Grand View Summer: Fire!

The Bear Wallow Fire was started on Sunday, May 29, 2011. I heard about it on the same day. It was just an offhand comment about a fire near Hannigan Meadow caused by some careless people who didn't take care of their campfire. I didn't even think about the fire throughout the rest of Sunday or Monday morning. On Monday afternoon I smelled smoke, but I figured that the wind had just blown it over. For some reason I never even thought of the fact that if the wind was blowing the smoke, it was blowing the fire, too.
Around 2 o'clock on Tuesday afternoon, the smoke was visible high above us. It eventually reached out and covered the sun, making everything look kinda orange. It was *very* cool. At that point, anyhow.

As the wind blew, I was aware of the smell of the smoke, but it sort of blew away so that it wasn't covering the sun anymore. I called my mom and asked her to pray that the fire wouldn't come to camp. I felt like I was being overly dramatic, but supposed it couldn't hurt.

On Wednesday morning everything looked pretty clear, but the smell of the smoke was present from the time I woke up. After lunch, the smoke from the fire began to reach up again, eventually covering the sun again. This time it didn't blow off, though. Instead, the covering over the sun got thicker and everything got darker. Right before dinner when I stepped outside it sounded like a light rain, but there was no rain. It was ash falling from the sky.

(You can see some blue sky on the bottom left. We had at least SOME blue sky all day Wednesday, but none on Thursday)

(That pink dot in the center? That's all I saw of the sun from Wednesday 'til Thursday night.)

Everything looked foggy on Thursday morning. It wasn't red and yellow like Wednesday, just gray and bleak.

I actually wasn't worried at all. I remembered smoke settling into the valley in the morning where I lived during the wildfires in Colorado several years back. And those fires weren't really a threat. So I just figured that as the day went on the smoke would lift and everything would be fine. Buuuut... it didn't lift.  Shortly after lunch we got the word, "We're going to evacuate". The forest service/fire officials told us that *if* we needed to evacuate, it wouldn't be until Friday, but we were going to leave anyhow.

(All of the flecks in the above picture are flakes of ash.)

As we packed, I pretty much lost track of time. Soon it was pitch black outside. I felt like it couldn't be that late, but as crazy as the day had been, I really had no clue what time it was. So as we drove down the road away from camp, I was surprised to see how it got continually lighter and lighter out until we were in broad daylight!

(Looking back on the smoke we had just come out of.)

Sitting at Sonic for awhile breathing in the fresh air and seeing the smoke from Alpine was when I was finally struck by the gravity of the situation. And I realized that my summer was probably going to be somewhat different than I had imagined.

In case you're interested:

Here is the video Uncle Brian made of the fire:


Wallow Fire Timeline
Here are some pretty incredible pictures of the fire.

Grand View Summer: The Beginning

As you all know, I left Colorado in April. I really had no clue what to expect. My uncle told me that they could keep me busy, but I didn't really know what that busyness would include. One thing I did know? I was excited. For one thing, I was going to camp!!! For another thing, I was going EARLY!!! I don't think that anything could have dampened my spirits.

The trip to Arizona was pretty good. I love road trips! We got into Alpine pretty late, so I dumped my stuff into my cabin (fondly known as the Green Bean) and fell asleep without unpacking anything. I woke up in the morning when I heard a sound outside. It was a small herd of elk right outside my window! Some of you may not get this, but that one thing made me SUPER happy. I like a lot of things about the city, but I'm really a country girl at heart. Through and through. So the elk outside made me even more excited than I already was. =) Here are some pictures of the Green Bean:

 

I can't even remember everything that I did for those first couple of weeks, but I did stay busy! I cleaned out the two dorms... vacuumed (and/or swept) all of the floors and windowsills and mattresses and drawers and closets, washed the windows, cleaned the bathrooms. That sort of thing. One of the dorms took me 4 days to do by myself, so I was very grateful when I got some help on the second dorm. That one only took 2 days. =)
Another project that took 2 days was cleaning out the paintball shed. At least one, if not two, pack rats had lived there all winter. That job goes on my "Top 3 Most Disgusting Things I've Done in My Life" list, but I actually had fun! When you are all by yourself in a shed for several hours is an awesome time for praying. Not that I prayed all day. I also did some singing. I sang songs from Tangled, Anastasia, and Phantom of the Opera... and I didn't bother one. single. person. Ah... that's the life! ;)
Here is a picture of one of the pack rats: (we caught two)

I did a hundred other random things around the camp, but I won't bore you with all of that. =D The two other "bigger" projects I did were cleaning the staff lounge and planting flowers. And I didn't do many flowers compared to Mrs. Roberts... she is the queen of flowers! =) I did pick out one pretty pink flower and I planted it specifically for my dear friend Bailey, since she likes pink. I think I was a tad homesick that day:

It was super exciting (and a tad strange) when the rest of the staff started to arrive. I couldn't wait to get to know everybody. We started staff training and everything was going well. I was happy and excited and wondering what God would teach me over the summer through the campers and the speakers. Little did I know that God had planned out some lessons from waaaaaay different teachers than I had imagined.

