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Go to Blazes!

February 14, 2019 / 13 Comments

I am pretty sure that Mother Nature is DRUNK…

At the moment (in Australia) there is snow in Tasmania, devastating flooding in North Queensland*, a god-awful drought through the centre and now dust storms affecting the eastern states…

Will the horror that has taken place to the north-west of us requires it’s own post* we have managed to catch the sharp edge of Mother’s Nature’s rampage too.

I call it 4 Seasons in 4 days (today being Day 4)…
DAY 1: first RAIN of 2019 (between 11-50mm across property)
🤭🌧
DAY 2: extreme HEATWAVE kicks in (over 40C) and a tree struck by LIGHTNING (in storm on Day 1) smoulders (unbeknownst to us) ⛈😮
DAY 3: HOT weather continues and wind fans tree into a FIRE which catches quickly. ☀️🔥
DAY 4: DUST STORM/haze hits… 😳

To really mix it up, we decided (on Day 1, thinking ‘we can relax now, it’s FINALLY rained) to head off overnight to see our kiddos and take in a bull sale. (Kids were great, bull sale was a bit tough for vendors!)

We happened to be on our way home a little earlier than expected, when we got a text to tell us about the fire in our property… that is NOT a fun message to get while you are on the road!

Especially when the temps are like this…

We had very mixed emotions at this point…

How unlucky that we got a lightning strike that took hold despite the two inches of rain (measured not 500 metres from the strike)? We had driven by (just a ridge away) on our way to see this kids (three hours drive away) while it was smouldering without a clue it was happening.

Yet how lucky for us that we have awesome neighbours, who spotted it reasonably early, and stepped in, grabbed a tractor and ran a ‘break’ around the edge of the fire for us. Amazing stuff, which undoubtedly saved us many hectares of precious grass, as we face a very dry ‘wet season’.

The follow series of photos were taken on Day 3 – as we checked on a break put in by our neighbours.

Arriving on scene – the break providing a clear definition between burnt and unburnt!
Serious moments as we wonder what we will see over the ridge.
Not too bad from this angle, but every tree is a potential way for fire to leap that break…
This hollow tree trunk had smouldered at the base, making it easy to push away from the break.
Others provided more of a challenge…
This one was way too close and needed a helping hand…
Hubby was getting a fair sweat up by now – air temps still in the 40s at around 4pm.
Another solid ironbark that needed to fall uphill (with some assistance).
Down it goes!
Lots of sneaky embers had made their way across before we arrived – thank goodness the grass was short here and it didn’t carry far.
Here is a live spot fire… from an ember from the tree on the right!
Just in time! Some fancy footwork puts it out…
The same trees starts dropping big chunky of fiery timber – that break is not going to hold this one when it goes and it’s way too dangerous to take a chainsaw near…
Some action to get the tractor back to push a wider break…
A bit of thought needed to work out where to put it… avoiding including any standing dead timber so the same situation isn’t repeated…
We hoped the extra break was big enough…
The heat was pretty intense, even though there wasn’t much in the way of big flames..
We grabbed our tractor to reinforce the earlier breaks as we waited for the tree to fall…
These open areas aren’t so concerning, with the big timber down – only wind can cause real problems in this kind of scene.
And it’s DOWN…
Check out how close those burning branches went to the new break (centre and right)!
All of this is from that one tree…
Flung right to the edge of the break…
After watching for a while with no further flare-ups, we do a round to check other hot-spots.
Where the fire has burned down and cooled, cattle are already investigating – curious creatures!
Some preferred to stay in the unburnt areas – cannot say I blamed them!
There was still plenty of heat as we headed home, but most was well away from the breaks.

Today broke and the outlook was strangely subdued – as a massive dust storm moved across our state and swallowed up the blue skies. It not only made for a bit of a gloomy mood, but also made it hard to see where new smoke was starting up.

Murky and a bit eerie… see burned area in the middle of scene.

Gentle breezes seemed to be in our favour this morning, but this afternoon stronger winds followed and whipped embers once more into the dry unburnt section of this paddock. The breaks have been breached, and while we did a round tonight trying to ensure nothing was burning near the new break, we are concerned that stronger gusts building overnight will set us on the back foot again. Mr I will head out later on after a nap to see how it’s looking. Everything is crossed for a bit of a miracle …

What we’d really like is for Mother Nature to stop messing with us now. Some more rain, or at least no wind, to help save our precious grass and fodder for our cows.

If you could have a quiet word with her on our behalf, and maybe take the bourbon bottle away, we’d really appreciate it…

Thanks!

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13 Comments

  • Wendy O'Hanlon
    February 14, 2019 at 11:20 pm Reply

    Amanda, your words and photos are compelling. Love to your family and neighbours. Growing 2 on a 40-hectare cane farm on Maroochy River, all we farmers just downed tools and helped each other when needed. when I was a kid, there was a huge fire that engulfed Mt Coolum and beyond. All the canefarmers from both sides of the river went to help. hessian bags and groundsel branches the favourite fire-fighting tool. PS: I love the look of your blog. Could you please send me a link to that blog design site. Take care. I always love your posts and work. xxx Wendy

  • Dena
    February 15, 2019 at 12:29 am Reply

    Amanda,
    I love seeing all your photos. Even in times of intense pressure and stress in your lives you still tend to show the beauty of that land. I live in Southwest Virginia here in the United States and sure wish I could send some of our rain your way.
    Dena

    • BB of Oz
      February 20, 2019 at 8:23 am Reply

      Thanks Dena – it is ruggedly beautiful here and we do love it. Anytime you can get some rain over here would be greatly appreciated!

  • Leenie
    February 15, 2019 at 2:08 am Reply

    I’m so glad you were able to stay ahead of that wildfire! Wow! Everything really looks dry. I bet that makes it hard to relax when it rains even though you need it. Thank heavens you didn’t have wind to help make the situation worse!

    • BB of Oz
      February 20, 2019 at 8:24 am Reply

      The wind created the issue for the first three days… so glad it died down! Yes pretty dry, although the rain that brought the lightning did brighten up the fodder a bit after a few days…

  • Helen
    February 16, 2019 at 5:55 pm Reply

    Amanda, Mother Nature is surely drunk or determined to wreck havoc because of all the abuse she has received. So glad you were able to contain the fire at the time of posting. I hope it stays that way. We continue to have cooler temperatures but those ghastly winds continue to blow.
    Incredible photography given the circumstances.

    • BB of Oz
      February 20, 2019 at 8:52 am Reply

      Thankyou Helen… we try to work with her (Mother Nature) out here as much as we can. Some say she could be menopausal… in which case I feel her pain! 😉

  • debby
    February 24, 2019 at 9:49 am Reply

    Oh my goodness! Thank goodness for good neighbors. As scary as this was, it is scarier to think what might have been, had a neighbor not noticed the fire.

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