Monster in the Hills

May 8, 2022

Hello again,

It's been a somewhat stressful time out here this week. The fire keeps growing and growing, mainly trending to the north and northeast, but it finally hit Barillas Peak on its southwest perimeter. We're always mentioning Barillas and using it as the local landmark that it is, as it looms ten miles due north of us, rising 3000' above our ranch, and on Monday it finally reached the peak and its fire tower and lit it up like a Christmas tree! That night, you could see the whole hilltop ablaze and it reminded me of the watchtowers that fanned out from Chaco Canyon that would relay messages with fire quickly over huge swathes of ground, moving like lightning from tower to tower that were tens of miles apart. It also made it really sink in that there's a huge Monster in the Hills, as the firefighters are calling it, running loose just north of us that is showing no sign of stopping. Now, Las Vegas seems to have been saved and the fire is growing towards the Cook Peak fire to the northeast(largely contained, with not much fire fuel left) and approaching Taos County to the north. While we have felt the repercussions of this fire already with the limited and/or non-existent shopping choices in Las Vegas, the scarcity of diesel, store closings, and the smoke searing our lungs every day, we up until now haven't had to consider our evacuation options. Our ranch is only sparsely covered with Pinyon and Juniper and lots of dead grass, but there really isn't much fuel for the fire here. While it may come this way, it would still be over with very quickly and the buildings would most likely be able to withstand that. There is also an old quarry on-site that is even more barren than the rest of the ranch and would make an ideal place to run to, if the necessity would arise. Because of this, our boss is staying regardless of what might happen and we're trying to figure out what we will do. I feel very obligated to the horses and want to stay to take care of them, but we also have nine animals of our own to take care of and would like to get them to safety, too. Currently, we think that we'll cram everyone in Erin's car and speed back to her Dad's in Pennsylvania, to live in his little rental house for a week or two, and then we could zip back just as quickly. We can easily do the drive in 48 hours, and could even haul ass and shave it down to 36, so this is our current, best option. We have storage units about a mile or two west of us, but should the fire get this far there's no way of predicting whether the ranch or the units would burn first, so we're not planning on trying to move a bunch of stuff around. The boss has a place in Santa Fe, but the foreman from the jobsite here is currently living there as he had to evacuate Las Vegas and hasn't gone back yet because of the smoke and poor air quality...decisions, decisions, decisions. In the end, we have very little room left in the car after getting all of the animals in there, so things will probably decide themselves. I'd probably run my two old cars down to my friend, Valentin's, along the river, perhaps with a few things in them, but otherwise I think we're just going to embrace the chaos that life likes to throw at us and see what happens!

So, then, what to pack? Important papers, documents, etc., come to mind. As do our computers and these stupid smartphones that we now have. The cooler with everything that will spoil out of the refrigerator...food's too expensive to let it just go to waste! We figured a duffel bag each for a few changes of clothes. Camping gear? Cooking gear? We're really taking it all in stride, but are totally spoiled by the fact that we don't live just ten miles or more to the north. This fire has had a devastating effect on thousands of people already who are just a little farther north...right where we were really looking hard at property back when we thought that we could buy a place as soon as we got out here. That's really making us think about things. We always dreamed of a place in the big woods, along a stream, in a meadow, in some steep canyon that snakes its way off of something bigger. But those are all the places that are burning up! At first, we were really unsure of our new surroundings and felt that we had landed on the moon(coming from super-lush PA!), but not only have these severe and arid landscapes really put a hook in us, it seems that the less vegetation that you're willing to be surrounded by, the less chance that you will have to flee some huge forest fire. It seems logical to look at it that way from afar, but when you're swept up by the romance of looking at properties, it's easy to forget something so clear to see after the fact. So, for now we wait...

And, for everyone's viewing pleasure, here is another batch of photos from the ranch this week. First up, here's a series of six shots of Barillas Peak from the ranch (and one from San Jose) throughout the day on Monday when the fire finally overtook it. The first shot was from around 11am or so and the last was at about 8pm. Then, I have three really grainy shots of the fire burning up on Barillas itself after it got dark. These in no way make up for the impression that they had upon us seeing things in person, but they still give a sense of the situation. Next up, a group of five shots from feeding the horses that night: first, the main pod eating with the setting sun behind them, all eyes upon each other; then, the last three show the smaller pod of horses at their smaller feeder, with Barillas smoking in the background. Finally, two last shots of a very colorful sunset, due to the altitude and the smoke: first, as taken; then, manipulated a bit on the computer.

Stay tuned!