Is anyone near any of the wild fires? So far south western Oregon have been spared. It is too dry here though and there is a call for "dry lightening" tonight. My creek is dry, the source of my irrigation, I can only get about 1500 gallon a day for garden & orchard compared to the 90,000 I get in the spring. We have 2 tanks, 550 gallon for drip irrigation and 350 gal. on a truck for spot watering and fires. We were planning a road trip through Idaho, Montana, & Wyoming this fall but with all the fires we will probably skip it. We hope every one here in the west will get through this fire season without mishap.

-- Hendo (OR) (redgate@echoweb.net), August 08, 2000

Answers

We've had a bunch of small prairie fires around here in North Texas, We had no rain at all in July and none so far this month and something like 19 days in a row with temperatures over 100. Everything is just waiting to catch fire and burn up. We can't water except alternating days and there's a total "burn ban" in most counties around here. Can't even barbeque a steak outdoors.

-- Joe Cole (jcole@apha.com), August 08, 2000.

i think most of the counties here in Washington are on a burn ban. we have also heard things on the news about asking west coast states to try and conserve energy because a lot of california is on the verge of brown outs( no cracks about CA, my whole family lives there).

-- Amber (ambrosia75_@hotmail.com), August 08, 2000.

There was a big fire in Oroville WA, somewhat close to where we have property.It didn't get to our town, but wiped out a lot of homes. Some folks at church had a furniture drive to help out some of the victims. So far, it's okay around here, although really, really drying out.

Friends in the fire dept. say that they have sent crews over to E. Washington to help fight fires. I heard on the news that help has been requested from Australia and S. America as well. Horrible year for fires.

My husband's aunt emailed us a couple of days ago (from California) to say that they have been requested to not use inessential power, therefore, no computers for non-business use. We will have to call her instead for a while.

I hope Californians are really conserving, and learning something. I have observed that they are sometimes rather profligate with their power consumption, and we don't want to send the Washington National Guard down to the Columbia River to keep them from grabbing more dam sites...

-- sheepish (rborgo@gte.net), August 08, 2000.

sheepish, many people in Ca are being much more conservative since they deregulated the electric companies. my gram does 2 loads of laundry every other week and runs her dishwasher once a week. she uses very few lights and last month her electric bill was $106! the mayor of san diego supposedly had a deal with the electric company that for the time being if people paid what they could on their bill the would not be shut off. she just got chased down the street by her constituents who had down just that and got turned off anyway. the power companies are greedy and deregulation is heading to washington state.

-- Amber (ambrosia75_@hotmail.com), August 08, 2000.

I had always thought Wash. and Oregon had lots of rainy weather. Is it usually this dry this time of year? Rest of the country is keeping all the states affected in our prayers. Hope it rains soon.

-- Annie (mistletoe@earthlink.net), August 08, 2000.

Just wondering what areas of Wa. are burning.We used to live in Silverdale;I loved it there!I don't recall much in the way of dry weather during our time there-plenty of soggy,soccer memories. May the Lord watch over all you westerners, ~~~Tracy~~~

-- Tracy Jo Neff (tntneff@ifriendly.com), August 08, 2000.

I don't know about the other states but Montana is in serious trouble. This morning I heard over 50 homes had burned and entire towns had been evacuated.

Here all logging operations or any work in or near the woods have been stopped. In places the forests have been closed to hikers, campers, and even berry pickers, absolutely no fires allowed, even campfires or grills. Every available firefighter and support personell have been called out and yesterday I saw a group of military assembling in town to join the firefighters already on the line. From what I understand from my neighbors wife, (he is on a fire south of me) they stand no hope of actually fighting them, more just trying to keep them from spreading and they are not having any luck in doing so at this time. The fires are crossing roads and firebreaks like they are not even there.

Thankfully they are not close me at this particular time and I have tried to plan what I will do if one starts nearby. The whole area is dry beyond belief and it is windy and very hot. The least spark will turn everything into an inferno in minutes and dry lightening is forcast for tomorrow evening and Thursday which has everyone nervous. Everyone out there keep your fingers crossed for us.

-- Marci (ajourend@libby.org), August 08, 2000.

I heard this morning on NPR that when they deregulated power in CA. they siad it would lower the consumers bills but in fact it doubled and in some places tripled it. Oregon is sending power down there too and we are facing a de- regulation bill this fall, I can hardly wait, we are paying 5-6 c+/- here at the house a penny less on the irrigation pump plus a $75 a year pole charge.

Yes it is dry here, in the summer, with 100+ tempertures in August, it rains all winter. Our burn ban has been on for 6 -8 weeks. You can only cut firewood & log between 6AM & 10AM. No mowing, even your lawn, only agricultural work but is is so volitale who wants to. We are working on the ranch from 6AM to 11AM after that it is too hot.

-- Hendo (redgate@echoweg.netm), August 08, 2000.

