The journey into the abyss of no return

[Weldman]

Hay bales as far as the eye can see… I love my drives home from town.

The original picture with the road of river rock that suck arse.

 

[Weldman]

If I ever get my hands on an actual camera, lenses and filters I would be in trouble. Wildfires sure making some spectacular scenes.

 

[Weldman]

This is 10 miles from Ashland, MT, they are calling for volunteer evacuations there. If it jumps Hwy212 I'm bringing the loader home fueled up ready to plow. Remington fire is about 40 miles from me and has covered about 40 miles in 4 days. Hoping Monday's rain give them chance to make a stand.

 

[murphysranch]

Just read up on it. From Friday to today, its up to almost 200K acres. Looks like its heading northwards.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t possible for some of the cattle Ashland, Montana, rancher Pat Dennis came across.
“Cattle losses are very high,” he posted to Facebook early Saturday, along with photos of the devastation. That included an image of cattle that had been caught and burned in the flames.

 

[SageHill]

OMG.
Living in a fire area - pack up the "everything goes" list and ready to load into vehicles. I'm sure you know all that stuff having lived up there for so long. Fingers crossed for "good wind" and rain. Do you have a stocktrailier for the bacon bits?

 

[Weldman]

OMG.
Living in a fire area - pack up the "everything goes" list and ready to load into vehicles. I'm sure you know all that stuff having lived up there for so long. Fingers crossed for "good wind" and rain. Do you have a stocktrailier for the bacon bits?

I got two firebreaks already in that one uses the land as natural firebreak. Which means there is a ravine 1 of 3 that divide this property up, the direction the fire would come would hit it, it's 40' wide and as it's coming up the other side is the firebreak for nothing to burn.
Second one is our driveway in its shape itself along with where the bacon bits are at, it would have to cross the driveway to get to them and they already mowed all vegetation down. When desperation comes is when the track loader cranks up hours in advance and I plow 16' paths. Just think of it a D8 dozer and the damage it can do, very rare will you find a bigger dozer than what I got.
The bottom red arrow in this picture if you look right above is the firebreak I am talking about, I would finish the last bit towards the bottom left and then go up the left side of the picture which would be on BLM land, I'm sure the rancher will thank me later for saving 1600 ft of his fence. Green arrow is where the bacon bits are safe.
I also have a backhoe the wife can drive to plow some, and if the the excavator is running she knows how to operate it also while I'm using the loader.

This track loader is big enough to save the neighborhood, but as the saying goes, I would pis,s on you if you were on fire. Some might learn to appreciate who they have for a neighbor one day.
This guys dozer is only a D5 weighs 16k lbs in size at most, imagine what my D8 weighing in at 60k lbs will do.

 

[SageHill]

Impressive you've got a D8 - that's one mean machine. They used a D5 to cut and fill for the house, barn and arenas here. You should be good to go for 99% of anything.

 

[Weldman]

Impressive you've got a D8 - that's one mean machine. They used a D5 to cut and fill for the house, barn and arenas here. You should be good to go for 99% of anything.

I call it a D8 cause if I tell people it’s a 977K they get a bewildered look on their faces. It’s the only dozer that compares to its size, weight, and power. I can doze and I can lift up to 3 cubic yards of dirt at a time, drop the rippers and we can have fun. If I had a 4 in 1 bucket it would be like having a thumb to pick objects up.

 

[SageHill]

Those rippers are AMAZING.
Here's a few of the critters that worked here...

 

[Weldman]

Just read up on it. From Friday to today, its up to almost 200K acres. Looks like its heading northwards.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t possible for some of the cattle Ashland, Montana, rancher Pat Dennis came across.
“Cattle losses are very high,” he posted to Facebook early Saturday, along with photos of the devastation. That included an image of cattle that had been caught and burned in the flames.

I feel bad for them and would like to help them, it I’m inexperienced, wouldn’t know if they would let me and costs a lot to move that machine that far and for unknown amount of fuel. Thought about joining volunteer FD and learning a few things at their meetings they have for wildfires.

Those rippers are AMAZING.
Here's a few of the critters that worked here...
View attachment 111047

That payloader there can do some damage, the biggest one.
Here is the rippers in action.