So far, so good. They are letting evacuated people in our subdivision back in on a limited basis. Of, course, bumb ass me and neighbor Chuck never left. We stayed put and manned the roof sprinklers, and kept the well pumps going. We have an emergency well system set up on our hill for just such emergencies. Hydrants run behind the houses in the easements and we have a large hose system set up so people can connect regular hoses and run them to their houses, roofs, etc.

As of right now, 5 homes have burned, 10 outbuildings, and about 10,500 acres of forest. The fire is the number 1 priority fire in the U.S. right now because of so many homes in its path....over 1500 homes are evacuated right now.

Even through this good old Bob can come up with some humor. On Wednesday they sent up fire trucks to each street that borders the forest, mainly for fire protection. We're two homes in from the national forest border. Well, down our street comes "Big Bertha", which means that this truck is one of those huge fire trucks you see at airports for crash fires.....about 4 nozzels that swivel around and a shielded seat up on top where some sucker sits and plays with the water cannons.

We have had a huge hornet/wasp problem this year out here and I had just killed off a huge (basketball size) nest that was built under the eaves at the peak of our roof. I saw the truck lumber up....looked at the hornet nest,,,,and figured what the hell. Maybe they'd like some practice. I asked if they would shoot the thing down and they were more than willing to try it. Out jumps this girl, climbs up in the seat, swivels around, aims one hose at the thing, starts the pumps, and gives about a 3 second blast with the cannon.

Hornet nest is vaporized into about 6 trillion little bitty pieces. I figured the truck was about 85 feet from the nest. Good water pressure and damn good aim by that girl.

Anyway, slowly people are started to move back. The fire is nowhere contained, but they have steered it away from Lolo. Ah, just another summer under the Burning Big Sky.

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glad it appears to be moving away from your homes. i hope they send you a bill for pest control. 😉

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Very eerie here. Dead still air and we have large chuncks of ash falling in our yards. The wind shifted this morning and now it's coming directly from the west and we are getting large chunks of embers falling in our yards.....strips of charred bark, charred Lodge Pole Pine pine cones, and pine needles that are charred and blackend. All the people around here that are back, which isn't many, are just standing out on the street looking skyward wondering what the hell is going to happen.

The smoke hanging in the valley is just awful...considered very hazordous to those with COPD, Asthma, and other breathing problems.

We have about 900 yards between us (green area) and the Eastern edge of the fire. It is just creeping along at it's own pace. All the Big Bertha's are in place and spraying water out into the tinder dry grasses, while all the roof sprinklers are going full blast.

We're suppossed to get rain and thunderstorms this evening. Hopefully we get the rain and not the lightning. Chuck and I are staying until we can't take the heat (literally) any longer. Until then, we sit and watch and wait.

Bob

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we got a little and very much needed rain last Thursday. I thought of you and wished you would have gotten it instead.

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