hard won actual food grown at 9k ft elevation in severe drought with no domestic water supply other than what comes off the roof and what is hauled up. starving deer ate almost all the vegetable plants, even potatoes and most tomatoes. pepper starts were aphid infested: ants have saved a few🐜🙏🏻💦💧🍅🌶️

if you take indoor plumbing and endless treated potable water for granted, this will mean nothing to you. If you live entirely off grid and rely upon snowmelt/roof runoff, this is EVERYTHING. at last, some respite from relentless drought/extreme fire danger. and pool water for the geese. 💦💧🙏🏻🌧️☔️

most accomplished puker of the seven long haired rescues here. he is (13? 14?) cat years old; not allowed outdoors any more. looks for anything disgusting he can chew on inside solely to regurgitate it wherever the hooman is likely to walk barefoot. ps. he says he is glad its not so smoky there now.

eternal gratitude to the canadian helicopter pilot who crashed and died after hauling many loads of water from silverjack reservoir in erratic dangerous conditions. incredibly tragic. almost 1000 support personnel here on the gold mountain fire 24/7; still less than 15% contained, week 3. 🙏🏻

not good. the very poor air quality in the great lakes region is due to smoke from fires in canada? have never seen anything like these AQI numbers. mask up, michigan family😷so sorry.

tell that to him! working LGD (one of six rescues here, four are pyr mixes, he is 100% pyr, 125 lb.) never collared or tethered. chooses this. any dog can be a sofa surfer….

not a fan of AI. But if you ask the internet if our food is grown in human shit, here’s what you get. Including a disclaimer at the end that safety standards for biosolids vary by location. Not difficult to imagine why there’s a parasite in the food supply making us sick courtesy of this maga regime

still is❤️🐾my boi

THANK A FIREFIGHTER. your life may depend upon it sooner than you think. instead of driving the fire truck in his hometown parade today, this person who is very near and dear to me is awake nights on the closest of several local uncontained wildfires burning over 50k acres- while ‘merica parties.

Sad as it is to see it burn, a lot of what is burning near Ouray in the gold mtn fire needed this kind of “clean up.” fire is moving primarily north and east frm populated hwy 550/50 corridor, into forested areas that are absolutely torching. Here’s what it looked like from downtown Ridgway yest.

k9’s are pack animals. Hoomans= “pack leaders.” after decades of raising and training working sled dogs (so tribal) who preferred to sleep outdoors, I moved my bed down to the living room next to the french doors which open to the dog yard. I now sleep surrounded by six rescued rez dogs/ LGD’s🐾❤️

🦋the vessel matters too, especially at the end of a long, hot, stressful, smoky, windy, gritty, awful wildfire day. my tiny handmade ceramic espresso cup full of very cold french rose’. tomorrow night, adding frozen peaches🍑yassss

when your younger man child’s chosen vocation is wildland firefighter, this message is everything. every day. wildland crews typically “rest” outdoors on backcountry fires in shifts. that there is a clean, quiet, smoke free hotel in Ouray made available for fire crews‘ mandatory rests is huge. 🙏🏻❤️

today’s images of the Gold Mountain wildfire-Ouray, CO. Started two evenings ago when high winds blew a tree onto a live powerline, igniting dry fuels. 0% contained. Hi winds here 24/7 day after day. helo’s and air tankers grounded today; extreme wind/extreme fire behavior. too dangerous to fly.

gold mtn fire smoke plume seen from downtown ridgway yesterday afternoon. at 10:30 last night, Ouray County emergency management pre-notified the entire town of Ouray and residents north in most of the hwy 550 corridor that they may go on “ready” status for evacuation. day 3 of extreme wind. NFG.

current four corners fire map courtesy of watch duty. we. are. on. fire.

gold mountain fire. just outside Ouray. caused by tree blown down onto power line a few hrs ago. Highway 550 closed. evacs in progress. extreme dry fuels and dangerous wind. NFG. NFG. NFG.

3 lightning fire starts in the past few hours near Dove Creek/Dolores. firefighters have been pulled off all these fires due to extremely dangerous fire behavior and very high wind/dry fuels. 6000 acres and growing fast. it would appear that the 3 fires will join. relentless wind has NOT STOPPED.

Ouray, CO. mandatory evacuations for neighborhoods near the bachelor Syracuse mine on CR14 where a tree blew over onto on a live powerline and caused this wildfire. Extreme dry fuels and 50 to 70 mile an hour winds sustained for the last 12 hours here. unsafe conditions for firefighters/aircraft.

apocalyptic and terrifying. Western Colorado experiencing extremely dangerous wildfire conditions. lightning fires several counties downwind now burning unchecked. firefighters pulled off due to extreme winds/low fuels. aircraft grounded. my solar panels have been flipped backwards by 60mph wind.

cleanest, whitest pyr i have ever seen! ours bring literally bicketloads of dirt inside the house in their thick shaggy coats. they sleep inside anyway, usually…

15 + years, just a little baby who helps with house work and sleeps next to my head all night, snoring❤️

my son was just deployed to a wildfire nearby. these are the conditions that he and his crew of wildland firefighters are dealing with, in mid june, when we “should“ be getting rain and seeing residual moisture keeping fire danger lower. We have had no rain. Its only june, and everything is cooked.

June NINTH. wildfire season never ended this winter. my younger son was deployed last minute w/ his wildland crew to this fire as backup; dry lightning caused, on BLM, 200 acres, wind gusts to 50mph and crispy dry/dangerous everywhere. we have had no rain whatsoever. truly apocalyptic conditions.

wildfire near bedrock, co 20 acres and growing. dry and hot, 35 mph winds. here we fucking go already.

Arlo. My first dog. we gypsied all over together for a decade plus in my old 22R 4x4 toyota pickup, which we lived in and camped out of, landing in telluride in ‘85. she didn’t care-food bowl or food sack-as long as there was food. protected me, ate dead things, dumpster dived, snored. immortal❤️

Lucy❤️best front seat lead dog ever. she grew up with my kids, helped raise them, traveled absolutely everywhere with us, led our dog team (never in 12 yrs ran any further back than lead), survived a hit and run car impact to her tiny resilient body, sang her heart out nightly, loved unconditionally❤️

partners in crime and in life. Rocky is 13 now and failing. Gizmo is 9, going deaf and gimpy. Both are rez rescues who have been with me through thick and thin since they were teeny babies. Cannot imagine life without either of these soul dogs❤️

Here is that same fenceline today-half a mile further west - at 8 AM. Elk calf unable to get over the fence to join Mom who had just jumped over. beautiful painting of what has been in my backyard for 40 years. there are a lot more fences going up here, more fragmentation to elk summer range.