Sunday, September 11, 2011

It's Burnin' Down In Texas - End of Summer 2011

It has certainly been a record breaking summer. We've had no measurable rain and almost 80 days of triple digit temps. The ground is dry and Central Texas is in flames. Our hearts go out to the over 1500 families who have lost their homes. I honestly can't imagine the upwelling of sorrow that has gone out from those who have lost everything.
Yesterday Eric and I drove out to the ranch to check on things. We have not done must of anything all summer, simply due to the heat. We just have not been able to get much work done. Not to mention the ever increasing rise of fuel prices. It costs $100.00 to fill that tank in my truck. I get 19 miles to the gallon and burn 80 miles to get to the ranch and back. It's not that I can't afford it, but considering the little amount of actual work that gets done. I think we'll have to wait until it is cooler before we can focus on really getting any work done this year.
On the way out to the ranch yesterday, we had to stop twice to put out fires on the roadside. We pulled off, jumped out, grabbed the shovel and rake and got to work putting one out...I ran up the road a ways and put out the beginning of another one. Then looking behind us the way we had just came was an even bigger fire on the roadside. We jumped back in the truck and took off. When we got onsite, there were several other people there, but it didn't look like they knew how to deal with the fire. Eric and I got busy and got it put out. One guy standing by looked at me and said "Thanks". When we were sure that it was out, we hopped back in the truck and continued on to the Circle H.
We worked on clearing some of the dead briar away from the back fence and before we knew it our time was up. We had only planned on being out until noon, and our firefighting efforts had chewed up some of our time and energy.
We did see a young horse over in the neighbors side of the fence. I gave a short whistle and he came over to say Hi. Eric and I gave him a couple of good pats to say hello and I used this as an opportunity to take a couple of pictures.
Below you'll find some pictures of Eric and the neighbor's horse and some shots showing how dry the place is. Also, a couple of shots showing some wind damage to the shed where it has blown off some of the siding. We have some more work cut out for us before Winter hits.
I hope you enjoy the pictures.

No comments:

Post a Comment