Monthly Archives: July 2013

7 07, 2013

Life in a Wildfire – Part 2

By |2013-07-07T06:00:50-05:00July 7th, 2013|Life in A Wildfire|3 Comments

We arrived in Trinidad, Colorado, at three in the afternoon on the day of evacuation. We hoped we’d only be there for the weekend.

Unfortunately, the local evening news was not encouraging. We even made the national news.

The morning news offered no better outlook. Things were unchanged. The West Fork portion of the fire was spreading rapidly toward our little town.

Rather than sit in the hotel room or lobby glued to the television for news that was depressing, we decided to explore Trinidad

Lovely, lovely small town that helped divert our thoughts from what was going on.

trinidad

trinidad lake

By Sunday, we were tired of hearing about the fire situation from reporters on location. We needed to see firsthand what was happening. Plus, we’d seen the sites of Trinidad.

Praying the tourist who had come for the weekend would have checked out of motels/hotels closer to South Fork, we checked out of our Trinidad Holiday Inn (Great place to stay if you come up I-25 into Colorado, btw)

We loaded the dogs and suitcases into the car and headed back west to South Fork.

Ironically, there was also a fire burning in La Veta. The mountain pass we needed to cross to get home. Fortunately, there were no road closings.

??????????????????????Communicating between the cars via walkie-talkies, we made the three-hour trip closer to home, hoping to find a place to stay nearer Del Norte, where the Red Cross shelter was set up.

We found a motel in Monte Vista about fifteen minutes away. We also found friends and neighbors who had been there since the evacuation. Seeing friendly faces lightened our spirits.

On our way to check in at the shelter, we stopped by the Del Norte city park to see where news broadcasts were being made.

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Looking at the map and seeing how close the fire actually was to our home did nothing to brighten our spirits.

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My finger is pointing to the location of our house and the advancing West Fork Fire East that was encroaching.  Again the stark reality of our situation sent shock waves through us.

Every morning we went to the Red Cross shelter for breakfast and informational briefings by the firefighter personnel. Pete Blume, Incident Commander, or his second in command went over maps showing the position and progress of three fires and reported on control and containment of the #1 fire in the U.S.

Blume explained that meant that whatever resources were available were at his disposal, but even with all those resources he’d be unable to extinguish the fires that made up the West Fork Fire Complex.

Every day we heard that there was zero containment or control, but that there had been zero structural damage or injuries. That boosted our spirits.

We returned every evening to the shelter for supper provided by the Salvation Army. Those personnel were kind, compassionate, and did everything they could to elevate our stress at the uncertainty of ever being able to return to our homes.

???????????????????????????????On the morning of the sixth day, we went to the shelter hopeful. The night before at supper, we’d heard rumors that the evacuation would be lifted.

Blume reported that a Dozier line had been formed behind Sentinel Peak from CO 149 to CO 160. That backfire line would be ignited if the West Fork blaze moved toward South Fork. He considered that a major step in the right direction. However, the Papoose fire had flared big time over night. He posted pictures from the blaze.

???????????????????????????????The news from Rio Grande County Sheriff Brian Norton was not exactly what we hoped. The mandatory evacuation would be lifted, BUT we would be returning to an active wildfire area.

Uncertainty almost as palatable as the fear when we’d heard the mandatory evacuation order quieted room.

I heard the words “voluntarily returning to an active fire zone” and stared at this picture of the Papoose blaze.

papoose 06-27

The Red Cross shelter would remain open. The Salvation would be offering meals. We had a motel room seventeen miles away.

How could we return to our little house on the mountain knowing a roaring, unpredictable inferno that could easily erupt like the Papoose fire had loomed three peaks away with only a Dozier line to stop it?

Next blog, I’ll share what decision we made.

