This morning still no power. Joe got the wood range in the kitchen going and heated some water for washing and hot drinks. I made him bacon and pancakes for breakfast. The wind had died down in the early hours and it was pretty nice. No need to water any of the yard or flower pots as the rain showers had watered everything. Joe started picking up the rest of his bales and got them stacked in the stack yard. I drove over to Sheral and Dick’s about 9:30 to use their phone, since ours was out again – it needs power to work. It was clear, warm and nice as I drove over, and I saw bunches of both antelope and sage chickens. The buck antelope are already gathering up the does. It seems a little early for that.
At Sheral and Dick’s I called the power co. automated hot line and told them that our power was out. It said it should be back on by 11:30 and was due to a fire. This is the first interactive recorded message that I have really liked. And later I found a message on the answering machine that a power company employee had called to check if our power was back on o.k.!
Sheral and Dick told me about their trip in to the rodeo. They found out when they got in there the reason the power is out is that there was a big brush/forest fire on Pole Creek and it had affected their main power lines. They wouldn’t let the power company crew in the area to fix the line until they got the fire out this morning. Pinedale still had power, but a lot of the outback areas were without both power and phones. The fire burned clear to the overlook above Fremont Lake, down to the lake from the direction of the old dump, and all the trees on that mountain behind that area. The wind must have really made it take off and burn fast. Another version is that there were two fires very close to each other, so I’ll have to get that straightened out.
I was worried about Judi’s house off Pole Creek as they said they heard one woman say that the fire was within a quarter mile of her house and also some of the homes by Fremont Lake. So I also called Judi but didn’t get her. I heard later of a lady near the lake where the fire came within a hundred yards of her house. And then heard that my friend Barb just came home from an emergency appendectomy to a possible evacuation order, and she has bunches of birds, cats and dogs, along with her lovely home on Pine Creek.
Anyway, smoke came through the rodeo grounds so bad that they only ran the first half of the rodeo and told everyone to leave in case the fire came that direction. They ran the second half of the contestants the next day. There is only one road out of the rodeo grounds. Ashes were flying, it was that close. And on Saturday at my booth people were talking about it being too close for comfort.
While I was at Sheral’s I helped her make three of the beds for their company that is coming tonight. Dick threw his back out so it would have been uncomfortable for him help her, and I know how hard it is to change a bed when your back hurts. By the time I got home the power was back on. It was off just short of 24 hours.
Joslyn called to see if we were coming in to the rodeo because Howie and the boys were roping. They were there last night and she also told us more about the fire and smoke. She told me about the area it had covered and that we should ride up to the overlook on Fremont Lake to see the extent of the fire. She talked to Joe and he said if they roped again tomorrow he would go in to watch. That sure surprised me. He didn’t mow today though, so there is no hay down that he will need to work tomorrow. We were invited to go to the Roscoe’s anniversary BBQ bash down at their house, but didn’t go. They have a big band and lots of food with people coming from all over.
This afternoon I got the print racks put together. They are pretty nice and will work fine. Next got the print price list typed up and printed for Saturday. I made several signs and learned a new thing – custom watermark using photos of my artwork – they are faded behind the text and look pretty good actually. Got all those printed up and into clear plastic sleeves. Made a whole batch of invitations for the Art Show in the Barn to pass out. Then I sorted out the prints by sizes and sat and put a business card with the price on it for each one and taped that onto the back of each print. It all took most of the day until about 9 p.m., but this is the only work I’ve done so far for the project. Everything is all sitting in the utility room ready to be loaded into the SUV in the morning. Hope the weather will be good tomorrow, at least for a while.
The wind and clouds came up again and by the afternoon there were thunderstorms. The power blinked several times, but has stayed on. The wind blew like crazy, and Joe thought the siding was blowing off the house again, but it’s probably o.k. The wind was so hard he couldn’t open the back door to go out and look. We got some good rain and its lucky Joe didn’t mow and have hay down. By about 10 p.m. it all died down and the dogs would finally go out. They hadn’t been out since the thunder started.
