What A Wild Place to Live

Yes, I realize it has been awhile since I last posted. It has been so long in fact, that our hometown here has made the national news TWICE since I last posted. But wait- that was only two weeks ago! What can I say? This is an EXCITING place to live!

First, the day we went out to the pumpkin patch we got stuck in ridiculous traffic on the way home. Why? There was a serious accident on the nearby freeway involving several semi trucks. They shut down the freeway for a few days in order to put out the fire from the accident and make sure the surrounding road and overpasses were structurally sound. Shuting down a freeway is always a big deal, but this was REALLY a big deal because this is the stretch of freeway that brings all northern traffic into LA. In fact, they had to detour all the traffic off the I-5, through the streets of Santa Clarita. In fact, right down the very street we live one block from. SO- you can imagine the traffic! We tried to go out as little as possible. It was pretty wild.

But not as wild as what happened the next weekend! (And this, I'm sure you've all heard about on the news). We have been told that the national news has really emphasized the fires in San Diego, and said less about what happened here. And yes, those fires are bigger and were more destructive, BUT- there were some serious fires going on here last weekend!

On Sunday, the fun started. There was a small fire up the road from our church and the Sunday School classes had to be evacuated. Thankfully, it was only at the end of our last morning service, so it wasn't as crazy as it could have been. There was also a fire burning in Castaic, NorthWest of here, that brought a lot of smoke over our valley.

Later that afternoon, a fire burned up behind Canyon Country, which is at the north end of Santa Clarita. Greg went outside and took some pictures. The air was orange and it was just eerie outside. Within a few hours, lots of people we knew had to be evacuated, but thankfully all their homes were saved. That night on the news we watched as planes and helicopters dumped water on the hills and a few houses burned down. This was a neighborhood we are very familiar with and it was crazy to watch it all happening on live TV. One friend of ours watched on the news while a helicopter dumped water on his home. The fires came within 50 feet of their house.





By Monday, the fire in Castaic had come closer to Santa Clarita. A few neighborhoods on the NorthWest end of town had to be evacuated (nothing near to us). I was watching an interview on the news of a local guy who fought off the fire with his garden hose at 3 am. As he pointed out at the hills, he said, "the fire went down that way, took out Lombardies, then went over there." For you blog readers who pay attention, that is the pumpkin patch we were at one week earlier. I was so sad to hear that! (On a very happy note, we went to see Lombardie's this week and were thrilled to find it wasn't completely destroyed! A good portion was saved and it is up and operating. I am planning to head out there Saturday morning and will take some pictures so you can see.)

But the fun wasn't over. Monday afternoon a new fire started to the West, near another neighborhood. More evacuations. A few hours later, another fire on the east border of Santa Clarita. This fourth fire was the closest to us, though we still weren't threatened. I knew about it before the news reported it because I heard numerous fire engines go screaming down the road, then helicopter after helicopter flying over us. Here is a shot of one of the water dropping helicopters as it went past.

We can't say how much we love our firefighters! They worked soooo hard. We were thankful to be out of danger and that we didn't have to be evacuated. It was really a good chance to evaluate just how much you love your stuff and what you would do if you lost it all. We spent many, many days cooped up inside because of the air quality. But it wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been because the strong winds that made the fire so hard to fight, also blew most of the smoke out of the valley. And now the fires are out and things have calmed down significantly!




Now, I would love to say that the lack of blog posts was due to the traffic or the fires, but really, it is due to the fact that Niki (that's me) is up to her eyeballs in crazy busy-ness! In the midst of the past few weeks, I have been preparing to teach a nutrition class for church (which was canceled due to the fires), preparing the decorations for our church's annual ladies fellowship event (involving much shopping, planning, flower arranging, etc.), preparing to co-host a baby shower, and teaching a friend how to roast a turkey. Our friend Ruth came to stay for the weekend, which is always fun, AND (just so there's no boredom here) I'm starting to plan ahead for Christmas and my sister's wedding (planning gifts, figuring out what everyone's going to be wearing, etc.).

Unfortunately, we also had a very bad week or so right in the middle of all of that with Addie's reflux. Her perscription for one medication ran out and there was a mistake in the new perscription that came from our mail-in pharmacy, so I spent quite a bit of time on the phone with the doctor's office and the pharmacy trying to identify who made the mistake and how fast we could get the right meds for Addie. Though she was feeling pretty lousy for awhile, she is feeling much better now.

Whew! If you have read this far, you are a loyal reader indeed, and I thank you for it! Please be patient as the busy-ness in our lives is due to continue until.... well... for a while. We will TRY to keep the blog up to date, so we don't have to write any more posts that will equal War & Peace, just to catch you up.