Two years after a wildland fire

Two years ago we had a fire here. The grass has returned but the trees will take not years but generations to be reestablished. It was our third evacuation in six years. Our home, which is about a mile and a half from here, is in a residential gathering of houses in what is now called a Wildland-Urban Interface. (When I was growing up that would have been "a little way out of town.") Other than that, it has been a good place to live.

The fires that affected us got started differently: trash that had been burned and buried but kept on burning among tree roots; kids playing with matches or fireworks and a horrendous wind that blew a power pole down into dry grass and then fanned the flames. We're very grateful that no one was seriously hurt and to the firefighters and pilots for their massive and skillful efforts ~ and for the last minute providential shift in the wind that augmented their efforts and saved our house the first time!

Just outside the scope of this photo to the right lies the northern border of the Crow Indian Reservation.