It was a really really bad fire.......more like a fire storm. I was here by myself at the ranch . My son and Daughter in law and kids were headed to Florida for Spring Break. Ronnie flew home Monday night after the fire Sunday.
I opened a gate and probably saved most of our cattle herd. Grazing rotationally,we had all our cows 300 head calving 2/3 of the way through on one section. I waited a bit watching the fire to see where the cows would be safe. Then I realized the fire would cover everything we owned. So I opened the gate to enable the cattle to move and not be caught on a fenceline.
I went back to the house to get the housekeeper. I opened the gate for our calving heifers,opened the gate for the horses,got 3 dogs which were all right there,my purse and Sue and I headed out,only to realize we were trapped. I parked Sue's car where I thought it might not burn and we headed cross country. I left gates down for the cows to even go onto the nieghbors(they didn't)......We were traveling parallel to the fire and headed back the way the fire came. But a shift of the wind would have overtaken us at any time. We got stuck in a sandy dry creek bed which was actually impassible because of the drougth. But just across from it was and I knew this,a windmill where we would be safe if the fire over took us.I told Sue we could survive here with our wet clothes over our heads and submersing in the water and because around the windmill was no fuel for the fire. But no one knew where we were and it looked like the fire would continue East,racing along about a mile south of our location.
We walked to the top of the hill for cel phone reception. My son who we called had called a firefighter to come get us at the house. He was in a maintainer. He stopped the fire before it got to our houses and east side and horses,dogs and cats and heifers.
At the top of the hill I knew if we walked a mile we would be at a ranch road everyone in that area knew and they could pick us up. Believing the fire would stay on corse,we told of our location and a game warden picked us up at the road. Fires were on both sides of us as we left.
Everything from our place to Skellyown and for miles length wise is completely destroyed. However many homes were just jumped in this fire they clocked racing at 72 MPH.
Had it not been for me going to get the housekeeper and us calling to tell someone the fire was moving rapidly to our house and the man not in a maintainer coming to get us,we would have lost everything........I was in the place I was suppose to be at the right time.
We are very blessed. We probably lost 50 calves or will after we shoot some more. Only two cows we know of got burned.The calves have so much heart and the Momma cows try so hard to protect and keep their little ones alive. It is all amazing.
I came through this knowing what is important.........and that keep your cell phone with you,trust your intuition and prayer works miracles. We are so blessed. We still have the east side of our ranch ,an area I didn't think had enough grass till after spring growth and hadn't planned to graze till April15 or after rain, now looks like the garden of Eden .This east area will graze our cattle all summer if we get enough rain.We probably have 25 to 30 miles of fences just gone completely. Even some grassy areas need new fences as the fences burned around them.I wanted to replace some old fences ,but this is not what I had in mind.
Our heifers are pretty much calving on their own in a bushy creek pasture that is too big to find a cow calving unlesss you ride it constantly.They seem to be doing just fine right now.
We had l;ess than a tenth of an inch of rain today..........but I was out in it........it felt so wonderful!
We will be ok. So many are so much worse off than we are. We have about gotten our cattle slowly back to fenced in areas. Some cows are slow to move away from places where their babies died...........but being cattle that are moved frequently,they understand open gates and going back to get their calves to move them.And they understand moving to a better pasture.
Shooting calves with so much heart trying to survive is tough. My son was going to shoot one calf when his momma bawling stepped between the calf and Ronnie's gun. Ronnie just came home. He said,"I am NOT shooting any more calves today."
We still have fires around and lightening today set some. But the forrest service is here now and the spotter plane sees them quickly. The helicopter with fire retardent got this one out today before it burned 10 acres.
The heros are the firefighters,especially usually our little volunteer fire departments in all the small towns, and law enforcement people who come to our rescue. What would we do without them?