Our first wild fire season

I have lots of catching up to do...but this is why:

October and November are wild fire season here and we are learning the ropes of what that means for life around here.  

I was still unpacking from our long weekend trip when I heard the news that a wild fire broke out.  Before Ben left for work, I asked him what our plan was in this situation and he said, "That's easy.  We'll just go to base."  He left for work and just a few minutes later, he called and said, "Just kidding.  A new fire just broke out even closer to us and all the smoke is going towards base."  The winds were intense and blowing away from us, but if it changed direction, we would be in trouble.  So, we paused our day and started re-packing.  I told the kids that we needed to gather irreplaceable items and they could each decide what that was to them.  It took Eli all of 1 minute to gather his things; his backpack full of Legos, his blankie and his current favorite stuffed animal.

Alison, on the other hand, requested her entire baby box to be loaded up.

I packed up our important documents and some emergency items.  I won't lie, I was stressed that day.  It takes a lot of mental energy to analyze what is really important to try and save and what is not worth making room for.  And what do I do when I'm stressed?  I organize.  If our house was going to burn down, it was going to burn down in an orderly fashion.  We haven't been able to see the boys' floor for awhile (it's usually full of Legos), so they were excited.

Somehow we even did school that day and went to piano lessons.  Our teacher's husband is a firefighter and he assured us it was safe to continue on with the day (although my friend confessed she was thankful he was not working that day).

We are safe and ready to evacuate if we need to.  Yet another fire broke out on Halloween and the air quality is becoming a concern.  Schools have been closed most of the week; even Alison's homeschool class was cancelled.  

I'm thankful that we have friends who are firefighters and are willing to give us the lowdown on these situations.  I was reminded that they are trained for this season and aren't surprised when fires erupt.  I was also told to stay away from the news channels, as they love to dramatize these events.   I've also learned that our little pocket of town seems to do well in the fire season.  We have the least amount of smoke in all the surrounding areas and the fires have gone around us.

It was a stressful week, of living on the edge.  Ben has to travel this week and there are still fires going...so we're going to be doing puzzles and watching movies and trying to relax.