Here is a map of the fire. It is over 3 miles from our place. The American bar is at the lower left.

Each little square is one square mile.

The map was current at 8:00 last night. Today, the upper half of the right (eastern) boundary has expanded 1/2 to 1 mile further to the east.

The size of the fire is now around 11,000 acres.

Click on it to enlarge:



This is a little video from Friday. You may have to click it 2 or 3 times.

Meriwether Fire

The Meriwether fire started about a week and a half ago and has burned about 7000 acres. It is burning mostly in the Gates of the Mountains wilderness area which totals about 30,000 acres. In one area, the fire was approaching the American Bar, which is a subdivision on the edge of the wilderness area and along the Missouri River. The Forest Service was only using air drops to try to contain the fire but on Wednesday night, it had moved close enough to the subdivision that our fire department was called out. Early Thurday morning we worked with the Forest Service and other volunteer departments and did a controlled burn to contain the southern end of the fire. There were approximately 24 fire trucks and two helicopters working the burnout and it went well with only a few small areas that burned over the line.





Today, the York Volunteer Fire Dept. was called back in to protect two houses while the forest service burned out an area between the subdivision and the main fire. The fire line was very close to the houses in this area so we set up two teams to catch any spot fires that might cross the line. We were only expecting small flame heights and mostly grass fire but by the time it reached us, a thunder cell came up and whipped up the fire.



The forest service and contract firefighters were also there to contain the fire.



Approaching fire:

I was running the Engine on the truck pumping water at the gray house and garage. The residents at this house stayed on their porch and watched. One of them took these pictures:

This blackhawk helicopter came in and dropped several loads at treetop level:

Everything turned out fine and neither of the houses were damaged. The owners may have an ugly view on the burned side but the lake view is still pretty nice:

Some of the York firefighters:

25th - Hot and smoky

RAFTING TRIP

On Sunday we went whitewater rafting down the Gallatin River. Here are some of the pictures.

Cooler today

We will try to get some pictures of our rafting trip last weekend posted soon.

You can keep up with the fires that are burning near Helena at :

http://helenair.com

Fire

In the picture above, there is an air tanker dropping fire retardant.

There is a lightning-caused fire burning about 30 miles away from here, in the Wolf Creek area. Friday, a group of people and equipment from neighboring volunteer departments was put together to relieve the Wolf Creek VFD for a day. Me and another York volunteer took York's water tanker truck.

The Forest Service is responsible for fighting fires on National Forest lands, and the local departments are responsible for protecting non-Forest Service structures. Our group had two engines and one tanker truck (tender) and were to protect any structures in the Little Wolf Creek drainage.

There were two helicopters and two air tankers dropping water and retardant on the fire.

The weather and wind were mostly good and kept the fire from growing too much. No houses were threatened while we were there.

Click on the box, then click on the play button to see video:

19th of July - VERY HOT! 103

Here is a picture in his baseball uniform. They lost last night 17-14. They only had 8 players and at one time were down 11-1. So I think they did pretty well to come back and get that close. Brandon went 3-4, scored 2 runs and threw a guy out at second.

Click on the box and then on the play button:

another video

Here is another video. This was a whitetail deer behind our house.

Bear video

Here is a video of a big black bear we filmed last year on the road near our house.

Click the box then you have to click the play button.

Hot!

A little catch this weekend:

Went to the rodeo yesterday. Here is one of the sheep riders (mutton busters) falling off of a sheep. These kids are about 3-4 years old!

Pepper has made friends with the cats:

11th Sunny and hot

Brandon started baseball this week. He had two games - one Monday and the other tonight. They are 2-0. I don't know the score from Monday night but tonight the score was 11-1. Brandon has been doing great. Monday he went 3-5 and scored two runs. Tonight he went 1-3. He has played every position except for shortstop and left field. Here are some pictures from tonight.

These are pictures that I took of a fire near Helena on Monday afternoon. I was driving back into Helena from a work trip and saw all the smoke. It was caused by tracer rounds fired during training at nearby Fort Harrison. About 25 homes were evacuated but none were burned. There were several helicopters dropping water.

Click on a picture to enlarge it.

Here is an article on the fire (click on "slideshow" to see some really good pictures):

http://www.helenair.com/articles/2007/07/11/helena_top/a010711_01.txt

It's been really hot during the day but cools off quickly at night.

Only one big forest fire burning right now. It's in the Bob Marshal Wilderness about 150 miles away.





Time to start another project. These are some 6-foot logs that will be used to build a small 12x12 "bunkhouse". We are hiring Kevin and his brother Michael to peel them. (Kevin helped me one day on the bridge).
Just a picture of the pasture, after mowing, and the new driveway.



Brandon and I also planted some grass seed.

Here is Brandon's schedule for day camp this week.

Here is Brandon "driving" the 4-wheeler on their expedition yesterday.
Brandon's first mowing job.