Oh, Kim, I am so very sorry to hear that. I'll be praying for God's comfort for their families. What a terrible, terrible tragedy. Yes, I think you'd be wise to stay off FB today so the continuing news of the fire tragedies doesn't become overwhelming. Surely more bad news hits today as the authorities get into areas previously inaccessible due to fire. Enjoy your time with your little man today. There's time enough tonight and tomorrow to read the rest of the bad news and let yourself experience the accompanying grief.

Amy, At least you got rain. I know you could have used a lot more. I hope it didn't fall so fast that it ran off instead of soaking in. I just hate when that happens.

Fire terrifies me too. I've seen it do such terrible things. That's one reason I joined the VFD though....to make a difference when our firefighters are fighting fire. I thought it would be good to face my fear of fire by becoming part of the solution. There are days when fire is bearing down on us that I wonder about how smart/stupid I am to be out there near it, but it is what it is, and I just deal with it.

Kim, The smoke is bad here too. When the cold front swept down across the state, it brought us all kinds of smoke. I expected it, but at the same time was surprised just how smokey our air is. It looks like Pittsburgh PA in the 1960s and 1970s when the steel factories were belching out tons of smoke daily. I am shocked how smokey it is here. It makes it feel like we had/are having fires here, but we're not. Not yet today, anyhow.

The weather is lovely and mild though, so I'll work outside unless the smoke, which seems worse in the mid-levels of the air and not so awful right down at human level, gets to be too much. If that happens, I'll just go indoors. I'm allergic to smoke, so if I get exposed to too much of it, my eyes water nonstop for days and days like they cannot forgive me for letting smoke get too close to them. In 2005-2006, my eyes watered so much for so long that I had semi-permanent red chapped spots running from my eyes halfway down my cheeks for weeks and weeks. It was terrible, and it lasted forever. I don't think the smoke is heavy enough low enough to the ground to do that sort of thing today, but I can smell the smoke, so it isn't like it is all up over my head.

Dawn

That makes me feel sick, Kim. I'm so sorry.

I had hoped the slightly higher humidity levels would reduce the chance of wildfires. But, I guess with winds like we had, I was wasting my hope!

Watching the live coverage, I couldn't help but notice how fast the fires moved through grassy areas and not even igniting the red cedar!

While I understand a little about the fact that oils in trees vary greatly throughout the year, I've always assumed cedar would be very volatile all year long! I do know blackjacks during the months of July and August in dry years will literally explode and the cedar right next to them will burn, but at a slower rate. I got to witness that in action a few years ago and I hope I never see it again! Had it not been for a gutsy individual on a diesel powered tractor attacking the fire-line with a brush hog, the houses in the fires path would how certainly been lost. It was fortunate the mixed cedar and blackjack didn't extend all the way to the homes and there was a zone of grass pasture.

The news is trickling in of more deaths. Such tragedy.

Bruce, Sometimes the fire moves so fast that the cedars don't catch. Sometimes you'll see lower limbs catch fire, but then the fire moves on before the flames can climb higher in the trees.Sometimes you see cedars flame up like torches, but that's usually in a more slowly-moving wildfire. I think it was fortunate the cedars didn't torch up like they usually do or the fires would have had even more intensity. My favorite (in terms of it being so bizarre to watch) wildfire to watch is when the fire is doing what we call "walking across the tree tops". The flames are so high up in the crowns of the trees and so strongly driven by the wind that the fire is literally rolling across the tops of the trees, and not necessarily burning them at the ground level (though sometimes you get both). When we're en route to a fire and the scene sizeup says fire is walking across the treetops, we brace ourselves for the worst, most difficult type fire we see. We usually set up Fire Rehab a long way from the active fire line in this case because a fire that high up in the trees is going to move fast and we don't want to be in its path.

I've seen fields burn where the fire swept through so fast that only some grass burned and the rest of the grass is totally untouched, like a river of fire running through a field but not spreading out much sideways. Fires do bizarre things.

Whenever we have fires like this, we always see brave individuals (often arriving from elsewhere in a pickup truck pulling a trailer carrying their tractors and backhoes) just show up on tractors or driving back hoes, cutting fire breaks to save whoever and whatever is in the path of the fire. Their bravery always amazes me because these are just regular folks and they aren't wearing fire-resistant clothing to protect themselves either, unless they happen also to be firefighters (most are not).

I've seen some preliminary fire data, in terms of acreage burned, that knocks my socks off. A tremendous amount of land burned yesterday. I'm waiting to see if the aerial surveys back up the ground-based estimates of acreage burned. On this morning's Fire Situation Report, the OFS only had an estimate for one of the counties, and it was for the Starbuck Fire in Beaver County: 185,000 acres, 0% containment at the time the report was written and released on the internet. Aircraft were supposed to begin dropping water on it at noon today.

On a day like yesterday and today, I feel so grateful that the biggest problem I'm facing on that day is whether to pull weeds, or scoop up compost to dump into beds or what to plant, and where to plant it. A gardener's 'problems' at a time like this are so ridiculously small as to seem almost meaningless.

