Fire Update

Hello Everyone,

 

Against our better judgment, we drove up to the cabin yesterday to get out the quilts  I couldn't take the anxiety any longer.  Our neighbor John knew something was up at our house since he had never seen me move so fast as I ran to the car!  You were right John. I wanted to get the quilts and 14 years of cabin journals......and say goodbye to the cabin.  We were expecting the worst and luckily we were wrong!  Our area is only under an Advisory Evacuation and hopefully that will be lifted soon.

 

As we made the two-hour trip to the mountains, all we could see was a huge blanket of smoke across the Sacramento Valley which completely covered the mountains.  As we got closer to the fire area, most of the cars coming down from the mountains had their lights on since the smoke was as thick as fog.

We saw many fire trucks and bulldozers along our way.  We were so glad for their presence.  We were expecting roadblocks so we had our property tax bill with us and our Homeowners Association membership cards so we could enter the area.  None of this were necessary as we saw only one roadblock along our journey.

As we drove into our little town, the smell of smoke was replaced by the smell of rain.  Not a lot of rain, but it was sprinkling!  Answered prayers maybe?

We didn't tell our three kids we were leaving until we were well out of town since we knew what would happen.  They were ready to start a caravan of utility vehicles and a moving van to take everything out of the cabin. It took some talking on the cell phone to keep them home and discourage them from coming with us.  We left Mazey home and told them someone needed to take care of her.  We felt it was okay for us old folks to breathe the smoke, but we didn't want Mazey to breathe it through her long snout.  We had masks.  If we put a mask on her she would eat it!

I knew what I wanted, the quilts and the journals.....that was all.....and that is what we took out.

Last night I sat and read through the journals. This is my favorite page and this is a good example of what the pages contain.

I remember this day in 2008 very well when I went for a walk in the woods with my granddaughter Harleigh.  This is also the day we heard her little brother laugh out loud for the first time.

I should have started counting the number of people who have written in the journals.  Many, many friends and family members have experienced happy times at the cabin and wrote down their thoughts, along with weather information, special hikes, and animal activities.  My oldest son wrote he would neither confirm nor deny what happened at the cabin during a bachelor party. The same son also wrote that the depth of the snow was equal to the height of a bottle of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale.....and this wasn't during the bachelor party.

When we left the cabin, I didn't say goodbye to it.  I just patted a few of the logs and walked away.  I have every faith in our firefighters are going to put an end to this horrible beast.  The fire is tough, but our firefighters are tougher!

Soon,
Lynn