My boys and I were watching it from a ridge a ways back from the house. Watching wave after wave of flames going over the hills above Shafer's Crossing. The view this morning shows nothing. I was planning to go to work and then my wife called at 6:30AM from Big Thicket near Houston to say that Richmond Hill is being evacuated and she's coming home. Don't know how she knew that. So I think I'll sit tight just in case I have to gather pets and kids and mandolins and flee. Fred, my banjo player tells me the Bucksnort Saloon has gone up. I hope not, I would hate to lose that place. Especially after we raised our glasses there to John Tinker, a friend lost in the flood following the last big fire. Fred says he's saving a day this week for the locusts. I say don't forget the frogs. The slurry bombers are busy. Yesterday while we were watching the disaster things of beauty showed up as well. The columns of smoke would rise so fast and then when they would get up around 15000 feet would explode into a cloud like a thunderhead and go up another ten thousand feet. It was shocking how fast this would happen. Swifts were jetting by oblivious to the fire. Or us. Then there were a pair of red tail hawks that were screeching and circling around us. I think we were too close to their nest for their comfort though I never saw it. At one point some ravens joined the hawks and there was quite a show. The ravens would dive after the hawks and then dive again and the hawks would chase them. It all seemed to be for fun with splendid aerobatics that lasted for a half hour. I've never seen ravens and hawks mix it up like that before. Anyway, I'll keep watching and pack up if I have to. I keep praying for the firefighters and the flyers. No deaths reported yet. And for those of you outside the viewing area, there is another fire of equal size burning to the west of Loveland.

Rex