The fire destroyed our cattle range, our cattle, and even worse our family’s legacy. Someone asked my daughter if I had lost our family home. She told them “No, that would be replaceable. This is not!” I would gladly sleep in my truck for the rest of my life to have our mountains back.
-Elmo
That link dont work.
ReplyDeleteTry this one.
Deletehttps://calcattlemen.org/2020/09/23/legacy/
Brought tears to my eyes, I cant imagine how soul wrenching it must be for them.
ReplyDeleteNever seen a fire like this one. Still haven't been able to get back in to see where my house was. At least I got out with my life and my wife. Anything more than that was a blessing, and we at least had the important papers and some clothes. Some folks got out with nothing, or just the clothes on their backs.
ReplyDeleteInbredRedneck
Army NCOs know you handle problems at the lowest level possible. The very nature of government bureaucracies keeps them from even considering lessons learned by the people on the ground.
ReplyDeleteWhat a heart breaking story. Sorry part about all this is, none of it had to happen. The fault lies 100% on government. Some may blame the eco-nuts but the Government allowed them a voice and a plan. killem all let God sort them out.
ReplyDeleteMan, Wirecutter, so sorry to hear about all the troubles your way. Keep in mind your many other blessings and health, family, etc. Nature finds a way and will come back. God bless.
ReplyDeleteNot my way, I left California 5 years ago.
DeleteA tear-jerker.
ReplyDeleteFor ten years, I owned a restaurant business next door in Chico California.
After they retired, folks like these farmers and ranchers came in daily... often staying into the afternoon after finishing breakfast.
Chico and Butte County are not frisco / hollywood / sacramento.
Heartbreaking.
ReplyDeleteThis is another sad story generated by government folly. The author is giving the .gov folks a break saying that they're "good people". How good are they when the policies that they write and enforce lead to fires like this and all of the other major fires that have devastated Cali's and other western states landscape's over the last 25 years?
ReplyDeleteThanks Elmo.
Nemo
Thanks for taking the time to read it, Nemo. And to Ken for posting it.
DeleteOne thing the author doesn't get into is his herd. I have a friend who has run his cattle in the high country for over 50 years. He says they know the routine generationally. When he heads them up the hill in the spring it's almost like they're on auto-pilot. They know where they're going and they know where the overnight stops will be. You can't rebuild a herd like that overnight. And maybe that's not as big a deal now, since Mr. Daley's summer range has been vaporized.
I also can't help but wonder how many head he had that might have carried the bloodline of his great great grandfather's herd. That's something he might know. But at the very least he knows the history of his herd and has an attachment to all of those mother cows. That's what would get me, put in his position. It would be like losing a couple of hundred old friends.
About 25 years ago we had a fire that tore through 220,000 acres. I went in about a month after it had burned out and it looked like a moonscape-absolutely no color other than grey and black. Weird thing: every so often-riding along the forest road-there would be a long, narrow green splotch in a small ravine where a few trees somehow survived. Land is changed for many, many lifetimes. Another fire caused by lightning about 30 years before wiped out all the trees on the top 2/3 of the small mountain in the foothills-to this day nothing has grown back other than a little scrub.
ReplyDeleteAs said the government that listens to these eco nuts is disgusting. Most live in the city and have no idea what country living is about. If they do go to the country they complain about the smell a cow shit which is music to me nostrils. Especially Dairy shit. I slung a lot a shit outta gutters in my day. So, the nuts want to protect owls and some worm or beetle then hundreds of thousands of forest acreage burns and kills all sorts of life. It's like the do gooders that wanted all the Mental Hospitals closed and the patients living in the community. The minute one wandered into their community though they were all about 911. I said I wanted them out, not on my street.
ReplyDeleteA man with nothing left to lose still has revenge...No bureaucrat should feel safe opening the door to let the cat out.
ReplyDelete