Wildfire

There was a fire west of the fort today that was in front of a 14 mph wind blowing directly at us. Although the fire was about five miles away I could smell it like it was in our pasture. I started prepping the horses and gear in case we would have to evacuate. The slurry bombers were making constant sorties out to the fire to keep it at bay but the word was that five homes had been burned and the Black Tower on post had been evacuated. By about 5 pm the winds had died down some and it appeared the firefighters were keeping the fire outside the west gate. I relaxed a little and after packing up my saddles, started the journey home. From my house in Whetstone I have a great view of the fort and the Babocomari basin. I have a little hill (more like a 5 ft high pile of river rocks) on my property that gives a pretty commanding view of the area. My donkey likes to stand on it because it makes him feel superior to the horses. My wife and I stood on the little pile to get a better view of the fire. We could see that it was still west of the Fort Huachuca perimeter fence although still burning pretty good at 6 pm. Suddenly we were joined on the little hill by our 17 hand, 1300 lb horse Big Whiskey. There was barely enough room on the hill for us but this huge horse decided he wanted to be up there too. It was comical if a little bit dangerous and I wished we had a photo of it. Horses are funny creatures.