Here We Go Again....

....only earlier. Yes, it is prime fire season in Colorado again. If you'll remember, I wrote about the fire on Fort Carson last April and the refugee horses that ended up being kept company by the ponies. That one was close to 10,000 acres, took a number of days to battle, and remained on Army property. Not too long after that was a fire in the mountains behind Pikes Peak that was around 6000 acres. That was the one that woke me up because we were able to sleep with windows open then and the smoke filled the Upper Arkansas River Valley. It's a strange feeling to wake at 2am and realize the reason is because of the strong scent of smoke, but I did a quick run around and figured out pretty fast where it was coming from. After that it was pretty quiet.

This season has started early, and with a bang. There's been a number of little fires (500 acres, or less), and a few large ones. It was just 2 weeks ago that the plant was threatened by a 6500 acre fire, again on Fort Carson, but that one left the property. It came within about a half mile of both the Ray Nixon and Front Range power plants. That was fun! I got a few pictures, but they didn't turn out to well.
(Nixon shrouded in smoke..the trees in the foreground are part of what burned last April)

Let us not forget about the other parts of the state. The Denver Metro area has had a few fires that have threatened homes, the mountains have had some small blazes, and 900 acre fire occurred about 30 miles East of Pueblo last weekend. It's a little frightening because we are in a "moderate" drought. One millisecond of someone not paying attention and a whole bunch of property is up in smoke.

And now today we have another fire in a residential area in the suburbs of Colorado Springs. Apparently a number of homes and a (large) high school are threatened. The stupid thing is the pictures on the news. We can see the smoke here at the house, so we know it's burning pretty well, but idiot people are standing at what looks like about 5-10 feet away from the flames just watching what's going on! I mean BUNCHES of people! With little kids! What the heck??

Our little community is one that is constantly being told to be prepared, and to mitigate the easements and empty properties near the homes. The reason being we live in what is called a desert grassland, and the wind is always prevalent. One little spark and we could have a whole heap of homes gone. So we mitigate our easement and the empty lot next to us in a rather fun way. Who needs a lawn mower when you have 4-wheeler?? Crunch down the big weeds and keep the grasses close to the ground. Very fun! I don't really know how effective it is, but I hope to never find out.

(pretty crunched down already)
(running over a bigger plant)

(FUN!!!)

(starting the lot across the street)

The whole point of this particular topic is to let everyone know to expect more from us this summer. It is so dry, and the wind has even come earlier this year, it's an expected thing to see and smell a lot of smoke this summer. Don't forget that fires are extremely good for the land and most of the native plants, but when it's so close to homes....yeah, it's a bit scary. Stay safe, everyone!