Day 2, September 8th, The Darkest Day

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 friends with a horse trailer and told them to be on standby for helping us get our animals out.

We sent kids back to bed.  Reports came in that Detroit, Mill City, Gates, and part of Lyons had burned and that the fire was in Mehama.  We got the Level 2 evacuation notice.  We were ready and in waiting.


The daylight arrived (sort of) and it was the most eerie experience I have ever been in!  It was varying levels of dark orange all morning and into the afternoon. It was so dark at times, that we needed lights and flashlights.  It was like spending all day at dusk or dawn. 

The good news was, that the wind storm had died down around 6:00 in the morning which meant that the fire wasn't being actively pushed toward us.  Phil stayed home from work and we just laid low all day waiting to see what would happen.  Last week, Sawyer dislocated his knee cap.  We had to take him to the doctor and then in for x-rays.  His x-rays showed that the knee cap is still not aligned (and we are hoping it will heal with some exercises at home or we will need to see a specialist).  He has been on crutches and wearing a knee brace so we were "a man down" for anything an emergency might bring up.  He is very helpful here on the farm and strong but if it came down to carrying and loading the trailer or evacuating the rest of the animals, he wouldn't be able to help.



This is around 10:00 in the morning.  I had to do my rounds outside with a flashlight.


We could see where the smoke cloud ended






These burnt leaves were all over the place.  I did several rounds throughout the day just to check on the property and make sure there were no burning embers.


It lightening up a smidge in the afternoon.



And then went completely dark by 4:00
We decided to have friends come and load up donkeys and alpacas just in case.  We didn't feel they were in danger but if things took a turn for the worse in the night.  We didn't want to devote the time to evacuating them.  Also, these friends worked out of their home (15 minutes a way from us) so that they could jump in their trucks at a moments notice.  

Phil went to grab take out in Salem around 6:00.  This is the difference from town, 20 minutes a way and our house (pictured above).  In all of this, we never actually saw the billowing smoke clouds or where the fire was in relationship to our house because we were in the cloud.

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