There is a nearby fire over 2000 acres burning like mad on the south side of the valley we live in.

They've lost 9 houses, a bunch of fire trucks, one news truck, a business, and a bunch of out buildings. The place we buy our feed had outbuildings on fire. This is a really agricultural area, so apparently, there's livestock wandering around all over the place. There's been a lot of volunteers to take in livestock and vehicles until people can go back to their homes, but a guy on TV said he packed his stuff and his family into the car and left his cattle in the field. The fire crews were fighting to protect the livestock, but he figured they were out wandering around. They've asked folks to stay off the roads where we live because there is so much livestock around and they're trying to capture it before they get up into the BLM land and they don't want drivers to hit it.

Mostly, the fire seems to be heading south away from us, which kind of lets us off the hook a little. I was going to go blackberrying tomorrow, but I'm probably going to go drop off a box of stuffed animals and toys at the evacuation center and stay home and inside, as the smoke has been really rugged on my asthma.

The fire appears to have "laid down" a little -- there's a lot less smoke because it's gotten a bit chilly with the sunset, but we have drastic temperature changes (94-55) because we're at 4000-5000 feet and those will make winds run down the hill along with flames into the houses and businesses.

I don't think we're in danger at this time, but I'm concerned about the progress the fire has made over the hillside on the other side and the winds for tomorrow. They have absolutely no control over this fire at this time. Mike and Russell pulled all brush to the far side of the corral away from all of our structures and cleared the front of weeds and a small pile of brush -- defensible space. Our bags are packed, in case.

All this because some teenagers were partying.