Britesea - Living the good life in rural Oregon

[Britesea]

Oregon currently has something like 477 fires. Curiously, most of them follow I-5 and Hwy 97- the two main vertical throughways. But just far enough away from the roads themselves that they are likely NOT being started by vehicles or careless drivers. Hmmmmmm. While I'm sure some of the fires have been caused by our dry lightning storms, but the pattern is suspicious.
The authorities have supposedly made several arrests for arson in the last couple of days.

DH and I got woken up yesterday morning at 6am by the CERT commander asking if we could get up to Chiloquin to help with the big fire there. We were posted in front of a closed road, trying to keep people from going back in to check on their houses and property. The only ones who were supposed to be able to go in were people rescuing livestock and other animals. Honestly... exactly what do they think they can do to stop their house from getting burnt? If they water their house now, it cuts water pressure for the firefighters- they should have watered everything right at the start of the fire, before they had to evacuate. We were bare minutes away from being engulfed if the wind had shifted to the wrong direction... and it did keep shifting around, but we got lucky.

 

[Mini Horses]

We were bare minutes away from being engulfed if the wind had shifted to the wrong direction... and it did keep shifting around, but we got lucky.

Do you mean at the site where you were posted?

I saw the reports on the news and wondered about you guys but, SS site was down, so........no input. Glad you all are safe. Do the fires appear to be moving away from your home area? Winds cause great concern! It can be instantaneous.

 

[wyoDreamer]

Do a Google search for DIY FIRE RETARDANT. It is a simple recipe that you can spray onto things to protect from fire damage. I am not sure if it will save a house or not, but it can't hurt. We are no longer in a wildfire area so I don't have a reason to try it.

 

[Britesea]

@Mini Horses Here's a pic I took of where we were on Tuesday:

It looks further away in the pic compared to what it looked like in real life. That's DH, with two sheriff's deputies in the foreground

Thanks @wyoDreamer I looked up the fire retardant. It appears to be primarily for cloth and small items- it would be prohibitively expensive to make up enough to spray a house. But we are going to spray a couple of coveralls that we can keep in the car for emergencies-- like if the wind HAD shifted the wrong way... having those coveralls might have been enough for us to get out of danger. It couldn't hurt, anyway.

 

[baymule]

I'll take hurricanes any day over a fire. I hope you stay safe.

 

[wyoDreamer]

I will have to ask my chemist friend about it. When we lived in Wyoming, he was talking about making a spray for our house in the fall when the fire threat got too great, just as an ounce of protection. I may be remembering wrong, though ...

 

[Britesea]

Would love to hear more about that. Heck, so would everyone on the West Coast.

 

[FarmerJamie]

I will not complain about NE Ohio lake effect snows.....

 

[Britesea]

I didn't want early frost this year because my crops are still trying to give me something... anything. But it would be a blessing to the state as a whole.

 

[Britesea]

Frost has held off for a bit longer- we are getting lows in the high 30's for a while. Tomatoes, green beans, squashes, chard and beets chugging along. My one Ground Cherry plant is giving me about a pound of fruit every few days. Tonight I'm trying them in the dehydrator to make ground cherry raisins, and I've got a ground cherry upside-down cake in the oven for dessert. Cobbling together a casserole with some ground beef and broccoli, maybe in an alfredo-style sauce.

A friend of ours got a wild hair and ordered a 2000 lb pallet of wheat . We'll be helping them get it off the truck Monday and into buckets (calculating about 67 buckets!). We can buy some from her she said. I'm not sure why she bought so much, lol.