2011 - Day Two Hundred Forty Eight; Monday...

It's Labor Day, I hope you have enjoyed your Holiday. Personally, we have been wrapped up with following the fires all around us. We are fine, nothing much going on here fire wise, but we can smell smoke, and we should not be able to smell smoke in my opinion. Since the winds are strong and coming out of the North to Northeast, that would mean there were fires north and east of us, but there has been nothing reported in that area.

The fires are devastating large portions of Bastrop, Hays and Travis Counties. 25,000 acres in Bastrop County alone and (at last count) almost 500 homes destroyed. The first have pretty much surrounded the farm there in Red Rock, and we are not sure if it will succumb or not. I saw on the Internet (a fire tracking site) that there was a fire reported in the Red Rock area, but we will most likely have to wait until morning to find out about that. We hope that everyone (including the property that is still left) will survive the night.

We live in Williamson County, and they have made an emergency declaration; it is ILLEGAL to smoke outside or have a barbecue outside or do anything else outside that uses fire. NOTHING. You will be arrested if you are caught! And rightly so. I am sick of watching people toss cigarette butts out of their cars. It is reported that is what caused the fires in Bastrop County. A fire (that has so far destroyed about 25 homes and damaged 30 others) in the Steiner Ranch area of Austin was caused by sparks from a power line. We are all about to be set on fire.

There was some normalcy to the day. We had a nice breakfast and I watered a few things outside. Later in the afternoon, we went to Dairy Queen and enjoyed Blizzards. We can always count on Blizzards to make our tummies say yummie!

We also had the cold front come through, lowered the temperatures to only 98 degrees here. It was cooler this morning and the humidity is about 15 percent. Winds and low humidity are helping the fires. We should all be rejoicing for that climactic change, but the fires have taken all the joy out of it.

Okay, that is pretty much for today. Gonna go and put the chickens up in a few minutes, and survey the horizon for glowing objects.

Deeds, Actions, Changes, FIRE EVERYWHERE, Kindnesses, Whirled Peas, FUN!