5 07, 2013

Miller Farm Friday – Ring Around the Chicken Coop

By |2013-07-05T06:00:46-05:00July 5th, 2013|Friday on the Miller Farm, Miller Farm Friday|3 Comments

A blog by Guest Blogger Chicken Wrangler Sara

Chickens are creatures of habit and head for the coop when the sun goes down. Each of them goes to their specified spot on the roost and settles in for the night.

coopThis is their usual routine. This last week, however, was not usual for them.  I was not there and things weren’t routine.

A couple of the larger birds, including a rooster, are spending part of their day in the bantam coop with the smaller birds. This causes some confusion in the evening routine now that I have returned.

One night, a large hen was in the coop with the bantams. She didn’t look particularly comfortable and didn’t complain too much when I extracted her and put her in the large coop.

The rooster was on top of the quail cage and this presented a more complicated problem.

With the dachshunds outside, there was a danger of the rooster going over the fence and “playing” with Bella. Even when running along the fence line, there is the possibility of its head sticking through the fence, which is too much of a temptation for Bella.

The first night, I just chased the silly rooster around until I caught it, screaming the whole time “Don’t go near the fence.”

Our neighbors – bless ‘em – have learned to ignore most sounds from our yard.

Last night, I got the dachshunds inside before I began the rooster chase. But, some of the other large birds find this spectacle very amusing and come back out of the coop to watch. rooster looking at bantams

This means that once I have the rooster on the right side of the chicken yard, I must chase him and the other birds around the outside of the coop until they go inside.

Far more exercise than I really want right before bed. Ah, the joys of being a chicken wrangler.

4 07, 2013

Happy Birthday, America!

By |2017-06-11T16:54:02-05:00July 4th, 2013|Holidays|2 Comments

4th of july2

This is one of my favorite family photos of my two grandsons, John (with the flag) and Michael (leading the way).

It also happens to be one of my very talented photographer daughter’s best selling photos.

I think that’s because it represents the freedom born with our great country on the 4th of July.

Like the two young boys running freely down the park path, this country’s constitution grants to each and everyone freedoms not experienced anywhere else in the world.

We can choose our paths, we run or walk.

Our choices.

I hope your family celebrations today will recall the history of this great country and the freedoms we have.

Happy 4th of July!

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God Bless America!

3 07, 2013

One Word Wednesday – THANKS

By |2017-11-04T20:15:41-05:00July 3rd, 2013|one word Wednesday|2 Comments

It’s closer to July 4th than Thanksgiving, but THANKS has no season.

thank you signMy thanks today goes to the 1,464 firefighters working the West Fork Complex Wildfire burning in my backyard. These men are phenomenal. They leave their homes and families to come put their lives in danger to save our homes and lives.

Their sacrifice is magnified by what happened at the Yarnell Fire in Arizona.

Our  firefighters stopped, remembered those comrades

learning of Yarnell and then went right back into the belly of the fire.

bk to fireMy thoughts and prayers to the fire fighters that lost their lives in Arizona and their families.

After very real threats from the West Fork Fire, more than a week of evacuation, and currently living in a pre-evacuation conditions, there is a lot of gratitude for the hard work from the fire fighters, national guard, red cross, sheriff’s office and other officials for  all the efforts put forth to protect South Fork.

These wildland fire fighters work long hours in difficult and often dangerous conditions on the ground and in the air to provide skilled and professional fire suppression services when wildfires threaten our homes, property, and the natural resources.

Thanks hardly seems enough.

If you’d like to do more, here are some places to donate:

  • Wildland Firefighter Foundation This organization picks up where agencies cannot and assists firefighters and their families
  • South Fork Fire Rescue These guys were first responders when the fire pushed toward our homes. Mail contributions to:
    PO Box 579
    South Fork, CO 81154

All photos are courtesy of the media library provided by the West Fork Complex crew. If you want to view more photos of the West Fork Complex Fire burning in Colorado, click here

1 07, 2013

Life in A Wildfire

By |2013-07-01T18:32:59-05:00July 1st, 2013|Life in A Wildfire|3 Comments

If you read my blog last Wednesday, you know I am now living in the West Fire Complex Wildfire in the Rio Grande National Forest.

