People, I'm Not Making This Stuff Up. I Swear!

I'm sitting I'm my bed as I type this, watching an American Idol that I had DVR'ed. The significance of that is I had real concern that my house would not be here today.

We got home yesterday evening around 5:30 or so after being out all day and way from the tv. There was smoke in the not far off distance, but it quickly began moving our way. We stepped out onto the porch as the air filled with more smoke to see if we could see how close it was. A police officer pulled into our drive way and told us to evacuate, the fire was coming and it was moving fast in our direction. We scrambled to gather a few things important to us, such as the server with all our pics, our laptops and a few hard copy photos, and all our animals except one cat and hit the road. We went to a friends first, but had to move from their as well.

The fires were everywhere, the smoke was thick and we had a car full of animals and kids and junk. And I was stressed.

We have a friend that's a vet, my ex-employer actually. He said bring our animals to the clinic to board so we headed to our old town to the clinic and then my mom's house. My brother was there as well with his family and animals, he only lives a mile or so from me and his house was in danger as well.

We got a hotel room as my mom' s house was already full and I stayed awake most of the night not knowing if I would return to a house or not.

I kept asking Jimmy if this was all some bad dream. This past week as been incredibly crazy. I've been in the hospital, my dad has been in the hospital and now my house very possibly could burn to the ground, and the next day we would be closing on our old house that had been on the market for almost a year.

Do you know what's it like to wonder if you would have a house to come back to? So NOT cool. Thankfully we got everyone and everything out that truly mattered.

I of course was worrying about all the horses and my cat that are around out house.

Today we arrived home to a house still standing, but it was close. Embers had ignited some landscaping up against the house in two places and the creek next to our house it completely burned. Our trailer that we had filled with junk from out old house is all burnt up. The fires burned very hot and those housed that did burn are burnt to the ground with only fireplaces still standing.

Across the street from us and several houses down the houses were completely burnt to the ground. We are incredibly lucky. Someone or something was watching over us!

We do have several stray horses running the fence lines behind our house. It was reported that the firefighters just begun cutting fences to allow the horses some type of escape. They seem to be fine and hopefully their rightful owners will find them soon. My scrappy country cat also came up out of the burnt creek covered in ash but with no burns.

So on this fine day with our house and lives in tack, I'm not asking what else could happen because quite frankly I'm afraid of the answer.

Before the fire, out our back door.

Out our front door, before we were evacuated.

Some of the landscaping that caught fire and was put out by someone.

Our trashed trailer.

The creek and the fence in our back yard.

The other end of our house.