Grand View Summer: Prologue

Thank you all for the warm welcome back to the blogging world! I really missed you guys! I decided to go ahead and give you more than just the basics about my summer, so there will several posts:

1. Before the Fire
2. During the Fire/Evacuation
3. Phoenix
4. Regeneration
5. Back to Alpine/Cleanup
6. Camp

I may end up doing more posts if I have a lot to say about the different weeks of camp. We'll see how it all goes. I am really excited about sharing with you all and I hope I don't leave out anything important! 

I don't know how much I will be posting this week. One of my very bestest friends ever is getting married in November and I'm going to go spend some of the week with her. Hopefully we can get bridesmaid dresses picked out! =D

Anyhow... That's the plan for what I'll be blogging about for a bit. I thought I'd pop in and let you all know that I'm still here. =)

Around the Campfire

Okay.... This isn't around the campfire. It's the forest fire around us. I took tons of pictures today, but I only uploaded a couple 'cause 1. it's  late and 2. I don't want to tie up the internet. Anyhow.... Here is some of the smoke that I've been inhaling most of the day:



That little pink dot in the center of this picture is all I've seen of the sun since around 1:30. You can kinda see it in the picture above, too.



The "Green Bean" with a bunch of smoke behind it. At least *some* of the smoke is pretty. Most of it is just a nasty gray-orange that made everything... the trees, the ground, the buildings, etc etc etc look orange.



Anyhow, we've been getting rained on by ashes. There's both black and white ash everywhere. Right now it looks like the camp will be fine, but prayers would be appreciated. =D

I'm gonna go hit the sack. Miss ya'll!

A Whole New World

So... I have a Disney song stuck in my head right now and decided to use it for my post title. It kinda fits some of what I have to say. =)

I have now been in Arizona for almost two weeks. It's been great! The trip down here was pretty good overall, though we did run into a few problems. Wind and broken brakes. Nothing major. lol

I am staying in a little cabin called the "green bean." It has a bedroom, a bathroom, a small kitchen, and a small living room. I love it! I even have a small refrigerator, so I can keep important stuff like salsa and peanut butter around.

(I've been coming to realize that I'm weird when it comes to the temperature of things. I dislike room temperature peanut butter, salsa, or rice milk. Cold cold cold is the best! I think there was something else that some people eat room temperature that I prefer cold... but I don't remember what it was.)

I've been keeping pretty busy cleaning stuff... a cabin, a shed, etc. I've been helping go through a bunch of storage boxes, too. I have enjoyed pretty much every moment here. The worst thing was cleaning up after a pack rat that moved into a storage place. That was one messy critter! I actually didn't mind most of the mess, but there was a stove that was being stored, and the little guy ... messed it up. In spite of how disgusting it was, it only took me 10-15 minutes to clean. So 10-15 not-so-great minutes out of two weeks is not bad at all. =D

I got a library card (a very important thing no matter where I'm at!) last week and checked out a few books. Now I just have to make sure that I keep up with my account. As fast as time is flying here, that could be a bit difficult.

The weather here has been kinda cool, but very dry. I'm using lotion like crazy. I'm definitely going to need a new bottle before I leave. Even though I opened the bottle here. And chapstick???? I was already using a lot in Colorado. Here? I'm going through it pretty quick. ly.

I need to get back to work, but I'll try to post when I can! Hope you all are doing well! I really need to try and gets some time to read ya'll's blogs and comment on them.

TTFN!

Two Very Happy Things =D

Yesterday was a great day. First of all, look at this here word that I wrote:

Yep, I finished a book. I almost burst into tears as I pencilled the last word. Whenever I finish a book, I get this really REALLY empty sort of feeling. A gone-ness, I guess. Because the story is no longer confined in my brain: it's been freed onto the paper. I also get this wondrously magical feeling of great accomplishment. So it's a rather emotional event for me. The book that I finished is the story of the Beast. Now I get to move on to getting it finalized! =D

Thennnnnn.... drumroll, please:

YAHOOO!!!!!! <3 <3 <3 I've got plans for the summer! I am so excited!