the cow kicked it over.....

Fire! Fire! FIRE! Love living in the mountains....  hate forest fires.....never sleep very good when we have one burning close by, like we do right now. Friends closer to the fire are on notice to be prepared to evacuate and the boreal planes and helicopters have been flying overhead for the last 2 days. The power was out here all morning yesterday and is still out near the fire so we haven't had cell service since the batteries went dead in the repeater tower we use.
We have been thru this before, evacuated twice in the last 10 years, so we know the routine....      ....but now I have a small herd of miniature horses to worry about. Thank goodness we found a horse trailer finally and got to bring it home a few weeks ago, thanks Joan for being so helpful! My "crappy" horse trailer gleams like gold with the backdrop of a huge black smoke plume we can see thru the trees. And thanks to all the friends that have offered a place to take my horses if we need to evacuate. That is a huge relief to know they will have a safe place for me to take them!
The scanner traffic is not saying much this morning, that is good...it must be quiet on the fire lines. We did hear of one new spot fire, but it is burning south of the original fire because of the canyon winds from last night.

The fire as seen from the south, in North San Juan on Sat.

The sky is clearer today, but it smells like rain outside right now, yesterday it rained but not enough to help the firefighters and the winds were gusty and unpredictable. No winds here today but everyday as it warms up in the valley the winds start pushing up the river canyons, so the fire will travel up the canyon towards our general direction in the mornings.

We are northwest of where the fire is burning and at the edge of what we call "town", unfortunately the property across the street from us is not developed or cleared in anyway, so some thick brush and trees to fuel the fire if it comes this way. We have made allot of progress on clearing our property in the last 3 years and thanks to the horses it stays that way. We do whatever we can and we don't wait til the last minute to get out if we have to evacuate....  ....the halters and lead ropes are gathered, dog crates are ready, the valuables are all in their "to go" bag and everything gets watered really good for the next few days. Then we wait, listen to the scanner for evacuation orders and hope they get containment on it quickly. I still love living in the mountains....