HOT! DRY! FIRE!

Here's the latest on the fire from the local newspaper: Fortunately for us, all we are currently dealing with is the smoke.


Story available at http://www.billingsgazette.net/articles/2006/08/31/news/state/21-fire.txt
Published on Thursday, August 31, 2006.Last modified on 8/31/2006 at 1:05 am
Towns of Fishtail, Nye under evacuation order
By The Gazette Staff
Hundreds of residents in Stillwater and Sweet Grass counties have evacuated their homes as the Derby fire exploded to an estimated 80,000 acres.High temperatures, low humidity and shifting wind fueled a rapid spread to the east Wednesday afternoon and evening, said fire information officer Pat Cross. That means the fire that began 20 miles south of Big Timber doubled in size on Tuesday and again Wednesday.On Wednesday night, flames were burning to the south of Interstate 90 as far east as Reed Point, while the southeastern flank marched toward communities in the Absarokee area."A lot of the expansion has happened since the afternoon," Cross said. "It burned through most of the night (Tuesday) night, and there's no reason to believe it's not going to do that again (Wednesday night)."A home and two outbuildings were lost on West Bridger Creek Road in Sweet Grass County, said Kerry O'Connell, the county's Disaster and Emergency Services coordinator. She could not provide addresses, and further details were unavailable.Officials in both counties say it's likely that further losses will be discovered.A Type 1 Incident Management Team is expected to begin coordinating suppression efforts this morning.By 11 p.m. Wednesday, emergency officials estimated that evacuation orders had been delivered to more than 150 homes in Sweet Grass County and as many as 300 homes in Stillwater County, including the towns of Nye and Fishtail. Many other homes fell under alerts to be ready to evacuate."The winds are just awesome," O'Connell said. "It's hard to keep up when it goes this fast."Late Wednesday, the fire had jumped the Stillwater River in the vicinity of Midnight Canyon in Stillwater County and had involved the Grove Creek area south of Absarokee and north of Fishtail."We've got high winds blowing from the northwest and moving a 5-mile line of fire to the southeast," Ken Mesch, the Stillwater County DES coordinator, said at 11 p.m. "People are coming into our evacuation center saying they left just as fire surrounded their homes. At this point, I'd say it's very likely (structures were lost) ... but we have no confirmed reports."Tammy Milliken, who was assisting the county's public-information officer, said everything west and south of Absarokee, all the way to and including the Stillwater Mine, was under evacuation.The areas under evacuation in Stillwater County are Meyers Creek Road, Curry Flat Lane, Limestone Road, Cow Face Road, Stockade Road, Spring Creek Road, Stillwater River Road to Johnson Bridge on the east, the town of Nye, the Fishtail area and Grove Creek. Evacuees can check in at the county fairgrounds; livestock may also be brought there.Karen Tyra, the public-information officer for Stillwater County, said the county had also initiated pre-evacuation alerts for areas to the west of Columbus up to I-90. Areas under evacuation alert are Absarokee, Huntley Butte Road, Countryman Creek Estates, Yellowstone River Ranch Estates, Whistle Creek Road, Brumfield Road, Pine Hill Road, Jack Stone Road and Owl Canyon Road.Because the emergency notification system works via land lines, anyone who has received the message is encouraged to contact neighbors who rely solely on cell phones.Areas under evacuation in Sweet Grass County are Hump Creek Road, Mysse Road, Bridger Creek Frontage Road, Stockade Road, Main Bridger Creek Road to I-90 from the intersection with West Bridger Creek, Work Creek, Lower Deer Creek and West Bridger Creek. Later additions covered Pine Hills Road, Dillon Gulch Trail and Homestead Lane.The Stillwater Mining Co. canceled the Wednesday night shift at the Stillwater Mine