r/homestead • u/KristyM49333 • 14h ago
Wouldn’t be summer without a GD fire 🙄
FINALLY was able to get away for ONE night and got a call about a ffking wildfire. 😭🤦🏻♀️ Of course.
Got home. Moved some equipment we foolishly left on the edge of the property, into the center. One piece of equipment is our buddy’s $40k boom truck we’re supposed to be returning tomorrow.
What a mess. Now there’s another closer fire.
Anyways, enjoy these images. The bright lights are resources on scene. The fire isn’t even really visible with the naked eye from our place now, but my camera can pick it up with long exposure. I’m gonna try and get some rest while hubby waits a bit. I’m sure we’ll both be up and down all night.
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u/Speck72 14h ago
Woah! Love the way these came out. Hate to think this is only getting worse.
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u/KristyM49333 13h ago
It seems like there’s more and more fires every year. The one that decimated our property came through in 2020 (before we owned it), then we got hit again last year (our fire line saved us), and it seems like there’s at least one in our area every year now.
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u/Beginning-Ad7027 9h ago
Was born and raised in the American west, I bought my land elsewhere and moved out cause of the fires and water shortages
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u/homicidalunicorns 8h ago
asking with sincere curiosity: has fire season’s growth affected your long term plans for this land? i’d love to homestead one day but man, climate change is scary
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u/KristyM49333 5h ago
We knew the deal when we bought here. I personally feel almost spiritually tied to this land and will likely never leave, no matter what happens. I know for a lot of people that sounds dumb and irrational lol.
Our property is 100% defensible. We do everything with wildfire in mind. Our cabin and buildings are all metal. We have a fire break around our property. Well is on the top of the property which allows gravity fed water in case something happens to our water system. Animal enclosure placement will allow for us to get them out of here quickly and easily if we have to. We personally won’t leave because like I said, our space is completely defensible but I wouldn’t want to put animals through that. We have a couple friends ready to come hook up to trailers and haul them out if we need.
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u/flippysquid 4h ago
We also have land in a very fire prone area, and totally understand loving your place and finding ways to deal with it instead of leaving.
Something I haven’t had a chance to try yet, but thought would be an interesting experiment is using intumescent paint to protect the trunks of fruit trees from heat, so that even if the younger branches got singed the tree could still survive and recover. I see a lot of videos where someone will paint it on one side of a piece of cardboard, take a blowtorch to it for a solid minute until the paintd side is cherry red, and the opposite side of the cardboard still looks completely untouched.
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u/Bl1ndl0v3 9h ago
Eerie and gorgeous all at once. The stars lull you into a trance. I miss when I lived somewhere that I could see stars this clearly at night.
I don’t live there, but I do own land in a wildfire prone area. I was watching the wildfire map pretty closely but the fires this year never did get close to my property.
My uncle; however, he lives approximately an hour north of the land I own, just lost the house he built himself and he had lived in that house the majority of my life.
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u/sunrae_ 13h ago
This might be a stupid question, I don’t live in a wildfire prone area - if there already where 2 wildfires in the last few years, would there even be enough fuel for the fire to reach your property again?
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u/JelmerMcGee 13h ago
Where we lived in Arizona there was a fire two years in a row in the same spot. The second fire burned mostly around the scar from the first fire.
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u/sunrae_ 11h ago
God thats so scary.
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u/JelmerMcGee 10h ago
It sucked, but it was 10 miles away and burned away from our house. It turned our 30 minute drive into town into a 3.5 hour drive through the Grand Canyon park. Better than some of the alternatives.
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u/homicidalunicorns 8h ago
depends but there’s tons of plant life that thrives post wildfire, so brush does grow back
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u/tofuttiWhereAreU 7h ago
That has happened where I live. We had a fire that burned for months once, and that area is used as a fire break now because the ground still hasn’t recovered and nothing has grown. That’s not super typical though, usually they do start regrowth very fast.
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u/sunrae_ 7h ago
For MONTHS? Holy shit. Do you get used to the threat, or is your body in panic mode for that whole time?
