We are home and spent the night there. The power came on late in
the afternoon, minutes after Ed (Viki's significant other), Viki and
Robert got the solar up and running. What a let down, in a sense.
They were glad for the power, BUT had worked so hard for the
last few days to get it going, it was quite a let down.
We have no phone nor internet. Marti has generously let us
use her phone and computer..which is how I'm getting this
blog updated. Her cat is trying to sit on my lap, but has
finally relented and is just sitting on the mouse pad and
staring me in the eye.
A buck with a huge rack has taken over the flat spot
beyond the patio in our yard. He has eaten all the
apples that Viki knocked down from the apple tree
and was eating the leaves as I left to come over to
Marti's. He's a little scary because he is sooooo big!
Finished off the crab apple jelly yesterday. Over-cooked
the under-cooked, but it is down and rubber we shall
eat and remember.
Robyn arrived last evening. She and Robert are working
on a cover for the solar equipment which is installed on
the side of the house. It is a much reduced system from
the previous, now burned up, on.
The neighbors are gradually returning. But I don't think
things will seem normal for a long time. Too much charcoal
around for that and the burned out homes are so devastating
to encounter. WE are SO LUCKY to still have our home.
Seeing that the fire was up to the door step at the rear of the
house. IF that side of the house had been wood instead of
concrete blocks, I think we'd too, be homeless.
We still have much our our stuff at Jo's so shall return there
to pack it all up early in the week. We are still waiting for
the insurance adjuster to come have a look before we can
do our clean-up. Hopefully, they'll pay for that so we can
hire it done. It's a pretty big and nasty job to do.
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Day 10
This must be day 10. We
escaped on the 6th and this is the sixteenth,
I think. It is hard to keep track, missing
my calendar!
Robert wore himself out today working on the
Solar system, but it is getting close. He
thinks the insurance will pay to have the
solar hut rebuilt and replace the batteries,
etc. We have stuff on loan for 30 days. At
that time we pay (a very reasonable price) or
return it. I think we'll probably keep it.
I made about 6 pints of jelly and another
6 pints of syrup. The two kettles went on
at the same time, but I forgot one was on
a burner with a lot more BTUs than the other.
One made jelly and I was impatient so the
other is syrup. I'll cook it up again
tomorrow.
The frig is clean and functioning. The
freezer is empty, yet to be cleaned. It's
not bad, a little ice cream and a little
water. We had the freezer on part of
the day for the last couple of days so
the stuff didn't really leak all over
the place.
I filled the back of the Prius with the
freezer debris. I put all the bags into
plastic tubs and some of the bags were
really heavy. I hoped I'd find a
strong pair of arms to help me unload
the car. And I did. There were two
guys standing by the dumpster talking
and came over and unloaded the car. That
was really great. They both live in
Wall Street, but I don't know them by
name.
This evening we went to friends for
dinner and had a lovely meal and
conversation. It was a relief to
get away from the fire and all of
that for a brief time.
Salina folks have become really
close, first the pot luck which was
the first in several years. While
the church was being renovated all
the pews were in the schoolhouse
which meant no space for community
affairs. The pot luck brought the
community together in a way it
hadn't been in years. There were
also several new to the hood families
that came.
Since the fire, the community has
stuck together. This is great, but
it was nice NOT to talk about the
fire, too.
escaped on the 6th and this is the sixteenth,
I think. It is hard to keep track, missing
my calendar!
Robert wore himself out today working on the
Solar system, but it is getting close. He
thinks the insurance will pay to have the
solar hut rebuilt and replace the batteries,
etc. We have stuff on loan for 30 days. At
that time we pay (a very reasonable price) or
return it. I think we'll probably keep it.
I made about 6 pints of jelly and another
6 pints of syrup. The two kettles went on
at the same time, but I forgot one was on
a burner with a lot more BTUs than the other.
One made jelly and I was impatient so the
other is syrup. I'll cook it up again
tomorrow.
