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Long Fire Season.....

A

Anonymous

Guest
100 degrees again this afternoon- but now today when you're outside your eyes just burn and water...All the smoke from the fires is drifing in...

Looks like a long fire year- I think they said their is 115 fires going in the country right now.....

http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/PS/FIRE/hms.html
 

montana cowgurl

Well-known member
It's a little hazy around here, but no fires close to us, yet, thank God. Prayers to those dealing with property loss, fighting them, and those otherwise effected.
 

Hanta Yo

Well-known member
Hot again today.....hauling bales off the fields in an old dodge pickup with no air conditioning, sw loads up the trailer in a tractor and the air doesn't work....just trying to get it done before the elk eat up our bales :( should have the job done in a couple of days. Man it's HOT
 

Mike

Well-known member
Why don't you guys with fire worries take a disc and cut you a firelane around your haystacks, etc. and accessible pastures?
 

Hanta Yo

Well-known member
Mike said:
Why don't you guys with fire worries take a disc and cut you a firelane around your haystacks, etc. and accessible pastures?

We have only one stack yard close by, we can defend it should fire come this close....you never know where lightning is going to strike around here. We have tons of grazing out there because of all the rain we got May-June, and not enough cows to eat it all. Rain shut off (as usual :roll: ) and it is getting dry dry dry.

We also have tons of Ponderosa pine trees just waiting for lightning to strike.
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Hanta Yo said:
Hot again today.....hauling bales off the fields in an old dodge pickup with no air conditioning, sw loads up the trailer in a tractor and the air doesn't work....just trying to get it done before the elk eat up our bales :( should have the job done in a couple of days. Man it's HOT

I know what you mean- Hanta...Two weeks ago I had the AC recharged in My old Dodge-- but must have a leak as its blowing hot air now-- and on top of it, yesterday my electric window on my passenger side quit working--in the UP position...

I swathed til noon today-- temp hit 90-- and just like it had a built in governor-- the swather started spit and sputtering and telling me it was time to quit....It won't work right in temps above 90-- which is alright with me cause I don't like to work in temps above 90 anyway :wink: :lol:

Anyway I got 40 acres down-- Beautiful alfalfa-- One of the fields that got wiped out by the hail-- alfalfa came back great, hardly a weed anywhere....
 

HAY MAKER

Well-known member
Well maybe the weather is going back to normal......what ever that is because its finally quit rainning down here and temps are begining to get hot,should cool off up north when that high pressure gets back down here where it belongs.........then maybe I can get some haying done.
good luck
 

IL Rancher

Well-known member
Hitting 90 today they are saying.. Sure is humid and some of the roadsides we clipped look a bit dry (good, I don't want to do them again, lol). Been out in the pastures a bit today, have at least 4 weeks of grass standing right now I think and two pastures are really growing and each will hold 10 days in the next week or two.. Should leave us in good shap until the September green up kicks in. We are forcasted for higher than normal Sep and October temps which should mean a slightly longer growing season.. Just as long as we don't frost over September 5th liked we did a few years ago.
 

ranchwife

Well-known member
had a bizarre case come into the ER the other day....elderly gent went out and decided to "swath his field" so that it would not catch on fire with all the lightning strikes hitting our valley....guess what??? yep......his blades hit a rock and caught his field on fire.....nice little breeze blowing helped to fuel the flames and damn near took the valley....poor guy (in his late 80's ) is outside with a shovel and blanket trying to beat out the flames...he ended up coming in several hours after the local fire department managed to get the flames out...he had 2nd degree burns on his thighs and across his abdomen where his wranglers and his belt got so hot from the fire that it burned his skin...his clothes were perfectly intact!! His poor little bride of 60 odd years was just beside herself!! :cry:
 

IL Rancher

Well-known member
Good god.. Man is probably lucky that the burns were all the worse for wear he was.. I hope you all have an uneventfull fire season, almost makes me feel guilty for the giant brush fires I am going to kcik off tomorrow morning.
 

ranchwife

Well-known member
IL Rancher said:
Good god.. Man is probably lucky that the burns were all the worse for wear he was.. I hope you all have an uneventfull fire season, almost makes me feel guilty for the giant brush fires I am going to kcik off tomorrow morning.

il rancher---if you look closely at the pix I posted on ranch talk, you can see that many of the trees there are DRYYYYYY and brown...wondering if they are also getting hit by that pine beetle that is killing the mountains outside of butte!!! all it's gonna take is one dumba$$ flicking a cigarette out a window or one well-time strike of lightning to lose the entire gravelley range!! SCARY!!! Yes, the gentleman was very lucky...worst burn was the saucer sized blister under his belt-buckle!! :shock:
 

IL Rancher

Well-known member
Yeah, looked dry but up until the last year or so out there it always looked dry to me with us being from the land of 36 or so inches of rain a year..

