can prevent forest fires. Out here, that means keeping track of your kids and not letting them play with lighters and matches in the forest that backs up to all the properties on the south side here, especially during a period of very cool weather and no rain for over a month. A couple of kids – one of whom belongs to redneck neighbor, it seems – did not learn this lesson and yesterday we had a rather large firefighting group out beyond the south fenceline two neighbors down, putting down a fire started by a couple of kids. They pumped from our immediate neighbor’s pond to put out the grass on his side of the fence that had started burning. Fortunately, the are was not densely wooded, and they were able to get in there and take care of it. Also fortunately, the wind had died down from the previous day, as otherwise it could have been a true disaster. As it stands, no one was injured and no buildings or outbuildings were damaged. A lucky day.