I hope the firefighters stay safe today. So many of them have been on the fire lines almost nonstop for 24 hours or more, and if they do take a break, they don't spend it sleeping much either. The rest of this week will be lovely gardening weather, particularly after tonight's cold passes on its way somewhere else, but I can't help thinking that the warm and mild weather that will make it so pleasant to be outdoors also has the potential to contribute to the fire danger. Where's the March rain showers?

Dawn

Well I escaped the smoke and went to Plainview due south of Amarillo. Picnic park shopping. Driving home this horrible haze but the smell isnt as bad. Pulled into the driveway and ran over my puppy. didnt kill but hurt her pretty bad. She is the one that does not like people except me and littleman. He kept saying I cant believe you ran over my favorite dog granny. Oh my it makes me sick just thinking of it. Well she is kenneled medicated and tucked in for the night. Since she is so skittish if I do need to take her in I will get downers before anyone gets near her. A friend came to help and ran up to her forgetting how she is and of course she freaked and ran into the weeds. My littleman got in the cage with her and said I am stayng in here until she feels better. What a day! I have not looked at any more pictures today just gardening stuff on fb. Too many connections to this tragedy to list. My heart goes out to the friends and family.

I'm so sorry Kim!

Kim, I am sorry to hear about the puppy. I hope she makes it. One of our dogs ran right in front of our neighbor's truck once and our neighbor about ran off the road trying to avoid him. His truck wheels...front and back...rolled right over the dog. We took him to the vet and he was only bruised. Badly bruised,but only bruised. Nothing broken. No organs damaged. He was in pain for quite a while, but the vet gave him steroids, which apparently helped him to heal. He lived about another 8 years after that, but wasn't allowed to go into the front yard without a leash again until he got old and slow since we didn't want him to run down to the road again. I hope your puppy is as fortunate as our dog was and didn't suffer any broken bones or internal damage to organs or anything.

I saw their photo on the news today. They were a lovely young couple. It is an incredible tragedy. My heart goes out to all of you. Looking at their photo, all I could see was the pure goodness in them---the goodness that drove them to race against all odds to try to save the livestock. I know they were simply trying to do the right thing--to try to save those animals from pain and suffering. People who rush into danger while trying to do the right thing are heroes, you know. That is how I will remember them. While people here are mourning and grieving their untimely loss, the angels in heaven are rejoicing that they were able to welcome these two sweet souls. They were very much on my mind today even though I never knew them. You and your family were on my mind too. I know I cannot imagine the depth of the grief which everyone is feeling because of their loss.

It was such a lovely day out in the garden, and I hope you enjoyed your time outside as much as I did. I worked as hard as I could and still feel like I didn't get nearly enough done today.

We had very low humidity and too much wind and fires all over this afternoon. Some fire departments are still out at fires right now.

It blows my mind how planting season and fire season always intersect. I can't participate in one without somehow participating in the other.

I hope the weather for the rest of this week is more kind to our states and our firefighters, our residents--the livestock, the wildlife...everyone and everything. Tomorrow will be another challenging day for the firefighters, but rain is coming at the end of the week. We'll take any and all rain that we can get.

Dawn

Dawn the trouble I ran into I'm sure you know well. When the wind changed directions and came out of the NW the temps dropped fast. When they did the smoke in the air dropped to the ground also. This made driving worse. I was very fortunate and picked the best route and managed to miss the worst. Had 7 miles or so of slow driving in fairly heavy smoke.

I have been busy today so haven't read a lot of news but have heard of 6 deaths and have heard there could be more. It was a tragic day. My thoughts are with everyone who has been affected by the fires.

The Dumas fire 100% contained.

Thank heavens, Kim. (Dumas reminds me of Shawshank Redemption). I was closely following the horrible horrible fires the past few days. My heart goes out to all affected; SO sad.

Jay, I'm still astonished you made it home through all that mess.

Kim, That's great that the Dumas fire is 100% contained. Let's home the other big wildfires are contained before too much longer as well.

For some reason, it doesn't seem like the wildfires in KS have gotten as much media coverage (maybe I'm just too far south to see it) and they have had some horrible fires this week with quite a few homes lost, and a staggering number of acres burned.

You know that the fires are bad when the media starts defining them as hundreds of square miles burned versus just the number of acres burned.

Nancy, For about the last 5 or 6 years we've sort of developed a running joke here that Oklahoma is the new California. I suppose it came out of the horrific drought/wildfire year of 2011, and the subsequent drought/wildfire years that followed, along with the ever-increasing number of quakes which began to get lots of attention at the same time. Think about it? California has earthquakes. We have earthquakes. Cali has wildfires. We have wildfires. Cali has persistent prolonged droughts. So do we. We are the new California (with all due respect to the actual state of California). It is mind-boggling how both states, so far apart and different in many ways, face some of the same weather/climate/geological challenges.

One thing we don't need is to follow in California's footsteps with the massive floods that end massive drought, though we sort of already did that in 2015.

I hope today is a better day for everyone in this region. I know much of OK has a Red Flag Fire Warning yet again today, but the winds won't be as bad as they were earlier in the week. The humidity is so low by midafternoon (and even earlier than that in some places) that it is mind-boggling. I'm keeping an eye on that forecast for rain at the end of the week. It can't get here soon enough.

