fire on the mountain

"Fire on the mountain."

I like the Grateful Dead song well enough.

However, I don't like to hear those words coming out of some random cowboy's mouth as he is pulling up into my driveway honking his horn, especially when those words are accompanied by, "right on the other side of that mountain right behind your house."  Oh yeah, and as the wind is blowing the fire towards us.  And when I am the only grownup on the ranch.

Yeah, not so fun.

I think that the cowboy dude did a good job of getting me all freaked out.

My kids picked it up, asking me why I was talking so fast. 

It wasn't right on the other side of the mountain, which I later found out; it was a few miles away.

The kids had seen the lightning strike about 1/2 hour earlier.

It had done it. 

Weston and his parents were in town (not together though) and at first I couldn't get a hold of any of them.  But I finally got Weston and he left right away.  It took him about 45 minutes to get home, and then about 5 to change, gather his shovel, some water bottles and granola bars in his backpack, the cell phone and then head out on his 4-wheeler.  Out towards the fire.  Out by himself.  I wasn't too crazy about his being alone, but I at least knew that he had the cell phone and a full tank of gas.

He called me from the top.  

"I'm at ground zero..." "....I'm the only one here."

I talked to Weston a little later and he said that as he was talking to me he was watching a big black bear watching the fire.  And that he had found a long last item of ours: COOKIE the milk cow!!   We have been worried about her for months because she was lost up in the forest on the mountain with a halter on (we were afraid that the halter would get caught on something).  She was in good health (and hopefully pregnant) and hanging out with a small group of cows working their way back home.

I told him to take some pictures.

I was wanting one of the bear, but it had already bolted.

And yes, Weston has something in his mouth; it's a weed or something.

While he was up there the wind picked up and changed direction.  The trail that he drove up on caught on fire.  He called me right then and told me that the fire had cut him off and I got, um,  a little nervous and advised him at what he should do.  He laughed at my worry.  I didn't find that funny.  

He just had to take an alternate route, 20 miles longer. 

Storm clouds are a double edged sword: sometimes bringing needed rain, but sometimes wicked lightning.

A few hours after the fire started, some storm clouds passed by and dropped off some wonderful pouring rain for about 3 minutes.

Then it stopped.  

It wasn't enough.

They still needed the helicopters.  And buckets and buckets of water.

It's 11:00 p.m. now and there are 3 separate fires up there now.  They are still pretty far away, but we can see the flames on the ridge line and it looks a lot closer than it really is.  Which is freaky, yet pretty.  

Three firefighters got dropped into where the fire is by either plane or helicopter a little while ago.  

I'm glad that my husband is finally safely back at home (watching Superman). 

And, by the way, I am reconsidering my favorite season of the year.  A few  years ago I would've said, "Summer, no doubt," but with all these rattlesnakes and fires (remember this fire?)... I must say that I am beginning to feel a bit differently about Summer.
Sad, but true.

The Verdict On Scotty

It took me long enough to post this, but here it is:

Yes, I felt strongly about NOT renting to Scotty at the time I wrote the last post. I was all "fired up" and afraid of what might happen next with him. However, the decision was not up to me but to Weston.

Although I was so mad, and questioned Scotty's intelligence a few times, a line from the song "How Can I Be" kept popping into my head. It was a line referring to Jesus Christ that simply says, "How can I be like Him?" Why did that just pop in my head and settle itself right down in my brain for me to repeat over and over? I hadn't even heard it for a while. It helped me realize that I needed to chill out and be kind to him. I was being very un-Christ-like in my thoughts and in some of my words and actions.

Weston on the other hand remained completely calm and was nice to Scotty and his wife the entire time. When we went back to the house and were talking about everything that had happened, Weston said that his gut feeling was to "give the guy a second chance."

So, the verdict is: He rents.

Weston was the Christ-like one in this situation, forgiving immediately and turning the other cheek, so to speak. It took me a couple of days to soften and feel the same way, but I did soften and am glad now that they are living in the house.

They look so happy and have been working so hard to fix things up. They had the bushes out and the burn spots painted within a few days after the fire. Just the one window needs to be fixed (the paint was a shade off so he will paint that whole side of the house).

Weston told Scotty he could rent but there were to be no more burning weeds, or ANYTHING for that matter. Scotty's reply: "Don't worry. I won't be burning a fire for the rest of my life!"

"Run, Scotty, Run!"

I love summers here on the ranch. It is so fun to be outside doing a million different things. It's great. In fact, I can only think of 2 things that I don't love about summer here, both of which can be deadly: rattlesnakes and wildfires. We are right in the heart of the country of both.

