It's Been Wild

The photo above is from Monday morning from our back upper deck...and the 'clouds' are not that, nor fog, but are smoke!

Sunday evening the winds were really strong, setting the wind chime to chiming and various things to bump and thump as the wind shifted them. Lots of the walnuts still on the tree above the deck bounced down with lots of rattling. It was hard to go to sleep.

Around 1:30 am I was woken by a call from a neighbor. Her husband was off fighting a fresh wildfire in Napa Co. and she smelled smoke here, very strongly, and she was worried. Sweetie checked and there were no fires near us. Turns out she was smelling the smoke from a firestorm that started in Calistoga, on the other side of the hills that run between Napa and Sonoma County. The wind was blowing at about 50 miles per hour from Napa towards Sonoma County, westward, and the fire quickly grew. By 3 am they were evacuating Santa Rosans on the northeast side of the city where many, many houses burned to the ground, and not too long after that the fire jumped the freeway (Hwy. 101) and burned commercial buildings and whole neighborhoods west of the freeway.

Similar things were happening in Napa and in the southern part of Sonoma County. By morning the smoke was intense and thousands of people had been evacuated and about 1,500  had lost their homes and businesses. Tuesday and today the fires continued.

We have been fortunate to be far west of the destruction and have hosted an evacuee and will probably be doing more of that tonight as the fire continues to find new sources of fuel and more people are displaced from other areas in the counties.

Although we have been blessed so far, I do have bags packed and we are ready to leave if we need to. It is very, very unlikely, but not impossible if the winds pick up too much and head this way.

Thank you to the many people who have been praying for our communities here in the fire areas. Thank you also to the friends and relatives who have asked how we are doing. Thank you to the people collecting donations and making donations and taking care of stray animals escaping the fire.

Grandma Loyce made a big pot of soup for the firemen and women who are next door (when they aren't out fighting the fires). They worked something like 18 hours the first day and some even went to Napa to help out there. Short rest and they are back at it again. We are so lucky that these men and women volunteer their time and risk their lives at times like this. You probably have public safety folks in your community who do the same. I know some of you like to bake...make and take them some cookies...just because. They will love it!

No recipe today, but maybe one tomorrow if we are still here.

Thanks for being there.

Elle