The frig is clean and functioning. The
freezer is empty, yet to be cleaned. It's
not bad, a little ice cream and a little
water. We had the freezer on part of
the day for the last couple of days so
the stuff didn't really leak all over
the place.
I filled the back of the Prius with the
freezer debris. I put all the bags into
plastic tubs and some of the bags were
really heavy. I hoped I'd find a
strong pair of arms to help me unload
the car. And I did. There were two
guys standing by the dumpster talking
and came over and unloaded the car. That
was really great. They both live in
Wall Street, but I don't know them by
name.
This evening we went to friends for
dinner and had a lovely meal and
conversation. It was a relief to
get away from the fire and all of
that for a brief time.
Salina folks have become really
close, first the pot luck which was
the first in several years. While
the church was being renovated all
the pews were in the schoolhouse
which meant no space for community
affairs. The pot luck brought the
community together in a way it
hadn't been in years. There were
also several new to the hood families
that came.
Since the fire, the community has
stuck together. This is great, but
it was nice NOT to talk about the
fire, too.
Day 10
This must be day 10. We
escaped on the 6th and this is the sixteenth,
I think. It is hard to keep track, missing
my calendar!
Robert wore himself out today working on the
Solar system, but it is getting close. He
thinks the insurance will pay to have the
solar hut rebuilt and replace the batteries,
etc. We have stuff on loan for 30 days. At
that time we pay (a very reasonable price) or
return it. I think we'll probably keep it.
I made about 6 pints of jelly and another
6 pints of syrup. The two kettles went on
at the same time, but I forgot one was on
a burner with a lot more BTUs than the other.
One made jelly and I was impatient so the
other is syrup. I'll cook it up again
tomorrow.
The frig is clean and functioning. The
freezer is empty, yet to be cleaned. It's
not bad, a little ice cream and a little
water. We had the freezer on part of
the day for the last couple of days so
the stuff didn't really leak all over
the place.
I filled the back of the Prius with the
freezer debris. I put all the bags into
plastic tubs and some of the bags were
really heavy. I hoped I'd find a
strong pair of arms to help me unload
the car. And I did. There were two
guys standing by the dumpster talking
and came over and unloaded the car. That
was really great. They both live in
Wall Street, but I don't know them by
name.
This evening we went to friends for
dinner and had a lovely meal and
conversation. It was a relief to
get away from the fire and all of
that for a brief time.
Salina folks have become really
close, first the pot luck which was
the first in several years. While
the church was being renovated all
the pews were in the schoolhouse
which meant no space for community
affairs. The pot luck brought the
community together in a way it
hadn't been in years. There were
also several new to the hood families
that came.
Since the fire, the community has
stuck together. This is great, but
it was nice NOT to talk about the
fire, too.
escaped on the 6th and this is the sixteenth,
I think. It is hard to keep track, missing
my calendar!
Robert wore himself out today working on the
Solar system, but it is getting close. He
thinks the insurance will pay to have the
solar hut rebuilt and replace the batteries,
etc. We have stuff on loan for 30 days. At
that time we pay (a very reasonable price) or
return it. I think we'll probably keep it.
I made about 6 pints of jelly and another
6 pints of syrup. The two kettles went on
at the same time, but I forgot one was on
a burner with a lot more BTUs than the other.
One made jelly and I was impatient so the
other is syrup. I'll cook it up again
tomorrow.
The frig is clean and functioning. The
freezer is empty, yet to be cleaned. It's
not bad, a little ice cream and a little
water. We had the freezer on part of
the day for the last couple of days so
the stuff didn't really leak all over
the place.
I filled the back of the Prius with the
freezer debris. I put all the bags into
plastic tubs and some of the bags were
really heavy. I hoped I'd find a
strong pair of arms to help me unload
the car. And I did. There were two
guys standing by the dumpster talking
and came over and unloaded the car. That
was really great. They both live in
Wall Street, but I don't know them by
name.
This evening we went to friends for
dinner and had a lovely meal and
conversation. It was a relief to
get away from the fire and all of
that for a brief time.
