From The Mist Of My Garden "Wildfires"

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As my thoughts had been concentrating on recovery plans for the garden from his horrific drought, they were soon consumed with protecting my heirloom seeds. I took this picture from our driveway as the Waller County Wildfires burned just over our treetops. For 5 days we hung on the edge of the evacuation areas, wondering if we would be next to have to leave. It's crazy all the things that go through your mind in such a situation. Watching the news as many folks had to rush to evacuate and were given less that 10 minutes to go was evidence enough that we needed to get prepared and quickly. 

The hardest part of this whole ordeal was scrambling to find information. The local news stations were no help at all. They couldn't even report the name of our County properly. On several occasions they called us Walker County. And where the fires were burning in Waller County was actually a large community called Field Store. The news reported it as Field Stone on occasion. It made one a bit apprehensive about getting accurate information. Since this was a Tri-County fire, it included 3 counties. Montgomery, Grimes and Waller. From the looks of things the fires originated in Montgomery County, which is to the East of our home. The fires had then spread into the other 2 counties. While Montgomery and Grimes Counties were quite efficient through their Sheriff's offices using social medias to keep us posted with updates and press releases, we were greatly lacking information for Waller County. It wasn't until a couple of local residents formed a FB page called Waller County Wildfire Info. They were life savers to most of our community in trying their best to keep us posted on where the fires were and evacuation areas. They kept up with reports from our county officials to report back to the citizens of our community. I really need to reevaluate our public officials in Waller  County and whether we need to be looking for folks that can command in the 21st century with social media. 

Here is one of the many road blocks in Waller County at the intersections of 1488 and Field Store Road. There were several news crews at this intersection as well. But yet when the evening news came on there was still not any specific information on the fires burning in our area. Another very concerning thing was when you left your home through one of the road blocks, you were not allowed to return. That was a bit disturbing since our home was not in the evacuation zone. Surely we could have shown I.D. to return, but that didn't happen, so we found our way around the back roads to get back. 

Praise be to our Father who protected us during this time. I do give praise to the many hard working firefighters who devoted endless hours in fighting this fire. They are truly remarkable. I also give tremendous praise to all the local citizens who band together to help the many families and their livestock during the evacuations. All in all we have much to be thankful for. Field Store and Waller County people may not be recognized by the news media, but they all shall be recognized in the hearts and minds of all its citizens who lived through and together in this horrific disaster.I am so blessed as well by all the friends and families who prayed during this time. Thank You So Much!!

May We All Find Peace Within Our Garden As We Continue To Have Hope For Our Future Generations!!

Pammy