Thursday, July 5, 2012

well..this just happened



The scene above, my friends, is what it looks like when a tiny spark ignites a big chunk of a freshly harvested wheat field. This was the scene that we drove up to around noon today when we were stopping by our wheat field to drop off a jug of water with my father in law. Evidently, a bearing went out in our baler (the thing that we pull behind the tractor that makes those lovely round bales of straw you see in the second photo), causing a spark to ignite a bale right as Joe released it from the baler. 

When we pulled up, the fire/burnt area was not bigger than a pickup truck. Within a few minutes it covered an acre and a half of wheat stubble with flames 10 feet high. Joe had already called the fire department, so we knew help was on the way but, man, was it scary. The crackling noise that the fire gave off was so surprisingly loud and the flames spread so quickly. As I've mentioned, time and time again, we are in the middle of a drought so things are extra finicky when it comes to flames.

And this fire just adds to the weird week we've been having. Yesterday, we were driving to lunch in Peru on highway 251 when Chris shouted at me to turn around and see the accident that was happening right behind us. A small truck pulled out to pass few of the vehicles behind us and jerked the truck too far over onto the gravel shoulder. He then whipped his wheel back into his own lane, overcompensating, resulting in the vehicle spinning out in a 360 degree turn. The truck then slowed as it neared the ditch and flipped a couple times before landing on its top. We called 911 immediately. The cars in front of the truck stopped to help so we figured we would stay out of the way. When we returned from lunch, the tow truck and fire crew workers were flipping it back on its wheels. As far as we know everyone was ok. 

I have to say that all these accidents and emergency crews we've encountered lately have me on edge. What a strange week. I feel like it should be Friday the 13th or something. 

1 comment:

  1. Oh no! I'm so sorry about the fire. That's crazy! Hope it didn't cause too much damage to anything important!

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