Salina folks have become really
close, first the pot luck which was
the first in several years. While
the church was being renovated all
the pews were in the schoolhouse
which meant no space for community
affairs. The pot luck brought the
community together in a way it
hadn't been in years. There were
also several new to the hood families
that came.
Since the fire, the community has
stuck together. This is great, but
it was nice NOT to talk about the
fire, too.
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
It goes on, but is getting better
Another day after the fire...
Robert, Viki and Ed met and went up to our house
and I followed shortly thereafter. Only residents
are allowed up to the fire area, but if you have
a resident with you and an access pass you are
allowed to go into the area. I'm hoping these
restrictions will be dropped soon. But they
are there to try and avoid looting. Since
we have no power nor phone we have no way of
calling for help should we need it.
Ed and Robert worked all day on the Solar
system. Ed also loaned us a generator to
keep us going until the solar is functional.
That really helped because that gave us
running water.
Viki and I did more mundane things like
cleaning out the frig. I dumped the
contents into trash bags which Viki later
toted to the "near-by" dumpsters which
happen to be more than a mile down the
mountain along with the potable water and
the potties...better start early if you
have to go and hustle, it's a way to go.
Fortunately, we had ours in the house.
The frig was still cool and had no
smell;it was a very easy cleaning job.
I've yet to tackle the freezer. It was
still refrigerator cold...and it didn't
smell either. We had it on most of the
day and I'll tackle it tomorrow after I
make the jelly.
Viki also knocked all the apples off the
tree so the bears wouldn't destroy the
tree and she picked many of the pears
from the pear tree. She also picked
crab apples. The ones Robert picked
on the day we evacuated were still good
so between Viki and Robert I had enough
to make a good-size batch, maybe two.
I've cooked them up and left them
dripping overnight.
Julie, with her brother, arrived about
9:30 AM and Allison, Melissa, Michelle
Weiber and I were there to lend support.
It was really hard; Julie had been
working on her house and getting it
just so and now it's gone! The woods
in back of her house is decimated!
The bright side is that she is moving
into a rental in Boulder that she
has fallen in love with. I just hope
she doesn't decide that living in
Boulder is so much easier that she
decides not to rebuild and to stay
in Boulder.
Connie called this evening from
home, Wichita...she has golf ball
sized hail stones in her freezer and
they got two inches of rain in less
than two hours! Also they were under
tornado watch earlier. Fun..fire,
flood, tornado..our family has it all.
Robert, Viki and Ed met and went up to our house
and I followed shortly thereafter. Only residents
are allowed up to the fire area, but if you have
a resident with you and an access pass you are
allowed to go into the area. I'm hoping these
restrictions will be dropped soon. But they
are there to try and avoid looting. Since
we have no power nor phone we have no way of
calling for help should we need it.
Ed and Robert worked all day on the Solar
system. Ed also loaned us a generator to
keep us going until the solar is functional.
That really helped because that gave us
running water.
Viki and I did more mundane things like
cleaning out the frig. I dumped the
contents into trash bags which Viki later
toted to the "near-by" dumpsters which
happen to be more than a mile down the
mountain along with the potable water and
the potties...better start early if you
have to go and hustle, it's a way to go.
Fortunately, we had ours in the house.
The frig was still cool and had no
smell;it was a very easy cleaning job.
I've yet to tackle the freezer. It was
still refrigerator cold...and it didn't
smell either. We had it on most of the
day and I'll tackle it tomorrow after I
make the jelly.
Viki also knocked all the apples off the
tree so the bears wouldn't destroy the
tree and she picked many of the pears
from the pear tree. She also picked
crab apples. The ones Robert picked
on the day we evacuated were still good
so between Viki and Robert I had enough
to make a good-size batch, maybe two.
I've cooked them up and left them
dripping overnight.
Julie, with her brother, arrived about
9:30 AM and Allison, Melissa, Michelle
Weiber and I were there to lend support.
It was really hard; Julie had been
working on her house and getting it
just so and now it's gone! The woods
in back of her house is decimated!