Yep, that’s right.  I’m living in a forest wildfire.

West Fork Fire Complex Statistics:   
Start Date: 06/05/2013
Percent Contained: 2%
Cause:  Lightning
Complex Size:  92, 176 acres
                       Windy Pass: 1,416 acres
                       Papoose: 34,272 acres
                       West Fork: 56,488 acres

Pablo Picasso said: “The artist is a receptacle for emotions that come from all over the place: from the sky, from the earth, from a scrap of paper, from a passing shape, from a spider’s web.”

What fodder the West Fork Complex wildfire is providing this writer!

Our adventure began with the 6 a.m. reverse 911 call on Friday, June 21st, that announced we had to evacuate our home.

Not unexpected. The community meeting the night before had warned of the possibility.

However, possibility is not reality and reality was HARD.

Looking around our little house filled with one third of what we’d had before we moved here in March and knowing we could lose it all sent lumps to our throats and tears to our eyes.

How – beyond the necessary paper documents – do you decide what to load into your cars when you only have four hours? Plus, you’d already downsized considerably to what you wanted or needed.

Wasn’t easy.

We settled on all the quilts my husband’s mother made, a wooden carving of a woman praying my father made for me, some pieces of silver from my mother’s family, a Van Briggle vase titled Lorelei that once belonged to my husband’s sister, two antique clocks, a 1840s porcelain inkwell from Vienna, and a Victorian chatelaine.

Crazy list, right? But, that’s what fit in the small suitcase or around the other stuff in the car. And, each of those items holds precious memories.

We also loaded our laptops and one printer. Tools of our trade that we couldn’t do without.

One of our friends took two of my favorite paintings by Barbara Rudolph, To Kill A Mockingbird and Tell Me A Story to his place in Del Norte until all the danger is gone.

If you’re not familiar with Barbara Rudolph’s work, check out her website. She’s an extremely talented artist who combines objects with birds and creates paintings that capture moments guaranteed to bring a smile to your face. My two pictures have special meaning to me for many reasons, and I can’t wait until I don’t live in a wildfire to get them back.

As we’re packing the cars, firefighters pull our barbeque propane tank and spare gasoline cans to the street. We’d already turned off the propane tank that serves our house and hot water heater. They’re not happy that we have so many trees in our backyard and tell us the outlook isn’t good. We need to leave soon.

We thank them for protecting our home and assure them we are leaving. We never stayed when the Gulf coast hurricane warnings said leave either.

With the two cars loaded with our most precious things and our two four-legged boys, Toby and Buster, we say a prayer for safety and protection, and lock the front door. With the smoke cloud growing, we drive away.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAAlone in my car, I look one last time at our little house and wonder if we’ll ever see it again. Tears I didn’t want to shed in front of my husband come.

CIMG0705But, I remind myself it’s just stuff. A phrase I repeat often over the next week.

We bypassed the Red Cross shelter set up in the Del Norte high school gymnasium fifteen miles away from South Fork. Shelters don’t allow dogs inside with owners.

Facilities for small animals and large animals were available, but I didn’t want to be separated from our pets. We’d find a pet friendly motel.

We went through four towns checking availability. There were no rooms. Alamosa State University in Alamosa offered dormitory rooms, but again we’d have to leave our pets at the facility provided.

We’d gone from a big house full of stuff to a small house full of stuff to two cars with all our worldly belongings. I couldn’t leave my babies behind in Monte Vista.

We kept going until Trinidad, Colorado, nearly four hours away. The Holiday Inn Hotel there had a room and allowed pets. We unpack and settle in for the short duration, we thought.

Toby Buster chilling in Trinidad-2Amazingly, the dogs don’t even bark when we leave to go to the restaurant for dinner. They were too happy to be out of the car and with their humans.

But after a long weekend, we want closer to home so we can find out what’s going on with the fire instead of relying on the media.

Next blog you’ll learn about the next phase of our adventure living in a wildfire.

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