Safe,Sound and Sooty

Good Morning. What a day and night. Woke early to the most beautiful bright red full Moon setting over Moonlight beach to the west. More cleaning and laundry. Our faithful and trusty pool guy and Gardeners arrived ready to rock and roll. Loose limbs and downed branches met the chainsaw. Soot and ash were swept and dumped. The pool is no longer pitch black and we can filter it again with the cover on. I still continue to battle the soot in the house and have been told it may not really be clean until the air is clean.

It was 44 degrees This morning with heavy fog. This is great news. As the sun burns off the marine layer and we get the onshore flow the breeze continues to make breathing rough. It will get better each day. How I wish it would rain. Yet blue sky would also be welcome. The smoke haze is getting old.

We were allowed back into Rancho Santa Fe yesterday. Don to his office, me to the church. The skeleton crew of pastors and a handful of members had opened the church Monday to all the firefighters and the efforts grew our church into a command center. As I arrived and so many other elders and deacons responded to help, we were able to spell those local heroes and get to work.

KP is my specialty. We worked as a team to serve dinner to approx 75+ firefighters and police from 5pm until I left at 1 am. Others stayed through the night to serve the platoons of 8-12 that continued to come in for food, a SHOWER and sleep. I will go back for the same shift tonight and must tell you it is a privilege to serve the brave souls that put their lives on the line for us.

As things calm down around here, the FF say they will move with the fire. These crews are from all over the state. The guys I had time to talk to were from Windsor, north of Petaluma. They drove 12 hours to get to us. I learned so much from them about fire. Due to our unique terrain and winds we are a very difficult fire to fight. I got a full tutorial from hard working guys and gals that were happy to have someone to talk to and a full belly.

My galpals and I have decided to go on our cruise as scheduled for Monday. Cabo here I come. I will rest well and then come back and knit and felt bags for my show on Nov the 10th. Then I will clean house with an eye towards preparing for the holidays. Yes, I said the HOLIDAYS...