Fire

[RockinRB]

Thank you @RockinRB , the pictures are devasting to look at and make it so much more real to me as to the horrendous situation. Are those your cattle in the area in the picture that looks like the fire missed? Did you have many out and did you lose any? Those are the 2 fires that merged right?
Will you have any access to any supplemental hay or other resources?

And to think that is only a tiny sliver of of the damage...

Those cows belong to to the neighbor. They had cattle up on the mountain and they've been coming down looking for feed since the fire and since a lot of fence posts burned up they found there way out there. I had planned to move mine into that area this fall but clearly thats not going to be happening now.

I only have 1 yearling bull unaccounted for, but he got out with the neighbors before the fire. The pasture that he would be in is several thousand acres, so hopefully he's just hiding out somewhere and will show up when they get everything gathered.

Yes those are the two big ones that merged.

I've seen some information about hay drives and things like that in the community, but haven't heard a whole lot of details just yet.

 

[RockinRB]

A lot of the trees are looking pretty rough and aren't going to make it, but it didn't burn past the perimeter of the cemetery

These pictures are from a few years ago. The pictures posted by Rockin RB would be just to the left of this view by a bit. Looking south from the Malhuer City cemetery and then the cemetery gate. This little green cemetery sits alone in the middle of miles of sage brush. I heard that they saved the cemetery although I don't know that to be true. If they did it is spot of green in the middle of miles of black.

View attachment 47670sView attachment 47671

 

[Dave]

@Dave, how much forage (put in terms of # of days for # of head or in terms of bales (size) or in tons). How many miles of fence have you lost (or feet)?

I used the measurement tool on the web soil survey to calculate the fence. I came up with 3 miles of fence and that is just here above the house. Typing this I thought two more stretches that probably total another mile and a half. And that is measured on a flat map. The real life up and down will add to that distance. I will be 73 in 2 weeks. Someone younger than me will be building this fence. In a month or two someone wanting to build fence will find plenty of work here.

 

[Dave]

I didn't even attempt to figure how much fence on the BLM allotment. Unless an army of fence builders shows up I think there is going to be a lot of open range next year.

 

[Silver]

Well those fences were just a suggestion anyway. Maybe in the end it will be an Improvement

 

[Mark Reynolds]

Rebuilding the fence is one thing. What gets overlooked though, is many, many, many miles of now loose, unruly, tangled masses of barbed wire for someone to clean up. I'd rather build any day than deal with cleaning this stuff up. This is a voice of experience. Not necessarily a lot of experience, but definitely enough to know that this would be cruel and unusual punishment for a chain gang.

 

[wbvs58]

Rebuilding the fence is one thing. What gets overlooked though, is many, many, many miles of now loose, unruly, tangled masses of barbed wire for someone to clean up. I'd rather build any day than deal with cleaning this stuff up. This is a voice of experience. Not necessarily a lot of experience, but definitely enough to know that this would be cruel and unusual punishment for a chain gang.

An excavator with a grab on it makes short work of it Mark.

Ken

 

[Dave]

An excavator with a grab on it makes short work of it Mark.

Ken

They are saying 1,000 miles of fence. They sure aren't going to tear things up walking excavators around. The FSA is saying that there is a dollar amount for the clean up. He didn't know what the exact figure was going to be.

 

[Dave]

I think I was finally able to down load the map showing the fire area. My calculations make it 37 miles long. It is about 60 miles in a straight line from Baker City to Vail. The town of Durkee is slightly to the right of the last "e". I am a little to the left of "D".

 

[puzzled in oregon]

Thought some might be interested in this

Older pilots with unmatchable experience are key to the US aerial firefighting fleet

Pilot Jim Maxwell logged nearly 25,000 flight hours over five decades flying small planes in dangerous situations, from spraying to kill illegal drug crops in Central America to navigating smoky skies to drop fire retardant as wildfires scorch the Western United States. The 73-year-old from...

www.yahoo.com

 

[dave_shelby]

As the smoke clears, ranchers in Eastern Oregon face uncertainty - OPB

 

[Dave]

As the smoke clears, ranchers in Eastern Oregon face uncertainty - OPB

That young (to me) couple are neighbors. When he was a very young boy his Dad leased what is now my place. So he remembers living in my house. A good portion of his cows were just up hill from where my cows were. It is a nasty piece of ground. They rode it pretty hard but just didn't/couldn't get all the cows off it. When the fire broke that way all you could do was stay out of the way.
Nobody wants the cow loses but a person can live with that. It is the loss of feed now and for a couple of years that is going to be a killer.

 

[Dave]

We took a Sunday drive. 15 miles to Bridgeport, Up over the hill to Mill Creek (8 miles ?), Down past the Malhuer reservoir about 6 or 7 miles to the Huntington rd, 19 miles to Huntington, and then 20 or so miles back to Durkee. In or within sight of black all the way. A little over 4 1/2 hours of driving and that is not the full perimeter of the fire. Some of the grass will come back. Other areas burned too hot and will need to be reseeded. There simply isn't enough seed to be had. There is the cost of seed at $3 and pound and most will have to be flown on by helicopter which ain't cheap. They figure 1,000 miles of fence. 4 strand fence is 16 rolls per mile. 16,000 rolls of wire at $75 a roll is $1,200,000 just for the wire. Plus posts and labor. It is huge. Pictures along the trip. All taken miles from each other.

 

[puzzled in oregon]

Is any of the wire reusable, or is it even practical to consider ?

 

[cowman82]

they say HT will be fine after a fire. might want to do all steel posts and a HT wire for your fencing. I'm sure BLM has their own rules but for your place that'd be cheap and quick.

 

[Dave]

Is any of the wire reusable, or is it even practical to consider ?

Trouble is when you twist it slice or tie off at the end it just breaks off. Some will get left as much as possible. A lot of it was old so that stuff was questionable to start with. I know of a section of new fence just built 2 years ago. They claim it is still good. Of course any wood posts are gone. Lots of wood rock jacks at gates, corners, and low spots. Just a pile of rocks left there.

 

[puzzled in oregon]

Trouble is when you twist it slice or tie off at the end it just breaks off. Some will get left as much as possible. A lot of it was old so that stuff was questionable to start with. I know of a section of new fence just built 2 years ago. They claim it is still good. Of course any wood posts are gone. Lots of wood rock jacks at gates, corners, and low spots. Just a pile of rocks left there.

And cleaning up/removing old fence can be more time consuming than building new.

 

[Dave]

I have talked of rock jacks. So here is the rock jack at the southeast corner of my property. Picture taken several years ago. Then what remains of it shown in picture taken last week. And a picture of a steel one that one of the previous owner installed. A lot of old wooden jacks on that stretch of fence all burned. I think I might have to invest in some steel jacks. Note the slab of rock showing in the lower right of the first picture. You simply aren't going to dig a hole or drive a post in this location. Lot of solid rock around here. That is where rock jacks work real well.

 

[wbvs58]

We have a lot of rocky country and there is some innovative very old methods of keeping a fence standing up. I am gradually replacing them with steel, I have been using concrete screws of late with good success also anchors Chem Set into the rock.

Ken

 

[Dave]

We have a lot of rocky country and there is some innovative very old methods of keeping a fence standing up. I am gradually replacing them with steel, I have been using concrete screws of late with good success also anchors Chem Set into the rock.

Ken

A lot of the rock jacks here with juniper trees. A chain saw and some wire and you can make a rock jack pretty quickly. But now those jacks are gone and so are the junipers which were growing close to the site.