Dawn

The amarillo news on the computer is covering all of the fires. I was up half the night because of the fires and the dog. Well oreos is fine. Broke out of jail chasing little man around as usual. Still makes me quiver to think about it.

I am glad oreos is fine.

The fires (yours, ours, those in KS, etc.) are the big news here too.

Dogs are amazingly resilient. I have been told to look at their gums. Pale gums suggesting internal bleeding. That could be an old wives tale. My Daughters dog was shot in the hip the end of Jan. They couldn't get the bullet out and were concerned they would have to amputate his leg. He still runs "funny" and limps occasionally, but the vet can't believe how good he is doing. Pretty much a full recovery in 6 weeks time.

Lots of fundraisers free hay and good people coming together to help each other

Ha Amy we were posting at the same time. Yes she is doing great. I am pretty sure I just hit her shoulder. She greeted me this morning running and jumping around.

Watching the fires that have created so much havoc in western Okla, Kansas and the Texas panhandle is like watching our worst nightmare! My inner self wants to rush out and help, but common sense, a not so young body and lack of wildfire training keep me on the sideline! They certainly don't need me getting in the way!

I appreciate the heads up on the fires in my area, Dawn! Fortunately none of my friends and acquaintances were impacted. I'm relieved they weren't but can't help but feel for those that were!

Kim, I've been seeing a lot of the news about all the good things going on there. People really do rally, pull together and work hard to show love and caring and compassion in so many ways when things like this happen. It makes me so proud to be an Oklahoman (and a native Texan by birth) and an American.

I'm super happy to hear the dog is running and jumping. That's such an awesome sign.

The photos and videos and witness accounts of the fires and devastation are just so incredibly sad. It is important for us to look at them, to watch them, and to pay attention to the heroic men and women not only of the fire service, but all the other groups who work with them from our county, city and state Emergency Management Personnel, the Oklahoma Forestry Service personnel, the firefighters from different communities and even different states who rush in to help, the law enforcement officers and the paramedics, the electric company linemen, etc. and right down to the owners of mom and pop gas stations and stores who stay open all night so firefighters and other first responders can buy gasoline, drinking water, snacks, etc. It truly takes an army composed of all sorts of people working together---and that includes the folks who work to rescue stranded, endanger animals, to house them and to feed them. There are people whose homes are still standing who've taken in and housed and fed those who cannot get back to their homes and who many not know even yet if their homes are still standing or if their animals are okay. To see all those individual actions woven together into the fabric of life that holds us all together is so awesome.

Bruce, There are many ways to help, but I agree that in the middle of a crisis, untrained or inexperienced personnel are not helpful. Still, we see random acts of kindness all the time---someone driving up to us at a fire scene and handing us cases and cases of water and Gatorade, or a big bag of McDonald's hamburgers, or a stack of pizzas. Sometimes it is just someone who came to shake hands, pass out hugs and say "thank you for saving my place". Those words, spoken so sincerely from the heart, give the tired firefighters the energy to go fight fires for a few more hours.

I'm glad the fires in your county stayed away from you and your friends yesterday.

Our fire was awful to fight, but the firefighters did an awesome job. They saved homes and oil wells among other things, and contained it within a bulldozed area. Today six of those VFDs have been out fighting it again, and just declared it contained....not out. These big fires often burn for days, but containmnet is important and it does matter. Volunteer firefighters are real people with lives, families and jobs, and most of them have bosses who expect them to show up for work as scheduled even if they were out fighting fires half the night, so containment at least gives them the chance to go home and sleep and go to work and be ready for the next fire, or for the next flare-up of a pesky fire that's burning on and off for days.

I wish we could sit here and say the fire season has peaked and we're on the downhill slide, but it probably hasn't. Hopefully, we've seen the worst of it already, but there's lots of dry windy weather and lots of dry dormant vegetation. We need to green up, green up, green up....and not just because it is so pretty when everything greens up and blooms, but because it keeps us a bit more safe from them dreadful fires.

It sure makes you wonder how the early settlers dealt with wildfires. I bet they got burned out of their places more than we realize.

I learned from other firefighting personnel from our VFD yesterday that we have a bigger problem in our neighborhood this week than fire-----feral piglets. They're running around behind the houses across the street from the fire station, rooting up their yards at night. I don't know about those folks, but since we're rural, the homes are pretty widely scattered and we can shoot varmints, if I had feral piglets out digging up my yard at night, we'd be out there shooting them. Hmmm. This may explain the random gunshots we've been hearing up the road a bit at night. We haven't seen any this year on our property, but I've heard them on and off a bit so I know they're around.

Dawn

The whole feral hog thing is a real mess! We've got politicians passing laws based on the desires of special interest groups instead of letting the professionals handle it. I can go on for days about this subject, but the bottom line is, there is no easy fix!

The ODA has a list (or database) of individuals who will come in and trap feral hogs. I've seen cases where some of these guys are highly effective.

http://www.oda.state.ok.us/ais/feralswinehuntersdir.pdf

Can't believe you just brought this feral pig thing up.

First, so glad your dog is okay, Kim!!! Dodged a bullet there eh? Oreo? I was so glad to hear he/she? is out and bounding about!! Man, that'd be a heavy trip for you to handle. . . glad you won't have to.

Garry was visiting with a neighbor this morning who was taking a walk. . . and she told him there are reports of feral hogs here. AAGGHH!! Their elderly border collie was attacked last year, and they weren't sure what got her; they had guessed a coyote, but the vet thought it might have been a feral hog mix-up.

Well, just last night, we were inside, Titan was out. . . and we heard his danger/attack bark--angry, low, loud, with loud throaty growls mixed in. I rushed out, and he had stopped but was on alert with the hairs on his shoulders raised; GDW came out with the flashlight, and we didn't see anything. . . but then the neighboring dogs a couple hundred yards away began a mighty row. . . and then subsided after several minutes. Quite obviously, some unwelcome intruder was passing through. Our bets would have been coyote, but now hearing our neighbor talking of feral hogs, who knows. Like Dawn, thankfully we're in a rural neighborhood and can shoot critters. We'll see what develops. I KNOW there are coyotes. We've seen a couple of them twice in the past six months crossing the road between 2 and 3 or so miles from here. (And I lived 30 years in Wyoming, several of those on a ranch and had NEVER seen a live coyote.) I would hope coyotes and feral hogs might be mutual enemies. . . the fun never ends with the critters, does it. :)

When I worked on the ranch, coyotes were a problem. They creep me out. I would hear and sometimes see them around dusk. They will kill a calf before it is fully delivered. The office was in a pretty rural area near a river, but we had problems on leased land that at the time was just outside Owasso. Those pastures are now housing additions, that is how close to town they were. My boss hired the helicopter hunters one year. There are feral hogs here, too. There was concern about a cougar while I worked there. It killed all the chickens at one neighbor's place. My understanding is it is not legal to kill them, but they are too scary for populated areas. For the ranchers in that area, the loss of one calf can be the difference between profit or loss for the year. You know they protected their animals. It truly amazed me how close "the wild" comes to people.

The fires are devastating. Here's the mesonet ticker

When I read yesterday's ticker, I was horrified by Gary's "Hell on Earth" photo, but then when I saw some of the videos and photos of the fires posted on FB, his photo seemed almost benign by comparison. I've been watching for today's Fire Situation Report from OFS to update to see if the amount of containment (which I think was 10% on yesterday's report) has increased more. I expect it has. Or, I sure hope it has. Surely during the next few days when we are supposed to be cool/cold, cloudy, rainy, etc., maybe the increased dewpoints and humidity will help them improve containment of the fires.

The fires are devastating. I do not even know how ranchers recover when they lose not just haybales and forage land, but many head of cattle, barns, pole barns, feeders, waterers, fencing, etc. There is so much to rebuild.....I don't even know where they start. I know folks from all over are collecting hay and delivering it to burned areas in the region to try to keep the surviving cattle fed and alive. That's one thing you have to do ASAP. I love how cattle ranchers start loading up the hay and heading to the disaster areas just as soon as the news breaks that other ranchers are in trouble.

Devastating is the perfect word to describe it. I sure cannot think of another word that fits the situation better. It is just so sad, and it is an every year thing any more. When I was a kid and even when I was a young adult and we drove through OK on our way elsewhere, there would be this big signs along the highway that said "Do Not Drive Through Smoke". It always struck me as comical, but we never saw a single bit of smoke all that time in all those years. I'm sure there were wildfires, but I don't think they were as common as they are now. Nowadays it seems like they spread so incredibly fast and get so big so quickly that it is hard for the human brain to understand. Our worst fire ever in our county is around 15,000 acres and it was huge. My brain cannot even wrap itself around how big a 750,000 acre fire would be. We always think about how fire renews the forests and the prairie lands, but I don't see how fires of this extreme intensity can do that.

I can not grasp the devastation these fires have done. I also can not hardly look at fb without the images haunting me. One picture was amazing of a momma cow and new calf in the middle of a burned out pasture. Momma had been a little burned but was fine. I am so thankful it wasn't worse.

I can remember those signs...do they not have them any more? I have a memory of news of people who did drive into smoke, thinking it wouldn't last long. Then there were multiple car wrecks. I don't remember if they burned as well. As bad as all this is, what about poison ivy in the smoke? Do you, or firefighters have issues with it?

I don't see the signs down here any more Amy, but I think I saw them more in NE OK, maybe along one of the highways/turnpikes about 15 years ago? Maybe they're there any more either.

Kim, The images are hard to bear. I try to focus more now on all the stories and images of people helping....everything from ranchers everywhere bringing/sending hay for the cattle to places like Chick Filet sending meals to fund-raising campaigns, etc. There are so many good people who just want to help however they can. At times like this, I think we all are reminded how much all of us need one another and how much we all can help one another. When disaster strikes, no one thinks about someone else's political affiliation, or the color of their skin or their religion or whatever---they just ask "how can I help?" and that is awesome. Good always comes from bad, though sometimes when you're affected by the bad, it is hard to look down the road an imagine what good can come of such tragedy.

Pictures of truckers running through our towns with bales of hay is very cheerful.

Cold crazy wind, blech. Not liking this but we are supposed to get rain tomorrow.

My prayers continue. As I learn more information it reinforces how much our fate is controlled by other factors. Mother Nature controls our fate many times. Many of these areas have very limited access. So with the sudden change of wind direction what was once a 25 mile long fire became a 25 mile wide fire. And with the limited access avenues to escape the fire were sometimes not avalable. I know of some that were able to avoid the fire by going to the middle of growing wheat fields and literally letting the fire burn around them. That is how many of the cattle that survived made it. They were on the wheat fields. As some have stated it was fortunate there was good wheat this year as they would of never made it otherwise. In places with no growing wheat some were left with no options. At the time I felt I was safe in my decisions traveling home. If it would happen again I've already told my bosses I won't be home until the next day. Hindsight is always 20/20. My heart still aches for everyone involved. Rain and green grass are what everyone needs now.

Yes rain would help us alot here. New fresh beginnings will help. Since I dont have tv or radio I dont know what news is going on out there. But fb is full of sweet stories of the whole country rallying to help with hay for all the surviving cattle. The incoming numbers of cattle lost seem small but as the ranchers find hurt animals that must be put down sadly that number increases. All generations have come together to help and it is sweet to be a witness to the love care and sympathy.

I know of one ranch that lost over 500 head. Another 200 head in one group. I know of several smaller breeders who lost their entire herds. And have no grass either. Everything is still estimates but they were saying yesterday they felt strongly that over 7,000 hd of cattle died and no estimate on horses and other livestock. Again they won't have an accurate amount for maybe a month or more. It will be by far the worst ever recorded I feel when it is done. You hear the stories both sad and amazing. I have a coworker. It burned right down his fence line in two different pastures but besides a few fence posts and both corners on one pasture never burned any of his. It burned fast so in many cases posts are ok. Know of a few cases where the owners have found 1-2 that look perfectly ok among the burned ground and dead ones laying around. Not sure if they were somewhere else or what. There has been a big response. The issue is until it rains there is great danger for those areas where is didn't burn this time. Basically it is still a time bomb until it rains and the grass greens up.

Kim, Today we have seen a lot of trucks rolling up the interstate with huge loads of hay. I really wished we could stop the trucks and hug each driver.

Jay, I had heard that some livestock survived by getting into the green wheat fields (or by being pushed into those field by humans) and I'm grateful to hear about every survivor, and feel bad for all the ones that died. I cannot imagine how terrible the ranchers feel after having to shoot cattle that survived but were too badly injured to live.

I am worried enough rain will not fall for at least another couple of months, if it even falls then. It seems like for the last few weeks, the rain keeps missing the areas that need it most, and it is so troubling when that happens.

Dawn

Dawn there was over 600,000 acres alone in KS that burned. On the radio yesterday they said combining the acres from all of the fires in the TX Panhandle, NW OK and Panhandle and KS that there was over a million acres burned. And several sources are saying there has been over 7,500 cattle deaths confirmed and many haven't been accounted for. Judy's grandson took a load of hay up today. He took a picture of empty trucks leaving and loaded trucks heading that way on the highway.

SO sad to hear this. . . Agweb's ways to help: http://www.agweb.com/article/as-wildfires-continue-to-blaze-heres-how-you-can-help-naa-drovers-editors/

Jay, The numbers of both acreage burned and cattle lost are mind-boggling---and then there's all the miles and miles of fencing. Presumably the same is true of electric poles/power lines and other similar infrastructure. It is hard to comprehend how long it will take to rebuild. When you think about all the homes, barns, corrals, feeders, waterers, windmills, tractors, combines, etc.........all I can think of is just wow, how in the world does everyone recover from all that.

Yesterday I saw a report that said Clark County, KS, has had somewhere between 70% and 85% of the county's total acreage burn. I cannot even imagine that. I tried. I tried to figure out what it would be like if even 70% of our county burned, and my mind really can't comprehend the magnitude of it all.

Judy's grandson sounds like an angel to me. I appreciate so much what he did. People in agriculture have the biggest hearts in the world, don't they? Seeing all the trucks loaded with hay on the highways is so heart-warming.

There are many ways to help, and the needs are massive and help will be needed for so long. I am sure the ranchers there are just like the ones here (and this is one thing that worries me)----they will give everything they have to help someone else but are very independent and just won't ask for help for themselves. I hope these good, salt-of-the-earth ranching families do not hesitate to seek out aid for themselves this time. I know they won't like doing it, but these circumstances are so extraordinary and they need to be able to accept help from others in the same way they so freely always offer their help to others.4

Our friends here who ranch do tend to insure their herds. While no one likes paying those insurance premiums, it sure is good to have the insurance when disaster strikes. One of our friends here has had lightning strikes kill multiple head of cattle on his place in the last 3 - 5 years. Without insurance, the financial losses would have been hard to bear. I hope, hope, hope and pray the ranchers up there had their livestock insured.

Dawn

Dawn tried posting earlier and having some computer issues I think. I know many have already said they don't have any insurance on their cattle. I have only talked to one person(my supervisor) in the last week who carries insurance on their livestock, It is all due to the cost. The person that did had a fire come through 5-6 years ago. He carries high deductible insurance. Even that is high but affordable if you have enough numbers.

