The fires in Texas are a big concern right now.  I am particularly worried because I not only have a lot of dead trees, but a lot of dead brush.  Fortunately, the fires are about 30-40 miles away (maybe closer "as the crow flies").  But still everything is so dry.  We're in the path of the smoke, so things are a bit hazy, and you can smell the smoke from time to time.  Weather Underground has the option to select "fire" from their radar maps.  You can also have it show the smoke in the area.

Here's a really Impressive Video from Texas Parks and Wildlife.  It's labeled as "Scary" and it is, but not in a horror movie sort of way.  The whole video is 50 seconds, and shows the fire moving right across an area of ... maybe 50 feet?  I'm not a good judge of distance, especially from a video, but wow!  You can see the trees that are NOT dry are surviving well enough, but those that are go up like matchsticks!  Scary, indeed.

I have a couple of trees that are dead from last year (or before) that are going to be cut down -- hopefully today.  One is where it would fall on the garden/yard area and another is over the driveway.

Dead tree at the front of the driveway

Another tree that is dead is the one where my driveway splits off to the house.  This tree partially blocks the view to the house, so I hate to lose it.  It will be complicated to cut because the power line is in the way (click on pic to see the powerline).  However, this winter, I plan to plant several brushy type trees to create a "hedge."  I'm hoping to get fruits and nuts from the hedge, if the birds and squirrels don't get them first.

Dead tree at the back of the driveway

Here is a picture of the dead tree at the opposite corner of the circle driveway.  I'm not going to cut it anytime soon, but it's sad to see it go.  And below that are other trees that have died or are dying along the pipeline right of way.

Dead trees along the pipeline ROW