Um, Forest Fire?

So, on September 19th at around 2:00 PM it was discovered that there was a brush fire happening by the Scoggins Creek at the backside of Hagg Lake. Unfortunately for us, we live on the backside of the lake. Fortunately for us, the location of the fire was about 4 miles from us (if you're driving it by road. A little shorter as the crow flies). We were surprised but not overly concerned at first. You could see the plume of smoke behind our house and it looked like it was RIGHT. THERE. There were also ashes and charred leaves falling everywhere.   But we could also hear helicopters and planes and they were obviously actively fighting it. By evening though, we knew it wasn't a good situation. They hadn't had enough daylight to keep using the air support and the small ground teams could only dig fire lines so fast.

Smoke a couple hours after it started

You can see the growing amount of haziness in the sky and a sort of illumination of the fire in the smoke

The next morning, sky is full of smoke

By the next morning we realized it was getting a little more serious; a lot of people on a far neighboring road had been evacuated, but the wind had been blowing away from us since the previous day. I left the house to go visit my horse for a while before I got a call from my MIL letting me know that our road had been issued a level 2 evacuation notice. It breaks down into 3 levels: level 1 means get packed and have your plan, level 2 means get set to go (and voluntarily leave), level 3 means GO NOW. The winds had changed and were blowing the fire our direction. I hurried back towards home and got stopped at a check point where a park ranger had NO additional information for me other than if I didn't live on the lake I couldn't pass. I live up there, thank you, now excuse me while I bundle up my life's belongings. 

Within a couple hours, MIL and I had everything important to us stacked in the middle of the living room and all 7 of the cats (yes, seven, don't judge us) and dog accounted for. I was even making plans on how to transport my two adolescent hens. 

Everything stacked in the living room

FIL had taken it upon himself to save the Chevelle first and when he returned to start packing his other important items, MIL and I broke out the alcohol I had been hoarding in my room. Red wine, honey wine, blue Kinky, Jose Cuervo and Kraken rum (FIL polished off the hard A). FIL and friend even made a beer and snack run and we hosted a very exclusive Fire Party at the Graham house while we waited to hear if we were being upgraded to level 3. 

Eventually our excitement fizzled out (no pun intended) and we gave our goods pile the hairy eyeball and meandered off to bed. By the next morning we were pretty much in the clear thanks to the amazing air and ground support fighting the fire. We were pleased to not have to evacuate but of course there was the whole problem of putting everything back. It made me realize how much useless shit I have and could do without.

It also made me realize just how precious everything is. A house is a house until a house is a home, and this is home. It's filled with memories and love and a feeling that's not really tangible but has something to do with homesickness. This may not be my permanent residence and there are for sure times where I wish I had my own little place, but it is so special to me and I feel so grateful to get to live here. I couldn't imagine it being ripped away from me by a man-made fire. 

Here's to the drenching, quenching rain we've had the last few days. No more fires for a long time, please.