Smokey Mountain Cowgirl

After all of the birthday buzz I thought this week would be quiet; a time of recuperation and rejuvenation. The reality of that is quite the contrary. It has been more like run, run, RUN!!! And at times that literally happened as you will soon find out.

"What is going on, Prairie Mama?" you ask. Strap on your chaps, saddle up your ponies, and come along for the Smokey Mountain cowgirl's ride.

A wild fire started burning 30 miles from our sister ranch a month ago. As the weeks have passed the fire has burned closer and closer to the ranch. This is the ranch that The Prairie Daddy grew up on, we got married at, and Dad runs. Mom and Dad live at the base of the canyon; spread out over 8 miles you will find a few other homes, a lodge, corrals, etc. The ranch lies in a beautiful valley between mountains.

I think it was last week or the week before they decided it would be best to move the cows and calves from the west side of the ranch's leased forest land to the east. This would put the cows and calves in the farthest pasture from the fire. Two weeks ago there was barely a thought that the fire would make it's way all the way down to the ranch. All that has changed quickly.

Yesterday morning The Prairie Daddy and I loaded up in the pick up with saddles and a horse with very little notice. We dropped The Prairie Kid off with a friend and headed to the east base of the mountain where the cows were grazing. We met up with 7 other guys and we all mounted up and took off for a trek to round up cows and calves. The fire was moving closer to the area and it was not safe to keep the cattle up there any longer. Engines, personnel, etc. have been strategically placed all along the ranch at the buildings and prevention measures are taking place to protect houses and structures from the fire. My sister-in-laws all helped Mom pack up heirloom furniture, china, photos, paintings and more to take to town. Foil fire sheets were wrapped around a cabin in the forest and around the hay shed at Mom and Dad's.

Yesterday was a long day of riding. The 198 +/- cows and their 198 +/- calves were taken several miles (I am guesstimating it was about 10) down off the mountain and into another ranch. That ranch was nice enough to let us rest the cattle for the night and then start back up today. We had to move the cattle another 5 miles this morning and then start sorting and trailering them for the long haul to our ranch. There were 10 trucks and trailers running cattle to our place. We started at 1:15 this afternoon and the last of the cows were emptied off of the trailer at 6:15 tonight. Altogether there were 25 round trips with cattle!

The winds have been horrendous and the fire is moving in on the ranch. The smoke today was absolutely terrible and ash was falling from the sky. When I looked back on the mountain where we were yesterday I realized how blessed we are to have gotten those cattle down and not been up there today. Everything felt so erie as the smoke settled on us today; it was lying on the ground and the air carried a tint of yellow. The visibility was poor and as we drove to our place and looked back we could see huge plumes of smoke billowing out of the forest.

I wish I had my own pictures to show you but we were working way too hard to take time out for pics. I think that total I rode a horse for 7 hours in these two days. I drove my first large trailer (fifth wheel) down a very steep and winding mountain road. We spent 8 1/2 hours in the truck today going back and forth with cattle. I ate several pounds of red dirt and gray dust, inhaled more smoke than I should, and feel muscles I didn't know I had (and am not sure I wanted to!).

I asked The Prairie Daddy if he thinks I earned my keep these two days. He agreed that he would keep feeding me for a little while longer. : )

The cows and calves are now safely in our corrals and tomorrow we may bring all of the horses down from the other ranch. No one has been evacuated and there is plenty of fire personnel to keep the place safe. Now it is just time to pray and wait. Tomorrow is supposed to be another windy day but I think our little life on the prairie will prove to be a bit calmer.

If you want to see some pictures of the fire you can see a video slide show at www.codyenterprise.com. The fire is called the Gunbarrel fire because it stared in Gunbarrel Creek. It has now burned over 58,000 acres and is the largest uncontained wildfire burning in the United States as far as I know.