Wednesday, June 27, 2012

The Fires...

A thunderstorm is passing over the Secret Hidden Bunker right now...so far, there's a little rain — thank God! — but fire-spotters with binocs are stationed a little up the hill from my house in the hopes of catching a lightning-triggered fire before it can boil up like the Colorado Springs nightmare or the High Park monster.

The Boulder fire is far away from us, but, quite frankly, every one of us who lives up here is pretty badly spooked. Everything is so dry that green leaves will powder if you thump them with your finger, and it has been amazingly hot for far too long. All fireworks are cancelled, but there's always some idiot out there with a sparkler or a cigarette butt.

I guess we're not that different from our ancient ancestors on the African veldt...if it comes, nothing to do but run.

Driving home from the airport this afternoon I saw lightning repeatedly hit the ridge lines above Boulder; the sky to the south was dark from the Colorado Springs smoke plumes; to the north, smoke from High Park. Today I upgraded and renewed my NRA Arms Insurance. The computers are backed up, and I'm going to spend tomorrow making sure our bug-out stuff is ready to go if another fire lights up nearby us and making sure my firearms inventory is up to date.

I'm also making a call to Liberty Safes and ordering their best fire-rated safe, a Magnum 56, to replace my older, lower-rated Canon. My primary Liberty safe has an excellent fire rating and that particular model proved itself in the California wildfires of a few years back....one of the reasons I chose it!

I don't know how my friends on the fire lines can do it...I understand some are being shuttled to Colorado Springs. The damned Greens have fought the slurry bombers for years, and a year or so ago our Beloved Leader in Washington cancelled a 50 year-old contract with one of the companies running the fire-fighting planes, leaving the fire services desperately short of aircraft. Obama's office today refused to talk about the cancelled contract.

But, oh boy, Obama will be visiting Friday...couldn't come sooner because of fund-raising commitments, you know! I hope all Colorado residents will remember in November that the Greens and Barack Hussein Obama were and are perfectly willing to let us all burn to save a couple of fish and make sure that Hollywood money keeps rolling it.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Spent most of yesterday on evacuation notice. I believe we're out of harms way for now. Beetle killed trees that we can't thin due to lawsuits are burning all over MT this week.

See you at the night match. Not sure which stage I'll be on yet.

E. J.

gunman42782 said...

Stay safe Michael.

Uno Mas said...

Michael;

Wishing you and IJ the best.

Several of our fellow Cowboy Shooters have lost everything in these fires.

Take good care and stay safe!

Uno Mas

nj_larry said...

Saturday project. Buy some 5/8-inch, "fire-code" drywall (called Type X) and line the Canon safe with it. That is all the safe companies do. You'll be upping the fire rating, reducing the space inside by a bit, but salvaging the safe for fire duty.

Michael Bane said...

I'm going to try and do something for all our shooting friends who have lost so very very much!

Hopefully, I'll be making an announcement at Hell on Wheels this weekend...

It rained...not much, but it;s something!

mb

Big Drum Daddy said...

Glad to hear you're OK Michael - but prayers go out to all who've lost so much. Just a couple hours south of you we have our own battles to fight, and we're "pretty badly spooked too"
Godspeed to all - and God bless.
And, yes, a wee bit of rain here too - but more of morale booster than anything substantive. But will take what we can get at this point.

Anonymous said...

When you build the "New Secret Hidden Bunker" go with Earth sheltered , or underground.
Years ago when the Forest Service "controlled burn (in 60 mph winds) swept over the bunkers at Los Alamos all they did was burn off the brush.
You will still need to evacuate, but at least you won't lose a lifetimes worth of possessions.
Tom Bogan

Anonymous said...

Praying for you and all the folks in Colorado and those barve souls on the fire line.

Chas S. Clifton said...

I don't think you can blame "the Greens" for the tanker fiasco. Blame the Forest Service for ten years of studies and no enough action.

See Bill Gabbert's excellent wildfire blog for more.

From a southern Colorado firefighter ...