Shhh, No Planning Allowed.

I'm beginning to think I need to rein in my habit of Planning. It seems of late that the more I plan to do, the less gets accomplished. God forbid I admit in speech or text that there's something next on the agenda, because then it surely won't come to pass! Okay, that's my little bit of self pity, and it's over, because I am, as ever, very lucky.

Basically, Sheza didn't go to gymkhana. Fortunately she is fine, as are all the horses-- except my mini who was suddenly lame yesterday morning, because I certainly shan't go more than two weeks without *something* going lame--but unfortunately the cause of non attendance was the neighborhood being on fire. Friday afternoon 2 fires started about 3 miles from our house and as of 7:15 a.m. this morning it was known as the Swedes Fire and was burning at 1,850 acres with 20% containment and 500+ fire personnel fighting it. 
The photos below are from the Butte County Public Safety Scanner FB Page, of the Swedes Fire.

We got INCREDIBLY lucky in that the fire on our side of the road was 100% contained at 28 acres, while the larger fire now raging headed east and north of us, burning up the ridges behind us. There has only been 1 residence and a few outbuilding reported lost with 400+ residences threatened, so the CDF and National Guard folks are working their butts off to get it under control and protect homes.

California National Guard Blackhawks working the Swedes Fire

 Many people have been evacuated and I know of at least one person who let their animals loose and fled. I was clicking refresh on the CDF site feverishly with the scanner on loudly all day, running outside to watch the rapidly shifting smoke plumes. Ash rained down on our property much of the afternoon.  As of last night it was still within 3 miles of us and a mere change of the wind could have changed our lives forever, but reports this morning said that the fire has continued to move north and east of us. We continue to be just south of the evacuation lines.

If people are curious or nearer readers anxious, here is Swedes Fire information link from the CDF site with regularly updated and most current information: http://cdfdata.fire.ca.gov/incidents/incidents_details_info?incident_id=884

The American Fire is burning strong in the Foresthill Tevis trail area and was last reported at 12,000+ acres. I am not going to plan anything now but merely say, Thank you and God Bless to the firefighters out battling these awful blazes and best wishes to all those affected. We'll be waiting with bated breath until containment.

Here is the American Fire info from The Incident Information System (linked from CDF): http://inciweb.org/incident/3624