Rolling Dog Farm Blog

This is what our world looked like today.  Thick, acrid smoke right down to the valley floor.  We have been smoky for days … really, weeks now … from forest fires near and far.  We didn’t think it could get any worse.  But it did, and this was as bad as it’s been.  The winds came roaring in just as our visitors arrived for their tour this afternoon, driving more smoke into the valley. 

It was so thick we couldn’t even see Ovando Mountain, which rises more than 7,000 feet just behind the ranch to the north.  The slopes of the peak start barely a mile from us.  Behind those trees you should see the mountain.  In a word:  Awful. 

For comparison’s sake, here’s a photo I took back on August 2nd, looking in the same direction towards Ovando Mountain.  We thought it was smoky then!

Yesterday a lightning bolt started a fire on the mountain to the east of us, and from the kitchen window last night we could watch it spot out ahead of itself, with new fires popping up.  All day today helicopters were in the air, picking up water in a nearby lake and dropping it on another small fire on the back side of Ovando Mountain. 

So far the animals are doing okay — we haven’t seen any respiratory issues yet from the smoke — but we’re just keeping our fingers crossed.