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03142025's brush/wildfires

Ndenway

Ndenway

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Hopefully all here made it through with little to no damage/loss.

I got texted bit after 3pm that it was really smokey & fire coming, I texted shop mgr, took gear back to shop, then hauled ass near 30 mile to house.

Got in, my woman was already hosing down the back yard around the house as I replied back to do on her first text.

I got on the tractor and started hauling fel buckets full of dirt from bar ditch along the road to dump along the west southwest tree line to create a firebreak, approx 600to700lbs of dirt a bucket is a small firebreak but it's better than nothing, took a lot of loads to cover.

I hooked up the pedistal water sprinkler (it cover 30 to 40' diameter) when we went in to pack what both fullsize trucks would carry (for me packing needed basics was quick and simple) , the tractor & bikes woulda road bitch on a trailor.

We'd moved our trucks/car, bikes, atv & tractor to driveway so they'd be away from house, sheds & trees, they still had couple acres of short/scalped burmuda grass on each side though.

Been awhile in my area since a bad fire happened so lots of cedars, scrub & praire grass in the short & tall woods, and it's dry, with the wind it went up like flash paper.

Section sw of me got it rough, multiple houses gone and many shops/sheds/barns/vehicles/equipment.
Couple times they shut down a bit over 3 miles of main road & requested all evacuate areas/sections, in my section there is only one way in and out, lots of people left voluntarily and when le requested they did.

The le stopped three times to request my woman & me leave, one said only one way in/out of here, it not worth risking life for, I told him, look man, like I told the other officers, I got other properties, but I live here, I'm not leaving until the fires here and I can't put it out & save my stuff.

Luckly didn't have to find out if I could fight a raging brushfire with a waterhose & tractor to save my stuff. The wind slowed a bit & changed direction enough the fires backfed & died down enough so the many brush jumpers were able to quell'em down.

My rough estimate from the glow after dark, fire was approx 1/4 mile or less sw of me, I drove the next main road west of me to see the sections damaged this morn.
 
Thank ya'll

Creator is always with me

the couple times even top docs in state gave me less than 1% chance of surviving or being a vegtable & the several other iffy instances, I fooled'em, even though body is busted, I came back much better physicaly & mentaly than they expected.

My woman consistantly tells me shit you do & say someday somebody's gonna kill you. I reply, probably so, you know man dies it takes six men to carry him to grave they dug and only takes one woman that put him there.

my 9 lives are getting a bit sparce, hasn't changed who I am or how I live and do.
 
OkieJoe said:
Glad you made it through without any loss. It was a crazy day! Looks like Monday and Tuesday are going to be similar days, but the wind won’t be quite as strong. We need rain in a bad way!
Click to expand...

I'm not sure I can take 2 more days of that. I'm really close on 2 sides (W & N) to out of control cedars, a stretch of cross timber and ungrazed pasture. The piece to the W got set on fire by some arsonists several years back. A passing car saw them light it and called SO and FD right away. I was home when the sheriff's deputy knocked and told me to get out. I threw the dogs and a lot of other stuff in the Tahoe and moved it out of the way and got on the roof to wet down the shingles. They got it put out, but it was kinda close. They asked if I had a shovel to put out some smoldering/still burning small spots and then they took off to fight another one, also reported to have been set by an arsonist. Seriously, fire bugs that light brush fires in that kinda wind either need life w/o parole, or the needle. No compassion for them.

Winds out of the west and North like that when it's as dry as it is now is nerve wracking as hell. Friday couldn't get over quick enough. I made several trips west cause I could smell smoke, but I never found a fire. It looked like I was on Mars when I was out in it. Erie as fvck.

I don't know how many of Friday's fires were set intentionally, but I'd wager that those that weren't caused by down powerlines were set on purpose. Should be legal to shoot them if you catch them in the act.
 
When I moved into my current house, the west property line was 10 yds. away and was densely packed with red cedars. I was always afraid if that patch were to catch fire it would likely torch my home. Last year I talked to the property owner and he said he hates red cedars and I was welcome to cut any that I wanted to but leave any hardwoods. I had a forestry mulcher come in last spring and clear a patch back about 75 yds from the fence line to the road on the south. I also keep it brush hoged down. It might still burn, but nowhere near the intensity to damage my house. I could easily stop any burn from crossing over with a garden hose. As an extra perk, I can now see beautiful sunsets out my windows instead of just a wall of green. It also cleared my power line drop that ran across the corner of his property so no more worries of ice storms weighing down the trees and pulling the line down. A big worry off my mind now.
 
