The ol' homestead

Oklahoma drought and fires

All Summer long in Oklahoma we have been going through drought -like many other states. It has been so dry and I was complaining the other day and realized that just in January we had drought AND fires. How could I so easily forget that it could be much worse?! Looking back when I had wrote to a few friends desperatly asking for prayers for our homesteads and reading these letters I wrote to friends from January has made me remember, and so I post these few letters here as I am reminded today and always that GOD IS SO GOOD!.

This drought season too shall come to pass ....

On the Ratliff City wildfires:

(Jan.13)

(Jan. 14)

Finally the fires are under control today. Sadly, many homes have burned and all 5 of my sisters neighbors houses (about 1/4 mile behind hers) burned to the ground. I will post some pix. One is a picture of the fire from our house 6 miles away. Also some from my sisters house and lands around her. And also my dh Randy setting a new pole in a charred field down the road from my sis house while the old pole is still smoking. You can't imagine what 10,000 black acres looks like! It is unbelievable and when we ran from the fire, the fire front was just 2-3 minutes behind us. It engulfed everything like a huge monster and nothing could stop it. 19 fire dept's were all there but all they could do was evacuate people because they could not fight it.

Alot of prayers were said over my sisters little house and by the grace of God only, it was spared.

When we were leaving my sisters house in the middle of the evacuation I told her to grab anything we could carry out the door with us on the way. She grabbed pictures of course and had some nice jewelry which she gave to me to carry out with some pictures. Funny, some reason I do not remember having any jewelry in my hand and later she asked me where it was. I told her I did not remember having it. She said it was probably in the house while we were all screaming and running about I must have dropped it. Well, the next day she went into her house and found it all scattered in her house. One in the hall, one in a basket, one in the living room. We can laugh about it now but it would have been gone had things turned out differently. I told her now she know I am not the one to give anything important to save! lol.