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.