The River Fire - Updates and Afterward


Early on the morning of August 16th, a dry lightning storm swept through California, and ignited fires all over the state.  One such fire began about 3 miles northwest of Turning Leaf Ranch, in the dense, overgrown brush of the Santa Lucia Mountains.  All day Sunday, we watched the dark smoke plume grew, as fire crews battled the fire from the ground, and air tankers dropped water and fire retardant from above.  As the afternoon winds picked up, the smoke plume blown overhead was so thick it looked like sunset at 5PM.

Air tankers fighting the fast-moving River Fire
on 8/16, as seen from the ranch.



The prevailing afternoon winds follow the geography of the Salinas Valley, from the northwest toward the southeast.  Based on this geography, we knew that our ranch was directly in line with the future path of the fire.  We began the exhausting job of fire-proofing the property on Sunday, when it became clear that fire crews would be unable to contain the blaze quickly.

Preparations went late into the night on Sunday, but progress was slow-going.  An ominous glow from the fire could be seen to the northwest, adding to the sense of urgency, and inevitability.



On Monday, our area was placed on an evacuation warning, and we prepared to stay with friends in Carmel Valley.  We evacuated our house-pets to the SPCA, and prepared for the inevitable evacuation of the livestock as well.  We had been in regular communication with the SPCA, and they generously offered to help us evacuate the animals if needed.  They prepared a holding area at the Salinas Rodeo Grounds, and they allocated two trailers for use in transporting the livestock.


The River Fire, steadily marching closer to the ranch.


The smoke plume, directly up wind from the ranch.



The fire crews cutting a firebreak at the brush line.

We continued fire-proofing the farm all day Monday, hoping beyond hope that we wouldn't have to evacuate.  But by Monday evening, the fire was within a mile of our property, and it was inevitable that we'd eventually have to evacuate.

We stayed with friends in Carmel Valley on Monday, and resumed our preparations on Tuesday.  The fire steadily marched southward along the ridge of the Santa Lucias, and worked its way east toward the ranch throughout the day.




By early afternoon, preparations to gather the animals were complete, and the SPCA arrived to help us load and transport the animals.  The fire was visibly working its way down the hill, and we felt like we were racing against time (realistically, we had plenty of time and could safely load the animals, but the urgency was palpable).


The SPCA team preparing to help load the animals.


Leaving the ranch with the animals.

Once the animals were loaded, we drove down to the Salinas rodeo grounds, and we released the animals onto the small paddock that the SPCA had set up for them.  The next several days were extremely busy, as I drove into town both morning and night to feed them, monitor them, catch any that had escaped the paddock, and patch holes as I found them.  The animals were quite stressed out by the whole ordeal, but eventually, the fire subsided, and we were able to bring the animals back home.

The animals after being released at the rodeo grounds.

After a few days at the rodeo grounds.




Ultimately, the fire came frighteningly close to our property.  Had it not been for the firebreaks that the fire department installed, our property would have been much more vulnerable to the flames.  The photo below shows where the fire stopped, with our property line in the foreground.






If you'd like to make a donation to those in need due to the River fire, consider donating to the SPCA for Monterey County, or the Monterey County Relief Fund:









Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Current and Future Herd Composition of Turning Leaf Ranch

Image
 When we began marketing our pasture-raised animals to the public, we believed that our grass-fed lamb would be our flagship product.  The whole-animal lamb sales we had done in the past were met with rave reviews, and our own culinary experience with the lamb led us to believe that it truly is a remarkable offering.  We raise a breed of sheep (American Blackbelly) that is known to have one of the premier flavor profiles of all sheep breeds, especially when grass-fed and pasture-raised.  The first round of animals that we had processed for market were four lambs, and one goat, as we had assumed the demand for the two types of animals would be asymmetric toward lamb. As we soon found out, however, the market for goat meat is remarkably underdeveloped, with few producers, who struggle to meet the demand of a very large and underserved market.  Among these producers, many follow "conventional" practices, feeding concentrates to accelerate growth to a large size as ...
Read more

Bulk Hay Purchase - Fall and Winter Feed at TLR

Image
 Throughout the season, we make various bulk purchases of hay to get us through the dry summer months, and the slow-growing winter.  Historically we have experimented with wide array of options for feeding hay, including Bermuda hay, orchard grass, oat hay, teff grass, and alfalfa.  Based on this experimentation, we have found that alfalfa gives the best return on investment, with high protein content, high palatability, and high utilization by the animals.  Alfalfa is the gold standard for protein, and all other feeds use alfalfa by way of comparison for the amount and quality of protein they contain.  Alfalfa is also high in minerals (the "Ash" content in the image below), which ensures that the animals are not eating empty calories, and are instead eating a ration that truly produces healthy animals and healthy meat.  Alfalfa has a digestible energy content of 10.7 megajoules per kilogram of dry matter, and sorghum Sudan grass has a digestible energy con...
Read more

Biden Administration Pushes for Meat Processing Diversification

Image
 When we think of a meat butcher, many of us think of the familiar picture of the portly gentleman in a white smock, preparing cuts of meat right down the road for us to purchase fresh as can be.  And of course, we all know this picture is largely outdated, save for a few exceptions.  Instead, the modern meat packing plant consists of a huge team of employees all trained with highly specialized skills (rather than the broad-spectrum knowledge of butchers in the past).  The production line is essentially a (dis)assembly line, with each worker making a limited number of repetitive motions to accomplish one narrow portion of the butchering task, as the product moves by at a set speed on meat hooks and conveyers.  Employees work in close proximity to one-another, and conditions are ripe for a highly contagious disease like Covid-19.  The meat packing industry has also consolidated over time,  just like every industry has, with the bulk of the supply moving...
Read more