Let's visit on the Porch II (Billings, Great Falls: PVC, firefighters, photography)

[hymnsinger]

Well, the home I was heading to near Round-up is gone . . . Dang it. Now I need to find another :-( The Dahl fire was unreal in it's speed and it's intensity. So far 30 homes reported lost. Wish I was there to help out.

[ElkHunter]

The other day I posted the picture of the smoke blotting out the sun. At that time the fire was about 100 acres and they had it about 30% contained. Well, it got away from them and it is now 26,000 acres. The ranche that I always went to for my Mule Deer hunting, is now gone.

The fire is out on the prarie and it's pretty remote as far as homes and such. So there have not been casualties and only a few homes actually burnt, however there is a lot of feed gone, alfafa fields, hay fields, hay stacks, all gone. The smoke is thick in town painful to the eyes. If we could get a North Eastern wind, it would blow the fire back onto previously burned territory. Boy, the fire fighters down there need a break.

[MTSilvertip]

Well the Corral Fire up here is pretty much under control. I didn't see any smoke or haze this morning.
However, there are at least 7 other fires currently burning.
http://www.greatfallstribune.com/art...text|Frontpage

The somewhat ironically named Ash Creek fire is now over 100,000 acres.

I hear folks talk about the fires of 1988 as they started early, burned all summer and even into fall. Those are some of the fires like the Willard Creek fire that hit the Elkhorns near Helena and burned a huge secton of land, and the Yellowstone Fires that caused in part the starvation of a huge number of elk, back when we still had elk in Yellowstone.

The Fires of 2000 were bad also, I was on 5 major fires that summer as a firefighter and engine boss. I spent the month of August on the firelines. Don't want to do that again.

Everybody, Please be careful this summer, with the beetle kill and early heat, ANY spark can start something.
I am scared to death that McDonald Pass will go as a fire there will come right down into Helena proper, or go south and take out Montana City, Clancy or Jefferson City.

A couple of years ago I witnessed the fires at Melville when a garbage burn got out of control, burned from the foot of the Crazy Mountains out onto the prairies south of Shawmut. The winds were sustained at about 70 MPH, the fire trucks couldn't outrun the flames, and one was burned.

Ahhhh....Summer in Montana. Nothing like it

[Montana Griz]

Originally Posted by MTSilvertip

Well the Corral Fire up here is pretty much under control. I didn't see any smoke or haze this morning.
However, there are at least 7 other fires currently burning.
http://www.greatfallstribune.com/art...text|Frontpage

The somewhat ironically named Ash Creek fire is now over 100,000 acres.

I hear folks talk about the fires of 1988 as they started early, burned all summer and even into fall. Those are some of the fires like the Willard Creek fire that hit the Elkhorns near Helena and burned a huge secton of land, and the Yellowstone Fires that caused in part the starvation of a huge number of elk, back when we still had elk in Yellowstone.

The Fires of 2000 were bad also, I was on 5 major fires that summer as a firefighter and engine boss. I spent the month of August on the firelines. Don't want to do that again.

Everybody, Please be careful this summer, with the beetle kill and early heat, ANY spark can start something.
I am scared to death that McDonald Pass will go as a fire there will come right down into Helena proper, or go south and take out Montana City, Clancy or Jefferson City.

A couple of years ago I witnessed the fires at Melville when a garbage burn got out of control, burned from the foot of the Crazy Mountains out onto the prairies south of Shawmut. The winds were sustained at about 70 MPH, the fire trucks couldn't outrun the flames, and one was burned.

Ahhhh....Summer in Montana. Nothing like it

Since you were on the fire-lines in 2000 I'm sure you will in fact never forget that summer. As you are probably aware, over here in the Bitterroot, the Ravalli County Fair Grounds (in 2000) were turned into an enormous "Tent City" that ended up being "home" for approx 5000 Fire Fighters (from 10 different COUNTRIES in total) that were "rotated" through there from August 6th until "Mother Nature" finally assisted the fire-fighting efforts some 50 days later in October....325,000 acres and 80 homes and structures were consumed. There are some areas where the soil was completely "sterilized" from the intense heat---approx 1200 degrees!!, and no growth has occurred after almost 12 years later That summer's fires exceeded the fires of 1988 here in the B.R. (the year Yellowstone burned) by about 150,000 acres here in the Bitterroot.
Coincidently in both those years the eastern edge of the "fire-line" came within 1 3/4 miles from our place......we did a lot of praying, and soaking the roof........(Cedar Shakes were my choice back in 1979.......never again!!.)......It is amazing how far those "down canyon winds" will carry "fire-brands" and the "clumps-of-three" Pondarosa Pine needles that are still "red and glowing" when they land up to 2 miles down wind.

I was also amazed how fires of that size "make their own weather & wind" conditions. Hopefully our area will be spared this summer...............but only time will tell.

I certainly wish you luck over there in the Helena Valley.

[ElkHunter]

In case you don't have it, you can find the up to date information on each fire.

Active Fire Mapping Program

[MaBonnema]

Just thought I'd stop in and say howdy. Most of ya'll have such a busy life so you prob didnt even notice I had not been on.
Not much going on here. Just some yard work and some painting on inside of house.

I hope everyone stays safe and doesnt have to deal with any of the fires. So sad to see so many people lose their possessions ans so much land and forest and wild life in danger.
I lost my rental home to a fire several years ago.. lost everything I had plus 2 dogs in that fire (no insurance) ...and almost lost my youngest child... by the Grace of God she was able to get out safely. All I could do was watch it burn. A double wide mobile home was gone in about 5 minutes!!
That to me was traumatic enough. So I know how some of those people feel.
I sure hope no fires start around here..... cause 1 thing for certain... I wont take me long to get out of this trailer park!

Wishing everyone the best of everything. Talk to ya later.

[ElkHunter]

The Cato fire that I posted the picture of the smoke had dwindled down to they are now doing mop up. It burned 27,700 acres. Took out 3 homes and a lot of out buildings, livestock, wildlife, hay stacks and grass.

Hope everybody else's fires are getting containment. Fires are so heartbreaking and so many times there is absolutely nothing you can do about it other than getting your own butt out safely and hoping that your insurance is up to date.

[janab]

I am holding my breath for around here in Helena area. One so far north of us. Now to just make it through the crazy 4th week with all the ****** fireworks.

[ElkHunter]

Here is the latest update:

Out of all the loads of dirt hauled in so far, this is the only dirt still in piles. We have used the rest of it.




You can start to see where we have bermed up the dirt. This is the ramp end on the North end so we can get back and forth onto it with the tractor.




This is how deep we went. On the other side of the berm, is the creek that we want to hold back.




Here is more of the berm. Eventually this berm will be added onto clear back to the house which is about 75 feet away. Some of our free range chickens.




Little better view and you can kind of get an idea of height based on the chickens that are standing there. hahahah




This is looking further to the South. You can get an idea of part of the project here. This is the South end and it is where the creek bends to the North.




Here I am standing on what we have leveled out. Creek on the left and the house about 75 feet on the right.




After the creek bends to the North, this is around the corner.




Just that one berm, approximately 175 feet long, has taken over 100 loads. It is packing down a lot better than what we thought and now we have had to reevaluate what we need. Based on this, we're going to need approximately 500 more dump truck loads. We're going to come real close to what Griz figured we would need. If it hadn't packed so well, we would have used less. Also, this is going to require about 6 inches of good black soil so we can sew it to grass.

[popcorn247]

Wow! Looks nice, but just an fyi, when you pile that much soil right next to a tree or shrub, it may kill them.