Wow I have been gone a very long time. Life tends to get in the way at times. Today I went to check on old friends and blogs who I think of often, no I did not leave any comments, just lurked.
Not long after my last blog post, we experienced a forest fire, which necessitated us being evacuated for a couple of weeks.
In California you keep a GO bag with clothes, important papers, meds, and toiletries, they couldn't tell us how long we would be evacuated. I threw in a sleeping bag, a sewing machine, a couple of my favorite quilts, and Bobbin of course. While there was a shelter to go to, the downside to a shelter, you must surrender your animals, they are not allowed. I just couldn't give up my girl, so we camped in the forest service parking lot with a port a potty for several days. Every morning many fire crews would be dispatched from the parking lot. We finally relented and drove to Portland to stay with my parents, and my oldest daughter after a wee5 days. The fire got within 3 miles of our home to the north of us, which was originally called the Head Fire, and the Scott Fire was to the south of us about 2 miles.
Some stats:
The fire started on August 16, 2023 at 10:27 AM.
The fire was considered contained on October 31, 2023
2 structures damaged
9 structures were completely destroyed that is commercial and homes
The fire burned 21,725 acres
1 Fatality in our community
There were a couple of families burned out, one for the 2nd time in the past 9 years, The fire started as the Head fire, but morphed in to the Happy Camp Complex with 13 fires burning in the area. Wild land Firefighters were stationed in our little town for months, at our community hall. There were fires in places where they had to raft them across the river, and some terrain so steep we just had to watch it burn. I have learned more about firefighting in the past couple of years which really makes me appreciative of our area, and the people who do the work.
On August 25 we returned home, against evacuation orders because the fire was at least 5 miles away, mother nature had smiled on us and we had a torrential rain which damped down a lot of the fire. We were socked in with smoke for weeks though.
Not long after we returned home we were blessed with this tiny creature.
miss Kitty (sorry not pics) just imagine a long hair tuxedo cat with attitude for days. We have lived together now over 3 years and she is just now letting me pet her.
We had lots of visitors, mainly of the animal variety.
I will just leave you with my favorite thing about my home. I have a few of these that hang out all year long.
