Thank you all.........

Thank you to everyone for sending good thoughts our way. Finally this morning updates were made to the websites other than 'the care and feeding of firefighters' where they posted what they ate yesterday for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  Might be interesting to some but first and foremost we all want to hear updates on the 5 fires burning.

Just a bit ago I heard a copter fly over, I ran out on the deck to spot it, it did not have a bucket but this is a big deal that it's even flying. The smoke has been so bad that the copters and retardant planes have been grounded. I'm hoping this one was doing some scouting to see if the others can start flying. The Oregon National Guard has shown up with Black Hawk helicopters and two others I can't remember the name of so there are more to add to what's already here waiting to fly.

Rafting companies and river boat guides are transporting fire fighters and supplies down the Rogue River to remote areas. The river has been checked to make sure no rafters remain on it, rapellers (is that a word? and how is it spelled?) have gone in looking for stray hikers.

I don't want to get overly optimistic about the fire closest to us but they're hoping in the next 2 days to start the mop up stage after doing more back burns.  If you don't know what back burning is - it's when they create a fire line, 2 lines in most cases, and then set fire to what's inside the line to burn it out to contain the rest of the fire. Theresa may be able to explain this better. I'm not trying to get too hopeful because tomorrow the temps are supposed to rise and with it the fires will become more active. We still have 3 other fires around us but not as close, and will only be a threat to us if they blow-up.  This is a long haul to contain and get control over these fires.

I just saw a post telling what types of items can be donated to the fire camps...of course this comes right after I've come home from the store. But since they'll be here for quite a while I'll get out again in the next couple of days to pick up some goodies for them and drop them at the fire camp near us.

Containment update:
Brimstone Fire - 15%
Labrador Fire - 0%
Big Windy Fire - 0%
Douglas Fire - 7%
Whiskey Fire - 15%

Yeah, yeah, not much progress but it's something - those fire fighters are working as hard as they can in the steep unforgiving terrain.

Hope the fire updates aren't boring you too much but it's a good part of my life right now.