So the Pine borer is active eh? They always told us that was because the lodgepole pines were getting to old and they either needed to be logged or burned, just part of the "natural" cycle out there. If they don't log it it sure leaves a good old tinder box there to go off with plenty of dry fuel... The small grass fires we get around here during droughts are just such childsplay to the ones out there. It generally takes a few farmers with disks and the local water truck and it is contained pretty fast.. I think they had a "big" one a few years back that ook 500 acres but it was mostly along a rail right of way.. About the only place there is ever enough grass to reall get going besides crop residue or roadsides.
 

ranchwife

Well-known member
IL Rancher said:
Yeah, looked dry but up until the last year or so out there it always looked dry to me with us being from the land of 36 or so inches of rain a year..

So the Pine borer is active eh? They always told us that was because the lodgepole pines were getting to old and they either needed to be logged or burned, just part of the "natural" cycle out there. If they don't log it it sure leaves a good old tinder box there to go off with plenty of dry fuel... The small grass fires we get around here during droughts are just such childsplay to the ones out there. It generally takes a few farmers with disks and the local water truck and it is contained pretty fast.. I think they had a "big" one a few years back that ook 500 acres but it was mostly along a rail right of way.. About the only place there is ever enough grass to reall get going besides crop residue or roadsides.


next time you are in Montana, take a drive over Homestake Pass outside of Butte and you will be amazed at the look of the trees!!! Over 3/4 of the trees are standing dead and brown..........a major forest fire just waiting to happen!!!with all the homes being built in the hills outside of butte, this spells D-I-S-A-S-T-E-R!!!!!!!! all because of the pine beetle!! :cry:
 

IL Rancher

Well-known member
Colombus day weekend we are going to be heading out from here towards the blackhills and than ontowards Bozeman and maybe Helena to see some old friends. Don't know how much we are going to be able to get in with the kids in tow but we are going to try gosh darn it, lol.
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Oldtimer said:
Hanta Yo said:
Hot again today.....hauling bales off the fields in an old dodge pickup with no air conditioning, sw loads up the trailer in a tractor and the air doesn't work....just trying to get it done before the elk eat up our bales :( should have the job done in a couple of days. Man it's HOT

I know what you mean- Hanta...Two weeks ago I had the AC recharged in My old Dodge-- but must have a leak as its blowing hot air now-- and on top of it, yesterday my electric window on my passenger side quit working--in the UP position...

I swathed til noon today-- temp hit 90-- and just like it had a built in governor-- the swather started spit and sputtering and telling me it was time to quit....It won't work right in temps above 90-- which is alright with me cause I don't like to work in temps above 90 anyway :wink: :lol:

Anyway I got 40 acres down-- Beautiful alfalfa-- One of the fields that got wiped out by the hail-- alfalfa came back great, hardly a weed anywhere....

Day can't get much worse (wanna bet) :roll: -- went to town to see if I could get my pickup window fixed-- body shop found it is a broken wire inside the door--too busy to fix it today, but did get the window down so I can have fresh air...Went to bank to deposit some checks-- new bank rules--won't let anybody deposit them anymore (even to joint account) unless it has both mine and wifes signatures :roll: (Crimenny- Next they will need them notarized and a sworn affidavit from the Pope)...So ran down wife to get her signature---By the time I left town the temp on the Bank thermometer was showing 107 :shock:

Then got home and found that the big tire I had fixed on the swather on Saturday, was flat again...I think I may need a new one-- but that will have to wait until about 5AM when the temp is a lot cooler....

Thinking every minute that the offer my cousin made--who wants to hay my place on shares is looking every day...With all his new equipment, I would probably actually end up with more hay-- but not sure if my liver could stand the free time :roll:
 

ranchwife

Well-known member
IL Rancher said:
Colombus day weekend we are going to be heading out from here towards the blackhills and than ontowards Bozeman and maybe Helena to see some old friends. Don't know how much we are going to be able to get in with the kids in tow but we are going to try gosh darn it, lol.

let us know when you are in the bozeman area.....just might have to get you and the families together for a cold glass of iced tea!!! :D
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Old Al Gore might even be able to sell a book or two up here before he got ran out of town if this keeps up......


CLIMATE...