The bright side is that she is moving
into a rental in Boulder that she
has fallen in love with. I just hope
she doesn't decide that living in
Boulder is so much easier that she
decides not to rebuild and to stay
in Boulder.
Connie called this evening from
home, Wichita...she has golf ball
sized hail stones in her freezer and
they got two inches of rain in less
than two hours! Also they were under
tornado watch earlier. Fun..fire,
flood, tornado..our family has it all.
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
more...
Day 9..continued
Finally, the road to our house was opened. The
OEM site which we have been told to closely monitor,
like the reverse 911 DID NOT WORK. We heard from
neighbors who just got fed up and went home and
discovered they were let through without a hassle.
Amazingly, our house stands. The fire burned to
the foundation on three sides. Clearly, there
were many hands working to save it.
The horse barn is flat as is the solar hut. Many
thousands of dollars of flattened batteries, but
we have 12 of the 15 solar panels still there!!
The house, inside, smelled a little smokey, but
not bad. I'm sure it'll be fine tomorrow. We
left the windows opened tonight.
This evening I hosted a Salina Ladies Night.
It was fun, much laughter mixed with tears, but
a good feeling all around. I'm so glad I did
that.
Tomorrow at 9:30 AM I shall be at Julie's house
when she comes to see it for the first time. Her
brother is driving her up and several of us ladies
will be there for support, too. I have not seen
her house, yet. Couldn't manage that today. We
were only up there a couple of hours and had to
take care of getting the solar stuff into the
barn and checking out everything around the house.
More tomorrow...
Finally, the road to our house was opened. The
OEM site which we have been told to closely monitor,
like the reverse 911 DID NOT WORK. We heard from
neighbors who just got fed up and went home and
discovered they were let through without a hassle.
Amazingly, our house stands. The fire burned to
the foundation on three sides. Clearly, there
were many hands working to save it.
The horse barn is flat as is the solar hut. Many
thousands of dollars of flattened batteries, but
we have 12 of the 15 solar panels still there!!
The house, inside, smelled a little smokey, but
not bad. I'm sure it'll be fine tomorrow. We
left the windows opened tonight.
This evening I hosted a Salina Ladies Night.
It was fun, much laughter mixed with tears, but
a good feeling all around. I'm so glad I did
that.
Tomorrow at 9:30 AM I shall be at Julie's house
when she comes to see it for the first time. Her
brother is driving her up and several of us ladies
will be there for support, too. I have not seen
her house, yet. Couldn't manage that today. We
were only up there a couple of hours and had to
take care of getting the solar stuff into the
barn and checking out everything around the house.
More tomorrow...
DAY 9
Still no word as to when we'll be allowed to return
to our home. Folks on Four Mile Canyon Dr. through
to Melvina Hill were allowed in yesterday. We have
hopes we'll be able to go home today, later, or
tomorrow.
In the meantime, Robert went to Namaste the company
from whom he purchased all his materials for our
former Solar System. They have loaned him enough
equipment to get us up and going again with the
remaining 6 (our of 15) panels. These were on
the roof, the down ones were free standing and
further up the hill that is totally burned. You
realize, that we have seen none of this. Just
had descriptions from our local neighbors who
are also volunteer fire fighters.
We still feel so lucky. Our house and barn
are still intact and we have a lovely home
of friends to occupy while we wait to get
to our home. We'll sleep here even after
we are allowed to go up until we have
some power, whether from the power company
or a generator that Ed (Viki's significant
other) is loaning us and/or the Solar that
Robert will be working on.
to our home. Folks on Four Mile Canyon Dr. through
to Melvina Hill were allowed in yesterday. We have
hopes we'll be able to go home today, later, or
tomorrow.
In the meantime, Robert went to Namaste the company
from whom he purchased all his materials for our
former Solar System. They have loaned him enough
equipment to get us up and going again with the
remaining 6 (our of 15) panels. These were on
the roof, the down ones were free standing and
further up the hill that is totally burned. You
realize, that we have seen none of this. Just
had descriptions from our local neighbors who
are also volunteer fire fighters.
