We are home. The air quality is not good, but we decided it would be nice to be home, get things taken care of, clean up, water plants, get the animals back to their routines.
We are so sorry for our friends who lost their homes. When we left, both my husband and I took on the attitude that we would not worry about the house, garage, sheds, etc. and anything in them. We were not vested in whether they would be here or not, at the end of the journey. Everything could be replaced with something newer, better, different. At one point, I wondered to myself if there was anything that I would miss if it was gone. The only thing that I would have been sad about losing was our Italian Cypress trees, about 75 of them, which we bought as seedlings and have encouraged to grow for four years along the house fenceline. They are living things and their years of growth would have been a shame to lose. But they are still here, alive, and appear to be healthy. All of our plants, trees, and bushes are fine, and the flowers are blooming, which is amazing with not being watered for four days in the heat. The special surprise that we saw upon arrival home, is a nice white Easter lily! I would have thought that the season was over for lilies! Maybe a good omen! The dogs are happy to be home. Our daughter's dog didn't mind the trip and having to stay with another family for a while (they had three kids to keep him busy fetching a ball a zillion times), but our dog, Bo, was depressed being away from home. The horses are also glad to be home. They were in one stall, between Quarter Horses on two sides, and llamas on another (the llamas were recently rescued from another home). The fella that took them in is an older rodeo guy. Altho we couldn't pinpoint it, our paths most likely crossed over the years, while he raced or roped, and I probably announced and timed him. Charm, a slow eater, will be glad to be able to take her time eating again without someone else gobbling down half of her food. It's a good thing that she got her clip before this happened as it would have been very uncomfortable for her with all that hair and the heat. She wasn't happy about getting back into the trailer, but I don't blame her as the evacuation was not a good ride out. We are extremely lucky to have such a large, helpful family, horse community, as well as good friends, including our fellow list subscribers. For example, Mary was right in there offering her place for not only our horses, but for the dogs, and us, too! Last time we were together was about four years ago, at her place, for a clicker clinic. Thank you so much, Mary!! We really appreciate your thoughtfulness and jumping in there with your offer right away. I would have loved to have made it up to Norco, but we couldn't travel that far on Monday night. Gail has been keeping track of stuff for us, keeping us up to date with information, which has been an invaluable service to us. Thanks, Gail! Thanks to all of my friends out there! We really appreciate you! Judy PS: BTW, to those of you who received the note about staying at my brother-in-law's place, along with his 11 children.... I was wrong.... he has 12 (TWELVE) kids!!! Somewhere along the way, I lost count :-) Phew! It's good to be home! :-)
