Picked up Erin yesterday. She was a bit pissy at first, but then she realized that it hasn’t worked before and wouldn’t work this time. She became her fun self again shortly. I think she is so used to ruling the roost at the Hern household that she finds it difficult to switch it off when she is picked up.

Didn’t get to see the birds. I forgot when we were heading home and by the time I remembered, I had just woke up from my nap.

Fire was not an issue yesterday. Erin and I went for ice cream around 7 in the evening and had a great time driving through Pecos and seeing all the police, forest service, and fire units in town. She kept pointing at the different vehicle saying “look Pake!” She enjoys riding in the front seat and I may have Nina sit in the back when we go to the bank this morning.

Not much else to say right now. Later.

Fire Video

It’s nothing big or anything, but I’m going to try to post something every day of the month of June. It may not be that easy since I’ll be on the road for some of this time, but I’ll give it my best shot.

Poker again, at Curt’s this time, but I’m not planning on attending. No limit Texas Hold-Em is not my favorite game. Sorry Curt.

Fire update

Yesterday evening I walked to the back of my property and noticed that the fire appears to have left the river and was moving due east and was several miles closer. The distance is still far enough that I’m not worried about anything happening to us. While I haven’t had a chance to see the news yet, I’ve heard from the forest service people that stopped here that progress has been made. This morning I can’t see a source plume of smoke, but the wind is stronger than yesterday, still reasonable though. Rain is predicted for today, but I doubt it will happen. It’s at 6200 acres right now.

Erin

We’ll pick up Erin today and take her to the cliffs to watch the birds. Cliff swallows have hundreds of nests on a cliff overlooking the Pecos River not to far from here.The young are scheduled to leave the nests about now and watching them has always been a favorite spring thing for me. I hope Erin feels the same. Have a great Sunday everyone.

Peace

As I look out my doors and windows this morning, I feel like the clouds have descended over us and cut our visibility to almost nothing. Sadly it’s not low hanging clouds but smoke from 2 nearby fires. The closest is around 20 miles from us with the other around 50 miles from us.

The closest fire is the Tres Lagunas fire, named after a high-end housing sub-division north of us, and it has exceeded 2500 acres. The fire is being left unchecked because the winds have maintained a 49 m.p.h. average, keeping fire fighting aircraft from taking to the air to fight this fire.

The fire is in a remote area and many of the areas now burning have not seen a human since the days when the Apache, Navajo, and Hopi hunted this area. In the center of this fire is the Pecos River and the fire follows the river as the easiest route and spreads north and south from the river. My home and business is on the Pecos River and I straddle the river. I’m not worried about the fire reaching us, but if it does I’ve prepared for this over the last few years.

Henry, my outside employee, has been “firescaping” our property over the last few years. We’ve started near the building and parking lot and removed shrubs that were dying and trimmed up all the trees above the 4 foot mark. After securing the business area, Henry has been moving toward the river as time and money allowed and half of my property and all of my buildings have been made safe.

Today the winds have subsided and the planes and choppers will fly. The firefighters that have been working on saving structures will abandon them and move into the forest and work in conjunction with the air support and start to contain the fire. Rain is predicted, but not expected by me, for Sunday and IF that happens it will help.

Have a great weekend everyone! Peace.