Wildfire - Part 2

Now for the results of the fire.  Here are some panoramic pictures from a the highest vantage point I have on my place. Pretty much the only thing that didn't burn was bare dirt. The road and some long narrow food plots that I planted last October but they never grew because it didn't rain.

This picture is a little over 180 degrees of panorama. It starts off looking north and then pans around to the southeast.  Just click on the image to see it full size.

This picture starts off looking northeast and ends up looking southwest.

Last panoramic picture. This one starts off looking southwest and ends up looking due north of a complete 360 for all the pictures combined.

The area looking north was the thickest nastiest stuff on my property and you can see from the ashes that there was plenty of fuel to burn there. That area took the brunt of hottest fire. There were actually a few stumps still burning today when I was down there checking on things. The rest of the place didn't exactly come out unscathed, but some of the trees look like they just might have a chance.

Now for some close up pictures of the damage.  Our travel trailer is toast.

The blind on the hill made it.

Protein feeder made it.

Grain drill is going to take some repairing.

Some of the stumps were still on fire when I was down there today.

My biggest and oldest mesquite burned from the inside out.

I took a timed shot with the camera to try to give some perspective on how big it was.

Another big mesquite gone.

Lost another smaller blind that I had in a different spot.

Maybe you can see it in this closeup?

My tripod stand made it but the big mesquite behind it didn't.

Here's what it looked like when I first put it up.

Not much left of my south fence line. Wooden posts don't hold up very well to fire.

The crazy thing is that the brush seems to have just completely burned up with no trace left behind. This area had lots of brush mixed in with the grass and it is completely wiped clean.

Not just a pass on by type of fire.

I only found 2 dead animals walking the place. A cottontail rabbit and this bird. Craziest looking bird I've ever seen. Several folks have identified it as a Painted Bunting. Too bad it is dead, it was a beautiful bird!

And this picture just shows the worst of the fire. The tree in the front center of the picture still has green leaves for now, but it completely burned up at the base and then fell over.

That is not a small tree by any means either, just a couple trees up from it is the large mesquite that I was sitting on in one of the timed pictures. The tree laying on it's side was at least 30 feet tall and I wouldn't be able to reach my arms around the trunk of it.

I'll try to get some before and after pictures posted as well. I will be documenting the progression for the next several years as well. The big trees can't be replaced in my lifetime, but with a clean slate hopefully the habitat can even better than it was before the fire.

That's it for now.  Nathan