It feels like it has been weeks since I last blogged.  But in reality it has only been 7 days.  For those who don’t follow me on Twitter or Facebook, I and my family have been having a rather intense week.  We live about 3-4 miles from the Four Mile Canyon Fire outside of Boulder, Colorado.    

 

Our Labor Day started off as a Very Windy Day.  Generally we are quite sheltered here on our mountainside, but that morning our tree tops were whipping about like the trees themselves were ready to take flight.  By noon our power had gone out, not a big deal since it was a sunny day.  I sat in a comfy spot by the window and continued crocheting on my latest design.   

Once the sample was done I headed over to the design office to type up the pattern notes on my laptop (which fortunately was fully charged).  Later that afternoon, about the time the laptop battery was getting low, the power came back on.  I went back over to the house to check on my boys and see what my beloved wanted to do for dinner that night.   

Before I could say anything though, he told me there was a bad wildfire in Four Mile Canyon.  So my question was, “Do we need to pack up and head out?”    

That was the standing question for the following 4 days as weather and the preceding dry conditions gave our brave fire crews terrible conditions to  battle a wildfire.  At one point residents in the northwest neighborhoods of Boulder were preparing to evacuate.  The latest news reports say the fire is 56% contained and that fire crews are confident that they will have full containment by Monday morning.   

Many of the families that had to evacuate nearer the fire are being allowed back in to their homes.  Best of all no lives have been lost as residents were evacuated in a timely manner and the fire crews have been able to rotate shifts.   

We are safe and have not had to leave our homes and a lifetime of belongings behind.  The winds have worked in our favor and we are even smoke free the past couple of days.  Numerous friends and family have contacted us this week to inquire into our safety and to offer us haven at their homes if we needed to evacuate.  I and my family are heartened to know that we have such a wonderful support system in place.    

During all this waiting I’ve been thinking about the two sides of living in so remote an area.  We are surrounded everyday by beautiful landscapes, pristine air to breathe and not a lot of traffic noise, especially at night.  The flip side is we also get to deal with record-breaking snowfalls, our electric power goes out at least 2 times a year (occasionally for days on end), and wildfire is a constant worry when the dry seasons are on us.   

Despite the occasional inconveniences and the rare life-threatening incident we still wouldn’t change where we live.  The everyday joy is a fair trade-off. 

This excitement has put me a bit behind on some of my design work, but I’m back to work now.  I’ll definitely be scanning more of my work into my computer though, nothing like realizing it could have all been lost to motivate me to carry on with all my organizing and inventory projects.