Field of Buttercups

The morning gloom and fog saw off the giant earth mover as it lumbered down the driveway next door. There have been two guys in separate cars up there all afternoon taking soil samples, placing little red flags all over the place and who knows what else.  John thinks it's overkill and that it is costing everybody, especially the taxpayers too much. He contends that any fire that was hot enough to burn a house to the ground was hot enough to destroy anything toxic that was in it.

I raced off to the market, randomly bought food without much of a list (not John's MO), and raced back to meet the tree guy. Turns out it was the tree gal and she gone by the time I got here. She was able to look at all the trees on the property, recommend that we give the oaks another year before we decide anything, and said they would send a proposal for trimming the live oaks in the front and removing the prayer flag tree  barely visible on the left side of the picture) that is becoming a fire hazard itself.  The fire was moving so quickly that it burned the lawn, singed the bottom branches and ignited the roots of trees removed before we ever got here, which smoldered for days.  John didn't ask her what will happen to the brown leaves that clearly do not fall from the trees. 

I took Spike for a nice walk today. We walked to the end of the street and discovered that the house down there has been cleared. I have some pictures of a beautiful collection of Southwestern Native American pottery that Florrie had collected over many years,  but have not been able to find out where she is living to see if she wants them. All I can feel about so much damage and demolition is sad....

We ran into the neighbor on the other side of us who is getting ready to rebuild as soon as all the endless piles of paperwork are finished and permits are issued. Their lot is cleared, they have put up a temporary electric power pole so they can run the well pump and Janet wants to grow some veggies in their metal stock tanks which weren't burned. There are a lot of burned trees in the lot behind their house which comes right up to our bedroom fence but it doesn't sound like they are going to do anything about them yet and they provide a screen in front of the half built eyesore up there. I think we will probably go together with them to plant some sort of a screen, but because of the topography it looms over both our properties even though it is only one story at the street.

We came back through the fields behind our house, Spike's favorite part of the walk. The grass is getting quite high in places and he truly demonstrates his springing skills which make me smile..... Today's picture is of the field of buttercups right outside the gate to our field. The wildflowers up there are one thing that seem to be thriving after the fire, and the trees are leafing out beautifully in contrast with the burned ones just a short distance away. 

Soon all that green grass will be taller and drier and we will be getting it mowed.....