History of Ranching today, holiday closures this weekend, and turkey safety

Join Dr Cynthia Orozco this afternoon at 4pm for a history lesson on Ranching in Lincoln County.  This is part of an 8-piece series of programs throughout the county this Fall.

Ruidoso Public Library will be closed Thursday, Friday, and Saturday for Thanksgiving, November 28-30.  We will re-open Monday, December 2, at 9 am.

Remember Butterball has answers for any food emergencies Thursday. Visit http://www.butterball.com/media/turkey-talk-line.   Or call 1-800-Butterball (800-288-8372). You may also need to visit Reader's Digest's collection of turkey bloopers to gain a sense of perspective, too.

Better yet, pre-plan your feast with these tips (what to buy, how to thaw, how to brine, etc).

My dad was a volunteer firefighter for 25 years; please help firefighters  spend their holidays at home with family by watching this William Shatner narrated video by State Farm or reading these tips on how to deep fry your turkey.  If the video does not load, the link is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETBD0EqQGoU.  The Tips are:

Safe Turkey Frying Tips

1: Avoid oil spillover--don't overfill the pot.

2: Turn off flame when lowering the turkey into oil.

3: Fry outside, away from the house.

4: Properly thaw the turkey before frying.

5: Keep a grease-fire-approved extinguisher nearby.  (Here's an explanation of a class K extinguisher.)
You will also need to know how to use the extinguisher: read pages 3 and 6 here: http://emilms.fema.gov/IS909/assets/09_PuttingOutFires.pdf

What's a Level 1 Restriction in the forest?

When I read about the fire restrictions in the newspaper, I wondered: "What do all the fire restriction levels mean?"

Ruidoso can be a confusing place because some of the trees and hillside are on US Forest Service land, some inside the Village, some bordering areas are tribal, and much of the rest is county or state land.  The sites listed below are an effort to clarify what you may (not) do depending on which part of the forest you are in, and how the restrictions compare to other levels (number or issuing agency).

http://publiclands.org/pdf/FireRestrictionDefinitions.pdf
Nice, clear documents listing each level of restriction separately.

http://www.publiclands.org/firenews/pressreleases/NM.php
Latest updates on public lands announcements in the state.

Ruidoso's specifically: http://www.ruidoso-nm.gov/fire_dept/Restrictions.html
Find out what today's restrictions are.  Scroll to the bottom for links to details of what each means.

These next two are pulled up from last year to ensure your bookmarks are current

http://nmfireinfo.com/
Lists all the current fires in the state and updates on progress

http://www.publiclands.org/firenews/NM.php
Lists each public land (forest, park, etc) with its current restrictions, then, further down, lists the definitions of each type of fire restriction.

Village version of County emergency notification

Thank you, Flickr, for the image by: Leppre

The Village of Ruidoso has its own emergency notification system.

https://ruidoso.onthealert.com/

If you registered for the Lincoln County Alert (mentioned in the April 26th post) (http://lincolncountynm.net/), that only applies to County notifications.

The Village of Ruidoso asks residents, guests, visitors, and other interested parties to register at their site as well.

This is a database maintained by the Village of Ruidoso, so they are watching out for your privacy and your information's security.

If you are not online, Elaine Reynolds at the 541 Sudderth Fire Station, 575-257-4116, will register you from 1:30pm to 4pm Mondays through Fridays.  

This is a system to help communicate evacuations, fire/flood emergencies, routes, etc.