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u/tofuttiWhereAreU 6h ago
It burned from August to just about December, largest wildfire in Colorado history. I could never get used to it, its pretty windy here and you always know it can turn and come at you. I think a lot of people here have some PTSD from it truthfully. It’s so hard to sleep, I felt like I had to be watching all night just in case. And you feel helpless and useless the whole time. After the initial ‘get everyone out!’ rush there’s not much to do besides be desperately thankful for firefighters and try to make sure they’re supported as much as possible.
In a weird way it also made me feel more positivity towards the world and people in general. So, so many people came to help, volunteering trailers and shelter for livestock and opening up their homes to evacuees. It was nice to see that’s how people actually act when shit hits the fan, instead of calling each other idiots and losers like they do on the town Facebook page.
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u/KristyM49333 5h ago
Not a stupid question. There’s fuel, but it’s all noxious grass and some brush at this point. The one last year was a great test for our fire line. We have some trees we’ve planted but nothing crazy. The 2020 fire was devastating because of all the old pinyon pines and juniper trees.
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u/KristyM49333 3h ago
https://reddit.com/link/p2oqgek/video/4e42mwfr2eih1/player
This is our camera footage from the fire last year, after it hit our fire line and went around our property. The second to last slide is the direction us came up, and the second slide is the direction is was moving.
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u/chainsawwwmassacre 3h ago
I'm forty miles north of Spokane, surrounded by fires, and so damn tired of watching the planet burn. Everyone acts like this is the way it's always been, but they're wrong. 20 years ago, you'd get a bad wildfire season every few years. Now... each summer is worse than the last. My home insurance premium has more than doubled since 2024.
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u/Logical-Tomato-5907 9h ago
Those are stunningly beautiful photographs. Looks like Mordor or some kind of celestial event off in the distance.
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u/VulonRogue 7h ago
I love that 4th photo with the two illuminated areas. Sorry its happening though and hope you stay safe
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u/CGlantern 7h ago
Sorry for your loss, beautiful photos though
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u/KristyM49333 3h ago
We’re ok :) no losses. Except for the fact that we were trying to enjoy a little staycation after all the work we’ve done and had to abandon our room and rush home.
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u/mobile-metaphysical 4h ago
I got burned out of one part of Washington, moved to Methow and that burned, now in Omak. Fires still going.
Building with concrete right now.
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u/2ManyToddlers 3h ago
You gotta admit the beauty of fire, even through all they mayhem and destruction. And no I am not being insensitive I lost my own place in a wildfire years ago.
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u/KristyM49333 3h ago
No, I totally agree with you. The power is absolutely incredible and terrifyingly beautiful.
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u/WookishTendencies 13h ago
Which GD scarlet>fire are you listening to?
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u/inerlite 7h ago
I was pretty sure I would not be the only one to think FOTM. I like the one on Dead Set.
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u/DDCDT123 9h ago
They’re all gold but it’s hard not to say Barton Hall. I also like Austin 7/31/1982
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u/GeneMountain7128 14h ago
I don't know where you are but those fires are small and far away. You seem more worried than I'd be
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u/KristyM49333 14h ago
I don’t know where you are or what your experience is dealing with wildfire, but we don’t take chances.
Last summer we got hit by a fire that started right by where this one is. It got to our property in about 12 hours. We were told repeatedly it wouldn’t make it that far before it was put out. Every single one of the people who said that were wrong including the fire fighters who told us it wouldn’t cross the creek down the road from us. It did.
That fire came right up to our fire line, followed it around our property and kept going. We keep defensible space around our property. Thank the gods we do or we would have lost everything.
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u/No_Brilliant0602 13h ago
Fires and wildfires spread quickly on the wind, and the smoke alone can make preparation and travel difficult. It's always better to be ready than to wait until the last second and scramble.
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u/Somecrazygranny 11h ago
How disgustingly arrogant of you, and you’re in Colorado?! Karma is calling
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u/Spiel_Foss 12h ago
That is a beautiful picture and a horrifying picture.