18 November 2017- Sunny and 37°F
We have had a busy week on the Holler. We are trying to get to a point where we don’t have to buy any hay for cattle next year. Like all things in the country, nothing happens instantly, so we are planning ahead. Dave called around and reached the Warne Chemical company in Rapid City. He asked their experts for recommendations for fertilizing our property so we can maximize hay production next year. They recommended we put down some nitrogen fertilizer and they said now is the perfect time. Apparently, the colder temperatures help the fertilizer take better to the ground and the moisture throughout the winter (SNOW) will really work the good stuff into the soil.
We took a road trip to Rapid and loaded up 20 bags of the stuff, ten for us and ten for Cowboy Dave. Yesterday, we put the broadcaster on the back of Cowboy’s tractor and proceeded to spread the fertilizer over the areas we are planning to hay next year.
It was a cold day but the snow held off until the guys were done.
UPDATE!!
20 November 2017 – Sunny and highs in the upper 50’s
As I was writing the “Sweet November” 18 November post, Pilot Dave was outside shooting a batch of ammo that he had reloaded. I had the radio on and I couldn’t hear him, but then I heard the basement door open and he was yelling, “Call 911! Help! Fire!!”
I grabbed the phone and tried to get my boots on and grab some buckets. I looked out the window and I couldn’t see any fire, but I called 911 as I was running out the door and I could see the smoke and flames on the north side of our stock dam. The wind was blowing big time and by the time I got off the phone, the fire had spread up through the trees and over the hill.
Dave was trying to stamp out the flames closest to our structures with a shovel and with his feet. Everything was too far away from the house to hook up a hose but I grabbed the hoses in case the wind shifted towards us. The fire was travelling rapidly through the grass to the east and there literally was nothing we could do but watch it and wait for the fire department.
It was the most sickening, horrific feeling watching the flames spread up through the field onto our neighbor Sheri’s property. She showed up about five minutes later and I told her the fire department was on the way. She left to open the gate on her southern property in case the fire spread in that direction and her cows needed to get out. Meanwhile, Dave and I were running around trying to stamp out what we could.
The local phone/internet company just happened to be on our road putting in high speed internet wire and they had a DitchWitch accompanied by a large water truck. They brought the water truck over and began dousing the flames, but it was way beyond their containment ability at this point.
The Sheriff showed up and about ten minutes later we had four fire engines driving across the stock dam and cutting the barbed wire between our property and Sheri’s to chase the flames off to the east. It was such a relief to see the fire trucks and they contained the fire in no time, but remained on site for about 4.5 hours to ensure total suppression.
The fire trucks came from three local volunteer fire departments, Pringle, Argyle, and Custer. There were also some state resources on site although in the chaos I didn’t really talk to any of them. The volunteers were absolutely great. One of them said when he heard the call on the radio, he initially thought, “Some idiot is out burning slash piles.” But when he heard it was from target shooting he said, “I’m completely cool with that. Accidents happen.” The Sheriff talked to Dave to get information for his police report, and Dave asked if he was going to get a ticket. The Sheriff said he couldn’t ticket him for an accident. We love that South Dakotans are so cool about guns.
Around 7PM the last fire truck rolled away and Dave and I went inside to warm up. We were both exhausted from running around like crazy trying to contain the fire. We were both also experiencing a huge adrenaline crash. Still, we rallied and after eating something, we took the mule out in the dark and strung cargo straps across the cut barbed wire to keep the cows separated. Then we drove through the burnt area to make sure there weren’t any smoldering embers that might catch overnight.
We spent a restless night; each of us unable to completely relax and getting up multiple times to look out to see if there was any smoke or flames. Fortunately, the temperatures fell into the low 20s and everything frosted over. In the morning, we did our chores for the calves and then we fixed the barbed wire fence by splicing and stretching the original wires. We checked out the burned area and everything smelled burnt but there was no more smoke or fire.
The initial assessment was 10 acres, but the revised assessment was 17 acres.
Most of the burn area is on Sheri’s property, and we had her over and said we would buy hay to make up for the pasture that burned or whatever she needed. She said, “Don’t be ridiculous, that grass is going to be so green this spring.” And she was so understanding and nice about the whole event. Again, we love South Dakotans.
The Argyle Volunteer Fire Department has been out here for the last two days, and will come one more time to ensure the fire is really done. They were so helpful and nice to us, and we are obviously grateful to all the firefighters (and the Internet guys) that put out the flames. Ironically, Dave and I had discussed going to the Volunteer Fire Dept. meeting last month but it was a snowy, cold night and we said, “We’ll catch the next one.” Well, you can bet we will be going to the next meeting on 30 November and joining in the department too!
Now we’re heading into Thanksgiving week. We are having Cowboy and Linda over for an early dinner and hope to watch some football. We were talking about doing some shooting that afternoon, but I don’t think that is on the agenda for a little while. Meanwhile, we have a whole bunch to be thankful for this year, especially the fact that no one got hurt, no structures were damaged, and we didn’t take out the Black Hills National Forest.
Have a great Thanksgiving everyone, and keep the fire extinguishers handy!
Hoten Holler! 