Fires -- Update

[Kathie in Thorp]

The air is still crappy here, and that will continue for awhile. But except for one fire fighter that had too much smoke, we've had no loss of human life directly attributable to the fires. And bless his soul, from Darby, MT. 57 homes lost. They're getting a handle on the fire(s), with about a 50% containment now. The elk and deer are moving in where they wouldn't normally be now, as their upper ground is all black now. People are still helping people, with donations of just about everything you can imagine, and the TBFAR group is working with Washington Cattlemen's org to re-build all the many miles of fences that went down in the fire. There were actually few livestock losses. It could have been so much worse. Thank you, God!

 

[Jogeephus]

Glad to here things are improving and looking better.

 

[Dave]

I was over there yesterday. Actually a little south, at Toppenish. There was very little smoke in the air but the wind was blowing pretty stiff. One of the guys commented that the fire fighters wouldn't be liking the wind. What we really need is a good old North Pacific storm to blow in. Setting records for dry is beginning to get old.

 

[Kathie in Thorp]

Winds didn't get down in the deep draws and canyons, so they are still OK with containment, Dave. Temps are getting down towards freezing here at night, which doesn't help my tomatoes much, but will help w/ the fires. I'm not a snow person, and don't look forward to snow every year. But if it's going to get cold anyway, I wish we'd get a foot of snow right now to quash fires, and then have it warm back up for a month before REAL winter sets in. We have 100 head of elk and at least a herd of 50 deer w/in a mile that wouldn't normally be in here until November . . . . and then the elk herd is usually just passing through with a few bulls that hang around for the winter. Of course, on ground that is off-bounds for hunters! But it's kinda nice to sit on the porch AM and PM and listen to the bulls squeal.