacuation site in Arlee. Luckily we have lots of good friends with horse trailers, so I think we can get it done much faster.

There isn't much else to report right now, but fear not, we are all well

The calvary has arrived

For those of you who don't know, Christie had a family emergency last week and had to head to Iowa on short notice, Monday. Michal was here until Wednesday, taking care of the animals, so I could concentrate on work. However, after Wednesday, I had the ranch to myself, which also meant all the chores.

Mostly the chores meant feeding a few of the horses and milking the goat. I also setup an irrigation regimen for watering the Big Barn pasture every morning. Add to that all the miscellaneous ranch details, and I ended up short changing my day job to moonlight as a rancher. Well, now I don't have to bring home the bacon AND fry it up in a pan, because the calvary has arrived.

Our friends, Karen & Aud are back, and they brought Alex and his girlfriend Emily along as well. They will be here almost two weeks and will be concentrating on erecting more jack-leg fences to replace all the old, rotting fences we have now. They are also kind enough to take over the daily things, like feeding the horses and milking the goat twice a day.

Not only that, but this ranch gets pretty lonely after all the work is done, so I welcome the company. Last night when they arrived, we quickly dispatched the evening chores and then spent a few minutes enjoying the cool evening breeze around the Friendship Circle. (We can't really call it a fire pit during Stage 2 fire restrictions.) It will be nice to pass the evenings with friends again.

Early to bed, early to rise ... and fall

Hoping to get a good start on the week, I went to bed around 8:30PM last night. I didn't fall asleep right away, but it was good to know I'd wake up refreshed and ready for my Monday morning. That was the theory anyway. At 1:24AM, I woke up to hear beeping, running feet, and slamming doors. It took me at least a full minute to put together that Sky was having her foal.

No worries, I thought, Christie is already out there. Oh wait, Sky wasn't in the barn, so the baby is probably out in the pasture somewhere. Ugh, time to carry another 100+ lb. baby to the barn. When I got out there, the baby, a jet-black colt, was already born and trying to figure out about standing up. Well, there was a lot of squirming, but not much standing.

Christie helped get the little bugger standing so I could get my arms around it. I had just hoisted the baby up into my arms and taken the first step toward the barn when some horse's ass blind-sided me. It was Sky's ass, she evidently took exception to my carrying her baby off. She spun around and did a full-body check on me and baby. Baby went down and I landed on my back a few feet away, with new respect for hockey and football players.

I know my brain was rattled because I momentarily confused Sky's species, calling her a female dog instead of a female horse. Christie got a halter on Sky, and we tried again. Michal helped Little Bit up and I got him up into my arms. Luckily Sky foaled right across the bridge from the barn so there was only about 100 feet to stumble to the barn. I laid Scooper down in the fresh straw and promptly went back to bed. But not without taking some aspirin first.

Sky and her colt are doing fine this morning. The little bugger is very cute, I think he's going to grow up and break all the ladies' hearts.

Crazy Day

Yesterday was a bit much, here's some of what happened:

• Blackie tripped on her lead rope and went down. Stayed down. Had to be coaxed back to her feet. Poor old girl.
• Christie took Michal and Brianne out for a ride. All horses came back with riders this time.
  
• The young horses, including Dancer and Ghost decided the grass was greener in the yard.
• I built up the fire pit (aka Friendship Circle) with more rocks to make a deeper pit. All agree it looks nice.
  
• A neighbor had family in from out of town. They came to see the critters. They stayed to ride the golf cart, the lawn tractor, and anything else with a motor.
• A mare and her foal got tangled in Ryder's electric fence. Everyone is fine. I used enough adrenaline to last a week.
• My sister made kabobs for dinner over the campfire. They were yummy.
  
• Two mares arrived for breeding with foals at side. They don't appear to have been handled much. Christie setup a temporary round pen for them.
  
• All the yearlings got groomed. There is a prospective buyer coming today.
  
• Horses were moved around to make a stall available for Sky to have her baby in. Sky didn't have her baby. We are all waiting to exhale.
• Christie and I made a quick trip to Frenchtown to make a deposit at the bank and get groceries for today.
  
• We filled water tanks for all pastures using the irrigation pump.
• Jarred hauled more wood for fencing down from our hillside.
• Michal worked with Cairo in the round pen.
• A temporary fence was setup by the round pen so horses could be left there without them being able to chew on Janice's car.

...oh yeah, and I worked my normal 7-4 shift for the bank.

Guests, invited and otherwise

My sister, Ruth, arrived yesterday. Her roommate Beth, and Beth's niece, Brianne came with her. They were at the end of a fairly long road trip from Omaha that included seeing Bon Jovi in Wyoming, and spending a day and a half in Yellowstone. Needless to say, they were grateful to fall into bed last night, even if it was just the couch and a blow-up mattress.

Now because I'm so dedicated to my work (i.e. there are bills to pay) I was up at 6:30AM today. As I emerged from the bedroom, I distinctly heard Beth say "Peacock go away!" In any other household it would have been safe to assume Beth was dreaming about some real or imagined childhood trauma. I however, knew immediately that she was wide awake and lucid, because there were indeed two peacocks strutting around the room. It seems they have discovered that our screen door has a peacock-sized hole in it. Furthermore, this is not the first time they have been inside.

It was easy to herd them out of the house, but I'm sure they'll be back. I'm also sure that our invited guests will be wondering what other manner of uninvited guests will be poking their beaks, noses, muzzles, or snouts through that screen. What I'm not sure about is whether Beth really believes she can talk to peacocks. City people sure are strange.

Puncture Wounds

When we decided to move up here, it was quickly apparent that we would need tougher tires. We currently run 10-ply off road tires on our Silverado (most street tires are more like 4-ply). However, even with the added protection, we have had what I would call an extraordinary streak of bad luck.

On the 4th of July, we ran to town to see a movie and grocery shop. While unloading I heard a hissing. A little investigation revealed a 2" nail jammed into the tire. Bummer. Two hours later in the hot sun, I managed to get the tire changed. I did, however, have to RTFM (Read The Manual) GASP!!, to figure out how to get at the spare tire. The next day, Christie took the truck to Les Schwab where they fixed the flat, free of charge (which is their policy)

This last Saturday, we went to town to hang out with Katy, Paul, & the girls. When we went to leave, we realized we had another flat (different tire than last time). It was already late, and I didn't feel like spending another two hours, so we called the roadside-assistance service that came with our warranty. It took them about 45 minutes to get there, and then about 5 minutes to change the tire, including all the paperwork. This time the culprit looked like a small bolt. Fine, we were on our way.

Sunday morning dawned bright and beautiful, I'm sure. I don't actually know because I slept until about 8AM. When I looked outside, I thought I'd parked in a hole, but closer inspection showed another flat tire. What a pickle. We didn't even have a chance to fix the flat from the night before. We only have one spare, so it looks like we're calling for help again.

We waited until this morning to place the call. This time, at least, Les Schwab is open, and we can get the flats fixed right away. However, they are going to have to tow it down there. The automated system called and told us it will take two hours for them to get here. I just feel sorry for the driver that has to come all the way up here. I hope he has plenty of spare tires for his own truck.