here it my help for your chicken ranch fire (and some dim sims)

G'day,

Tuesdays fun, second truck on scene at a rural house  fire in paddock on 3 sides of it, fire rapidly heading for the horizon to the north, east and west in a dry paddock with knee high grass. Within 10 minutes the first truck pulled out for more water, fire was 10 acres, within an hour it had made it to the horizon, over the range of hills in the background. Got home at 8pm, burned about 1000 acres, 3 houses had come under close threat, we had about 15 rural trucks on the scene, 3 urban trucks for defending the houses, 2 water bombers, 2 helicopters, 3 water tankers and a cockies D6, as well as an assortment of land owners utes with slipon tanks and pumps and buggies with Quicksprays. Fire had run about 3 km downwind and spread widely.

Good job Steve, take my hat off to you blokes (and blokettes)

Thanks mate. No one on here would think about burning a pile of rubbish in the paddock 25 metres upwind from the house at 10:30 am when it's heading for 30° with strong gusty wind, maybe 15% humidity, pretty well zero soil moisture, no firebreak round the pile and no fire fighting equipment at hand would they?

living the dream

Don't normally make white bread, generally stick to rye or a German style multigrain, but this one turned out OK. Was dinner with some chicken thighs done in the grill pan with some salad greens and tomato's from the garden. Ate on the front verandah, getting a bit hammered on gin and tonics, Lou Reeds New York on loud, feeling good because of a phone call from the hospital that my wife's 5 hours of surgery had gone well and she'd come through OK. I'll ride over the coast and visit her tomorrow, probably should stop on the gin.  Bloody good drop though, with a mix of Oz native botanicals.

Busy day in Qld. None on our patch, but got asked to send a crew to the next one. First time I've sent a crew without going myself. Dunno if I like that feeling.

The fires are well and truly going on all around us at the moment.....big blaze shut the Sunshine Coast motorway this arvo as well. Local boys had it smashed out in short time.

Was over at Sunshine Coast hospital this morning bringing my wife home. The place looked so green! Haven't seen green like that around here since about April. The colour green fades out once you get west of Kilcoy.

Its funny Steve , i think that it looks that terrible burnt brown summer look but compared to what you see i get your point. My mate tells me that they have had several requests to head out to to fires but the regional commander has declined due to the current threat level locally.

Emergency declaration, Landsborough

Just saw that on the incident board.

Sadly i now see that the Obi is under fire threat as well.

Yeah was on telly last night, authorities were saying evacuate now!

some wings with a BBQ sauce (as a marinade) from Lanes, "Pineapple Chipolte"

Good thing I evacuated 2 1/2 years ago. That patch hadn't been burned in the 20 years before I left. At least my old brigade doesn't have to go fare to fight it, it's only about a kilometre from the fire shed behind the Obi hall.

Was out at sons  house today when some dimwit set fire to the bush....had Mc Dermotts bomber come drop several loads and many brigades combined to stop it. As you well know the gusting winds didn't help at all and then thankfully the predicted rain hit.

that bit of rain was bliss - even a slight tinge of green in the paddock this morning....& an ever so slight movement on our low water tank levels....grateful, but need heaps more...

What it looked like after the fun was over. We stopped it along the top of the ridge in the background then mopped it up on the creek flats. Somewhere during the afternoon we tore out the vacuum line that controls the high/low range shift and it wouldn't change back into high range for the trip back to the shed. Been out 4 times this week, 2 escaped controlled burns and 2 false alarms.