near Nye because of concerns about travel conditions. The area was also included in a mandatory evacuation order.About 200 employees will be affected. Supervisors will decide at 3:30 a.m. today whether to call off the day shift. Employees scheduled to work today may call 406-322-8777 after 3:30 a.m. to find out whether to report to work.Absarokee schools were canceled today because of concerns about the fire's proximity, said David Huether, superintendent of schools. A girls varsity volleyball match against Red Lodge High School was also canceled. Schools were expected to resume classes Friday.The fire camp used as a base of operations near the I-90 Bridger Creek exit was partially evacuated at 4 p.m. because of encroaching flames, Cross said. Thirty firefighters remained behind to protect four to five houses, Cross said. Other personnel were allowed to return by 9 p.m.I-90 was closed between Livingston and Columbus from 3 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. because of poor visibility. Transportation officials were to monitor the road throughout the night.Despite message boards in Billings and Bozeman, vehicles collected at interchanges in both Livingston and Columbus before turning back or searching for an alternate route, said Jim Stevenson, maintenance chief for the Montana Department of Transportation.Helicopters dropped water on the fire throughout the day Wednesday, and firefighters lit a large backfire on a heavily timbered ridge near Greycliff to prevent the fire from crossing the interstate.Tuesday night was long and scary as winds continually switched direction, pushing the fire randomly. Embers blew across defensive lines and spotted in heavy timber, Incident Commander Glen McNitt told a group of about 100 people at a public meeting in Big Timber on Wednesday morning."It became a plume fire that makes its own weather," McNitt said. "It created its own winds. It even created its own lightning. There was lightning in the plume last night."Fire rolled through canyons, blackening a mile an hour."Considering what we've been facing, it's burning so intense, it's more than most of us have seen in a long, long time, if ever," he said.Firefighters are facing the lowest fuel-moisture levels on record, McNitt said."Kiln-dried lumber has a 15 to 16 percent fuel moisture. Fuels here are down to 8 percent," he said. "They are twice as dry as what you get from a lumber yard."Some residents in the evacuation or pre-evacuation zones stayed put Tuesday and were hoping to hold out through today, which could be the most dangerous day of the fire."We're not going to take you out in handcuffs," Sweet Grass County Undersheriff Jerry Mahlum told those gathered for the public meeting at the Congregational Church. "We are going to ask you to sign a waiver that you've been warned and to let us know the next-of-kin you want notified."The Red Cross was supervising a shelter in the Big Timber Civic Center.More than 400 people were fighting the blaze under the direction of a Type 2 incident management team. Resources assigned include eight bulldozers, 24 fire engines and two helicopters. Two Type 1 Hot Shot crews were also dedicated to suppression efforts.For more information on the Derby fire, go to www.inciweb.org or call 406-932-3113. For local information on the evacuation status, call 322-8051 or go to Disaster and Emergency Services at www.co.stillwater.mt.us.Wednesday's warm temperatures and wind also kicked up the Big Creek fire near Livingston.The fire has burned 12,600 acres, according to the Livingston Ranger District of the Gallatin National forest.A helicopter has been dropping water on hot spots.Two single-engine air tankers were also to drop retardant on the fire's northern perimeter.A public information meeting about the Big Creek and Passage Falls fires will be tonight at 7 at Arrowhead School.Gazette reporters Lorna Thackeray and Lance Benzel contributed to this report. Copyright © The Billings Gazette, a division of Lee Enterprises.

