tom jr

[pegleg]

Is the mud slide in miller causing you any problems? How d you fare with the fire?

[TomJr]

The fire got most of our orchard but we managed to save the cabins and two power poles, the poles were slightly chard but passed inspection so we have power. Then the flood and hail came and got the rest of the orchard as well as going through two cabins. Our two big ponds are full of sand and over half of the garden has 2+feet of sand on top of it. One cabin has 5 feet of sand in the bedroom and about 2 feet of muck in the rest of the building, it exited into the laundry room and took out the freezer and washer and dryer. We lost half of the meat in the freezer but had an old empty freezer so saved the rest. Fed some to the dogs until they started running off to bury it cause they were full.

Been realy busy trying to get water into the houses and just cleaning up after the flood. The pipe to our main water sorce was taken out by the fire, we got that replaced, its half a mile up into a wilderness area so it had to be hand carried and we got some help with that.

Then along came the flood and filled up the springs with muck 3 or 4 wheel barels, it also took out about 100 feet of the pipe. Thats all fixed and we have water in the house again. Our back up well is in danger of getting taken out so we pulled the pump, so the spring is the only sorce of water. I think there is a leak in the system under 6 feet of sand so will have to work to bypass it tomorrow and see if that helps the pressure.

The mtn is closed to hiking ect until further notice but I have permission to walk up to the spring, about half mile. There was a dead bear killed by the fire about 100 yards below the spring, its been washed away now. Also heard that a mtn lion was killed by the fire over at Kelly's spring.

[TomJr]

Ran out of space. There was also a deer killed by the fire that washed down to our fence, a young bear was feeding on it. The bear is 25-35lbs very skinny and I think it has no mother. Our fence is down so its been a challage keep ing the dogs on property. They treed that little bear several times.

Its likly going to be atleast a year before we are back in business.

[Big N' Blue]

Wow Tom, sorry to hear all the misfortune and hope you the best.

[pegleg]

I worked through that area for a little and had three sv houses evac'd and one in hereford was under evac for over a week. But decided to come back over here due to horse shoe two. Fortunately no losses besides some charred fence post. Glad you came through them as well as you did. Your area was high risk. Still is to flooding but hopefully it'll be calmer till the vegetation gets a chance to start coming back. Are you able to divert any future flooding to the south end of your place? And away from the buildings.

[TomJr]

I think that the future flooding will not do any more damage as its reopened its old channles. The last big flood was 1977 after a big fire followed by an 8 inch rain. This flood was cause by the fire combined with a 2 inch rain in 10 minutes.

The oldest cabin was hit this time because the forest service basicly built a dam right above it about 20 feet outside our fence to take the trail across the wash. Marshal canyon dose not normaly run so it stood ok for 30+ years. When the flood came down out of marshal it spread out along that dam/trail for a few seconds and hit the back of the cabin, its repairable but should not have happened if the forest service had heeded our wishes when they built the trail and put it 50-100 yards away from the fence. Right now marshal canyon has a big clear channle into Miller creek.

Miller creek didn't run yet but was filled up with tons of rocks and sand, that will wash down past our place without causing us much more damage, maybe a few more trees and posibly the hand dug well but its going to cause big problems down below again.

The other cabin was hit due to us removing the old road that acted as a channle for the wash above it. We did leave a small channle but it was not enough for that much flow, mostly because there was tons of sand mixed in with the water.

Its all fixable with time and money. The apples will take 3-5 years to get back into producion once they are replanted.