aandtcattle
Well-known member
It all started Wednesday afternoon at about 4:30, approximately 4-5 miles south of my main summer range, and it was headed north. I was hauling hay home from south of the ranch and saw lightning north but had no idea of what was to come. At about 7:00 I got a call saying the fire was about 2-3 miles from my pasture so picked up the guy that runs a few cows with me up north and we headed out to see what we were up against. We got within 3 miles of the pasture before we ran into a traffic jam, which is never a good thing out in the middle of nowhere. Finally got thru and to the pasture to find about 40 fire rigs on my ground along with about 8 county maintainers blading firelines on the north end of my property. We drove where we could with a 4x4 pickup but could not find any cattle, so we headed back home and loaded 4 wheelers, spotlights and particle masks and went back to the roaring blaze. Drove where we could with the wheelers and managed to gather up 12 pairs of mine and 1 fall calving cow of Dwights, there are 40 pair and 12 fall calvers in this pasture. Got home at 2:30am and went back up the next morning after feeding the weaned calves we have at home. We made it to the far southwest corner of the pasture that had been burning the night before to find all of the remaining cattle camped on a 50 yard x 50 yard "island" on the south side of a 70 ft. cliff, down in a holler by a pond. All of the cows and calves were covered with soot, some have singe marks and burned spots on them but all alive and well. We trailed them about 7 miles to some corrals and hauled them home Thursday. I have been busy helping neighbors haul their cows to safety ever since. I beleive Ive burned about $1100 worth of diesel thru my pickup since wednesday night.
