Close call

[peteyfoozer]

So, the other night the Heathen and I woke up at midnite and kept getting a whiff of smoke. shortly after, there was an orange glow in the windows. Apparently a hot bale caught on fire and the 6 haystacks, which held about 100 tons of hay each (enough to feed 4,000 cows though the winter) were in flames, which is just on the other side of the corral surrounded by our rock wall. It was a sleepless night as all the ranch hands fought to contain it to the stacks. It burned and smoldered for days, but it's finally more or less out.

 

[canesisters]

OH NO!!!!! How scary. Glad yall are ok, but WHAT a loss.

 

[seedcorn]

Bought hay or did you make?

 

[baymule]

That is scary, everybody turned out to fight the fire, what a night. That is quite a hit to take on the hay too. Hope another cutting can be made to replace it.

 

[AMKuska]

What do you do when a disaster like that happens? That is a lot of hay to lose.

 

[aftermidnight]

My sympathies, that's a huge loss.

Annette

 

[Collector]

That sure is bad news, thankfully you all were able to get a handle on it before it got out of control. I hope it gets replaced with crop insurance.

 

[thistlebloom]

That's terrible! I'm glad you are ok.

 

[flowerbug]

i'm sorry for the loss. curious about how it got started since i've never had a compost situation get that warm.

 

[peteyfoozer]

thanks guys! It was real scary but thankfully no loss of livestock or structures and the dry pastures did not catch on fire. THe boss will have to purchase hay to replace the thousand tons we lost. A whole summer of growing cutting, baling and stacking gone to waste, but it could have been worse. It was just a hot bale. Either wasn't dry enough when they baled it, or more likely, we had a heavy rain and the water probably seeped down between bales and began to compost. When it went up, it was fast and I've never seen such a blaze!!
Now that we are safe, all the ranch hands are gone fighting fire across the state because most of Oregon and half of California seem to be in flames. Neighbors and ranch owners here have to fight their own fires and get BLM support, because we are so remote. When you are hours from the nearest town, you can't rely on anyone but yourselves in an emergency, so even the young ladies are able to drive semi-trucks and graders, back hoes and skidders.