It's just not fair!!!

Okay so here I am in beautiful Montana except that there has been no rain and everything is drying up so you would think that it would be impossible to gather chokecherries as dry as it is. But no, the bushes are loaded and they are a lovely dark purple so I decided to gather some and make some jelly. I've never tried that before but I found a recipe and it's easy enough so I have my first batch of jelly cooling and the berries for a 2nd batch are simmering on the stove.

Yeah fun - great way to spend a Friday afternoon huh? But the highlight of the weekend is actually going to start at 4:15 because that's when John gets home and guess what we get to do then? You'd think we'd get to go out and enjoy the hills, ride the horses, go for a drive or something but no... we get to unload 4.28 tons of grass hay - 89 bails about 96 lbs per bail into the barn. Then tomorrow morning, we get to go into Red Lodge, get another 4 tons and get that into the barn too. So there goes another weekend. :-(

The pasture is so dry that, unlike last year when we were able to leave them on the pasture until mid-October and just kind of forget about them, we have been supplementing their feed since mid-July and within a couple of weeks, will have to start feeding them twice a day.

So, as I finished my first batch of jelly, I decided to give Alex's human a shout and see if she wants me to bring her any. I had taken her a few jars in 2004 but hadn't heard if she liked it or not. She answers the phone on the first ring and where is she - at home slaving away? at home sleeping after a night of working? doing laundry? Not - none of the above, she is at the beach near Seaside having a nice outing with the people from the day care center. She is actually getting to enjoy the gorgeous weather and doing what people are supposed to do on a weekend. Kick back and relax.

Lately they have been running a commercial about Montana on the tv. It shows people driving around with blinders on (all Montanan's of course) Showing just how we are - so busy with our daily lives that we aren't taking time to enjoy the beauty of this state - the reason we really moved up here. Somehow, I have to get my priorities straight - declutter my life of all this stuff that means absolutely nothing and find more time to escape to the outside world and enjoy life.

So here I go, back up to clean the kitchen and get ready to get outside and relax a bit before I turn into slave labor. Have a wonderful weekend.

Monday Monday

Well, today, I’m sitting at my desk – kind of working, kind of making lists and thinking about what I’m forgetting. Oh and I am sitting here with a coat on and my toes are freezing cause it’s barely 55 degrees outside at 11:30 a.m. (And I do have shoes on)

I cannot believe that a week from today, we’ll be in Arizona – the first half of this year has disappeared way too quickly and I am in no way, shape or form ready to head to the heat of AZ. Tonight, we have to get John ready to head to Sudbury, Canada on business. He’ll leave here at 4:00 tomorrow morning and won’t get back home until around midnight on Thursday. The good news is since he’ll be gone, I will have time to focus on getting ready to go. The bad news is he’ll be gone and I won’t get any sleep and won’t have his help trying to remember all the stuff we need for camping. Good thing I have my old pink book with my camping lists in.

I see on weatherchannel.com that there is a 60% chance of rain in Payson next Monday. Guess we’d better think about rain jackets. Or maybe if I don’t take one, it’ll be more likely to rain.

I look at the big pile of stuff in the garage ready to be packed and it totally amazes me. We used to pack up two kids, two dogs and all our stuff in our tiny little Toyota pickup and go camping for a week or 2. I’m trying to mend our old wood camp kitchen so we can use it 1 more time. – maybe by the end of next week, we’ll be ready to retire it to the wood heap – if it actually makes it through the trip. I pulled out the huge ammo box that we always used to carry food in. I have started packing it but am thinking I’ll also pick up a couple of cardboard boxes cause we can toss them at the end of the week and won’t have to bring them back home with us.

The tent we bought is twice as big as the old one we had. Not even sure what I ended up doing with that one when we started doing the backpack thing and camping in a small tent. Jules has plans to put her little tent inside my big one so we’ll see how that works out – definitely plenty of room for that.

We are taking the old fold out camping table – it’s 4 little fold out seats are getting kind of wobbly – I think we’ve had that since at least ‘76. Not sure if either of the kids want it so it might find it’s way into the garbage bin at the end of the week also. Guess it’s time to retire some of this old camping gear.

Got to get busy and get more lists made and tomorrow head into billings so I can start marking things off the list. One list for food, one list for stuff for the horses, one for camping things to take, one list for non-camping stuff, one list of where we are staying down and back, one list of things to do around here before I leave so we don’t come back to a mess, hmmm – maybe I need to make a list just so I can keep track of all the other lists.

Ready or not, Friday will be here before I turn around. I’ll see everyone in AZ pretty soon. I do have Yahtzee and a whole mess of extra score sheets.

