Last week in the afternoon I was busy weeding the tomatoes. With my head down focused on pulling weeds I smelled what I thought was an early dinner of barbecue. I continued weeding but soon the barbecue smell was too strong to be coming from a neighbor’s grill. I looked up to see smoke billowing from a not so distant mountain.
I stood there just staring at the smoke as I realized the wind was blowing in my farm’s direction. My mind was set at ease once I heard multiple sirens in the distance, within an hour the smoke stopped billowing and the smell of barbecue left the air.
That afternoon was the first time I thought about a wildfire affecting the farm. As I was watching the smoke I thought what if I needed to evacuate what would I take? Hand tools, seedlings, irrigation supplies? In the end I figured the only thing I would take is my walking tractor as everything else could somewhat easily be replaced. Its only the beginning of July but the hills and fields are as dry as if it’s the end of long hot summer. Be mindful of the dry grasses and stay safe.