Sunday, September 30, 2012

Too Close for Comfort

We started out the month of September thinking we were going to fence in our few acres on the mountain.

So we got several trailer loads of.....

Fence posts and a load of poles...........

EXCEPT

This happened the day BEFORE everyone was to start a week's vacation to put the fence up....
I am standing on the corner of our property shooting the view to the southeast....it's all BURNED

Yep the Sheepherder Hill fire started across the road from us... and it was Fierce!

Our lot is below the crook in the road in the center of the picture.  This photo was taken by Brian Weathers from K2 Radio and you can see some pretty spectacular photos on their website at

It went from zero to over 10,000 acres in 24 hours!!!  It burned 37 cabins/homes and missed 850 more (thank goodness!)

I watched a big bomber drop slurry in Elkhorn Canyon from my office window.  WOW - that was pretty impressive.

By the time it was contained it had burned 15,556 acres which is a lot of territory.

We were banned from entering the fire zone for two weeks  and our place?  Here's what it looked like two weeks later.
We didn't even have ASH on the place!!  The wind was blowing everything away from us.

August 2012 was the driest August on record in 118 years! since they started keeping records and the mountain sure paid the price along with 37 cabin owners.  

Because of the drought and the cool nights but hot days; the color is intensified this year.  It's gorgeous but somehow you cannot forget about what you cannot see.




Oh and that load of fence posts -- we bought those instead of replacing my dishwasher which went Kaput!!!
Hmm maybe that wasn't a wise choice.  But oh well, there's always next year!

And a BIG Thank you to the Casper Mountain Firefighters.  A splendid job well done.


Saturday, September 22, 2012

The Thrill of Victory

The Thrill of Victory....
And the Agony of Defeat....

Watching four year old play soccer PRICELESS!

Hey Mom, did Sissie make a goal?