May 3

Today's G'ma V's birthday. She would have been 75 years old. But she lived life with lots of energy and so her body was totally used up before she reached that 3/4 of a century mark.

I love this saying: "Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and proclaiming, "Wow, what a ride!!!"

G'ma V didn't know the meaning of vegging. She was always wanting to make sure everyone else was taken care of. I remember the last time she was here, she practically drove me crazy because if I moved, she had to jump up and follow me - upstairs and downstairs.

The last time she was here was almost 3 years ago - we took her to Yellowstone one weekend and Glacier the next. She loved both places and really wanted to come back up. But she got busy getting her house ready for sale in 2004 and then last year was to sick to make the trip. Wish we would have spent more time at Glacier instead just a quick 3 day weekend. Above is a picture of JW & G'ma V at Glacier Lodge. We stopped by there to eat lunch, then drove the Going to the Sun Road to spend the night near West Glacier.

The other picture is the Weeping Wall. (We drove by it several times and G'ma V kept calling it the Wailing Wall).


So happy birthday G'ma V - we're thinking of you and thanks for being you.

Happy Mother's Day

Nope, I haven't lost it yet - just wanted to share a little experience I had this week. Let me first go back about 2 years when G'ma V was up visiting. At that time, she asked J if there was anything of hers that he wanted. He replied that he would like the "desk". The desk is an old one that she used for many years in her office and later bought from the county to put in her home. That day, it was decided that J's name would go on the desk.

In March when I drove to AZ, I stopped by his sister's to pick up the desk and bring it home. Then I moved my rolltop desk out of the way and replaced it with a nice flat top desk that the monitor would fit on so much nicer. The desk is wonderful and we are very happy to have it.

Back in 1983, I wanted a rolltop desk more than anything else I could think of so when I found this one, we bought it and brought it home. Over the past 23 years, we have moved it from house to house and state to state with J doing a lot of complaining about the desk. But that was "my desk" and I "loved" it. It's extremely heavy and with the new desk, I knew it was not something we needed any longer. We talked about what to do with it. I had asked my children and neither of them were interested in it - can't blame them for that as it is totally impractical to use with a computer.

For the past several months, we have been talking about what to do with this desk. Monday morning, when I sat down to my computer, a thought came to me (or was that a prompting) to put an ad in the Thrifty Nickel. Of course, you are thinking, why not sell the desk. But that's not what I decided to do. I decided that I would put it in the giveaway section. I typed up a quick little ad (which are free by the way) saying Free for pickup - rolltop desk, we'll help you load. Then I stressed for 3 days whether anyone would be willing to come way out here even for something free and if no one did, what was I going to do with this thing.

Yesterday morning, I got a call from a man who asked if his parents (who live 16 miles from us) could come and pick up the desk. He told me that his mother has always wanted one. I told him that would be fine - if they could come between 4:30 and 5:00 yesterday afternoon as that is the only time my husband would be at home.

At 4:00 a lady called and said, "My son told me to come to your house and pick up a desk so I wanted directions how to get there". I told her and she said they would be here on time.

J got home from work and we moved the desk out of the house so it would be easy to load up. Guess I should say easier because I still wasn't sure how we were going to get that desk in the back of a pickup and I had a feeling the people coming to pick it up were even older than us so probably wouldn't be much help.

At 4:35, a blue dodge pulled into the drive way and a gentleman about 75 or so got out. Followed by his wife - much the same age and very tiny. She glanced over, saw the desk and the look on her face was priceless. She kept saying things like "oh, it's so beautiful", "I've always wanted a rolltop desk", "it will be so treasured by our family", "you're just going to give it away". Since J has had to move the thing so often, it didn't take long for us to get it loaded up. The gentleman talked to John for a little while about growing up in this area. Then the lady gave me a big hug and said "God bless you". All I could think of to say was "He surely has." and then added "Happy Mother's day from your son".