Fire

Today was turned all upside-down by a tree that fell over onto a power line in the hot afternoon wind.  The power went off and, naturally, the pump to our well stopped. This happened about a quarter of a mile from our house, so the subsequent fire sent smoke blooming over the trees.  I called Mary and she and Hugh and both their kids showed up with a horse trailer, just in case we had to haul Corny out.  I'd managed to catch and cage three of the five cats (Poom, Max and Arby), Corny was closed in his pen with a halter on, the chickens were loosed, I had the dog leads ready, my laptop and Bruce's camera in the back of the car.  And so we waited to see what happened.  The helicopters choppered overhead carrying their loads of water, spotter planes circled, and fat tanker planes roared past -- it was very noisy in the sky.  I'd called Bruce and he was on his way home.  There was nothing to do but wait.

In the end, the firefighters knocked the fire out after it had burned about 18 acres.  Towards evening Bruce and I drove the road behind our house to see the damage.  Blackened oak trees still were smoking and the fire crews were on the ground cleaning up remaining hot spots.  We have top notch fire teams up here -- that's a blessing.

Tonight I'm tired but very thankful to be safe in our house.  I'm also grateful to have friends like Hugh and Mary who were here in the drop of a hat when I called.