Tense Moments

Late yesterday evening, the husband and I were puttin' out hay for the horses and cattle. We noticed the sky gettin' dark to the East. We figured it was going to storm so we finished what we were doing and took the tractor back to the neighbor's. Before we could make it to their drive, the wind picked up. It was blowing a good 60+ mph. We stopped and spoke with the neighbor who was outside on the porch watching the storm. While we were standing there, the lightning started crackin'. The husband and I decided we better get to the house.

When we got home, the chairs off the front porch were blown across the yard. We grabbed 'em and put them in the barn. As we were walking back to the house, I saw bright orange flames flaring in the distance. The lightning had started a fire.

The husband went in and called the neighbors. Asked the one neighbor that had lived there his entire life to call the fire department since he would know what roads to tell them. I went back outside and there was another fire. Then another and another. With fields of dead corn stalks around our house and pastures of dead grass, the thought of a fire being near is quite nerve racking.

The husband and I got into my truck and went to see how far the fire was from the house. With the wind blowing as hard as it was, it wouldn't take long for it to spread. The three other fires diminished pretty quickly. The largest one was still smoldering about 5 miles from the house.

We were lucky and so were the people near it. It burned in the middle of a pasture. But the roads were still treacherous. There were many downed trees along the way.

There was no where to turn around when we came to this one. So the husband just drove thru it. As it scrapped along the side of my truck, he did apologize! I told him that was okay, gives it character. We also had to dodge several cows that were out on the roads. Had a close call with a black angus. Not the color a cow needs to be in the dark of night! But we made it back without incident and finished watchin' the end of the preseason football game.