Neighbors

This is the first time in my life I have ever not lived in a neighborhood.  You know, with houses right next door (and in front and behind) that are practically so close you can spit on them.  That's what I've always had....Jas too.

But now we live "out."  We're only on two and a half acres, but we only have one neighbor in eye-shot.  But we live on a road that is 2-3 miles long with plenty of other folks living on their respective pieces of property.  

And we do have "neighbors"...as Saturday so very vividly displayed to us.  

Wow, what an unusual day.  I went to bed that night just shaking my head...and praising the Lord.

It started with all of us doing work outside.  

As we were all shoveling and moving dirt and cleaning up a burn pile we had last weekend, Jas turned around and asked us to be quiet.  He was straining to hear something.  I didn't hear anything.  He asked again for us to be real quiet...and then I heard it too.  Real faint.  "Help......help me......"

We all ran over to the house next door to investigate.  It ended up being our elderly neighbor (70+ years old) who'd had surgery a couple days previous.  She was bleeding, and she'd somehow made it out onto the back porch to call for help.  We called in the cavalry her daughter and granddaughter - a nurse-in-training.  We got Mrs. P back inside and waited with her until they showed up (which was quick!).

Her family was appreciative of our help...and we were just so glad we were outside and working on that side of the property, so that we could hear her!

Fast forward several hours.....

Someone is honking a horn fast and repeatedly in our driveway.  It turns out to be a neighbor from on down the road.  The trees at my dad's farm were on fire!   He couldn't reach my dad, so he drove down to let us know.  

Jas and the two older boys hopped in the truck...along with three long hoses!

What ensued over the next couple of hours was surreal.

Bottom line:  no one was hurt.  Besides some trees, and underbrush, that is.

But wow...was it tense and scary at times.  

I've never seen so many emergency vehicles at one place in our little town.  

From police...

....to a Fire-Break Making Bulldozer....

....to a Dept of Forestry Reconnaissance  Airplane that flew around...and around...

...and of course fire trucks, both at dad's farm and the neighboring property.

As the wire at the bottom of the picture shows, I had to watch from the other side of the fence, out at the roadside

The across-the-street neighbor (different neighbor than the one who let us know) had spotted the trouble and called 911.  And when the first responder didn't have bolt cutters to get into dad's gate, the neighbor got his and let them in!  I heard dad later tell him "Thank you!"


So...what started it?    Dad had a burn pile Saturday morning.  It wasn't a big burn pile...but he still got a burn permit like he was supposed to.  After the fire was "out", he stood there and sprayed it for 15 minutes.

The fire chief later told us that Saturday's at about 2 or 3 p.m., they call the "witching hour"...because that is when alot of burn piles that are "out" and sprayed good, flare back up.


And so dad's did.



It provided entertainment for many folks around these parts.

A different neighbor, Kevin, stopped and was with us for a while.  Well, he was with the girls, and G and I.

The boys and Jas?  They were right in the middle of all the excitement the whole time.  They were on the scene before the fire trucks were....

...but by the time we got there, both sides of the entry dirt road were blazing, and they wouldn't let us in.  I thought LK was going to spit she was so upset she didn't get to be on back there!

Jas and the boys worked hard the whole time, and they put those hoses to work.  The bottom of their shoes are melted.

The shed - the only building on the property right now - was not damaged...although the fire came thisclose to it.

Walking around and surveying damage after it was out...was so eery.

That Fire-Break Making Bulldozer ( I came up with that fancy title)...amazed me.

Everything to the left of its path, burned...everything to the right of its path....

...green and beautiful.


And the trees that were in its path?  Knocked right over.

I was impressed....

...and very thankful for that bulldozer.

When Papa arrived on the scene (after our guys, but before all of us girls) he got to go on in and he jumped on his tractor, changed out the mower attachment for the harrow and helped cut fire breaks on the back side of the fire  (between the fires and his food plots, ha!).

This is AFTER the fire was over, G didn't help during the fire

After the excitement was over, and we all went back there and surveyed damage and took pictures....we went home.  Or, at least I thought we all went home.  Come to find out later, mom and dad stayed at the farm until 1:30 a.m.(!) driving around and putting out little fires that kept flaring up.  Crazy!

So thankful for how all this turned out!




After we left the fire, we raced home (all 1/2 a mile) and got ready for our date that we were now late for.

That neighbor who stopped by the fire and held G?  He and his wonderful wife Shelly had been telling us at church for weeks that they wanted to babysit for us.  Ummmm...twist our arms!!!

The children had a great time!  It was the first time we left Miss A.  We were gone for less than 2 hours.  We grabbed a bite to eat...and returned some things to TJ Maxx.  Exciting date, I know.  But hey, all that mattered was that we were alone....together.  As much as I would agree that couples should have dates frequently...Jas and I have averaged about 2/year for the past oh, 10 years.  We're making a concerted effort to increase that number.  Twice a month?  That would be great, but may be unrealistic. Even once a month would be a great improvement over our current track record!

And our neighbors offering to help?  Was a great way to get started on our new resolution!