Still not home

Our home is fine. In fact the fire burned all around it and hit the street next to us and burned a lot of houses from there on. God was watching over us.


Firefighters ripped our porch off the house in an effort to save our house in case the fire reached it. The roof overhangs the porch so the roof is falling off with the porch. They also sprayed our rose bushes down with some kind of retardant that made them look like they were covered in ice. There is smoke damage on the outside of the house. The inside smells like ash and there is ash on all the windowsills inside.
We have had a lot of trouble reaching our insurance agent. I've been trying for a week to get a hold of him and he won't call me. I've even spoken with his supervisor and everyone keeps telling me they are working on getting him to call me. I can't deal with any one else. I have been told not to move anything in and I can't move in until they send an adjuster out to assess the damage. So, I have had to extend my hotel stay another 5 days, thankfully they had rooms available.
I requested a new agent yesterday and I am supposed to hear from them today. I would really like to go home.

I hate not knowing

We had a couple of good days even with the high winds. Until yesterday. It crossed over the highway again and it burned a restaurant, bar and store at our intersection. We heard rumors of it being near our house on three sides but we don't know anything for sure. Hopefully later today we will know.
We had some friends live with us for a few months in December. We are all pretty sure their house is now gone. Luckily they were renting and they had renters insurance so everything they lose will be paid for. They also won't know for some time.
Fire is still spreading but winds have finally died down to a manageable level for the firefighters. They have called in the National Guard to help us with road blocks, etc. People are getting pretty crazy. One guy was arrested for ramming a police vehicle and running over a Border Patrol agent and almost hitting 2 others. He was trying to get to his mother. Law Enforcement did go check on her but he went to jail.

Last night

 The restaurant near my house


 Our housing area is on the left side of this photo - up near the fire

We have been going to the shelter to eat. We ran out of money early in the week from eating out. People are blessing us by sending us money and the shelter has been so amazing! They have given us food, free passes to a swimming pool for the kids and even a gift card to Walmart to buy them suits. Restaurants from all over town have been donating food to the shelter so we are well fed!

I would like to apologize to my followers and others that have come here to look for info on hCG. I have not been doing the diet for the last week. In fact my hCG is at home and I can not even get close to my home right now with the evacuation in place. This fire has taken over my life and even if I did have the hCG with me I am having to eat whatever they have at the shelter.

Better day yesterday - for us anyway

The fire didn't spread very much yesterday. Whereas the day before it almost doubled in size. Thursday it had gone from 10,000 acres to 18,000 then yesterday it spread to just above 19,000. The wind never really hit it and so it was a pretty calm day although the fire is still only 15% contained.
We have been evacuated since Thursday. We are moving into a hotel this afternoon so at least we will have a TV and swimming pool to help fill up the time. We have been having to eat out so much and are now broke so we will be going to the shelter that's been set up for lunch and dinner.

There was another fire started on Post - it quickly spread to 2,400 acres and forced evacuations of about 100 homes, a daycare and an elementary school. Luckily, it was contained fairly quickly and those people got to go back home. They are blaming it on a bulldozer that hit a rock and sparked. It's so dry!

Wind is supposed to be very strong for the next two days and then dying down on Monday. The fire is still directly across from my house and wind is blowing east/northeast. Our house is still not safe for a few more days.

Scary day!

I thought for sure our home and entire town were toast today. We were under pre-evacuation orders - meaning "be ready". We moved out more stuff and while we were loading stuff into a storage shed in town it got really bad. We went back to get another load and there was thick, black smoke everywhere. Then some friends called and said the radio was saying the fire was going to jump the highway in 20 minutes. We bolted! 5 minutes later the fire jumped. The entire town (Hereford) was so covered in smoke I thought for sure it was all gone.
Hours later, we found out our home is fine and so is our neighborhood. The fire came within less than 3 miles though. Many homes were lost on the one side of the highway but none on our side of the highway.
So far no one has been injured.
Tomorrow is another day - 35 mph winds.

So far so good

They evacuated up to but not including our street yesterday. They evacuated the opposite side of the road. Today the winds are supposed to be 30mph with 35mph gusts and blowing towards our house. The fire would have to jump a five lane highway and travel about 1/2 mile to get to my house. Could happen but it's looking like it won't.
Even though they didn't evacuate us we still left and stayed with our Pastor. They are asking for people to evacuate early if possible. I am back home - I like to see what is going on first hand because there are hourly updates on the radio and updates on the local newspaper's internet site but the updates are not very good. The radio updates are the same every hour and don't really give any info and the website is pretty sporadic on when they post an update. I will stay here until I am kicked out or it starts looking too bad.
The fire yesterday and today are on a mountain directly across from my house - maybe a mile away.

Life is kind of at a stand still right now for us. Nothing to do but sit and wait.

Last night.

Monument Fire Day 4

This picture is taken less than 2 miles from my house.

We were pretty worried the fire would jump the highway. The fire was on the opposite side of the highway from us and if it jumped then we were definitely in danger. Well, it did jump. There was an elementary school where the fire crews had set up their HQ. They were sleeping in the gym, had tables set up under a large tent and many emergency vehicles. Once the fire jumped the highway (even though they had done some backburning to prevent this) the school was surrounded on 3 sides with 30ft high flames. Planes were literally dropping Slurry (fire retardant) on top of the school and the equipment. Needless to say HQ has moved to a different school now. As far as I know the school is fine and no people have been hurt thus far. The fire on this side of the highway was contained and put out -as far as I know. Also, I have heard 65 homes have been lost but that is a rumor that has not been confirmed.

Winds are supposed to pick up today from 5-10 mph (yesterday) to 15mph and up to 25 mph tomorrow. We are not out of the clear yet.

We did get everything out that we wanted/needed so if we are forced to evacuate I don't have to grab anything first.

For some reason things start happening about 1pm everyday. I guess because its the hottest part of the day and the wind starts picking up. I am nervous to see what happens today. My husband has been going to work and just relying on me to watch things and get out when we need to. I am thankful we were able to come back home last night. Police had the HWY blocked off at our intersection. They are still down there but it looks like they are letting people through.

It's a strange feeling. I want to stay in my house until I am told to get out. I don't really care if it burns down - I have my family, pets and pictures and other things of importance out of the house (or will have when needed). But I feel like I want to stay until I HAVE to go.

Chaotic Day!

The fires got really close today. Or so it seemed. The smoke was so thick I call my husband and told him he needed to come home. We threw all of our important stuff into our vehicles and then went and helped some friends do the same. I attended a town hall meeting and their saying with the conditions right now it could be really bad. Winds are supposed to get up to 15 mph tomorrow and 25 mph thursday.
We haven't been evacuated yet. We will have to wait and see what tomorrow brings.