A walk to the backhoe.

Skyler wanted to walk down and see the backhoe that has been parked on the street for nearly 2 weeks now.  We found that it was a rental unit and that it had keys!!  What happened next may or may not involved an impromptu backhoe ride and drive.  :)

Someone soys the backhoe!

Pointing at the gas marking flag. 

"Take my picture Dad!"

"Ready?"

"Driving, driving, driving!"

Move over, it's time to take it for a spin! (I cannot confirm or deny the backhoe was driven.)

All done!  Just in time too, note the city truck that pulled up right as we were done.  This backhoe had only .10 hours on it.  It still had that "new backhoe" smell in the cab. :)

Fire V3.0

I went over to help Ken work on clearing the fire again yesterday.  It flared up real good about 1:30 or so.  This time it was in the field where all the hay was spread.  We worked until around 10:30 or so last night.  Lots of hand work clearing metal and large poles from the hay that was piled where the shed once stood.   I'm feeling it today, a little sore!

The machinery circus!

Ken, using his vintage RD6 dozer got more moved in an hour versus the 2 days of using the City loader!  We picked through this pile late last night.

Trail-a-bike.

Skyler got his new trail a bike yesterday.  As you can see, he's delighted with it!

Fire.

Yesterday was not a good day.  My good friend Ken had a fire start on his farm at 4:30am that consumed his hay pile, hay barn, skid steer loader, self propelled bale wagon, and livestock trailer.  I spent the majority of my day over there doing what I could to help.  I returned in the evening with Skyler to show him what had happened and worked on putting out hot spots that were flaring up.  One might look at this fire and think, "it's only some hay" but, that hay was worth $24,000!  The machinery was another $60,000 and the structure probably another $20,000.  In an instant, over $100,000 goes up in smoke.  The farm has insurance and hopefully everything will be rebuilt and or replaced.  The problem now is the 50+ head of cattle need hay to survive this upcoming winter.  Thankfully, several other farmers and ranchers are stepping up and offering hay.  For free.  That's what's so awesome about agriculture, fellow producers going out of their way in a time of need.

This was a New Holland LS190 skid steer.  It was glowing red when it was pulled out of the fire!

City Works donated their backhoe and loader to assist the fire department in tearing  down and removing the hay pile.

Taking temperature readings.  Nothing was hotter than 120 degrees.  Spontaneous combustion starts around 150 degrees.  This wasn't spontaneous combustion.

Big Deere 624H loader.

The bale wagon.

Tires burned off.

The only tire left on the skid steer.  It got so hot, aluminum melted in the engine bay.  That's 1250 degrees!

Loader carrying hay out to the field to be spread to cool.

More temp readings.

Note the bale starting to fall above the fire inspector's head!  He escaped, but just barely.

Ken's brother works for the city and was operating the backhoe.

Flare up.

Dousing with water.

More water.

The loader worked all day removing hay.

Out to the field.  The hay will all be loaded into a manure spreader and spread over the entire field.  Ken will then plow it all under this fall.

We spotted this deer last night.  He wasn't too worried about the fire, he only wanted to eat the delicious corn!

Simon and Skyler sitting on the model 60 Johnny Popper.

Skyler and Simon sitting in the D6 crawler tractor.  The D6 was used to pull the bale wagon and skid steer out of the fire.

The two of them playing on what was left of the gravel pile.  The gravel was used to fill a ditch so the loader and backhoe could cross.

"All by myself!"

Skyler got to run the vacuum yesterday.  He was SO proud!

Continuing the music theme.

I dropped Skyler off at Grandpa's yesterday and Grandpa had this!

It's a ukulele from a kit my Sister gave my Father for Father's Day.  Skyler was so excited!  He was even talking about it last night in the tub!

Musical child.

Skyler is pretty fond of music.  He especially likes to "play" his own music.  Here he is playing a whistle (which he calls a flute) using all of his fingers.

Labor Day = ATV day!

We loaded up and headed out to the West Desert yesterday morning.  We parked near Delle, and rode around the mountains and desert for a few hours.  Skyler was screaming with joy the faster we rode and he keeps telling us what a great time he had and if we can "do it again".  :)

Looking southwest on out way up.

At the top.  Skyler wanted an apple.

Looking south from the top.

Our view north.  Note the magnesium plant.  And how low the lake is!

Another shot to the north.

Looking east to the salt evaporation ponds.

Here comes mommy!

Inside the old antennae shed, an old transformer.

Spooky shed door!

Old power meters.

The old antennae base can be seen in the lower left corner.  The antennae is laying on the ground.

This is the new antennae.  We think it may be used for tracking radio collars of wildlife since it's owned by the BLM.

West of where we were stand numerous communication antennaes.  We didn't drive up there for fear of microwaves!

One more shot of the lake.

BLM power!  The little keypad had a phone number to call in case you needed access.

Skyler the explorer.

Using his "noculars" as he calls them. 

Looking down at the magnesium plant.

All done. Time for a snack.

Our trusty (dusty) ride for the day.  We rode about 25 miles.  Note the train track in the background!

Helping Mommy weed the yard.

While wearing his train engineer's cap and overalls!

He even has his "Mickey Mouse" gloves on!