wind

[hlg]

Got lucky yeterday,lost no calves,only 16 feet of fence and one bin roof. North of lake Dief. Hardly any snow. How about elsewhere??

[kato]

It's windy here today, and yesterday too. Not so cold though, the snowy part missed us.

No damage so far, but the day's not over yet. The stopsign up at the corner is shaking so hard you can hardly read it! LOL

[hlg]

117 k yesterday!!

[per]

After seeing pictures from Hanna I have nary a thing to complain about. Lots of wind, an inch of snow and sunny the next day.

[kato]

No damage yet.............talk about famous last words!

We were enjoying an excellent pizza last night, when we got a knock on the door. It was a neighbour. "Do you guys know you have a fire across the tracks?"

Well, first, call 911. Then Hubby leaps in the truck and races away. I stayed on the driveway to make sure the fire department went the right way. Ya,like they couldn't see the smoke, right?

The best we can figure is that someone was driving by and maybe tossed a cigarette butt out the window. We can't think of any other cause. It was out in the open, away from anything that could possibly have started a fire.

First the municipal fire department got there, and it wasn't long before a second fire department was there too. We are so lucky that the wind was starting to slow down at the time, or it could have been more than any fire department could handle.

Across the tracks, we had our reserve hay supply that we set aside for spring, as well as a bunch of extra hay. We haven't done an official count yet, but we're thinking it was close to 500 round bales. Right next to where they were parked was a 15 acre pasture of stockpiled grass that we use for spring grazing. This grass was about 2 feet tall, and thick. You want to see something burn, and burn fast? It was gone in a flash. We had our harrows parked out there, and the fire went over them so fast that the tires didn't even pop! That's a fast fire. Then it jumped the ditch and started the railway tracks on fire. The fire department got there just as the ties started to flame. They got that out pretty quick, but I hate to think of what would have happened if they were even five minutes slower.

By the time it was done, our pasture was burned out, the fence by the tracks was burned, the bales were a big bonfire, and the fire even jumped the road and burned out the neighbour's pasture, coming within 50 feet of their house, which was over a quarter of a mile away. Their pasture was grazed down, but even with that, it was so dry that it burned unbelievably fast, and against the wind to boot.

Wow.

We haven't gone out to look at it this morning yet, but the fire department didn't leave until 8 am this morning. Three poor guys had to spend the night watching the bales. We took them some Tim Hortons and coffee to keep them awake. We felt bad for them. It wasn't warm last night.

It sure puts things in perspective to see something like that. Hubby's grandfather died of a heart attack fighting a stubble fire, and he's grown up with that knowledge. Our neighbour didn't look too healthy when Hubby found him trying to beat the fire out by himself when it got close to the house, and that really got him worried.

The bales were nothing compared to the fact that someone could have gotten hurt or worse.

So now I guess we get an introduction to the wonderful world of insurance claims.

[per]

Sorry for your losses Kato. Good grass management and prudent stockpiles of feed are always a fire risk. Good thing less people smoke now days.

[Kathy]

We sorry for your losses also. It is ones worst
nightmare to see fire spreading so fast you cant
control it.

We had a portion of a wall on our large shed blow
off, luckily some trees just south of the building
stopped the section from making its way to the
neighbours. I'm truly amazed that more damage
wasn't done.

Thankfully we shouldn't start calving until end of
April, but I know of one crew calving out 1000
head, and my heart aches for them. It must be
miserable.

Weather forecast that I saw yesterday, said the
Coronation area could get to minus 18 Sunday
night. I hope there is NO wind with that. Weather
is supposed to improve by Thursday, with
possibilities of showers early in the week.

Thursday morning the roads were very bad, and
lots of cars in the ditch. After driving past a dozen
cars in the ditch, you'd think that these important
people in such a rush, might get the hint that they
should stop in town for a break and let the snow
plows get out there and do their job. By 3 in the
afternoon, roads were fine.

[SADIE]

We live right by Gardiner Dam (west side). Today sunny anc calm hard to believe what really happened. Damage in area. Hopper bottom grain bins seen the worst. Lucky Lake area farmers hearing a couple loosing 5 bins in a row---every second one. Our yard had 5 mature evergreens total uprooted. House roof has shakes good thing. Our hopper bins were built and bolted on concrete and skids returned. Mostly done calving and all calves are fine. Outlook area lots of roof damage. One vehicle accident truck on highway was met by wheel move pivot coming off field and across highway. Truck rolled a couple of times---man got out and helped move wheelmove off highway before other traffic hit it.
Riverhurst ferry--cables broke and now in lodged in ice on Lake DIefenbaker.

Thankful at our ranch ---worst seen in area ever.

[rkaiser]

Geez you guys... Hope you get things settled quickly kato.

All we got was a bit of stuff blown around including our canoe in the bull pen.

Calm and nice here at Ponoka this morning.

[smcgrath76]

Sorry to hear about the loss, and hope
your neighbour makes out OK.
We have got a stack of garbage here to
burn that we have been unable to touch for
three weeks. we only had about 4 inches
of snow, but had 130k winds for the better
part of three days.
thankfully the wind didn't blow away the
moisture this time.

[burnt]

So sorry for your losses, Kato. With all things being as they are, you sure didn't need that kick in the teeth.

[grassfarmer]

Ouch!! sorry to hear that Kato and others that have suffered losses or damage. It's frightening the power of nature sometimes.
I heard from the old country yesterday that a farmers wife is missing presumed drown trying to cross a swollen stream on her quad bike at lambing time. They found the bike badly damaged but no sign of the rider.

[kato]

Oh my! That's the kind of news that makes some hay bales seem insignificant. They're just "stuff", and stuff can be replaced. And the pasture will grow back. Last night all Hubby could think about was that no one get hurt.

The loss of a life is in a whole different class of disaster.

[sagewood]

Sorry to her about the horrible fire and the lady perhaps loosing her life. Urbanites on the Calgary radio this a.m. are already whining about the 'weather' and hoping for more sun and heat. They have no idea about the trials those in the country go through when freak blizzards hit--the effect on life and livestock--all they know is they can't drive at Mach 2 coming and going to their jobs in the rarefied air. They want desert-like weather, year 'round and perhaps they are going to get it again this year. Pretty dry out here--the Thurs. night howler just blew snow into the hedges and behind the wind break fences and put tons of vehicles in the ditch. Too little moisture to measure out of what came down yesterday and nothing this a.m. A heavy fog puts more moisture on the ground than what we got yesterday. Another scary spring with hay supplies running low everywhere. Fires this time of year are beyond frightening, especially when the spring winds kick up..sorry for your loss.

[per]

Batten down the hatches, another big storm brewing. Expect a dump from Strathmore/Vulcan to the east and south tonight.