I know of an old rancher who lost his home, most of his livestock and out buildings and by mid morning Tuesday he was in town asking where he could help at. The people in this region are great at helping others even those they don't know. The fire moved so fast that there were many fence posts that didn't burn. Heard very few power poles were burnt. The wheats fields were a true blessing and allowed shelter to humans and livestock. The deep creeks with springs did also. Guess with the wind the fire jumped the creeks and moved on. In many cases down in the bottoms by the water everything was ok. Where there was trees understand the fire just jumped across the tops and moved on. I'm sure you have seen it. The tops were burnt and the bottoms look fine. There were many blessings. You often wonder how some survive. In the fire that I mentioned that my supervisor experienced they went down to the pasture and honked the cows with his feed pu down to a low place and held them there until the fire burnt by. He told his Dad that a cow had had a calf. After the fire went by they went out in the pasture and there laid a new calf. All they can figure is being still wet it saved it. She is a cow in their herd today. I know you have seen many things similar.

Jay, I was afraid you were going to say that. I know the insurance premiums are high, and the people I know who have the livestock insurance tend to have it because somewhere in the past they didn't have it, lost a lot of cattle, and wish they'd had it.

You know, this morning Tim and I were talking about that very thing you described with the old rancher who lost everything----because we know what farmers and ranchers are like and that's exactly how they are----and we were worried that they'd all be turning down the help they need while worrying about helping others instead of themselves. We see it with every disaster of any sort here. Every single person who lost things and needs help tries to direct the help to someone else the he or she believes need it more.

The people here are the same as the people there. Lots of folks in agriculture cannot afford health insurance, so it is very common here to hold a dinner/auction type fundraiser to raise money for someone when they're diagnosed with a serious health issue. Everyone just wants to help them however they can, and often the fundraiser is only the first step. You know, if it is someone with cattle or wheat or whatever, while they are away for treatment, other folks will get together and take care of their cattle, harvest the wheat, cut, rake and bale the hay....whatever it takes to keep the place going while the patient is being treated for cancer or heart disease or whatever. I've also seen people drive up DURING a fire, not even waiting until the fire is out, and hand money to the folks whose home has burned or is burning, or seen ranchers drop off big round bales of hay for the cattle to eat that night while we're still putting out the fire in the pasture or hay storage barn or whatever. Or, we'll drive past a fire scene the next day and several ranchers are there dropping off hay. It brings tears to my eyes every time. People really are so very good and kind and caring.

That's exciting news that the power poles may not have burned. I had wondered if the fire would blow through so fast that they wouldn't burn. We have to search for every bit of good news we can find, don't we, in times like this, and that is good news. Hooray too for every fence post that didn't burn. That is one advantage of wind-driven fires---the way they can move too fast to ignite certain things. Back in the year when wildfire swept right through the town of Ringgold, TX, in 15 or so minutes, which I believe was in January 2006, some people couldn't leave because as they were trying to leave their homes to get into their cars and drive away, they were met with a wall of fire in their own yards. They had to retreat indoors and assumed the house would burn down and take them with it. Nope. The fire rolled right on beside/over the occupied homes, only scorching them slightly as the folks sought shelter indoors. Sometimes fires do stuff like that. When it rolls over the tops of the trees in a wind-driven situation and hardly scorches the ground, we refer to that as fire walking over the tops of the trees. The crowns of the trees may burn as the fire walks over them, but the ground beneath sometimes looks untouched. I've also seen fire walk across the road. I always assume it jumped across in the air or blew across, but sometimes you see it literally walk across the road, and it is the strangest sight. The road doesn't really burn (well, maybe because our roads are mostly dirt and gravel, sometimes with a layer of oil/crushed stone over that) but the fire definitely walks over it.

I do always marvel at tales of survival like the ones you described. Once we had a horrific fire along the river bottom land behind our property and northward along the river. After the fire was out, I walked along the edges where the sandy bottom land meets the trees rising up out of slightly higher bottom land and I thought of all the wildlife that I know lives back there. I worried and fretted. Then I saw a little rabbit hole and I peeked inside to see if by some miracle there was a living rabbit in there. There was! It was all huddled up as deeply as it could be in the shallow hole, and the fire had gone right over. The rabbit seemed untouched, and I was just hoping it didn't suffer smoke inhalation. I was so excited to see it, and then I walked on and found another rabbit hole with another fairly young rabbit in it. To most gardeners, it was just a little cottontail rabbit that no one wants in their garden, but to me it was a sign that at least some of the wild things had survived. The next day we were back to check hot spots and such and I saw a lot of new animal tracks, which also was exciting. Looking at them, I cold tell that at the very least some coons, coyotes and deer had survived. For me, one of the hardest things at a wildfire is to see an animal run out ahead of the flames, on fire. You want to put out the animal with the hose, but you can't because you'd do so much harm to it when the cold water hit the hot skin that it probably wouldn't survive anyway. I just have to turn away and not watch when we see an animal in that state.

The stories of survival and resilience are heart-warming just as the stories of those who perished are heart-breaking. I still mourn for those lost, and for the family history that burned up in the fire. You know, it is easy to say it was just a house or just a barn or just a corral and that those things can be and will be rebuilt, but for families who have lived on and worked on the same land for multiple generations, it is their family history going up in flames too.

