Fire, part 2

Jan 11, 2025

I had planned on writing a real update but my time has not been my own this whole week. Everyday there are things that MUST be done, recreating the base of the pyramid:

And then of course more stuff to move things forward on the renovations and then morning and evening chores. The rest has to be pushed to the back burner. It reminds me a lot of the week after Mom died and how there was this huge push to get everything done by a certain date. 

A few updates:

We will be out of the house for at least 4 months while they remove all of our belongings, clean them, and/or stick them in an ozone chamber, store them, rebuild ManChild’s room, wash the entire interior of the house, sand and restain the floors, and repaint everything. It will be nice to have a fresh and clean home but this wasn’t the way I wanted that to happen!

Yes, we found housing, right down the street from the farm! It’s a perfect size and cute!

The insurance folks met up with the mitigation folks and agreed with the assessments. Good!

The fire has left me with a ton of anxiety, I need to find a therapist. If you know anyone, even online therapists, please send me their info. I brought my neurofeedback computer over to the rental and am airing it out, I can’t wait to use it. That will help a ton but in case it’s not enough, I’d like to have some options.

And now we are faced with a winter storm Friday afternoon into Saturday morning. In Colorado snow wasn’t a big deal and people didn’t rush to the grocery. Here, JUST snow isn’t a big deal either if you know how to drive in it. It’s the possibility of ice that’s the issue. It brings tree limbs down onto power lines and turns roads into skating rinks. We are close to the farm but we do have to drive. There is no generator hook up at the rental. I’m not sure what we will do if we lose power in the rental as we are on septic and a well which require pumps—and let’s not forget the heat. Ugh. Praying that the power stays on. Praying that we can drive on the roads. Praying that the horses and donkeys are safe out there. 

The demo started Thursday morning and they were able to strip ManChild’s room of all sheetrock and flooring and his bathroom of all the floor tile. They came Friday morning and took all the “fast turn around” stuff: clothing, computers etc. I also had them take everything I need to work: my neurofeedback recliner and the majority of my art supplies so I can start taking clients again in the middle of the month and also hold my weekly women’s circle. 

We were able to get all of my plants out of the closets and I’ve only lost one! WOW! I put them all in the big walk in shower in the rental’s master bedroom and washed them off a few times. I left the exhaust fan on and in a few days, everything was smelling normal again. Plants are amazing aren’t they? 

I was so happy to get them out of there, we had to turn the heat on in our house so the pipes didn’t freeze, and when we went back the next day, the smell was a thousand times worse. We have had to wear respirators there ever since. 

•••

Things I’ve realized since this whole thing happened:

Every room needs two escape options.

Don’t put your charging electronic devices between you and your door. For example, if you have two bedside tables, use the one furthest away from the door. 

Every room needs a smoke alarm. New houses are done this way, older houses aren’t. Our house doesn’t have a smoke alarm in each bedroom.

Celebrate every time your cooking sets off the smoke alarm. It means it’s working well. I didn’t recognize at the time but we’ve never set off a smoke alarm in our house. 

Our smoke alarms never went off! All that fire, heat, and smoke, and not a peep! Horrifying!

I often wear earplugs to sleep. If I had had them in that night, I wouldn’t have heard ManChild open his door. It would have cost me extra minutes that I could have used to fight the fire. Thankful I didn’t have them in that night!

Keep purse, leashes, shoes, coats, in the same place every day. You will be able to find them in an emergency.

I was wearing a tank top and boy short underwear to bed that night, ManChild had on a tee and boxer briefs. I grabbed an armful of barn coats by the rack at the door and threw them all into the garage along with my shoes so we all had coats. ManChild just had socks, no shoes. Brad ran back to his room (other side of the house) to get dressed but ManChild and I didn’t have that luxury. Consider how you want to meet a stranger on a cold night and invest in some appropriate jammies. I can’t stand Jammie pants in bed, but I could easily cope with shorts and a tee.

If you can fight the fire without hurting yourself or others, do, but when you can’t do any more shut the door behind you. Starve the fire of oxygen as much as possible. 

If you are at all unsure about whether you can fight the fire, close the door and get out. One of the things that was drilled into my head during my whitewater kayaking days was to not make a rescue situation worse by becoming another victim. 

Firefighters will get living things out first then fight the fire. Get out so they can fight the fire asap. 

The county fire investigator was out the night it happened and didn’t know which electrical cord caught on fire. The insurance fire investigator came out on Monday and couldn’t find the source either. So:

 -only use original electronics chargers ie Apple chargers for Apple products. Don’t use aftermarket unless they are from a reputable brand like Anker or Belkin 

 -plug things directly into the wall if possible or

 -plug a surge suppressor strip in and plug things into that. Don’t jam your wall warts (what Brad calls the little box that all of our phone cords plug into, the part that plugs into the wall) tight together on your strip. Give everything enough space for heat to dissipate.

-leave electronics on a hard surface so heat can dissipate, never your bed, clothes, furniture 

-just because things like aftermarket cords are sold, doesn’t mean they are safe

-don’t use extension cords if you can help it, they are dangerous 

-you can get power strips with long cords, only use the length you need, no extra coils

-never put a cord under a rug or allow drapes to touch/lay on anything that is plugged in

-don’t put plugged in things under your bed or soft furniture, give them room for heat to dissipate 

-keep your bedding on the bed, don’t let it drape all over the floor. 

-if you have a lamp and you are wrapping the cord to keep it from being seen, make sure there are only gentle loops, not kinks, so electricity flows correctly and doesn’t cause a hot spot

-make sure all your plugs are completely plugged in

-test your smoke alarms monthly and if they have batteries, replace them at every time change

Well, it’s almost 10pm on Friday and again, I don’t have any more energy to write. Can you believe it’s been a week already? It flew by. I keep hoping things will settle down, they aren’t yet but soon. Maybe we will get to take it easy on Saturday with the weather being yucky. It will be good to rest.

Much love from the Mother Ranch,

Julia

PS Thank you for all of your phone calls, texts, and emails—they mean the world to me. I don’t have time to write back yet but I do read them! 

Lucy on my bed at the rental:

A few babies in the kitchen window at the rental:

 

ManChild’s room, mid demo:

A beautiful poem:

 

A few memes:

 

Let me give you a big ol' hug!

Join a group of like minded folks who get weekly letters that feel like a great big hug, ranch videos, and free goodies from me.

Close

50% Complete

FREE GIFT

Sign up to receive a digital version of my Angel Horse Crown Chakra! I'll let you know when new artwork and workshops become available!