Today on my way home as I was passing the rental house, I noticed a truck parked out front and figured it was Scotty, who just paid his deposit 2 days ago to rent the house. As I got closer I noticed that he was swatting something on the ground, and figured it was a bee or something. His truck was in the way and I couldn't tell what it was until I saw a small fire on the other side of the truck. I quickly turned into the driveway, threw the car in park and jumped out as fast as I could, yelling to the kids to stay in the car.

It was around 5 p.m., which is the hottest time of the day in Idaho; it was like 95 degrees and there was a very slight breeze. I didn't think to ask Scottie and his wife how it started, I just ran as fast as I could in my flip flops (we were on our way home from the pool) and grabbed a bucket that was on the ground and headed for the spigot. Scotty was just kind of walking around as if nothing was on fire, dinking around with his shovel a bit and repeated a few times, "I got it. I got it." I have lived around here long enough to know that in dry country when a fire starts it gets bad fast. I thought Scotty knew that too since he grew up here.

Well, Scotty's wife and I were bucketing and stomping (in flip flops remember) and Scotty was doing things here and there with his shovel. I was frantic. We were surrounded by tall dead skeleton (is that redundant?) weed which is great fuel for a fire. The wind was picking up and the fire was spreading pretty fast. The whole ranch was directly downwind of the rental house and I knew that it wouldn't take long before things got really out of control, the way the wind was blowing and how everything was so dry.

I looked at Scotty as I was running. He was obviously still not seeing the danger. I yelled at the top of my lungs, "Run, Scotty, RUN!" I yelled this about every 2 minutes or so because the man was not feeling any motivation. He was moving VERY slowly. The whole time I was mumbling under my breath, "What is he thinking? Idiot!" Not very nice, I know, but that is what I was thinking.

The fire had spread more and was almost to the wheels of his truck. "Move your truck, Scotty!" I yelled twice. He moved it maybe 10 feet DOWNWIND of the fire in the dead weeds. DUH! A minute later the fire was once again to the wheels and I yelled again, "MOVE YOUR TRUCK!" I could just picture it blowing up and making an even bigger fire. So he moved it. Maybe about 10 feet farther still downwind of the fire. Hello! The fire was now starting to catch onto the juniper bushes right up against the house creating a lot of smoke. It was also right at Scotty's truck. AGAIN! So I dropped the bucket and ran over to it, jumped in it, cranked the key, it cut off. I cranked it again, revved it, and pulled it all the way on to the road (it had very little brakes so I almost hit the fence). I moved our car back too (my kids were all scared). I tried calling 911 and my neighbor on my cell phone as I was running back over but couldn't get reception.

The smoke was now billowing up against the siding on the house. It was totally out of our hands. I yelled to Scotty and his wife, "I'm going for help!" By the time I got back to the car there was a huge plume of smoke and I could barely see where to go. I almost hit the fence backing up.

I raced the mile and a half down the dirt road saying aloud, "IDIOT! WHAT WAS HE THINKING!?"

Luckily Weston, Ammon, and Alma were here and they grabbed some hoses and headed back over there. I called 911, and 2 of our neighbors who are volunteer firemen.

By the time I got back to the house, about 15 minutes later, the fire was pretty much out, thanks to all the helpers and equipment.

I went over to Scotty's wife who was sitting on the front step looking exhausted. I asked her, "are you okay?" She said she was and then went on to tell me how the fire started. Scotty was "burning some weeds around the house and the wind came out of nowhere and it got away from us."

Are you kidding me!? Everything was against them burning weeds around the house. It was 95 degrees, super dry, slight breeze, acres of dry weeds around them, not their house, no permission to burn, etc. They hadn't even moved in, why did they care so much about the weeds (that make up the whole yard) next to the house? He had already burnt the backyard, put that out when it "got away from him" and then thought he'd go for the front. Hmmm.

So now the question is: Should we still rent it to them? Should we give Scotty a second chance? Weston hasn't decided yet. I know what I would do. What would you do?

A couple pictures of the damage:


When we got back, Ammon felt inspired to write this on the sidewalk:

Just in case you can't make out the writing it says, "We are ranchers, church goers, family memebers, lovers, creative memory consultants (kind of random, but...cool, that's for you Natalie, unless Ammon hasn't told me of his new job), players, obstacle course designers...and now...FIRE FIGHTERS"

{(So....did he rent?  Go here to find out.)}