FIRE!!!

We bought 13.6 Acres and moved onto this property on the side of a mountain with nobody but a crazy hermit living on the other side of the hill 30 some years ago... After moving onto the property and checking with the locals I found that the man to call to do “Blade Work” was a fellow named Robert (Bud) Baker. Bud had a D-7 Caterpillar bulldozer and for $25.00 an hour he built a road onto our property that ended at a pad where we would build our home. Over the years Bud built two more pads. One for the barn and another pad that we put the “stick trailer” on. Can you end a sentence like that?
Bud is a person that can fabricate just about anything. Over the years Bud and I have become good friends. Saturday about noon, Gwen, Buds wife, called and said after lunch they were coming over for a visit. They arrived about 1 PM. It was HOT outside so we sat around the kitchen table eating goodies and drinking iced tea. As the afternoon wore on we had thundershowers. I had the Sunsetter Awning extended over the front deck and Bud and I were watching as the rain as it collected on the roof and ran onto the awning and finally onto the ground. We walked outside under the awning and sat at the round patio table Roxanne bought at Bi-Mart on the coast earlier this year. Then the rain really started coming down. I mean it was getting close to Monsoon type rain. All of a sudden KA-BOOM. A lightning strike very close to the house. How exciting. I commented that it sure was a good thing it was raining so hard. Hopefully the rain would not allow a fire to get started. Bud commented that usually lightning would strike some old snag and it being wet would just sit and smolder for days or even weeks until a wind will come up and out of nowhere, the next thing you know, SMOKE, and then a forest fire would be upon us.
The ladies came outside and joined us and we all sat around visiting till about 6 PM.
Sunday morning I stepped onto the back porch and I smelled smoke. I found the scanner I bought at a yard sale in the town of Siskiyou last spring and started programming in the fire and police frequencies. It came to life and it wasn’t long till we heard someone say send a helicopter and a hand crew.

The picture above is from Highway 395. My house is below and to the right of the smoke about 300 yards.

A little later we had the helicopter hovering right over the fire and it was CLOSE! As the day wore on we saw the smoke in the trees and the helicopter was dropping water on the fire. Later, on the scanner, we heard the fire crew call for backup. We could just see smoke in the trees and hear people yelling and chain saws going. We realized the reason we couldn’t tell where the fire was because we were too close. Literally one of those you can’t see the forest for the trees!

This picture is from the entrance to the property.

About that time I told Roxanne she had better call Don and Joy Carr and let them know we wouldn’t be coming to visit on Monday as planned. We kept driving down the mountain so we could see how the fire was progressing. This is our third fire in 30 years and this was tiny compared to the others. Just because a fire is small doesn’t mean much. When we had our second fire all of a sudden the wind came up and the fire took off. The fire moved down the mountain and East toward Reno. The wind was blowing and the fire vehicles were racing Eastward and couldn’t keep up with the fire it was moving so fast. 15 miles later in 15 minutes so many many homes and out buildings were taken. Those people were lucky to escape with their lives. So here we were within a few hundred yards of a small forest fire praying the wind didn’t come up. Well here it is Sunday afternoon. Earlier there was a plume of white smoke rising from the forest. Now it’s no longer putting up smoke and looks more like a nice flat low cloud. I think they have it under control.
Michelle, our Daughter called up. They have been on vacation visiting friends in Washington and touring the Oregon coast. She invited us over for dinner and a reunion with the Grandkids. They miss me. Of course they Miss Me!
To heck with that stupid fire. We didn’t like it anyway. So off we went for dinner and a big Grand Kid Squeezefest! I'll have to add that word to my spell check dictionary.
Well it is now Monday, 6:30 AM as I sit and write this. I think I’ll go out on the front porch and see if I can see any smoke. I’m back and I see no smoke. Sure hope the neighbor lady didn’t see me in my undies. I’m sure from her perspective I look like Homer Simpson without a care in the world. What can I say? The old crazy hermit that used to live on the other side of the hill died several years ago. That leaves one crazy hermit living on this side of the hill! My porch! My Undies! My Business!

I think the fire is out. If you double click on the picture you can barely see the smoke in the trees still rising. I called Plumas County Fire Dispatch and they say the crew went home last night which means they are comfortable the fire is under control. Today is expected to be a calm day but tomorrow the wind is supposed to pick up. He said the crew is returning today and they are going to work really hard to make sure the fire doesn’t take off. That’s comforting. He said the fire was only about an acre and a half and was called the Brockman fire. That’s because it’s in Brockman canyon. Seriously good archery hunting in that canyon! The deer like to go in after a fire and roll in the ashes. Gets rid of ticks. Hmmmmm reminds me of a song about checking for ticks.

Ya Know, if you double click on this picture or any other picture on this Blog it will get BIG and give you a better view.

I might just get the trailer packed and head out after all!

Don and Joy Carr……….. Put on the coffee! We’re bringing the apple pie.