lightning started the fire..and summer ended

As we rolled into August, we were excited to have a few weeks of fun summer time. You know, time to swim in the lake, visit with friends, and relax a bit. Alas, it was not to be. First, the Wolverine fire flared up and started getting uncomfortably close. Despite the fire, we went ahead with a planned trip up the lake with some friends. It was a fun (albeit smoky) time.

Babies 

nope, not a morning mist...just a smoky haze

When we got back home Tuesday, the fire had calmed down and the smoke seemed to be clearing up. We moved to live over at my Grandpa's house. In the midst of moving, we took an internet break on Friday. While I was being distracted by facebook I saw this:

"It's happening in Chelan right now."

I thought it was a joke. I read some more and  figured out that there was a big fire...Luke said in his somewhat pessimistic tone "The power is going to go out."  I rolled my eyes...then the fan stopped turning.  And the internet stopped. And the phone didn't have a dial tone. Cut off from the world. And so it began...two weeks of wildfires, power outages, smoke, and red sun!

keeping the freezers going by driving the generator between houses

firefighters marching through the field

As the fire got closer and closer, it sort of felt like an army was approaching and you didn't know when or how. It could round the bend at any moment, day or night. And finally, after a couple weeks of preparing and worrying the fire arrived.

smoke rolling over the mountain...this is when baby J and I evacuated

the view at night from the front porch as the fire came over the mountain

a tree goes up in flames

There were a couple of tense moments when the fire arrived. The fire was slowly creeping downhill towards the pasture that makes a nice buffer around the house. Our biggest concern was having the fire get on the down hill side of the house. There was a fire line that was supposed to prevent that from happening, however, fire lines do fail from time to time.
At one point the fire flared up, with shooting flames hundreds of feet in the air. There was so much smoke and flame that it looked like the line had failed and we were going to be fighting the fire in all directions. To know for sure, I ran down the road and looked at the fire line myself. By the time I got there, the flames and smoke had died down quite a bit and I could see a few brush trucks keeping the edge of the fire line wet. It looked like it was going to hold. The large flare up so close to the edge of the fire line must have worried the hotshot crews as well because over the next hour there were probably a dozen  water drops right in that area. Then they brought in another bulldozer to cut yet another fire line. After that, it was kind of like watching a giant camp fire.

the cows don't seem to mind

and then the fire died...

My brother, F, one tired firefighter after 15 days straight of fighting fire.

Well, there went August...and there was only five more weeks until we leave for Nigeria. Also, factor in a two week trip to North Carolina and Illinois. And preparing for our return in January. And we're feeling very busy.