Sunday, June 20, 2010

On Fire

While finding a horned toad in our yard was a highlight of our day

watching the Shulz Pass fire was probably the most interesting, to say the least.The fire is about 5 miles northwest of our house. This is the view from our back window!

The fire has burned more than 3,000 acres in less than 1o hours. What is crazy is that at about 11:00am we were ironing our church clothes and we saw a billow of smoke near the base of Mt. Elden. The smoke continued to rise and as we drove to church we could see that it was traveling northeast, towards Doney Park. At church there was many warnings for people who lived east of the mountain to go home and get ready to evacuate. In the third hour of church people were saying that Highway 89 was closed and we needed to take a different route home. At this point I was getting a little worried. As we got closer I began to get real worried. We got in the house and I immediately went to get our 72 hour bags. Even Autumn was getting excited about finally using the 72 our kits we put together. She wanted to use the whistle in case we got lost in the trees. I turned on the radio and Isaac researched the Internet to find out the direction of the fire. After we learned that the fire was not heading our direction we went out take pictures and then admire our new garden, which we do often.
One of many Zucchini that Isaac and Autumn are very proud of.
My beautiful radishes and wonderful drip system. Don't garden with out the drip its a sure time saver.
The tomatoes, which are claimed by all, since we started them from seed inside and now they look as good as Home Depo's stock. The green things are Walls-O-Water, a must have for Doney Park wind and cold. I am getting one for every little living thing on our property next year. They work like miniature green houses.
Even though I would be really sad to see our little house go I might be even more sad to see our garden scorched but hopefully neither will be affected.
The strawberry bed, it has a long way to go but its off to a great start.
And finally my pride and joy, the Flower Garden. Bruce, Autumn, and I built this rock wall last fall. Since then we have taken every piece of loose dirt and filled the bed to the top. We now have hollyhock, gladiolus, Lilly, tomato, bell pepper, and some flower seeds from my mother-in-law. The final touches we added this week were cedar wood chips and now I am in love. Every time I water I think of my mother-in-law who gave me the seeds.

Anyhow, the fire is still flaming and we can actually see the flames up on the mountain.
One of the highlights to such a view of the fire was the bomber planes coming in from Winslow. Isaac was raised in Winslow and knew many random facts about the lead planes and the bombers. He would say "oh there goes the small planes navigating the fire, a bomber will soon follow."

The smoke covered the sun and made it bright orange, it was quite a sight. The fire not so awesome, but we are keeping those who's homes are in the very center in our prayers.
Watch and wait is what I guess we do now.

3 comments:

janae said...

I just learned so much about northern Arizona. Who knew Winslow had bomber planes?! I'm glad your home is safe. :)

Sharon said...

Great fire pictures. It was sure scary here a week ago.

Your garden looks awesome!

Jamie said...

eek! Poor flag! I hope there is something left there when we get to visit again! I am sorry we missed you guys! But we are coming again in August. We will have to plan better so we can actually hang out!