Fire on the Mountain

May 1, 2022

Hello again,

Well, it's all about the fire out here now. This thing keeps growing and growing and is now up to 160,000 acres. I usually start putting the weekly email together on Sunday and typically have it done by Monday. My ability to meet deadline waxes and wanes with every week, but this week we are both running way behind! The air quality has gotten really bad and it is now not uncommon to be walking around with a headache, raw nostrils and throat and a sour stomach. It's rapidly getting to the point that we should be wearing masks outside when the smoke gets bad. It all depends on the day, the wind, the temperature, the humidity, the fire and countless other things, but the AQI index goes from 0-500 and we've already seen it hit 500. Most days it rises to the upper 100s or so, maybe going above 200, but last Sunday morning it reached 500 when we were trying to work out in the garden. Even though the sky was fairly clear and only had a hint of smokiness and haziness to it, after about 15 minutes we were both feeling the effects and decided to go in and that the garden could wait. The fire is still about 15 miles north of us and has been spreading mostly east and north. However, it is slowly but surely expanding in all directions and it will only take another batch of windy weather to ramp things back up again. The last few days have seen fairly light winds and it has given firefighters a chance to dig some more fire lines and to clear some more brush and fire fuel so as to starve the fire of its ability to grow and it looks like they're keeping it out of Las Vegas(for now). The northwest side of the fire continues to grow up the canyons to the north and west, as fire likes to go uphill, and we continually see it looming behind Barillas Peak that is ten miles to our north. The fire remains roughly five miles north of that, but some days, by appearance, you would swear that it had snuck up on you a little and had cut the distance in half! This area of the fire is being left go, to some degree, because it is only heading up into the Rockies and a wilderness area, so no people and no structures are in danger, as compared to the northern and eastern edges of this huge conflagration. The firefighting personnel is now up to 1200+ and we keep seeing huge planes flying over the ranch taking water and/or fire retardant towards the fire: the retardant is in huge 747s and seems to be coming out of Albuquerque, while the smaller scooper planes and helicopters are trying to get water wherever they can find it. We did a run through Las Vegas to see how things were going and it seems that the stores and businesses on the plains side of town to the east are all open, but, as West Las Vegas has now been evacuated, all the stores on that side of town are closed. Grocery stores are running out of supplies and closing early and other stores have had to close because most and/or all of their staff has been evacuated. Tough times in Las Vegas town!

Otherwise, we're keeping the horses fed and the dogs run. The horses don't seem too terribly worried about the smoke, but they certainly sense it and have to be feeling the same effects from breathing it in like we are. A pack of dogs mauled the neighbor's old mule the other day, so we've been on watch a little bit extra to keep an eye on things. Now that this fire is roaring and gobbling up acre after acre we're seeing a lot more animal movement, new birds around the houses, more roadkill(virtually non-existent out here) and I've been waiting to see some big, ol' mountain lion strolling around the ranch at any moment, pushed out of its normal haunts. We even saw a group of 20-30 elk above Las Vegas lying on a knoll on the plains, looking back at the mountains, clearly having been pushed out of the hills. Any time that you go up and down the interstate above Las Vegas you see hundreds, if not thousands, of pronghorns...as well as just as many cattle and horses. But we've yet to see elk and to see a big group just sitting there, pondering their plight, really left an impression on us. So, we'll see how things go. More gusty, spring winds are forecast in the coming week and it could easily become really out-of-control again. It's only at 20% containment, but, in the end, that's just a nice and neat, little number that's stamped onto a really messy situation, so it appears to be heading in the right direction, but could just as easily start running wild again.

And, finally, we have a new batch of pictures for you. First up, a shot of Ela and Willow begging for some food up at the jobsite(this is a nightly occurrence, heading up there to see what Valentin left behind). Next, a shot of one of the Very Large Air Tankers(VLAT) heading over our house on its way to making a drop on the fire. Then, a screen shot from my phone showing Sunday morning when the AQI spiked up to 500. Next, three different shots of the persistent fire that looms to our north. Then, a night shot, after a terribly windy day, when the fire got so whipped up that it was glowing red on the horizon...the picture doesn't do it justice. Next, a shot from a few weeks ago before the fire weather got really bad when we did some grilling for dinner in our little, sheltered cooking nook. Then, a shot of my car being used as a temporary hay transport on a morning when I couldn't get the buggy started...a true Pennsylvania Pickup! Then, a shot of our friend, Emerson, who comes to help us work on the horses, caught at the Gathering of Nations in Albuquerque by the Santa Fe New Mexican newspaper. True to form, his head was turned down to his work and you couldn't see his face! Next, a shot of the sun setting behind the little church in San Jose a couple of nights ago when we ran in late to get our mail. Then, three shots of the sun as seen through really smoky and hazy skies: first, looking up the valley, seeing a sky full of smoke; then, the blood-red sun and its many reflections seen through the rippling of the water trough; and, finally, the sun dropping out of view through ever-smoky skies. And, then, lastly, two different towering thunderheads that I saw looking to the east as they floated out towards the plains to finally unleash their rain and thunder many, many miles from where we're at...dry is the understatement of the year to describe this area!

Take care.

Here's a link to New Mexico Fire Info for anyone that's interested in getting daily updates about the fires.

https://nmfireinfo.com/