Weekend and wildfire

It is very late Monday as I sit here typing this as we have just had a very exciting and scary evening however first of all let's go over the awesome weekend so you'll have to wait to find out about that.

The wasps have been such a problem this year

Rosie playing in the sand

Rosie the excavator operator

Let's start making a castle

Castle done and looking great

Panorama from the balcony

Rosie in her awesome outfit

Saved this tortoise

Our wood delivery arrives

So let's go back to Daddy Saturday which started super early for me taking down more wasps nests from around the front of the house. After that Rosie and I spent some time playing in the sand pit. She was digging away and I got the toy excavator out and showed her how to use it and she was very good at it indeed. Then we made a sand castle before going in for breakfast before our trip out. We weren't in a rush as the shop we were going to didn't open early so after some time on the balcony and admiring the stunning view I found clothes for Rosie to wear (dressing her nicely for once) and we headed into town. A tortoise was by the gate which is always nice to see. the trip was a success and when we got back we even had time for a quick dip in the pool before the family skype call. Early afternoon I had a call from the Other Brother and the first part of our wood delivery arrived and was dumped out ready for cutting and splitting.

The sun rises on Sunday

Rosie and Angela dead heading my dad's flowers

Rosie harvests some tomatoes

Another awesome harvest

Swimming time for the girls

Firewood delivery arrives again

Clouds on the horizon

Sunday I was up again early to attack the wasps and got to watch the sun rise which was lovely. Then I got on with my Sunday chores while Angela and Rosie did some stuff in the garden. When I could I popped down and helped Rosie to harvest a load of tomatoes for Angela to preserve again then they went into the pool which was lovely and I joined them briefly before heading back to finish a few bits off. Once again in the afternoon a truck arrived with more fire wood so we now have everything we ordered. I would have preferred it a month or two ago but it is what it is. In the afternoon the threatened storms gathered but we only had a slight sprinkling of rain before it disappeared again.

My morning view this morning

Halil sifts sand for the mortar

Bekir talking through the electrics

Wall fixing

And so we reach today and it was a very busy day for me indeed. I finally got to move back out to my balcony desk which was great and I didn't leave my desk very much from early. I did try and get some pictures of what the men were doing which involved firstly sifting lots of sand so they could make up more mortar and then working through the day inside the house to keep patching the walls and also put the electrical cables in place properly. They also headed out and got paint for inside. It was a good day. After school we all went into the pool briefly before we all got out and Rosie wanted to go upstairs to the balcony and to play in the lounge....

... and it was a good thing she did....

This is what greeted me as I went out the front

Bekir spraying as the fire rages higher

Bekir spraying more water on the flames

Here comes the fire truck

As we were playing we looked out the window and I saw smoke coming from down by the farm. This isn't unusual however there were two plumes which is so after a second of thought I decided to go and shout at them for being so stupid. As I got to the gate I realised that this was FAR more serious than I had realised as there was a wildfire burning out of control and heading our way fast. I dialled 911 (for some reason 112 didn't spring to mind) but it got through and they were super efficient in handling my panicked call. I then called the Other Brother then started running to tell Angela and then get buckets (though what good those tiny splashes did I'm not sure). Shortly after Bekir rang as they had gone to town and seen the smoke so I told them also and they appeared almost immediately and ran to help Angela who was bringing the hoses over to the chicken house. In the time I made the calls and ran and got two or three bucket loads the fire had breached our boundary and was racing towards our trees and the green building and if it reached that then things would go very badly wrong. Bekir was amazing, as was Halil, as they took the hose and damped ahead to try to stop it spreading. We were also very lucky the wind changed direction briefly which stood the fire back for a few minutes; without that happening I wonder if we would have been too late anyway. In all this time I had only seen Bekir and Halil and The Other Brother - no sign of anyone from the farm but then finally one of the men did appear and then the police arrived and then finally the first of two fire trucks. I say finally but they were super fast - it just felt a long time as I knew if the wind changed again we would be struggling once more.

Bekir preventing fire from approaching our land again

This was taken 25 minutes after the first picture

The front corner by our entrance is toast

Fire truck and putting out the last fires

This is where Bekir was fire fighting

A huge amount burned further down the hill

Once the truck arrived they went to the back field behind our land where the changed wind direction was now pushing the fire very quickly towards the scrub oak woods down there however it was also burning up and back round towards us a bit further up our fence. I helped Bekir reach the fence through the dense (and very flammable) undergrowth then he jumped the fence and spray lots of water and thinking back I think this was even more vital to have done as if it had got to our trees and that jungle then it would have burned very fiercely indeed. A second fire truck turned up and they prioritised dampening the entire burned area on our land before they went to the back again to relieve the first truck which had now run out of water. Angela and I (Rosie had gone to the little lady's house thankfully) went for a look now the worst was over and could see just how far up the back field it had gone and also just had badly down behind the farm towards the woods there - this was VERY close to a major incident indeed. By this time the entire village had turned up, everyone from the farm had appeared (where were they while their house was nearly burning down) and the police asked if I wanted to make an official complaint which we declined to do; if they start fires again during summer I will, however. The damage to our property was minimal to non-existent really; just a load of brambles and weeds burned that I would have had to remove anyway. Angela was awesome as she sorted Rosie out (when I ran past after first seeing it and yelled in the doorway "it is a fire!! A BAD ONE!" she put shoes on her and got her moving) and then she brought a big bottle of water down for everyone to drink which was a great idea as I was parched and I'm sure Bekir and Halil were worse. Thank goodness for awesome neighbours who were able to keep Rosie calm and safe while we were focussing on the fire.

The black spot is a dead ember floating in the pool

Getting the hose out of the chicken enclosure

At least it is cleared now

With the excitement over I headed back in and Angela went to get Rosie. I then spotted a chunk of ash floating in our swimming pool. This is about 40m away from where the fire was at its closest and just goes to show how close to disaster this was. After dinner (lasagne - my favourite) I went and gathered up the hoses and tidied them away and then we all went down to have a final look at the charred corner of our land. This could have been so much worse!

So there you are; a much longer and more dramatic update than I expected to write when I finished work and was floating in the pool but thankfully no one was hurt, there was no loss of anything important by anyone, and maybe the farm will no longer burn things irresponsibly (though I am not holding my breath). Thanks for reading! Back tomorrow, thankfully....