Did Anyone Bring Hotdogs?!?

After posting the last tale about being scared of what might be lurking in the dark, I had a few conversations with the siblings about what exactly we were afraid of in Juniper.  I was afraid of things jumping out at me, Crystal and Jason were scared of kidnappers, and I know Utahna and I were both afraid of robbers.  Looking back, the most frightening thing should have been a rock or hole in our path in the dark or maybe an unwanted visit from a creature.  Utahna and I held hands to comfort each other, apparently Crystal sang loud and bad to ward off potential kidnappers, Jason reports carrying a stick whenever forced to go out in the dark.  However, if there is one thing Juniper-ites should have a healthy fear of, it is fire, specifically fire in the summer… one spark ignites and it spreads like… well, you know.  Here is just such a story.  Enjoy!

             Black Pine ablaze in 2000

From Juel:

I remember trying to burn some goat grass down on the sandy corner of the Butler field one day, (actually it was a very pleasant cool morning, about the 1^st of June), close to the freeway fence.  A passerby stopped, was lost and asking for directions; so, instead of being rude, telling him “I am too busy right now”, I tried to help him out.  Well, while my back was turned a bit of my fire got into the fence and the freeway borrow pit and started heading north through the June grass.  I was all alone, no cell phone—actually, in those days we called them blankets for smoke signals.  I had ½ the smoke just not the blanket to dial the right number.  Anyway, back to my story.  I was praying, literally, and working feverously to stop that fire and I would almost get it with my shovel and a little gust of wind would come up and push it past me again.  Over and over this would happen.  Finally, I gave up on that idea, drove fast as I could back to the dairy, got the Massey with the loader, headed back towards the fire down the freeway and was able to use the tractor bucket to put the fire out.  About that time, Craig Rushton showed up with his sprayer and put the manure out which was smoldering on my tractor.  Thank you Craig.  And shortly thereafter a BLM official pulled up and told me he would not bill me for the fire since I put it out, really nice guy, had a good chat.  It was a very exciting day for me, one I hope never to have to relive.  Don’t like working that hard with the heart bruising the inside of my chest!