Bonfire Building and Fire Fighting on the Ranch (USA)

[vivaine3]

Hi detailers!
I’m getting ready for my August Camp NaNoWriMo novel and I’d appreciate a bit of helpful advice.

Setting: Contemporary, Southeastern Utah, a cattle ranch in a fictitious county shoehorned in between National parks, late spring or early summer (not cattle selling season)
Synopsis: A rancher in need of money agrees to take on paying

Comments

[lolmac]

Um, whoa here -- screwing around with fires in that part of the world is NOT taken lightly. Not when every year means weeks of nail-biting, wondering if this will be the year when some idiot will get careless, destroy homes, kill wildlife and livestock, cause millions of dollars in damage and kill who knows how many people, both innocent residents and unlucky firefighters

[seiberwing]

And in the winter, all the more reason to make a bonfire?

[lolmac]

Especially if they're big enough morons to have forgotten to pack winter clothing

[vivaine3]

Thank you so much for your response. It's a huge help :)

The tone of the story is darkly humorous (or humorously dark?) in a vein similar to M.A.S.H., Catch 22, or One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. The situation is tense and dangerous but the characters, their interactions and responses carry the humor.

So the bonfire scenario was overkill. Considering the plot movement I need here, a much smaller fire (quickly contained) would actually be better. The cowboys realize the danger that's been averted and are forced into closer association with the facilitators. The facilitators realize some of the danger but don't want to admit they're not as prepared as they should be. The guests fail to recognize the danger and see the cowboys' response as overkill.

Oh yeah, lots of yummy conflict there.

[xianghua]

At least here in Texas, we ship cattle pretty much year round.

[vivaine3]

Thanks, that helps :)

[tersa]

This is from Oklahoma, but this thread of blog posts contains a number of entries describing the process of cattle ranching in that part of the country, including when cattle tends to be sold.

From memory, it tends to be spring and fall, but might want to read some of the posts (the titles are fairly descriptive) to get a better idea of things.

[vivaine3]

Thanks for the link, I'll check it out.

Spring and Fall sales would definitely work.