Fires and Floods!

The beginning of April was extremely dry. On April 9th many parts of our state was hit by wild fires. On that day, we had wind out of the West gusting up to 40 mph. Many of the wild fires started from electric lines smashing together and sparks flying to the ground. The community of Velma, which we are about 2 miles from lost around 20 homes due to the fires. It was a very chaotic and stressful day. They evacuated the entire town of Velma. We were encouraged as well to evacuate from our home. The state trooper stopped by to inform us that there was a fire West of our house, which we could see the smoke and he said they were having trouble getting it under control. Thankfully, they did and it didn't get close to any of the homes on our road. The kids and I took off to my Aunt's house. Loco, where my parents live, had fires to the North and South of it. So we weren't able to go that direction and stay with my parents. Byron stayed behind with neighbors to keep watch on the situation. The firefighters and the oil trucking companies did a great job that day. My aunt Retha works at a local oil trucking company. She said they didn't perform a single oil field job that day. All of their trucks were used hauling water to all of the fires along with about 3 other trucking companies in the Velma area. The trucks were taking water from lakes and ponds. There was actually a guy that was filling his truck from his very own swimming pool. My dad even said that by the wee hours of the morning they were getting water from the sewer lagoons! Disgusting I know, but they were using everything possible to control these fires. April 10th, they were able to bring in helicopters to help put out the fires. The day before it was too windy and the helicopters couldn't get off the ground. For several days, it was quite scary. My grandma, my mom's mom, did loose her house though. Thankfully, she wasn't there at the time of the fire. The dogs were rescued, but all else was lost. I do have to say Nannie is doing quite well for loosing everything. I can't imagine being in your early 70s and loosing all of your possessions. She is currently living with my parents. As devastating as the fires were we are very thankful that no one was seriously injured or lost their lives. So thank you Lord for keeping everyone in our community and surrounding communities safe!

The end of April ended in flooding! We got 7 inches of rain on Wednesday! It was very much needed though. Now the ponds are full to the brim. The lawn mowing season will officially begin once the rain has totally soaked in. Its amazing how quickly things change. The grass and trees are such a vibrant green now. All those areas that were damaged by the fires now have signs of new life. What a month it has been!!!


East of Loco

East of Loco

Smoke from a fire still burning!

The remains of Nannie's house!

Digging for Nannie's jewelry! They were her prized possessions! We had little success unfortunately in retrieving the jewelry.

This is South of our house on the road that we take to my parents' house.

Same area as the above picture

This is South of my parents' house. As you can see the power line pole laying in the road! There were many many power lines that were down. So to add to all of the fires many were without electricity too!

This was our rent house the first time we lived in Oklahoma! It got ridiculously close to it. Actually the people we rented this from actually lost one of their horses to the fire! They couldn't get to him in time!! SO sad!!!

The Flood Pictures!


This is the road in front of our house!

This is the North side of the house! We have a river!!!

Front porch view of our road!

Our river! This is looking out of Jaycee's bedroom window to the North!

Our backyard!

Another view of the backyard!

And another!

River Rapids anyone?!