After 40+ days of over 100 degree heat we finally got some rain and the county lifted the burn ban. My cousin, Sonny, decided to burn a few brush piles down in the pasture he leases from me. Unfortunately, he lit one more pile than he could manage and some grass caught fire. We had no wind to speak of but the damp grass produced enough smoke to alert all the neighbors. I happened to look out my window and it looked like the whole valley was on fire. Sonny was sure he could manage the fire but the neighbors were nervous. I was caught in between but decided to call the fire department and they came and put out the fires. It was quite the excitement in the neighborhood and people came from all over in trucks, on foot and on tractors and 4 wheelers. I was at the front gate letting in the fire trucks so I got to greet everyone and introduce myself. Not exactly the way I would have wanted to do it but I was impressed with everyone’s concern and willingness to help. My neighbor I had met, Andy, came over with his tractor and dragged around the hot spots. I will ride over to his place this morning and put a bottle of wine on his tractor. 

Of course Sonny was mortified but he is certainly not the first person to have a brush fire get away from him. Like all things good may come from this in that one of the neighbors may want to buy Sonny’s bull. I also found out one neighbor has a pet deer and that we have a group of fox living close by and at least 7 of them have been sited at one time or the other. There is also, evidently, a doe who has twins every spring and brings them up to the water trough right by my neighbor’s house. It was nice to get to know people in my area and we have a great fire department. No harm was done and the brush did all burn up even if we did lose a bit of grass. Madalyn