I'm so old birthday candles weren't enough,

I needed a fire. Just about the time that Michael and I were giving final instructions to mom on the kids and were ready to jet out of here for San Antonio for my first night away from both kids ever, a fire broke out on the ranch. A big fire.
We smelled smoke and heard sirens. We ran up to the road to see what was happening. Uncle Larry ran over and told us we had ten foot flames rushing down the pasture. He and Gramp had run like mad to get the cows through the gates to safety. We were evacuated. The sheriff came to our door and told us to leave. We went to my mom's house and waited even though she had a call to evacuate as well.
The entire ranch is burnt up to the houses. Smoke poured over the entire ranch. The only pasture left is the one right in front of our house. Michael, Uncle Larry, Gramp, Andrew and Dad all stayed up at our house and the hippy house to fight the fire. Dad had a south by southwest gig but didn't make it. All of us stayed and fought to keep our houses safe.
Blackhawk helicopters swooped down and took water from our tanks and then dumped it on the grass. It was an amazing sight to see. We loaded up the kids at one point and drove over to our house to watch the huge helicopters with their loads of water.
At one point we read online that we were allowed to return to our houses. When we did, we discovered a new large fire had leapt over and was three hundred yards from our house. Michael had me call 911 and get the firetrucks to come back before we lost our haybarn. If the fire had hit the haybarn, things would not have been okay. Luckily, they came right back and more helicopters as well.
Michael's legs were black and his leg hair is burnt. The ranches all around us burnt as well. We really found out what was important to us as we packed our bags and hurried the children and dogs to safety. We are really lucky that all we lost was grass and fences. Check out our flickr pictures and our new youtube videos.
My birthday has been postponed until tomorrow.
Love, Amber

P.S. Here's what the news had to say:
Hays firefighters battling wildfires

By Miguel Liscano | Friday, March 14, 2008, 07:55 PM

Update: Firefighters from six Travis County departments, including Austin and Pflugerville, have responded to Hays County after a new request for aid about 6 p.m., fire officials said.

Firefighters are battling four wildfires just southwest of San Marcos that have grown to up to 500 acres and earlier forced the evacuation of at least five homes, Hays County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Pam Robinson said.

The fires, which are within a half-mile of each other, started about 1:36 p.m. near Staples Road and Old Bastrop Highway, Robinson said.

She said three of the fires have been brought under control. The fourth was about 70 percent contained as of 4:20 p.m., she said.

Robinson said those who were evacuated have been let back into their homes.

The cause of the fires is under investigation, she said.

Permalink | Categories: Fire

And here: (the picture of of our ranch!)