We had a little excitement down at the ranch yesterday ? a fire, one property away.

The California Department of Forestry planes were there within minutes to drop flame retardant. B took this picture from the ground with a point and shoot. They were so close. It was awesome.

A helicopter dropped huge buckets of water.

This shows some flames and gives a sense of how low these huge planes were flying. Ghost, the stallion, stands by ? the only one of four horses to even notice there was danger near. We were truly lucky that the fire was downwind. It made quick work of a barn and 10-15 acres. Had the wind been blowing the other way, the fire would probably have made it to our property.

We are ill-prepared for horse evacuation, so this was a great wake-up call. After twenty some odd years of no horse contact, I quickly reacquainted myself with halters and lead ropes; have learned that putting Vick’s Vapor Rub in a stallion’s nose will make him not able to smell the mares, thus easier to manage in an emergency situation; and know that we need to quickly to remedy the shortage of horse trailers on the property.

My friends really came through in the emergency with childcare. One friend took C away from the ranch, so I could stay until my mother-in-law came. We board the horses for my MIL.

Check out this little video clip of one of the planes. Thanks, B, for thinking of taking the pics.

Wow! That was scary. I heart firefighters.

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