THIS JULY WILL END UP AS THE 2ND HOTTEST ON RECORD AT GLASGOW. THROUGH JULY 30TH THE AVERAGE TEMPERATURE OF 78.2 DEGREES IS 8.1 DEGREES ABOVE THE 30-YEAR AVERAGE. THE RECORD HOTTEST JULY EVER...IN 1936...REMAINS AN ALMOST UNREACHABLE 81.2 DEGREE AVERAGE...BACK WHEN THE READINGS WERE TAKEN DOWNTOWN RATHER THAN AT THE AIRPORT.

WE HAVE HAD 18 DAYS WITH HIGHS OF 90 OF HIGHER...AND 6 DAYS WITH HIGHS OF 100 OR HIGHER SO FAR THIS MONTH. IN JULY 2006...THERE WERE 24 DAYS WITH HIGHS OF 90 OR HIGHER...AND 7 DAYS WITH HIGHS OF 100 OR HIGHER FOR THE ENTIRE MONTH. JULY 2006 HAD NO LOWS IN THE 70S...WHILE JULY 2007 HAS HAD A RECORD-BREAKING 7 DATES WITH LOWS IN THE 70S. ONLY 1936 HAD MORE LOWS IN THE 70S...WITH 8 DATES...BUT THEY WERE SPREAD OUT OVER A 3 MONTH PERIOD AND ONLY 5 OF THEM OCCURRED IN JULY.

THERE HAVE BEEN 18 CONSECUTIVE NIGHTS WITH A LOW TEMPERATURE AT OR ABOVE 60 DEGREES AT GLASGOW...WHICH NOW TIES THE ALL-TIME RECORD SET IN 2003.

THE AVERAGE LOW TEMPERATURE THIS MONTH OF 64.1 DEGREES IS THE WARMEST ON RECORD FOR JULY...AND IN FACT FOR ANY CALENDAR MONTH AT GLASGOW.
 

Hanta Yo

Well-known member
Oldtimer said:
Oldtimer said:
Hanta Yo said:
Hot again today.....hauling bales off the fields in an old dodge pickup with no air conditioning, sw loads up the trailer in a tractor and the air doesn't work....just trying to get it done before the elk eat up our bales :( should have the job done in a couple of days. Man it's HOT

I know what you mean- Hanta...Two weeks ago I had the AC recharged in My old Dodge-- but must have a leak as its blowing hot air now-- and on top of it, yesterday my electric window on my passenger side quit working--in the UP position...

I swathed til noon today-- temp hit 90-- and just like it had a built in governor-- the swather started spit and sputtering and telling me it was time to quit....It won't work right in temps above 90-- which is alright with me cause I don't like to work in temps above 90 anyway :wink: :lol:

Anyway I got 40 acres down-- Beautiful alfalfa-- One of the fields that got wiped out by the hail-- alfalfa came back great, hardly a weed anywhere....

Day can't get much worse (wanna bet) :roll: -- went to town to see if I could get my pickup window fixed-- body shop found it is a broken wire inside the door--too busy to fix it today, but did get the window down so I can have fresh air...Went to bank to deposit some checks-- new bank rules--won't let anybody deposit them anymore (even to joint account) unless it has both mine and wifes signatures :roll: (Crimenny- Next they will need them notarized and a sworn affidavit from the Pope)...So ran down wife to get her signature---By the time I left town the temp on the Bank thermometer was showing 107 :shock:

Then got home and found that the big tire I had fixed on the swather on Saturday, was flat again...I think I may need a new one-- but that will have to wait until about 5AM when the temp is a lot cooler....

Thinking every minute that the offer my cousin made--who wants to hay my place on shares is looking every day...With all his new equipment, I would probably actually end up with more hay-- but not sure if my liver could stand the free time :roll:

I hear you, OT. Last Sunday went out to haul hay, tractor tire FLAT. Monday took it in to get fixed, they said it prolly wouldn't last very long.....it lasted until Thursday afternoon so into Billings I went to get a new one...pretty costy :shock:

Drove into the stackyard yesterday and the U joint broke, luckily we keep them on hand (the dodge goes through them pretty fast), then some lug nuts on the dual tires on the dodge kept coming loose - 3 stripped out of 8. 4 more trips and we're done. Guess we better get to doing that before it gets too hot.

It is soooo smoky here it looks like we have a fire on us. Guess all the fires west of us blew up during the night. I just pray we don't get any fires on us this year. Already had one early, I hope that was our token.
 

Hanta Yo

Well-known member
IL Rancher said:
Colombus day weekend we are going to be heading out from here towards the blackhills and than ontowards Bozeman and maybe Helena to see some old friends. Don't know how much we are going to be able to get in with the kids in tow but we are going to try gosh darn it, lol.

We are on the way from Black Hills to Bozo....come see us :wave: :nod:
 
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