Today the Oklahoma Forestry Service has been posting the stories of various fire chiefs on their Facebook page. The first one they posted was Chief Starbuck. I had wondered why the one fire was named the Starbuck fire and didn't realize they had named it for the chief. The reason was that he was the first to see the fire and to report it, so they started calling it his fire....like perhaps telling the various fire units they paged out to report to Chief Starbuck at his fire at such-and-such location, and the name stuck. I'm thinking that after all the tragedy, he might be kinda wishing the fire didn't carry his name.

There are so many heroes out there in NW OK, TX, CO and KS this winter, and they fought heroically and did everything they could. With fires moving that fast, sometimes the fires just outrun the firefighters. I hope none of the firefighters feel like they failed. They did not fail. They did everything they could. They never quit. They never gave up. They never stopped trying, even when facing incredible wind speed and incredible rates of fire spread. I hope they know that they are heroes. Being a hero doesn't always mean you win the battle, just that you fight the war.\\

I am worried about tomorrow's wind speeds in some parts of northern and western OK. I do think it won't be as potentially bad as last week because the wind speeds, while high, will be a lot lower than last week and the humidity will be higher. It is too bad the rain that missed a lot of us also missed the burned areas as well. I was hoping enough rain would fall in some places to make a big difference, and it just didn't happen.

Dawn

Wind is blowing around 15 mph gusting over 20 now. Funny you mentioned the history that was lost. I read a post on FB about a man whose daughter I know well. He is in his 80's I think. He was almost caught in the fire and a passer by helped him. But what he was shook the most about was the house he was raised in was lost. No one lived in it but him and his siblings were all raised there and he had kept it standing because of the memories and it was lost. He was almost to cry they said when he talked about it.

If what I heard today is what started the one fire that hit Englewood and the Ashland area I feel for the person where it started. What I was told was a man had burned some round bales 3-4 days before. It was weeds he had baled and burned to get rid of the seeds I believe. He had checked the area several times and felt everything was burnt out. When the high winds hit and went to blowing the ashes off there must of been some smoldering embers(maybe not the correct term) and the flames fanned them and the fire started. The person I heard talking about it wasn't placing any blame. The man will have to live with it now. I'm always careful when I burn anything. I have to burn tumbleweeds several times most years. Just once so far this year. I have an old tank rim. The kind you poured cement in for the bottom. I roll it around and then when I'm done I will fill it with several inches of water and take the rake and stir it up good. I've seen the fires rekindle and it always worries me. After the fire on Judy's property two years ago the next day we were checking things and the wind had got back up and there was a flare up that I had to put out. Everyone will remain in my prayers. Judy's granddaughter from the El Reno area is coming out next weekend and bringing supplies to the volunteer fire depts to help replenish what they have used.

Jay, The wind coming up already worries me about tomorrow. I hope the containment lines hold!

That is heartbreaking about the history contained in the house, and I feel for that gentleman. We see it here a lot, though usually is is finally that one of the children finally will tear down the house they grew up in it....largely because it has been empty for decades and has become inhabited by wildlife and they just get to a point where the mess that the old home place has become is not worth putting up with any more, particularly if it is is fairly close proximity to the house in which they now live on the same land, and their spouse is tired of looking at the old eyesore of a house. Every time one of those little old houses is knocked down, I feel sorry for the children who grew up there and who are watching it come down....sure, they still have their memories, but seeing the house go is hard, and even more so if they are quite an advanced age and there's not many people left who share those memories.

I truly feel for anyone who might have been responsible for the fire. I know when those sorts of things happen here, folks accept it as a fact of life that these things sometimes happen when you live in the wide-open prairie/plains and do not assign blame. It could happen to anyone, and we all know that.

A lot of the ranchers who use bagged feed here will save up the feed sacks and eventually burn them because there's no way they're going to haul an endless supply of feed sacks to the transfer station and pay to dispose of them there. Someone in our fire disrict was burning some feed sacks on a fairly windy day in January and one sack floated up into the air and began hopping and skipping across a pasture, igniting the grass, which started a fire in our neighborhood that almost took out a couple of homes, some livestock (the kids' FAA project animals), some outbuildings, etc. We did lose one resident's shed filled with very expensive equipment, but thankfully the insurance company of the guy who was burning the feed sacks paid that resident for all their losses. The homeowners along that road battled the fire right along with us and we're lucky we were able to stop that one when we did. It certainly had the potential to be a lot worse than it was, and it was complicated by the fact that there were multiple fires that day, typing up various resources in various places.

Judy's granddaughter sounds like a fine young woman too. I know the folks are grateful for every prayer and every form of assistance they are receiving. I cannot imagine being in their shoes.

Dawn

Dawn just heard an update. They are saying around ten thousand head of cattle and horses have been verified dead and they expect the number to continue to rise over the next few weeks.

It's hard to imagine how hard it would be to recover from the impact after that kind of loss! The effort to aid those in need is very impressive, but I can't say I'm surprised! We have, here in Oklahoma and the surrounding states, the best people in the world when it comes to helping others in times of need!

My friends that farm and ranch near one of the big fires are some of the lucky ones. The fire burned right up to some of their wheat ground but didn't come near their grazing pastures. They didn't say, but knowing them, their trucks were loaded with hay or heavy equipment and headed out to help as soon as their properties were out immediate danger.