Yeah, those red cedars are big problems. I was working remote many moons ago and had the TV on so I could monitor wildfires a few miles from my house (all the local news stations were covering it). Nothing got close enough to be a big worry, despite all the smoke in the air, but I’ll never forget the sight of the cedars going up. There was one in particular that was about ten feet tall that had flames going up a good 20 feet in the air above it almost as soon as it caught fire.

I never really understood why, as those things are so damn wet all year round, until someone reminded me that they’re basically full of turpentine. Foom, indeed.
 
Cedars go up like flash paper, even with light wind even a small patch will create a fire tornado that will carry embers a long way.

A big patch in 40, 50, 60+ mph wind like past several days flames/tornado go 40+ feet up and look like flash flood/rapids moving.

My area as many areas throughout the state are covered in cedars, yellow pine, blackjack & scrub,

still got a little tall hickory, elm, red & postoak on big acreages & sections, but lots have short timber, cedars & scrub throughout.
 
Kingfish said:
When I moved into my current house, the west property line was 10 yds. away and was densely packed with red cedars. I was always afraid if that patch were to catch fire it would likely torch my home. Last year I talked to the property owner and he said he hates red cedars and I was welcome to cut any that I wanted to but leave any hardwoods. I had a forestry mulcher come in last spring and clear a patch back about 75 yds from the fence line to the road on the south. I also keep it brush hoged down. It might still burn, but nowhere near the intensity to damage my house. I could easily stop any burn from crossing over with a garden hose. As an extra perk, I can now see beautiful sunsets out my windows instead of just a wall of green. It also cleared my power line drop that ran across the corner of his property so no more worries of ice storms weighing down the trees and pulling the line down. A big worry off my mind now.
Click to expand...
Our SIL and one of his friends cleared out several spots but still need to do more clearing to get rid of the underbrush and cedars. At least if something does happen to catch the pumpers can get to it.
 
The OK Ag department (or maybe ODWC, I forget) used to have an eastern red cedar eradication program where they’d come out and get rid of all the cedars on your property. The only catch was that you had to let them get rid of all of them, which really isn’t much of a catch.
 
SoonerP226 said:
The OK Ag department (or maybe ODWC, I forget) used to have an eastern red cedar eradication program where they’d come out and get rid of all the cedars on your property. The only catch was that you had to let them get rid of all of them, which really isn’t much of a catch.
Click to expand...

I've heard about that, but not in detail.

Anyone here have the details on this?
 
jakeman said:
I've heard about that, but not in detail.

Anyone here have the details on this?
Click to expand...
This may be the program I heard about a few years back. It’s the Wildlife Habitat Improvement Program that’s managed by ODWC:

Wildlife Habitat Improvement Program | ODWC

Under Wildlife Habitat Improvement Program, the Department partners with landowners to restore and preserve native habitats for Oklahoma Wildlife
www.wildlifedepartment.com www.wildlifedepartment.com

I thought the program I saw was from the Ag department, but searching for Oklahoma cedar eradication mostly turns up news reports on the bills (and their predecessors) in the Legislature.
 
SoonerP226 said:
The OK Ag department (or maybe ODWC, I forget) used to have an eastern red cedar eradication program where they’d come out and get rid of all the cedars on your property. The only catch was that you had to let them get rid of all of them, which really isn’t much of a catch.
Click to expand...
That needs to happen in Logan County for sure . . . there's a place south of us that burned this past weekend after burning two years ago. Some how the people still refuse to get rid of dead trees or brush hog the pasture. Their place looks horrible. There are so many places up there with standing dead trees that need to go . . . along with so many creeks with nothing but dams made of dead trees and limbs that cause so much flooding.

It's crazy how little pride people take in keeping up their land.
 
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another windy one today. feels like i haven't heard my house creak and groan as much in the past 2 weeks vs the last 10 years.
 
It was blowing so hard in south Tulsa that it sounded like the AC was running and the sky was so brown that I was wondering if there was anything at all left in Kansas.

When I got back from lunch I was really wishing I had taken my jacket with me to lunch. That breeze was a mite chilly.
 
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