Musings, Kraut & Jam

Mike is on the Roosevelt Fire.  The big, monster fire is getting slayed, bit by bit.  There are now over 1000 fire fighters fighting the beast.  Sunday was the biggest day.  Houses turned to dust.  Chimneys stand, totems to the altered landscape.  All that is left on barren, ash-covered ground.  Ashes to ashes.  Dust to dust.  A moose lays, swollen in the heat, its hairs singed off in the fire.  The killing hand of the monster touches more than homes and trees.  Luckily, there were no firefighters that were injured or killed.  Many took enormous risks for sticks and bricks.  A culture of risk-taking drives them to desperate and ridiculous measures. 

A friend loses her family cabin.  This is all that is left. 

Ashes to ashes.  Dust to dust.

On The Green River

At last, Mike and I got away to use the gift certificate we were highest bidder for at the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation,  May 2016!  After a really nice drive, less than four hours, we landed at Sweet Lorraine's Bed & Breakfast, early Friday afternoon.  Check it out here What A Wonderful Place! 

Dave and Lorraine are well-seasoned and wonderful hosts.  We had the place to ourselves and enjoyed a delicious meal of lamb chops.  (Dick Cheney fishes with these wonderful people every year!)  Given their B&B sits in Dutch John, UT and they are the only show in town, their B&B includes dinner (and booze!) as well.  We sat in their lovely yard, sipping drinks, grazing on appetizers, carrying on conversations that included grizzly bears, rivers, fish, and more, oh so much more!  Oddie, the laberdoodle sweet dog, came around for scratches.  Good dog, Oddie, good dog! 

Saturday was our day on the Green River.  We launched just below the Green River dam and did an 18 mile stretch of the Green.  Dave maneuvered us down the river, around rapids, and into the fish!

“He who hears the rippling of rivers in these degenerate days will not utterly despair.”  Henry David Thoreau.  









Floating down the river was beautiful, relaxing, and fun.  We saw some big horn sheep along the shore.   I was called a "Lion Tamer" due to my fly casting skills - thanks for your patience Guideman John!  Still, despite my lack of technique, I caught a couple of fish.  The below picture shows the first and best fish.  Returned to the river to carry on! (Guide Dave held the fish which really wanted to flop out of my hands!  We had to get a picture, of course!)

The weekend adventure ended with our drive through the Roosevelt Fire.  We paused, took pictures, and almost got turned around with the road closure -prompted by the big fire activity.  By the end of today or tomorrow, many many homeowners will be hearing the news of their homes burning to the ground.  Sad. Sad. Sad.  This is a Fire Monster of magnitudinal proportions.  Press reports today indicate it is the Nation's number one fire concern.  It is certainly ours!

Back home.  Back to work.  It was a wonderful get-away weekend!!  

This is Not a Fairy Tale

There is a Monster to the south.  He raised his frightening head yesterday afternoon and got everyone's attention.  He spits ashes that fall fifty miles downwind, fluttering like snowflakes to the hot, dry vegetation there.  He is not alone.  Another monster works the same evil magic to the southwest, devouring forest land by the acres.

The Monster laid down overnight.  A red sun rose in the east, foreshadowing the firey day ahead.  Fed by wind and acres of dry timber, the Monster has plenty to eat.  He will raise his smoke columned head again today.

This is not our fire.  It sits in an adjacent county and is managed by a Type II team, its members assembled from other parts of this western country.  Equipment and people arrive to attack the beast. We watch it from the north.  Waiting.  Holding our breath.  Planning.  Expecting it or one of its friends to show up here.  Soon.

Fire season is late in Teton County.  By now, we usually have fall weather; snow in the high country, rain on the valley floor.  But not this year.  Now, our only hope is the efforts of prevention and cold nights.

Hot. Dry. Windy.

It happened this weekend.  You could feel it coming on.  Saturday night, at 10pm, the wind swirled around the outside thermostat - temperature 70 degrees.  I was quite happy to pass on the duty officer baton at 0700 Sunday morning with my shift came to a close. 

