Fire hardening our place

[salmonchaser]

We are going to make a big push this year to harden our property against wildfires. The last three years we have had some huge fires near us. Just Luck we weren’t directly impacted.
Going to rain tomorrow so I burned out the understory on this 200 by 30 yard strip along our creek. I’ve been piling and burning brush the last couple of years. Sorta seems like I’m getting ahead on that, but there is always more of that along the creek.

 

[Slimfinn]

Are you in the blue mountains? Ive noticed they are holding a good snowpack this year, which hopefully will keep the fires at bay this year. Alot of the ranges here in Montana are holding strong too, for a non-smoky summer

 

[RL338]

A little prevention can go along ways in helping keep the fire hazard in it’s place.

 

[salmonchaser]

Are you in the blue mountains? Ive noticed they are holding a good snowpack this year, which hopefully will keep the fires at bay this year. Alot of the ranges here in Montana are holding strong too, for a non-smoky summer

Yes we are in the Blues. We are about 15 miles east of La Grande. About two miles outside the Eagle cap wilderness. Looks like we have a pretty good snow pack here but I haven’t been up country since we returned from Arizona. The last three summers have been really bad for fires and smoke in Oregon. It would be nice to get a break.
I have three more of those strips I’d like to burn this spring. Balancing act between dry enough and not too dry or the grass has grown too much. The other problem is they will put us on fire restrictions pretty soon.
Son in law got a couple of the strips burned when he was feeling good.

 

[NYDAN]

We are going to make a big push this year to harden our property against wildfires. The last three years we have had some huge fires near us. Just Luck we weren’t directly impacted.
Going to rain tomorrow so I burned out the understory on this 200 by 30 yard strip along our creek. I’ve been piling and burning brush the last couple of years. Sorta seems like I’m getting ahead on that, but there is always more of that along the creek.

Smart move.

 

[clearwater]

Stuff my wife learned at a fire conference was about keeping wildfire from entering the house.

1/4” Mesh hardware cloth over roof vents to keep embers out.

Gravel or concrete around ground a foot or so around base of house( no flammables)

No junipers near house

No wood horizontal surfaces (deck, roof etc

 

[salmonchaser]

Stuff my wife learned at a fire conference was about keeping wildfire from entering the house.

1/4” Mesh hardware cloth over roof vents to keep embers out.

Gravel or concrete around ground a foot or so around base of house( no flammables)

No junipers near house

No wood horizontal surfaces (deck, roof etc

We’ve got the rock around the foundation and a metal roof. Good mesh on the vents. We have a big covered front porch, runs all along the west side of the house. That is our greatest concern. We have a generator hooked up to the well, if we loose power we can set the sprinklers on the house and run if we have to. Also have a creek and a Forest service 2 stroke water pump I can set up in the creek. It’ll run for a couple hours on a tank of fuel. My efforts are trying to keep the fire on the ground if it comes. We have a lot of 50 foot tall ponderosa pine, If the fire crowns and there is any wind at all, or course there will be or it wouldn’t crown, I don’t think I can stay and fight, I’d get surrounded pretty quick. Most of our perimeter is pasture for a ways. We intentionally avoid straight lines, so the distance to the roads varies. We graze the pastures over the summer and concentrate on the perimeters to keep the grass thinned down. I’ve been mowing the shoulder on the county side of the fence and starting this year I’m going to mow about 20 feet on the inside of the fence. That’ll cost me an AUM but make it much harder to have a fire explode right away.
I don’t have enough water to irrigate to any significant degree and actually don’t have water rights. No one will bitch if I’m pumping the creek during a fire but boy howdy they will if I’m just keeping grass green.
The well produces enough water to keep our grass green immediately around the house but not enough to water pasture to any real effect. Also added a couple of gates along the west and north. Already have them on the south and east. If we need to we can turn the cattle and horses loose out the gates. To the west there is a lot of Irrigation and few fences near by. If they can make it there they’ll be good.