King Fire.

(Photo posted and shared on facebook.)

Hi Hutters. The King Fire is a few miles from our community and home. This blaze is truly a monster. Winds the past few days have been pushing the fire and smoke northeast and so above our acre the sky is blue, the air smells sweet and there is a constant stream during daylight hours of low flying aircraft. We are getting quite the show. So far the fire has burned 18,544 acres and is only 5% contained. The terrain is rough, steep and difficult to transverse. For current and accurate information we are following this website. Though Tim and I feel optimistic about the safety of our home and community (so far no structures have been burned), we are nervous and The Littles are just well...frightened, so it's slumber party every night in our bedroom until this beast is out. The second day of the fire we decided we should pack an emergency bag just in case as we have heard from friends who have had mandatory evacuation that the order comes quickly and the enforcement swift. This is the scene six houses down our street:

This is a different type of excitement for us during late summer early autumn harvest. The traffic is different (water trucks, CDF and CAL Fire crews, forestry personnel, engines and the aforementioned helicopters and water planes) our conversations different (all fire, all the time--no clue what is happening in the rest of the world) and our pride is different in that we have never felt more pride in our surroundings than when they were/are threatened.