Something to Blog About

A hazard of this area is the wildfires every summer. Once there was one so close to our neighborhood that we were pretty close to getting evacuated. You could stay or go but they wouldn't let you back in. We stayed. Mr. Sunny went to check on the relatives in the nearby subdivision about 4 miles away and he had to hoof it back home because they weren't letting cars through. Another time a lightning strike started one less than 1/4 of a mile down the street near the aquaduct. They sure got that one out fast. Did WE stoop to joining the looky-loos? You better believe it!

Yesterday's fire was too close for comfort. We could see the flames from our bedroom window. Of course we had to drive closer for a better look.




The top photos are of the chopper carrying water after filling up in the river. Folks were fishing and swimming and 50 feet away was this big collapsable bucket in the water with lines attached leading to the aircraft above.

This next pic is one of the bomber planes spreading retardent around the perimeter to contain the fire. I was concerned about the chemicals until I heard it is a kind of fertilizer that also helps restore the soil afterwards. The way they were flying right into the smoke, it didn't look like they could possibly hit the target. But, they did a good job. This morning you could see a perfect ring of red around the blackened stubble. I appreciate that too because, while we have sage brush to spare, I really get offended when the fires hit the tree line.

If THAT was a little too close, TODAY was really something to write home about. Believe it or not, there was ANOTHER wildfire on the other side of the river at about the same time of day. Technically it was closer to our house than yesterday's but because of the hill in the way we couldn't see it from home. BUT, we tried to go to church and the fire got so close to the building that the sheriff came and evacuated us. We had to get out by a special fire route because the main driveway had fire on both sides. Did we have the camera! NO! Would we have risked getting arrested for hanging around taking pictures instead of getting out of there as instructed. NO! NO! NO!

Good thing we got plenty of photographic evidence yesterday.

An even better thing is that we don't "get" to see this kind of thing too often.