Day 3 - 5, September 9th - 11th, Choking Smoke

 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 today. It has been 48 hours since the wind event and the fire is not coming down into the valley, rather burning through the foothills. The smoke was the worst it has been last night. Inside the house is like when you burn something in the oven and can see the smoke. Day 1, which was essentially living in darkness, was smoke so thick and high into the atmosphere that it blocked the sun completely. Day 2 the wind direction changed and it became more typical and the smoke cloud thinned. Currently, Day 3, the air is completely still, which is actually eerie because it is always breezy here, but I am guessing this has allowed the smoke to settle like a blanket of fog. Fires are burning all over the state. The Rogue Valley in S. Oregon, where I grew up, has experienced devistating losses as fires have burned through business and residential areas. Towns North of us are being threatened as fires burn through the heavily forested areas in the hills above the valley. Washington and California are burning as well, in fact the entire West coast is lit up. I am grateful that we are safe and that we never lost power (otherwise, we would have no water). We will press on today with some normalcy. We will do school, chores, process the tomatoes and apples we picked on our farm yesterday. And keep our hearts filled with thankfulness and pray for the people who have experienced terrible loss.

September 11th:

Morning update, still a level 2 but the fire maps look much better for our area. The smoke is horrific and it seems like it keeps getting worse. We are back to "normal" life (whatever that means considering the last 6 months) as best as we can. Phil is at work. We are doing school and chores but staying inside and keeping activity levels low. This week feels like a month long!
Friday, was the worst.  Hazard is 301-500 according the air quality index.


There was a change in color from yellow-orange to yellow-gray as the days progressed.  I am no expert but if I were to wager a guess, I would say the smoke was thicker up into the atmosphere at the beginning causing it to be darker and then settled down like a fog once the winds subsided.  It got lighter and smokier.





Standing on the porch with my tea and taking pictures for my morning report.

Burnt leaves, twigs, even unsinged Spanish moss strings, blown in from afar.

Our donkeys and alpacas settled into their temporary evacuation home.

Fires burning all up and down the West Coast.


The town of Phoenix (and I think parts of Talent) in Southern Oregon burned to the ground.  It is under investigation as arson.  Where as the fires near us were burning through rural areas and small towns in the foothills, this was a residential and business area.

The farm work must go on.  We picked and processed tomatoes and apples:




I managed to burn applesauce, tomato sauce, and rice.  All of which required Phil's scrubbing efforts to clean the pan, transferring to other pans, picking out burnt pieces.


Oven roasted onions and peppers from the garden.  These were delicious!!  I put them into the tomato sauce.


I ordered a yarn card and a few skeins of yarn to plan for my next blanket.  Seems I need a break from the stripes that I am working on.  Having to rip everything out was a mental set back.  I like to have several blankets going at once.  (I currently have 2).  Then I can bounce back and forth between them.


I am bracing myself...what is next?

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