We still feel so lucky. Our house and barn
are still intact and we have a lovely home
of friends to occupy while we wait to get
to our home. We'll sleep here even after
we are allowed to go up until we have
some power, whether from the power company
or a generator that Ed (Viki's significant
other) is loaning us and/or the Solar that
Robert will be working on.
Monday, September 13, 2010
DAY 8
Another pretty day, cool and in the lower 70s with
partial sun.
The latest on the fire is that Four Mile Canyon
is open to the 4700 block. We still are not
allowed home.
There is a huge grass fire north of Boulder,
and west of Loveland, Colorado. Because of
this the County is trying to speed up our
re=entry to our homes so that there will
be fewer deputies needed there.
Quest is supplying emergency phones at
various sites in the area..we don't yet
know where they will be. Dumpsters are
being provided as well as potable water
until power is on again. Also porta-
potties...wonder how far one will have
to go for a potty?
We had dinner last night at Viki's with
the Liza, Keegan and Vernon. Liza said
she'll come clean my frig for me. I said
that was going to be a terrible job,
but she said she'd do it. Isn't that
wonderful.
Robert just informed me that the counselling
service at the Little Church to counsel
us poor souls has opened, but no one is
going there because the ones to be
counselled can't get there!
partial sun.
The latest on the fire is that Four Mile Canyon
is open to the 4700 block. We still are not
allowed home.
There is a huge grass fire north of Boulder,
and west of Loveland, Colorado. Because of
this the County is trying to speed up our
re=entry to our homes so that there will
be fewer deputies needed there.
Quest is supplying emergency phones at
various sites in the area..we don't yet
know where they will be. Dumpsters are
being provided as well as potable water
until power is on again. Also porta-
potties...wonder how far one will have
to go for a potty?
We had dinner last night at Viki's with
the Liza, Keegan and Vernon. Liza said
she'll come clean my frig for me. I said
that was going to be a terrible job,
but she said she'd do it. Isn't that
wonderful.
Robert just informed me that the counselling
service at the Little Church to counsel
us poor souls has opened, but no one is
going there because the ones to be
counselled can't get there!
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Day 7
We went this morning to pick up forms for our
Access passes to get up to our house. We assumed
their would be a long line, but there was no
line so we were able to get passes for each of
three vehicles. Anyone in one of our cars
will be allowed up there WHEN ever they open
up our area. I'm hoping we'll get in Tuesday.
Things have been moving on. We had a lovely
lunch with the Salina folks at the Black Cat
on Friday..I think it was. We all hope to
go up to Salina at the same time or close
to the same time. We want, especially,
that those who lost their homes don't have
to go alone!
Last evening we stopped in at Carl's for a
bit and Martha sent us home with fresh
baked sour dough bread and a sauce to
go with it, whose name I forget. It
is a fresh tomato, garlic, basil mix..yum!
I was fixing supper when Vernon showed up
so I split the loaves in half and spread
the lovely sauce on them and then put
cheese on top and grilled it for a few
minutes. We had that and a green salad
and ate it all...It was sooooooo good
Martha!
Access passes to get up to our house. We assumed
their would be a long line, but there was no
line so we were able to get passes for each of
three vehicles. Anyone in one of our cars
will be allowed up there WHEN ever they open
up our area. I'm hoping we'll get in Tuesday.
Things have been moving on. We had a lovely
lunch with the Salina folks at the Black Cat
on Friday..I think it was. We all hope to
go up to Salina at the same time or close
to the same time. We want, especially,
that those who lost their homes don't have
to go alone!
Last evening we stopped in at Carl's for a
bit and Martha sent us home with fresh
baked sour dough bread and a sauce to
go with it, whose name I forget. It
is a fresh tomato, garlic, basil mix..yum!
I was fixing supper when Vernon showed up
so I split the loaves in half and spread
the lovely sauce on them and then put
cheese on top and grilled it for a few
minutes. We had that and a green salad
and ate it all...It was sooooooo good
Martha!
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