HOME TO THE SMOKE IN THE BITTERROOT

We arrived home from our hiking and kayak trip to a very smoky Bitterroot Valley.  There is a fire just to the south and west of the town of Hamilton.  It is 3 miles from downtown Hamilton and about 8 or 9 miles from our house.  There have been evacutions of homes on the westside of town.  The air has been rated "hazardous" or "very unhealthy" just about all the time we have been home.  One of the problems the fire fighters are having is that embers are being blown around and starting new fires.  Below is a picture of a couple of embers that were by our barn.  You can see they are bigger than the quarter in size.  And the ash is everywhere.  The worst part is that no rain is in the 7 day forecast.  It will take snow to put out all the fires burning in the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness area and the big fire on the Montana - Idaho border called the Mustang complex.  THINK SNOW!!!!!!!!!!!