Fly Me to the Moon

by Jerry Finch, Habitat for Horses

Wednesday, March 29th

Early this morning, former kamikaze pilot Yoko Simmons met Val Taylor, a local lady and myself at the McLean International Airport , which is at the end of a very long dirt road just outside of town.

Somehow, a town that has neither a McDonalds nor a Starbucks has a paved runway at the airport. What's missing is any sign of a building, but in a plane like his, that's probably good - less of a chance of hitting it. Except for the 30 mph winds, it was a good flying day. The thrill of flight was soon replaced by something entirely different, a transformation from trees and cars on the freeway to a scene from a lunar mission. Once over the edge of the fire, the visions just outside the window and a few hundred feet down were exact duplicates of scenes from the moon. Exact duplicates, except for the occasional vision of life and death.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v311/jfinch/McLean2ndday018.jpg

Look closely. Do you see the small circle? That's a circle of cows and a few horses gathered around the feed a pickup left. The cattle are in the circle, the horses are walking toward the truck. The few times we saw cattle, if the were not gathered around a hay bale left by someone, they were just standing there. Nothing is left for them to eat, not a blade of grass or a stringy weed. Nothing.

One thing no one seems to be thinking about is the deer. We saw around fifty of them, certainly burned but alive, standing in a clump of burned trees. Again, nothing to eat. Below is the remains of a ranch house. Note all the vegetation.

In fact, in this picture you might get the true grasp of what these folks face. This fire consumed a 30 mile wide by 60 mile long stretch of land. As far as the eyes can see from 1,000 feet up - nothing.

And those few cattle that live, often burned and weak, stand empty except for the left over round bales of donated hay.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v311/jfinch/McLean2ndday047.jpg

And those now passed, who died a very painful death, wait for the sands to cover their bodies. Here, if you look close, are two horses. Finally, far ahead, the edge of the fire, a place where the world turns normal once again.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v311/jfinch/McLean2ndday100.jpg

The second fire, now known as the four-sixes, started close to here. It's now thought that it started at a well head.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v311/jfinch/McLean2ndday127.jpg

While the first fire, the one around McLean , was certainly started by a cigarette thrown from a vehicle on I-40. Good things happened today. Late this afternoon, a load of 1,100 bags of donated feed arrived. It seems that half the town showed up, most of them saying, so typically, "I can use a couple, but I'll wait to see if there is any left. Others need it more than I do."

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v311/jfinch/McLean2ndday137.jpg

And a few of the burned horses finally received a visit from a vet that actually knew something about burns. There I hope for them, at long last. Even for this poor baby with no eyelids.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v311/jfinch/McLean2ndday153.jpg

If all goes well tomorrow, I'll meet with the vets in Pampa , then with a reporter for the Amarillo Globe Times. This weekend, I hope to have around 7 volunteers here and a barn to place the horses so they can be worked on in a sanitized location. Supplies are finally coming in - blankets, halters, leads, etc. Tomorrow I'm making a trip to a store in Pampa to buy a few needed items for our volunteers.

This is the start of a long effort on our part. We can do this, and we can be proud of what we are doing. Many of our members have committed themselves to this effort. You, of course, are cordially invited.

Evelyn Bench
Emergency Coordinator
Region 9 Representative
1.866.434.5737
Habitat for Horses, Inc/Lone Star Equine Rescue, Inc
http://www.habitatforhorses.org/
http://www.lser.org/

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