With evening G & Ts
we will stare
across the creek
at black hills,
white ash remains
cut by cowtrails—
pink phos-chek trim
between blond dry feed
until it rains
gray,
until it rains
green.
We map the burn,
watch the weather,
hope for ground soft-enough
to drive steel posts
for five barbed strands
of Red Brand
because good fences
make better neighbors
for a long time.
Posted in Photographs, Poems 2019, Ranch Journal
Tagged "Creek Fire", fences, photography, poetry
Ashes, white on black
slopes, drought-dead Blue Oaks, final
portraits of a fire.
Posted in Haiku 2019, Photographs, Poems 2019, Ranch Journal
Tagged "Creek Fire", photography, poetry
It’s black early yet,
few lanterns glowing
across the quiet canyon,
drought-killed Blue Oaks:
roots simmering
in the rock-hard ground.
The wind will turn
the burnt to gray
until the rains
bring a fresh green
start—nothing
we can change.
Posted in Photographs, Poems 2019, Ranch Journal
Tagged "Creek Fire", CalFire, photography, poetry
It could have been several thousand acres of fences and feed. Robbin, Bob and I thank the entire CalFire crew for their professionalism, the pilots for their impressive air support, the dozer operators cutting breaks and blading existing tracks in the dark for what seemed to be well-over a dozen 4×4 engines, the water tenders and the often-overlooked hand crews with boots that still remain on our otherwise inaccessible ground. It was impressive. Thank you all!
Click photos to enlarge.
Double click to see CalFire personnel in upper left hand corner. 1 mile hose lay.
7:00 p.m.: 756 acres, 80% contained
Air support concentrating in the canyon across from the house, in the form of a turbo-prop tanker and helicopter, returned mid-day as winds picked up. Obvious concern was burning parts of Blue Oaks rolling down the north slope to the bottom of the canyon and igniting dry feed on the opposing south slope. More paint was laid at the bottom of the south slope while the helicopter dumped water on dead Blue Oaks that remained burning.
The real heroes are the many hand crews who have encompassed the burn with a 4-6 foot space cleared manually. Though there are 3 dozers still on the scene, they are limited to existing roads due to our mostly inaccessible terrain.
Meanwhile, we’re staying out of their way.
The fire started on the neighbor’s about 2:00 p.m.
Blading a road for 4×4 engines on the west flank at 7:10 p.m..
Last phos-chek dropped at 8:00 p.m. on our place. Hand crews and air support, planes and helicopters, kept the fire contained.
Coming off the mountain at 10:00 p.m. Dead Blue Oaks, as a result of the four-year drought, burning.
CalFire Incident: “Creek Fire”, 600 acres.
(click)
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