…the afternoon

This forked horn buck was on a mission headed towards some water and greener pastures to the south of our property. His hair was silver in color…. was it from the ash?

So onward to find out what else the fire burned – property, vegetation and fencing. It is not looking too promising for our operation or the land. The grasses will pop back in the Spring when the rains come but that is a long wait for grazing animals. Domestic or wild. Now they will compete for forage and feed that we will have to provide.

looking across the SW pasture…Spring area still burning – hawthorns are hardwoods and will burn for a while

this area took about 7 minutes to burn from the east

looking to the west… more burned fence posts and fire still burning along the highway

The Woodhead Fire still burning along Highway 71

Looking to the NE back half of property from the area where we’d seen the fire crest over the hill

looking down to the east across the property.,. about mid-point

fire burning to the NW where it originally came from … found more fuel

by the back fenceline of Spring Creek paddock looking east

the burned area was from the N and ran south…. did not burn the patch we drove on but the area to the right of the willows above burned…. it was fence, go figure

heading north into the back 40 to “The Campground”

bulls were here a few days before all this

sometimes fire leaves behind interesting landscapes

The back 40 in an area we called The Campground… the bulls were in this location a few days previous

the rock pile in the middle we were told was an old homestead set next to the (dry) creek. Now trees grow in the middle of it.

this area will take years to recover due to the intensity of the heat of the fire (note the white ash)

fire burned the trunk and roots… top part of tree is laying to the left of the standing tree

SW from The Campground – no forage for cattle until next year

what’s left of fence, cross-fence and forage

There’s actually 4 cows sitting here in the field next to the house…. there is one facing the opposite direction of the one in the middle. They looked like a compass rose.

What an exhausting day… and we haven’t even assessed it all. More to travel tomorrow. And to figure out where we are going to put the bulls since we have a lot of downed fence and burned forage.

Until next time…

Karen

2 thoughts on “…the afternoon”

Toidhealbheach Beucail says:

September 28, 2020 at 6:42 pm

That simply looks awful. I do not really have the words.

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1. 1hobo1 says:
  
  September 28, 2020 at 9:33 pm
  
  Neither do I… it has been very exhausting but we’ve been blessed in that we didn’t loose any livestock, structures or lives.
  
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