Fire in the woods!

Yesterday evening I was talking to OBT on the phone and happened to look in the backyard. The woods were on fire. That ended our conversation quick. With the children already happily watching a cartoon, I dashed out the back door with a water bucket full of water. I threw it on the fire and ran back in for the fire extinguisher. Never having used one before, I found that it did not last long, and the fire was still burning. I raced next door to our neighbors' and found their older daughter outside, just having arrived home. I told her to call 9-1-1 and that there was a fire in the woods.

She did and gave them her address. Then I went and let her Mom know what was going on. After that, I raced back home and refilled the water bucket. By the time I was on my way back, my neighbors were coming to help with shovels and a hoe. All four of them started pushing the fire back up towards the grass so that it would not get any further back into the woods and trying to put it out. I unfurled my bucket of water and noting their tools went back to see what we had in the garage.

On my way back, another neighbor and his wife had pulled in our driveway noticing the burning grass and smoke to ask if we needed any help. "Yes, there's a fire in the woods", I told them. I went back in for more water and grabbed a rake too. I told the children to pray because there was a fire in the woods. By the time I got back, I handed my neighbor the rake and doused the fire again with the water.

As I ran back for another bucket of water, OBT pulled in. By then the fire was about out, and the volunteer fire department had not showed up yet. They did, and so did our neighbor's husband, both coming home from work. We found out that the fire started when our neighbor's younger daughter and friend were burning garbage outside and left it. There was a little wind, and apparently the fire spread. Thankfully no one was hurt. Thankfully no houses were hurt. Our house is not that close to theirs. When I checked later to see where the fire had been earlier in the day, I found that the fire had come within about four feet of our house and then moved behind it. Things could have been so different. One of the firemen even commented that he was glad that this fire had happened this week. Last week the weather was much windier, and we had not had as much rain. We are thanking God for His watchcare over us and for good neighbors. We are thanking God that things turned out the way they did. We now have a lot of burned grass in our yard, but we and our belongings are okay.

Snowflake Bentley

Yes, I know it is Spring, but I couldn't resist passing along this website that features the photography of William Bentley. I am amazed and drawn back to the Creator of all things when I read about this man who studied snowflakes. He took pictures of thousands, and the wonder of it all is that no two are alike.

To see more of his work and learn more about the man behind it, go here.

TOG Y1U3 Celebration

We had our Unit 3 celebration recently. It was Greek to me!

Triangular numbers with beans
The food - sesame circles, asparagus (an Ancient Greek favorite), baked fish in grape leaves, and baklava

The books we read

A simple pulley
The children really enjoyed putting this and that in the pulley and raising and lowering it.

A mobile, soap carving, seal, cat mosaic, sieve of Eratosthenes, menu, and platonic bodies

Next - Ancient Rome . . .