Jmebear went in today for yet another surgery to take care of yet another complication from her hip replacement. Up at 5:30 and fed everyone. Poor Auntie Bea, I forgot her Senior pellets this morning. That's what happens when I feed half-conscious.
Got Jmebear to the hospital in plenty of time and they prepped her. When they finally took her off to surgery, I left to do my errands in Redding. Since we forgot to call the neighbor to let the dogs out, I went back to the house to do so. Everyone happy to see me and ecstatic to get out. Let them have a good twenty minutes running around and had a salad for lunch. Put them all back in their crates and headed out the door with time to spare. Got to the end of the driveway and a puff of milky-white smoke drifted down the road in front of me. Weird looking thing, was almost like some kind of ghost. Looked to the right and saw a plume of smoke coming out of the Bug Farm. Baaaad JuJu this time of year. I turned right instead of left, and proceeded to the Bug Farm to investigate. Got up there and the Bug Farm was on fire! Weird fire too. It was dancing over a foot above the grass (or appeared to be) which was withering and blackening beneath it. Strangest sight I have ever seen. Kind of reminded me of Fire Sprites from some stories I've read. Turned around, went back to the house and hitched Jmebear's truck to her trailer. Then I loaded all the Minis in the front compartment. I had Breezy on the highline waiting and went back to get her. As I did so, a jet passed over very low! I realized he was one of those belly-dumpers. As he passed over he angled up and banked to the left. As he did so all the trees on the hill behind the barn swayed and shook with his wash. Went in the barn to get Jmebear's little stallion, Firefly, and took him out to the trailer. Then closed the partition. I went back to get breezy and heard the jet returning. It occurred to me he was going to dump his load right over the house and barn! I ran for the small horse trailer we use for hay and didn't make it. I was pepto-bismol pink from head to foot! Grabbed the now pink Appy and ran for the trailer with her. Brought out Socks and she wouldn't let him in the trailer. So I took Breezy out and put him in. Then I went back for the Pony Boys. Got them both in the trailer and closed the door. They were both huddling close to and under Socks who was taking it all in with a resigned air. Put Breezy in the neighbor's upper paddock which was out of danger from the fire.
Then I walked out to see just how bad it was.
Remember those lovely pictures I posted two years ago of the horses in the upper pasture? It's all gone. The fire did stop at the creek, but over two hundred, centuries old Valley Oaks are lost. Several acres of blackberries are gone, and the horses favourite, herby-grassy-grazing area is now dust. I have thousands of feet of fencing that no longer exists.
The good news is that we still have about five acres or so of grass that was spared. The fire rolled through the grove on the hill and jumped Oak Run road. No homes were lost, just the Bug Farm. No livestock was harmed or endangered. So we came out on the positive side I suppose.
Since, the firecrew seemed to have a handle on everything and the homestead looked to be safe, I put everyone back into their stalls and corrals. Then I once again started back to Redding to pick up Jmebear after her surgery. Gave up on all but one errand because Jmebear wanted to get back to the house ASAP.
After all this I wanted to take a shower before bed and likely won't be able to as the well is refusing to produce the water again.
Nothing quite like a perfect day!
I do hope everyone else around here had a better one!