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For Those In Western South Dakota

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WB

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Our prayers are with you. And to anyone whose ranch or farm has been threatened or burned by fire.


It has been a tough summer on this side of the Missouri but for those on the West side it has been far worse as fires have consumed many valueable acres of grass and feed.

I just visited with someone who was in Timber Lake for the days of 1910 celebration and they had another round of dry lightening Friday night and every able body was sent out on fire patrol.
 
WB said:
Our prayers are with you. And to anyone whose ranch or farm has been threatened or burned by fire.


It has been a tough summer on this side of the Missouri but for those on the West side it has been far worse as fires have consumed many valueable acres of grass and feed.

I just visited with someone who was in Timber Lake for the days of 1910 celebration and they had another round of dry lightening Friday night and every able body was sent out on fire patrol.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your thoughts WB.

Friday night was horrible here...there is no other way to put it. We personally lost over 5 sections of grass (we're down to less than one that has not been burnt now) and there was another large fire just west of us. The only thing that saved our house was our first fire, that occurred July 11th. If that had not burnt the fire would have come right through. I never thought I'd be thanking the Lord for fire, but Friday night I was. I tell ya, I never knew I could pack stuff out of our house so fast, but did. I don't want to have to challenge of my time though!

Lazy Ace is back out fighting fire as we speak, as the "Old Stone Church Fire" has flared up...it's bad. About 40 mph winds out of the southwest, and it's current 112 in the shade. This fire is about 2 miles from us. We have had 2 neighbors overtaken fighting this fire already...but thankfully they were found alive. THANK YOU LORD...that was the best news yet. My heart just stopped when the dispatcher came across saying they had been overtaken.

We appreciate everyone's prayers. And we are ever thankful for our volunteer firefighters, tremendous neighbors and friends, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs "Land Op" team.

I'll try and post some pics...

Again, thanks so much WB...I hope the deal you found for your cows works out.

Cheers---

TTB :wink:
 
In 2002 our neighborhood had 25,000 acres burn mostly in the pine trees. Soo now there is dry pine wood to burn at our next fire. You have my best wishes for a hard rain along with all that dry lightening. May the rain gods give you something you need.
 
So sorry to hear about your fires, TTB. Hope Lazy Ace stays safe and that the fires get under control. We'll be praying for you all.

(just to show how slow I am, or how little I've been here...I just recently figured out that Lazy Ace used to be known as Mr. TTB :oops: :roll: )
 
Hoping you get some rain soon. This is no fun living in fear of being burned out. We haven't had any wildfires break out yet.... but everyone around has their tanks full of water and tractors full of fuel and hooked to the disc.......
Severe t-storms forecast for here and Minot/Bottineau, ND area tonight. Let's hope it rains before the lightning hits....
 
TTB and Lazy Ace...anything you need,want etc. don't even hesitate to ask...trying to blow our rain your way.
 
TTB and Lazy Ace, sorry about your fires, hope it rains soon.
There is pasture for about 450 pair advertised in the paper that is real close to me. I also know of another place that has pasture for lease, just guessing but probably around three to four hundred head. It is a long ways from you but maybe it would work for you if you need a place to go with your cows.
 
Yes, prayers and more prayers for everyone :!: Cowboy up-great of you to post pasture that may be available. I was wishing I knew of some,but don't think there is any around here-there maybe dried grass,but water is becoming a big issue. We rely on damns and springs here around the mid of KS and lots of people hauling water or moving cattle. We moved some yesterday to a winter pasture(hated to,but no choice) due to poor water in the summer pasture and too far to haul water.And I know we are in way better shape than most of you up north.
 
Thanks for all the support. It was certainly interesting Friday and Sunday to say the least. In our very first fire we lost about 1000 acres of grass. The Friday fire makes that fire look pretty small. Like TTB said that probably saved the houses (it is very hard to speculate). The south end of the fire was about a mile away but where it jumped a gravel road and burned into the black of the first fire the wind was driving it in our direction.

The Sunday fire flared up from Friday and the wind took it north to the Grand River about another 5 to 8 miles (guessing). So far the first fire took out roughly 1100 acres, the stone church fire was estimated at 12 to 15 thousand acres, Friday's fire they guessed about 3500 acres and Sundays fire I am sure was at least 3500 (just guessing). This is not all on our land but in our neck of the woods.

Dad made friends with the forest service people yesterday. We have two poly tanks that hold about 2200 gallons of water on the back of a grain truck and he was filling fire fighters and the forest service guy kept telling him where to drive our else he would have him removed from the fire. Well dad just kept driving and filling fire trucks because he was the only tanker there yet. He told him again and dad had a few choice words and told him his thoughts. The man must have been a slow learner because he just kept coming back but he finally got the point and started leaving him alone. I really cleaned up this story as you can probably tell.

Well thanks again for all the support.

have a good one

lazy ace
 
I wish you had better news for us lazy ace. I am sure the term "this is getting old" means a lot to you. It seems you guys have a bullseye on you for some reason. Does it look like they have the fires contained pretty well at the moment?

We had two rounds of lightning storms come through here last nite. I am sure I am not as tired as you, but we finally got to bed something after 2:00 AM. I don't know why there were no fires in our country, as the lightning was terrible, and very little rain with it. I am not complaining though. :) Especially since we have had up to 40 mph winds all morning.
The forest service must have taken over your fires huh? I wouldn't pay any attention to them either. During the big long pines fire in 2002, a trucker and rancher that was local to that country got a little miffed with the FS too. They were stopping any traffic and turning them around in a certain spot. This trucker (who's in his 70's and tougher than nails) got a little guff about not going into a neighboring ranch, and so on. The trucker got madder and madder, and told the guy if he didn't get out of his way, that there wouldn't be enough left of him to put in a snoose can. :shock: :D The guy moved. :wink: And he would have done it too.

I am glad it didn't take your dad long to get his message across either. Some folks are just slow learners. :wink: :!:
 
As a former firefighter and County fire warden, I have had many a run in with federal firefighters (BLM, Fish and Wildlife) - and on many occasions had to do like you said and just pay them no heed up until the point that they assumed control of the fire- and we've had many heated go arounds with the powers to be after a fire.....

But I did have an experience that awakened me to one of the reasons they do not like unorganized volunteers on a fire- and why once they assumed control we either followed their orders or got out...

I was one of a 3 man crew that was running a pumper truck on a Missouri Breaks fire about 20 years ago...Our fire Dept. did not have the same radio frequencies as the feds and state lands firefighters had...We had done the initial attack on the fire and then stayed to help when the BlM brought in "yellowshirt" crews and took over control of the fire...

Come daylight the BLM fire boss called for a tanker drop on the west side where the fire was flaring up- he notified all his people by radio of the drop and to leave the west side area, and accounted for all of them- he was unable to contact us because of no radios, but assumed we were still on the east side of the fire where we had been fighting all during the night, not knowing that we had worked over to the west side about daylight and were vigorously trying to stop the flaring hotspot...

Luckily we had just ran out of water- were standing beside the truck taking a breather and saw the plane as it started its drop...We dove under the truck, which took full impact from the plane which I'm sure never saw us because of the smoke....The power of that slurry drop broke the windows out of the truck, tore the toplightbar off and even smashed us around under the truck...If we'd been caught in the open we would have been dead....

When the fire boss is put in charge of a fire he assumes responsibility and liability of everyone on that fire- and if you have unorganized persons that you cannot communicate to or have organized control over it complicates the situation...

Years of fighting fire brought me to the conclusion that rancher/farmer/civilian firefighters can be the greatest asset you have on a fire if you can utilize them correctly/ but can also be the biggest pain in the ass if they take off playing cowboy fireman on their own- and in most cases the Federal firebosses don't know how to utilize them.....
 

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