Fire on the Mountain, and its Raining

I stood in the yard, looking east at the Sierra Ladrones (Thieves Mountain) that rise to 8'000 feet some ten miles from my home. A large canyon down the west slope was awash with flame, hot sports flaring up into the darkness like distressed signal beacons. Ocassionally the flare of headlights or taillights as the Bureau of Land Management fire crews moved up and down the line, herding their beast where they wanted it long into the night.
This morning, under grey skies, the columns of smoke rose from lower down the western slope as they moved operations down to the foothills, burning a few miles of slash. They've been doing controlled burns since day before yesterday.
Rain clouds built in the south west all day, and have come rolling and thundering in to sit above the dry country with a few teasing droplets of rain.
And the country does look dry, it seems as though fall just fell over everything in the last few days. The grasses have turned yellow again, and the leaves on the tree's around the stock pond have begun their change as well.
Driving to work I saw four bucks standing beside the road. At first I just saw one, and as I looked he ran and became four. Its amazing how they can melt out of the trees like that, you focus on one and the rest just fall into your vision.

The equinox has come - I hope it is a good fall.