I smiled when I heard him say the fire was a blessing. From my own experiences I knew he was right.
Last week I listened to Mark Gardiner of Ashland, Kansas talk about how the Starbuck fire was a blessing to him and the family ranch. I knew exactly what he was going to say. It was the people who came after the fire. It was the people who helped them build fence. It was a blessing.
I didn’t lose my own house, but Gardiner did, along with many others. We lost the vacant 100-year-old farmhouse and barn that had been on the Scott place. There were still many antiques, family mementos, furniture and photos still in the house and barn. These items were irreplaceable. Gardiner said the same. He said during his talk his home was "just a building." He had many memories in the 20 years he lived in it, but more importantly there weren’t any human lives lost.
He described what it was like to face the huge flames and blackening smoke, and through it all, he knew one thing.
"When you see that coming at you, you start to realize what matters in life," Gardiner said.
And Mark is right. What matters most is Gardiner got away with his life. My own husband got away with his and tried his best to save what he could when the fire hit our farm. I will never forget his voice and the text messages we passed back and forth during the tense hours during and following the fire.
For us after the fire, we went into survival mode. Cattle had to be sorted and some even culled because we didn’t have the time or resources to care for burned cattle and calves. We had help, and we are truly grateful for all that we received. Still to this day I can see the faces that helped and the messages we got when people learned of the fire in Clark County.
It hurt to lose those cows. It hurt even more to have to decide to euthanize baby calves. Some were not even but a couple weeks old if that. When you have such a small number like we did, it stung. Gardiner lost many, many more cows than we did, and he has his own theory about the cattle business.
"You guys remember the Dorito commercials with Jay Leno? If you’ll buy these Doritos, I’ll make some more," Gardiner said. "Well, that’s the thing it is with these cows. We can replace the cows."
We too were able to replace the cows. Not the same number that we had before, but this time they’re ours.
Read more about Gardiner’s experience with the wildfires in my upcoming story in the Journal next week.
