Oh Gayle! I'm praying that it misses that beautiful farm with the creek. I'm also praying that nobody gets hurt.

I just talked to the guy that rents our farm and it DID burn that area at/near/or on that beautiful creek (I won't be sure of the exact location of the fire for a few more days). I thought the fire was quite a bit away from our farm. Turns out it was not. It did not burn any of the farm that my mom and I own, but did burn some that my cousins own. The farm was originally owned by our grandparents and they left it to their children (my mom, aunt, and uncle). My aunt and uncle are deceased so their children (my cousins) own the other 2/3 of the farm. 1/3 of it was burned, but I don't know how much. My cousin is out of town on business and I can't reach her yet. She'll be able to go up and scope out the damage when she returns. DANG IT!!!

If there wasn't anything valuable, just land and brush....isn't it like a rebirth also? Where in time things will be even better? I don't know much about this, just different things I've heard. I'm glad your area was safe from the fire.

That's true, Janet. That's why the farmers burn off their pastures in the springtime.

As long as you didn't lose anything important (buildings, hay, etc) then the fire wouldn't damage your land, Gayle.

Yesterday was a calm day and I could smell smoke in the air so someone must have burned off their pasture. This morning the yard REALLY smells like smoke and it's very windy. I sure hope that the fire from yesterday didn't start up again because Glen's out of town for the day. I think that I'll check with my SIL about it before I go out of town. He's a rural fire fighter. We have a lot of grassy pasture south of our house.

The wind has calmed down and the smokey smell is gone. Whew!!! I feel a lot better. It's always a worry in the springtime since we have the grassy pasture right next to us.

I thought I had heard or read that and I think it was when the fires were going so bad in California.

Yep, you are right, if we have rain, then everything will come back greener and better after having the old winter thatch burned off. What we have to do is check the fence line. There were wood fence posts on the ranch and if the fire was very hot, then they will likely have to be replaced. My cousin is going up there this week to check it out.

I hope there won't be too much work for him to do.

"Him" is a her! LOL! She'll assess the damage and then we'll get the guy who rents the pasture to run cattle, to fix the fence (it's tax deductable, thankfully!)

http://www.tirebiter.com/rjp/prophet...ire-090308.pdf

Here's an article from a little paper in Clinton Oklahoma, near the fires. Be sure to scroll down to the complete bottom of the page, not just the bottom of the article for more pictures.

Wow!!! That was a much bigger fire than I was imagining!!!! It's a wonder that you didn't lose buildings on your farm!!! The article said that it was 9 miles by 20 miles!! That's a big area!! I'm glad that things weren't worse.

Yep, a really big area - 60,000 acres. ! I loved the picture in the paper where the fire was stopped cold by the green wheat field! So cool!

Wow! Glad that's over for you. So it's just the fence? That's very good news.

Yep, it's just the fence - we don't know yet how many posts will need to be replaced, we'll find out soon.

Awesome pictures Gayle. I'm glad you didn't have anything more destroyed.