EKjourney Backup

Sunday, I woke up to a dense fog and smoke cover combination.  I think this is probably the densest fog I have ever been in. Before the sun came up, it was white.  Once it got lighter outside the smoke color showed through. On the porch, looking toward the swimming pool (North) but unable to see it or the goat barn or the walnut trees. On the porch, looking toward the barn, only able to see the garden before the parking area. Outside the window looking at the tree block, barely 30 feet away. I am not sure how I let Phil talk me into (trying) going to the store...but the fog was supposed to lift by 11:00 and we were scheduled to gather at the Rawie's for church and I needed ingredients to put together something for the potluck.  (We ended up having to cancel our homechurch.) Our mailbox, we couldn't see any cars, so we had to roll down the windows and listen.  I was already terrified at this point and didn't want to continue. After having to slam on his brakes multipl...

Weather reports told us to expect a 24 hour rare wind event for Labor Day, coming in late afternoon and lasting until noon the next day.  We ran some errands and headed home to prepare for losing power (which means we lose water) for several days.  We filled all animal water containers to the brim, filled the stock tank, put 5 gallon buckets in the bathtub and filled them for flushing and handwashing, and I filled all my stock pots and big pans with water for drinking.  We got extra ice for the freezers.   Then, we waited for the storm, and indeed the winds picked up! We watched as the fierce winds from the East (we rarely have Eastern weather) brought in the smoke from the small wildfire way up in the mountains from us. It got smokier and smokier....little did we know, what was coming...

I woke up around midnight and couldn't go back to sleep.  The wind was whipping through the valley, our house was shaking, and the air was filled with smoke.  I checked my phone and discovered that the small wildfire way up the canyon had gained speed and was heading down the highway corridor.  The towns of Detroit, Mill City, Gates, Lyons and Mehama had been evacuated and the fire was barreling our way with the next town East of us being next in line.  Having had experience with stand by evacuations, evacuations, and fires moving down canyons.  I got up and decided to started preparing.  By 2:00, the fire was still moving so I got kids up and had them pack a bag with their best clothing and another with their best treasures.  I packed this year's homeschool curriculum, documents, made a list of the things I would for sure pack into the trailer if we needed to leave.  I took pictures of things and Phil did a videotape walk through.  We texted...

 I consolidated 3 days of horrible smoke filled fog pictures into one post. The air quality was toxic.  The sun was only visible one of those days and just barely.   I did social media updates (I use social media as sort of an online journal).  Here are my updates: September 9th: Morning update. There has been no fire advancement toward us. We are still on level 2, standby evacuation but the windstorm that was pushing the fire down the Canyon was over 24 hours ago and I haven't seen any significant changes to the firemaps in our area. We are still in a thick heavy cloud of smoke over our home but other places in the valley are much clearer. Once we are off of standby, I would like to drive out of the smoke cloud and get a breath of fresher air. It is like sitting around a campfire and continually moving your chair to get out of the smoke only there is no place to go. September 10th: Morning update, nothing new to report. Still on Level 2 but we will unpack...