We have made our evacuation plans, at least the animals are gone, now it is just getting all the equipment out if we must. My bride has packed up the "important papers". We will bug out when & if they call but I will stay with the house and barn and small equipment we can't move out and keep hosing until the well runs dry. I'm pretty sure the local fire company will lend a hand.......still there is no fire, but we think we are ready.

-- Hendo (redgate@echoweb.neth), August 08, 2000.

My prayers are with you Hendo, and for all those who face the danger of fire. You are so smart to be prepared. Keep us posted please...

For those who are curious: Eastern Washington is mostly like Idaho, Montana, etc. It's behind the mountains (Cascades) and has more desert-like conditions than on the west side, where the rain falls more often. Still, it's getting dry even around here. I am thinking I may have to rig up some irrigation method to keep the pasture grass growing. At any rate, hay will be through the roof this year....

-- sheepish (rborgo@gte.net), August 09, 2000.

annie, don't believe what you hear about it raining 24hours a day here in WA. it only rains from october to may : ). sheepish is right though it is drier than usual. tracy, the fires are mostly east of the cascades. the last one to start was near the coulee dam area. i heard on the news that one of the fires was started by a grasshopper who jumped on an electric fence. now how the heck did they find that out, did they interview the grasshopper? concerning deregulation they did promise that it would lower the electric costs. fat chance!

-- Amber (ambrosia75_@hotmail.com), August 09, 2000.

WA State National Guard is going to Yakima, WA to train for firefighting this week end. Montana just set up a lock-out for all of its woods. The radio said that some areas (Colorado was where the broadcast originated, but I'm not sure it was exclusive to Colorado) are just going to have to let fires burn until snows, b/c there aren't enough resources to control them all. This is so horrible, b/c it's just now getting into fire season. btw, the radio also said that folks are ultimately responsible for their own homes...and mentioned tree planting placement, location of wood piles etc.as prevention. On the one hand, I was glad to hear someone tell people to be more self reliant, and on the other, wondering what the @$*& one could do in the face of a fast moving forest fire...even with the wood pile properly located.

Just thought I would update. Cloudy here today, but no rain. Cooler, though.

-- sheepish (rborgo@gte.net), August 10, 2000.

The company my husband works for prints the magazine BackHome put out by the fellow who started Mother Earth News. When I was in the plant last week, I saw the next issue and there's a good article on landscaping a home to help prevent loss because of wildfire. We even get natural cover fires here in Missouri and earlier this year several homes were lost in the southern part of state to some. It's something I've been thinking about because our house is surrounded by evergreen trees and shrubs at very close range. This article gives good guidelines and for me it's a priority. In the meantime, I keep the grass clipped either by mowing or grazing around the house and outbuildings to reduce the fuel available.

Good luck to all you folks in the danger zone. We had thought about touring out west this fall too but have more or less decided to postpone the trip until next year.

-- marilyn (rainbow@ktis.net), August 10, 2000.

The trees around our house are well over 100 years old and give great shade, as for a "fule zone" we are in good shape, our firewood tho is little more that 25' from the hosue in a shed, 5 cords,2 years seasoned, there is not much I can do about that. the weather has cooled down some and we had litle showers this morning but not enough. My next door neighbor has friends coming in tonight from Salmon Idaho, I expect they will have some interesting stories.

-- Hendo (OR) (redgate@echoweb.net), August 11, 2000.

I'm getting more updates on the fire situations in places like here and the fiber list I am on than in the local papers! We are in northeast Washington, and so far the fires aren't close to us. It is tinder dry, though, and even driving through the field would be insane. I have been told that many of our local volenteer firefighters have been sent to fires in other areas, and have been working without breaks for weeks. We still have pasture and may have to take animals from the fire areas for people. Sure don't have enough water, though! Haven't had rain since the end of June, and far higher temps than usual. I've been through two fires already, and sure can feel for those going through it now!

-- Fran Ogren (trumpkinland@plix.com), August 11, 2000.

Forgot to mention, people in the Missoula and hamelton areas of Montana have been told that the fires will likely burn until late October or early November! They are expecting most of the state to be involved and consumed!! I hate to imagine!!!!

-- Fran Ogren (trumpkinland@plix.com), August 11, 2000.

Probably a good idea to start get church, school, and local service clubs going on collecting items for the Red Cross to distribute. I would imagine that just about anything would be accepted, but in consideration of cold weather coming right after fire season, blankets, warm clothing and such might be important. I am sure they would gratefully accept donations from any part of the country. If we get started now, we can be ready for their needs. Just a thought. This is going to go on for a while, it sounds like.

-- sheepish (rborgo@gte.net), August 11, 2000.

Thanx folks for putting a face on what would otherwise be another 30 sec news story here in upstate NY. We only have a few weeks of rough winter, otherwise nothing much happens around here. Am beginning to appreciate that fact for the first time. Keep you in my prayers. Ed

-- Ed Weaver (edzreal@postmaster.co.uk), August 12, 2000.