Surrounded by Treasures: freaky.

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Tuesday, July 29, 2008

freaky.

So half our county is on fire again, except this time it really seems to actually almost be half the county. (Instead of, you know, a few hundred acres plus a sizable portion of hyperbole on my part.) I don't remember ever seeing a fire that grew this fast and did this much damage. People's houses have actually burned down, which almost never happens when we have a wildland fire. It sucks. I don't know what else to say about it other than that succinct little phrase. And it would be really lame of me to spend any time complaining about the smoke or the ash or the traffic or the fact that complications from the fire take up so much of my husband's would-be free time, when people are losing their homes and when this place will pretty much never look the same again. So I don't.

Fortunately for our family, at least, this particular fire is in the other half of the county, and we're in no immediate danger from it. It has put the fear of God in us, though, and we've spent several hours this week working on finishing up our own fire clearance. We're not done yet -- the "forest" that abuts our house still has just a couple of low branches, and I need to weed-eat again -- but we're a lot safer than we were on, say, Saturday morning. And that was a lot safer than we were when we moved in, because nobody had apparently ever worked on trimming the trees here -- well, except that when we moved in it was the middle of winter and we had like three snowstorms right on top of each other, but whatever.

Other news: I made blackberry jam just now, out of blackberries we picked this afternoon. Everything went swimmingly except for that one time when I thought I was standing on a tree branch under the blackberry vines and... I wasn't. Just FYI, it's really hard to get up when you're sitting among waist-deep thorny vines, surrounded by more of the same, and out of reach of both of your children who are under strict orders not to come closer lest they suffer the same fate. Also: blackberry thorns love to hide out in your jeans and then viciously attack you later when you least expect it. Just a warning. (The jam is so, so worth it.)

Posted by Rachel on July 29, 2008 05:32 PM in the round of life

Comments

I'm glad you are all ok. I've seen it on the news and in our newspaper. They even mention your town. I was worried. I figured T would be pretty busy because I know you've said in the past that fires = LOTS of work for him.

Take care of yourselves. Enjoy your jam!

Posted by: mary at July 29, 2008 07:14 PM

I'm glad you're out of the way of the fire (and earthquake)! I made jam for the first time on Saturday. Yum.

Posted by: Kat with a K at July 29, 2008 07:29 PM

I *hate* cutting parts off a perfectly healthy tre... but it beats having your house at risk of burning, and sometimes protects the rest of the tree.

Though when there was a bad fire up where we own land, our trees survived pretty well ... until weakned by the fire and years and years of drought, too many of them died due to bark beetles. Still, a lot more would have died if they'd caught fire. I hope yours remain unstressed.

Posted by: Paula at July 30, 2008 12:16 AM

I've been thinking about you whenever the news has mentioned the fire. I'm trying to imagine how I would feel if half *my* county were burning, and it's a scary thought! It's good to hear that your home isn't in immediate danger! Wish I could send you some rain. . .

I don't know if your blackberry thorns are the same as the (wild) ones we have here, but-- ouch! They also tend to hide in our socks and shoes for those "just when you least expect it" attacks.

Posted by: Michael at July 30, 2008 07:43 AM

It sucks it sucks it sucks. I'm so sorry for everyone who have lost their homes. I hate that this is happening. I feel so helpless all the way over here while my home town is burning down. Has it reached town?

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