Fire season is early this year. Not much snow this winter which meant not much snow pack. No water in the ditches. Two years ago we were an island in a lake. This year we are dust and blowing away. The good news is the weather is hot and sunny and we're getting some thunderstorms. Bad news is the thunderstorms bring lightning in a dry year. Though T-storms don't usually bring much rain. We need a soaker.
John and I went to Prineville, a small town to the west of here (in better shape than Burns and Facebook is setting up a campus there). The Oregon Dept. of Forestry had a fire truck for him to pick up to bring back to Burns for the Crane Rangeland Fire Protection Assn. It is the white one in these photos. But it was the wrong truck. So we went back two weeks later to pick up one of the three green trucks. These are old military vehicles with a flatbed. The rangeland fire protection volunteers put tanks on the back of these vehicles to haul water to fires. We have one sitting in our farm yard now -- a 1962 Studebaker 6 x 6. John wanted one of the green ones which is newer. He drove it back to our place at 55 MPH, just about the top speed for these trucks. He has fire training this Saturday and then two days in June. He's not sure which truck he'll end up with this year but he's been keeping the fire truck's 1,000 gallon tank filled from our neighbor's irrigation pivot well just in case. Pray we don't have a bad fire season. I think most of the region is in the same shape. Dry year. Fighting fires is a summer industry in the west.
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| The green mobiles. They take off the back and put a tank on the flat bed. |
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| John checks out the trucks with an ODF guy. Hills of Prineville in the background. |
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| This truck hauls back hoes to fires. |
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| One of the newer trucks with a tank. |
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