Jay, Wow, 10,000 is a lot. I hate to imagine how much higher these numbers might go. I know how much the people here love their horses and cows, and how devastating that would be so I can sort of imagine how the folks there who've lost so many animals must feel. This is so heartbreaking.

Bruce, Yes, Okies and other folks here in this part of the country are the best. Hay, feed and other donations are coming in from many other states as well, so I know that good people are found everywhere. We all are so blessed to live in a nation where people respond to tragedy with such open hearts and caring, and their actions back up their words.

This recovery is going to take years and years.

Dawn

There's still tons of hay traveling up the roadways to both TX and OK (and I hope KS as well, though I haven't seen news stories down here about that). Hooray for all the heroic Americans who are determined to come to the assistance of all the ranchers and their animals. Heroes live, drive, raise hay crops, bale hay, donate hay, deliver hay and walk among us every day, and they don't wear capes. We all know then when we see them though.

Dawn there is lots of hay moving to the KS area along with the other areas. I have heard owners who have had to put up to 100 head out of their suffering. As one said each time he had to pull the trigger it got harder and part of him went with the cow. Said by the end it was almost more than he could do. Many of the cows that have survived have burned udders and their calves can't suck. Know of several groups including one 4-H club that is taking in several. One place north of me about 45 miles have several of the huts they have used to raise dairy calves in. They were empty and they took in over 200 calves to keep until their owners can take them back. I know of feed companies that are donating the milk free. There are many more instances of people helping and most don't want any recognition. They just feel they need to help.

I will post a link to a facebook site for those that might want to read what others are doing to help with the calves affected by the fire. Just type in Rural Life Wife in a search.

There was a story on fb about a local group of young men not wanting any recognition but had to tell that when they took some hay to a rancher who was concerned that someone else might need some of it and wasn't sure he needed it all. The local men were so humbled by the man who had lost everything except some cattle that he still put his neighbors first.

Jay, I love the stories of people helping. It is so heart-warming. I agree that there's many more helpers than we'll ever hear about because so many of them absolutely do not wish to have any attention. I love them all, and they make me proud to call them our fellow citizens (or, non-citizens, as the case may be). Goodness comes in all shapes, sizes and colors. I did hear about the 4-H kids. Their families and 4-H leaders must be so very proud of them! I saw the story on FB or on a news website yesterday about a couple of young men who are not spending Spring Break on a beach somewhere---they are out there in the fire areas helping with fences. Common folks becoming uncommon heroes, all in a day's work. This makes my heart sing.

I'll have to type in that FB page name and read what's on it tonight. I look forward to it.

Kim, Isn't that just what we expect to see and hear? Farmers and ranchers are always the most kind and humble folks we meet, and they always put everyone else first before themselves. I hope this time they can fight that urge to send all the help off to someone else and accept some of the assistance themselves. The needs of everyone affected are so great right now, and it is a relief to see help flooding in.

Remember Paul Harvey's "So God Made A Farmer"? I simply love it, and in my mind, the ranchers are farmers too and it applies to them every bit as much . It has been on my mind ever since the fire disaster struck. If ever, ever, ever there was a population of people well-equipped to overcome a disaster of this magnitude, it is our ranchers and farmers and all the folks who work with them, rely upon them, do business with them and now, in their time of need, rush to assist them.

I'm going to find and link his speech because reading it always gives me hope because it reminds me that our nation's ag industry is still in fine hands.

Okay, I found it and linked it. Page down past the first few paragraphs of the story to find the text of the speech. Then, see if you can read it without getting a lump in your throat and tears in your eyes. I can't.

Dawn

"So God Made A Farmer" Speech

I love that one too dawn. Today I saw Cargill made a donation of fencing supplies. I like hearing these stories and news reports

Yes, that's a prize, Dawn.

Kim, I hope Cargill made a HUGE donation of fencing supplies.

Nancy, I do love it. Someday I'm going to paint it on the wall of our house or something. (It would have to be a big wall, lol!)

My dad's dad was a farmer in the early 1930s and through the Dust Bowl years. He worked hard, never had anything, and died very young, long, long before I was born. My mom's dad was a farmer and a rancher for a long time, and then a lifelong gardener thereafter.

I never was a farmer, but I feel like I have farming in my blood anyway. My best childhood memories are from the times I spent on my grandparents' sheep ranch when I was very small---maybe 5, 6 and 7. I am surprised I have so many memories from a time when I was so young. I was devastated when they sold the ranch and moved to town when I was maybe 7 or 8 years old, even though it was a very small town and they still had a garden, chickens and fruit trees. I always knew in my heart I'd end up living in the country someday, even though I didn't marry a farmer. (Tim says he married a tomato farmer!) It just took us a while to get here after city living got old. Since moving here, even though we don't have livestock, I've learned how to track them down when they escape, get them back into their pastures without being trampled by them in the process, and I've learned how to haul hay and stack it in a barn. I've developed a huge appreciation for cattle dogs, who surely are some of the smartest, most trainable dogs around. Needless to say, I love my farming and ranching neighbors. I think all of us gardeners have a bit of the farmer in us too.

If there is such a thing as reincarnation, I want to come back as a farmer in my next life.

Dawn