Greetings friends and supporters of Shades of Green Farm. It's been an extraordinary loooong 5 days since I attempted to go to town to shop and ran into the road block that turned me around and turned life around for thousands of people in our area. First let me tell you, We are alright and our farm is alright...we have been spared from these horrible fires.
I had been stopped at the barricade by the fire that started on the road we call 1441 and had arrived at highway 21, where it too-easily jumped across, fueled by the tinder dry grasses and dead trees in the median of that once gorgeous stretch of road and pushed hard by 40 mile an hour gusts out of the north and spawned by tropical storm Lee. By the time I got home, a second fire had started, much closer to us but still south and blowing south. Sue and I talked about the wisdom of staying vs. leaving, when that answer became obvious by a third plume that shot up directly to the west of us and grew dark gray and ominous in just a few minutes. It took us less than five minutes to get the dogs in the cars and forget everything else and by the time we hit the little road our driveway is off of, the smoke was billowing tall and shot full of an eerie light.
We truly thought all would be lost and cried for it all, especially the cattle that we left behind. Even with the pasture gates open so they might find their way out, and might find a route to safety, it did not look hopeful.
We drove to Austin where our wonderful friends John and Annell have taken us in, given us clothes to wear, bought food I could eat (food sensitivity issues make that a challenge), and made it easy to hang out in shock and get fixated on the news as it came out.
That was Sunday, September 4th. Today we are still with John and Annell, still concerned about fire, still without power and therefore water, and still rotating our dogs in and out of rooms because they haven't been getting along for months but we were taking our time finding a home for Aubie because it wasn't so hard to manage and we want the perfect forever home for her. (Now it looks like Austin Pets Alive, who placed over 60 dogs evacuated from the Bastrop animal shelter in one day-- they're taking on Aubie to 'rehome' as they call it. What an odd boon to come from such a huge tragedy as this fire has been.) The cattle are 14 miles from the farm, in a small and sweet paddock at the Lee County Sheriff's Posse rodeo site, where they are taking in and caring for displaced livestock... we are eternally grateful to Kevin, Scott and Jesse, who brought fence panels and trailer and helped me gently load them up (all pregnant) and get them settled in a place where they have ample water and an exit strategy if needed (pray not). The few chickens and ducks we have left are loose and still alive and laying eggs.
Sue and I began posting to our personal and farm Facebook pages... check out our journey by clicking the link to our Shades of Green Farm page. It's been an incredible journey and isn't over yet.
Shades of Green Farm on Facebook
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