"Everything seemed to get taken care of. You know? We had something when we needed it."
My husband made this remark the other night when we were talking about last year’s wildfire and what it did to the Scott Farm and our family. After the fire we had many of our needs met. Friends, family and people from across the country donated feed and hay for the remaining cattle. A total stranger helped push the remnants of the house and barn into a hole and bury it. And there was lots and lots of moral support.
The day after the fire I wrote a blog called, the Worst day of my life. It’s not hard to think back to that afternoon. We’d just gotten home from my Dad’s funeral. I just wanted to sit down and decompress, but that would never really happen because my husband’s phone started ringing. It was bad news—fire by the farm in Clark County. I can still hear the wind rattling my house and the nausea I felt in the pit of my stomach when my husband who’d gone to the farm to see what he could do said, "It’s gone."
He hasn’t spoken much about the fire. Bits and pieces will come out. A few weeks ago there was a smoke plume miles north of our house. I’d saw the smoke when I left for town and honestly didn’t think much of it. He did however. When I got home he told me about what a pain it was to call the smoke in. Since we live in Ford County, his 911 call automatically went to our county sheriff. The fire was most likely in the neighboring county, Hodgeman, so they routed him there, and then they wanted to route him back to Ford because that’s were he was calling from. I admire his persistence and reporting the smoke.
Recently I was explaining to him the meeting a coworker had attended in Oklahoma about prep for the wildfire season this year and how conditions are "ahead of schedule." I admitted that makes me very nervous. And the fact there isn’t much wheat to use as shelter this year to wait out a fast moving fire. He sat helplessly in a wheat field last year to wait it out and I believe it saved his life.
We’ve learned a few things from the historic Starbuck fire. Here’s a half dozen or so.
If it’s important to you. Record it. Keep those important documents off site. Keep multiple copies of those precious papers. Heck, keep several at a number of different locations. As much as I hate spending the time to back up my computers, I can see the benefits in it.
Have a plan. Know where to meet if stuff gets real. Know which truck and trailer hooks up the easiest. Make sure all the horses load into a trailer. You won’t have time to fight the one who doesn’t want to go in.
Prepare. Don’t keep all your hay stacked around the house in the farm yard (speaking from experience). Keep the grass "mowed down tight" and keep the brush cleared up. My husband had been working to get ice storm damage cleaned up in the month prior to the fire and the downed limbs were piled up out of the way. So that helped.
Let someone know where you are. Keep in touch with family when a fire is burning. The smoke can be overwhelming and being able to accurately tell emergency responders where you are located is important.
Be prepared to make hard decisions and don’t regret them. We had to cull some cows that were burned and chose to send them to slaughter rather than shoot and bury them. Come to find out they were worth more dead than alive in the government’s eyes.
Be humble. At first it was overwhelming for us to accept help from people after the fire. It wore off eventually and honestly it helped us get through this better than I would have ever expected. All the donations, calls, texts and kind words helped restore my faith in humanity.
Pay it back. We’ve managed to push through and rebuild the Scott Farm to some semblance of what it was. When the time is right we want to give back. Whether it be monetarily or physical labor, we just have to find the right time.
At the end of last year I interviewed Rodney Beer who came from Minnesota to clear up the farmsteads burned by the Starbuck fire. He cleaned up the Scott Farm as well. I didn’t get a chance to meet him in person while he was here, but his words during our interview helped inspire me. He called his excursion "the greatest thing he’s ever done."
As I continue to recover from the worst day of my life, I hope for many more great days. And a little rain wouldn’t hurt either.