And Sunday was the day.  Fires kicked up all over the region.  This one, pictured below, is the Roosevelt Fire.  It started in a meadow we camped in on one of our pack trips years ago.  The winds whipped so hard, the fire overtook a couple of hikers who were high-tailing it out of the country.  They found some refuge in a stream, but still received burns significant enough they were life-flighted to the Salt Lake City burn center last night.  They are lucky they lived.

The weather forecast gives us no hope for relief any time soon.  Shorter days and cooler nights will help, but this afternoon's 81 degrees and 12% humidity kicked this fire into high gear. 

Framed in the foreground, our new Munger Mountain School.

Flooding in the east.  Fires in the west. 

Preditors

Well, it finally happened.

After all these years of raising chickens, we have suffered our first loss.  Today, a dead and headless chicken was found. 

Ermine in the area. 

I have declared war, of course.  The live trap is coming out, along with the .22!  The chickens are in the secure outside coop for a bit now.  We are down to 5 hens.  The ermine will be back.  Hope the security system works! 

Solemn Day

It gets in your throat, like a fish bone, sharp and precariously lodged there, afraid to cough for fear it may push deeper.  You choke on the pain and gasp for air as your eyes tear up and you remember.

This is a hard day for those of us engaged in emergency services.  We think of our brothers and sisters (although there were very very few women that day; a reflection of the disparity of diversity in the fire service) who looked up at the towers as they went through the doors.  As they climbed and climbed, sucking in their last breath of air and of life.

We walk into this arena without being pushed.  We are proud and able.  Most will have no
more than a couple of raging structure fires and plenty of false alarms.  Several will have close calls, looking a death right in the face and cheating it.  Cheating it this time.  Walking away, knowing what a close call looks like.  Every one of us works to make sure those around us, who walk with us side by side, go home at the end of the night, at the end of the event.  We come back day after day to help those who experience the worse day of their life.  It is an honor.  It is a privilege.

How could we ever forget September 11?  Now, 17 years later, there is a generation that did not experience that day.  They read about it in their history books - like we read about the Holocaust and the Civil War.  Time ticks on as towers fall and desperate people jump.  How can we forget?

I am lucky I found this path and thank Michael and September 11 for showing me the way.  Never having been full time employed, I initially shied away from the offering of a career.  But I felt like I could do more and I wanted to help others.  So here I am.  Feeling sad and thankful all at the same time, tears dripping down my cheeks and a heart filled with sadness for the many many families who are missing their loved ones today.

There is a live video of our 9/11 Commemoration on Facebook Facebook Video

It's a hard day.  Let us never forget.

Row Your Boat

Mike and I floated the Salt River Sunday morning.  What a weekend-like thing to do!!  Instead of throwing a party, or baling hay, or weeding the garden, we stepped out of our comfort zone and did something crazy like this!  As we left, I looked at the wilting horse radish, the mound of purple potatoes still needing extrication from the mounded dirt bed, the dog-printed floor where Ruby dotted the laminate after taking a bath in the irrigation ditch and I blocked it out of my mind as we made way to the boat launch, ten minutes from the Freedom place.  The shuttle took 15 minutes each way and we would float for three hours!  Rivers are so cool!

And because it was cool, the fishing was slow until around 11am.  But I caught a few fish, Mike practiced his rowing skills and we had a wonderful time.  How generous for him to row the entire way!  However, having seen my rowing skills, there was good reason!! 

Here is a picture of my monster fish!!  I hold it to my shirt to keep my skin off its skin as fish are so sensitive.  They do not fare well when humans touch them.  Maybe he will grow up and I will catch him again - cause we will be back!!

Birthday Party Joy

You could not have asked for a prettier day!  Warm, but not hot.  A breeze, but not windy.  Sunny blue skies overhead.  People started rolling in around 3:30 and at the peak of Mike's party, there had to be close to 75-100 here!  Wow!  We didn't run out of anything but lemonade!  It was a beautiful party day!!  Let the pictures tell the story!  Thank you George Hill for taking so many great pictures during the party!