Pancho07

Thanks SLAG, we have grass coming back in most places and after the grass these two were the worst of our losses, only one ran and it was kept up at the wheat pasture for the heifers winter grazing, more of a spare.

Not a great picture but here's the other one

This is how burned both of them are, I haven't had the time to do anything with them yet

I've got 2 4wheelers that were total losses in the wild fire last month. I am planning on robbing as much from them as I can before they go to the scrap yard. Right now I have coil springs and axles on my list. What else should I look for on them that wouldn't be a waste of time trying to pull off?

First project in the new shop, still needs some tweaking but I think it's usable as is. Got the idea from the DF in the shop YouTube channel

Grass is growing and charity is still coming in, there are a lot of better people than I who are helping us out.

Got alittle too much solder outside of the overlay but it's coming together.

No it isn't, things just keep getting in the way of fixing it

After all of the destruction of the last week I've felt the need to create something. This is the beginning of a new buckle. It's a long ways from perfect but some copper will cover up some of the imperfections. I may put a spot weld in some of the over cuts from the torch.

Thanks for all the replies, dad says he doesn't mind the sharpening or changing utility knife blades so I say good on him.

I want to thank everyone on here who has given prayers and anyone who has given donations. We are beginning to see a light at the end of the tunnel and it's not fire or a train. The last estimate I saw said that 81% of Clark county's landmass has been reduced to ash. We have had a tremendous outpouring of support from around the country though and it has made all the difference. In the last 2 days my ranch will have received 5 semi loads of hay and have another one coming tomorrow and I believe will be continuing to come until it is no longer needed. We already are starting too see a green cast to the pastures and I've been told we should be getting some rain over the weekend but I don't seem to see the same forecast everyone else has. Relative humidity has gone from the 5% it was on tuesday to 35% today which has made a huge difference as well. thats about all I can say for now as that 5th load is being brought in and needs unloaded. Things are going to start getting busier around here so updates probably won't be coming as often as I have been trying to and will probably be moreso about my ranch and less about the rest of the area but please continue to pray, things may be getting better but it's still going to be a long summer.

Glenn, I see what your saying now, it's a possibility. Alan, that is a good idea too. Thanks

I think we may have something similar to what your thinking only smaller. Dad got the idea for basically a hatchet using a sickle blade and old hammer handle. It didn't work very well with our twine wrapped bales but may work here, we forgot it at the shop when we were distributing today. I'm not discounting it yet but I want a back up plan. We have a couple of these laying around that work great for cutting ear tags out and thought of them but I'm afraid they may bend and break if they get caught in straw. We may just be limited to sharpening often and carrying more than one knife.

As those who have read my wild fire thread in the prayer list know we lost all of our grass and will be feeding a lot of hay bales over the coming weeks. This first semi load that we got all have net wrap instead of twine. For those of you who don't know it's ... a net, similar to an orange or halo/cuties bag only bigger and thinner plastic. It cuts or tears fairly easily but the bale will kill a knife edge fairly quickly and tearing just turns into a mess. Does anyone know of a design that would make these things easier to cut without having to sharpen a knife everyday?

From Kansas division of emergency management. Here are the latest #kswildfires numbers: Total Kansas acres burned: approximately 631,950 Comanche and Clark Counties: approximately 502,000 (a new record for a single fire in Kansas) Total containment of active fires as of this morning: Clark County: 50% Comanche County: 70% Reno County: 85% Rooks County: 97% Ellis County: 98%

We do 5 steels and one wood post, some think that that's too many steels but there aren't many post trees in the area and when a fire does come through there aren't as many posts that need replaced. Current count on the north side of the river, we are along both sides of the Cimarron, is only about 40 line posts and 12 corners. We are not hurting as bad as some are.

Clark County Sheriffs Facebook post from 3 hours ago: Sadly, we have set a new record in Kansas. The one grassfire alone in Clark and Comanche Counties holds the record for most acres burned in Kansas from a single fire. So far, 351,000-400,000 acres have burned in Clark County (that's 85% of that county), and 151,000 in Comanche, making the total over 500,000 acres. The previous record was 312,427 acres in Comanche and Barber Counties in 2016. In addition to ground crews, there are two Black Hawk helicopters with 600 gallon buckets dropping water on the fire and two Chinook helicopters capable of dropping 2,000 gallons are joining the fight. There are five counties across Kansas fighting fires right now. In addition to Clark and Comanche, Reno, Ellis and Rooks Counties have fires not yet contained. Governor Brownback declared a State of Emergency at 7:21 PM March 5, 2017. I was contacted today by someone from ABC news earlier today asking for permission to use a live stream of mine from yesterday so some of you may see my place on tv. My ranch was luckier than most, we haven't located all of our cattle but as of now we have found no cattle carcasses and none injured enough to be euthanized, mostly minor respiratory. We have lost a lot of grass so we will be feeding a lot of hay which is being made available by some very charitable people. For other ranches in the area I won't say much until I hear from them, everyone knows what he said she said they say means. Our neighbors to the south lost all buildings at headquarters except for the bunkhouse. They had steers one wheat and heifers, that they bought from us actually, in a grow yard. All should be fine but the heifers were moved out of the danger area. Neighbors and cousins to the west of us, as I understand it, lost nearly all of their cows on the cimarron river and possibly in other pastures that they have. I heard from someone helping with a ranch north of town that they lost 2/3 of their herd and the 3 adult daughters and their families lost their homes. Im still alittle frazzled so I'm going to stop there for now. Bottom line there was very little loss of human life or limb, homes can be rebuilt, grass grows back, and cattle multiply. This is still a dangerous place to be but it is becoming less so every hour. Thank you all for your prayers, thoughts and kind words. Everything helps. pancho

New map, via Oklahoma forestry service,from 6am today Only about 342000 acres in oklahoma. If there is interest I will continue with updates as I get them.

Last estimate I saw was over 60%of the county has burned

Thanks

Thanks Glenn and SLAG, this is how close it got to our house and this is the affected area as of 8:40am yesterday. We are pretty much the red dot there

I'm sure it's been on the news but there are fires all ove Kansas oklahoma and I'm sure other places that I'm not aware of. My ranch was burned today along with most of Clark county in southwest Kansas. 30 homes at least have been lost, most have been my friends or family. I got lucky in that my house was spared but it was a close thing. The neighbors to the west of us have had to euthanize most of their cattle. For those willing please keep us in your thoughts. Also if anyone in the Tristate area would happen to have surplus hay they could part with it would be much appreciated, either in Clark county or other ares being affected. Pancho

Thanks, every time I googled soldering copper I either got plumbing or stained glass so that put me in the right direction. For the steel on this buckle I'm thinking about rust bluing or browning it. If I do this would I be able to do it after the panels are on or would I want to do it before?

I've got an idea for a belt buckle that probably won't be any time soon as I need to practice some parts of it before I actually get to it but my idea is to have a steel buckle with copper panels engraved and overplayed on the buckle. I know it's possible because I have seen it on friends buckles and online but I'm not real sure how to go about it. My first thought is to drill out the centers of the flowers and rivet them onto the buckle then slowly heat the whole piece until it blazes itself onto the steel but I don't know if that is the best way to go about it. rough idea of what I want the buckle to look like Closer idea of what I want the panels to look like Any help is appreciated, thanks in advance.

This ended up being too tall to fit under our cabinets but I'm happy with it otherwise.