After days of huddling with friends, bad tv and way too much ice cream, I flew back to Montana. By the time I did, the fire had grown to just under 13,000 acres,
heading up and down ridges, until it stabilized about 2 3/4 miles from us at its closest point. Just after having lunch with Michael, we headed out to the fire camp (headquarters for operations) in Tarkio. It was very difficult to capture the magnitude of what was going on in the rain and with the only lens I had on my camera, but here’s some idea:
My email to one and all after the meeting:
The best meeting of my life this morning! Went to the stakeholders (landowners, etc) meeting at the fire camp headquarters this morning. Listened to the daily update, looked intently at the incredible 3D computer generated map on the super big screen, asked the usual plethora of Debi Baydush questions. Quite satisfactory.
Then the sheriff of Mineral County stood up and told us that as of noon today, the stage 3 evacuation would be reduced to stage 1, and road closures would be lifted and/or shifted. We’re moving back in tomorrow and I am sitting and typing this from the kitchen in the lodge! As you might imagine, I cried during the meeting and went up to hug the people in charge when it was over, expressing my thanks.
Mother nature taketh away, and now she giveth. The anticipated rainy weather over the next 4 days is an incredible gift. The critical number we want is 3/4 inch. No matter how much we actually receive, having it spread out over days is so much more effective than all at once. They still don’t expect the fire to go out until snow season, but shorter days and cooler temps as we move into fall are all excellent conditions (activity in a fire evidently occurs predominantly in daylight hours).
I know you can sense my joy and cup-runneth-over happiness in this letter. I am a strong person and can handle (given time) what comes my way, but this news, once again, confirms that I am one of the luckiest people in the world. Literally.
Thank you all for caring and checking in. I will let you know if there are any status changes. I’m sure there will be blogpost with pictures of the fire camp and the bounty I’m about to harvest from the garden. And on that note, I’m going out to check on the girls (tomato plants) and everything else that should be begging to be picked.
here’s hoping you find great joy at some point in your day as well,
So that’s, hopefully, the last chapter in this story.
Michael and I hugged and headed out. On our way to Superior to run an errand, we passed the airfield with the bodacious helicopters that have been dropping water and retardant on the fire’s edges. One has a huge snorkel on it to suck water up out of local sources. One morning when Leo, our neighbor, was filling the pump with gas, he looked up because of hearing a big noise, and rising out of the mist was the large helicopter with the snorkel on the end – it had been filling up at the confluence between the west and south forks of Fish Creek, at the corner of our property. His dog turned around and looked at him with a look (says Leo) that said “are we being invaded?” Cute. Here’s the helicopter sitting at the airport, waiting for “the call.”
Finally we reach home. We are (or at least I am) giddy with happiness. We greet the house, hug the posts, walk around and get our connection with everything once again. Everyone is happy to be back together. Then we pick up the basket and head out to the garden, where we are a prime show of goobers on main street. Bigger turkeys than the video from two weeks back. Singing and dancing to the plants, me cooing and telling the girls that Aunt Stacey has been worried about them. Snipping more flowers and telling those fertile Myrtles its’ time to stop proliferating and get on with the ripening! We are eating carrots and exclaiming over ridiculous cucumbers (and I exclaim at one “that’s not human!” Michael and I immediately crack up), potatoes of all sizes, the sweetness of the small ear of corn we consume, a juicy red strawberry, etc etc. You can see some of the bounty, after we fussed (as usual) over the best composition for photos:
