Exciting and highly topical email from Cam up in the land of the Depot Lakes north of Kingston:

Hi Jaeson

Ken came by late yesterday afternoon, smelling smoke.

There have been dozens of fires up here, some set by kids, some by lightning, etc. It is unbelievably dry. They have pushed the fire warning arrow to “11” , “Extreme” in front of the Stone Mills fire department.

So this one was about 2 1/2 km south of here, coming this way. The fire fighters were having trouble getting into the place. I had taken Nicole down to see the smoke, when the Ministry of Natural Resources helicopter which has circling the fire, decided to land.

It turns out the best place was about 50 feet from the truck in this field. So this monstrous helicopter slowing landing right beside us, kicking up crap like crazy. What a blast! It was like ‘Nam man! I was terrified! So it sat there for a few minutes while they conferred.

The wind was coming from the south, which meant it was burning our way, but luckily by dark the wind had died and they had it pretty much out. It must have smouldered for a while, because the house was full of smoke most of the night.

The good thing about all the ponds south of us, is that it would have had to jump some major marshes to get to us.

They were discussing getting a water bomber, but that is quite expensive, and has to come from Haliburton, and it was getting dark. But they have enlisted it’s services quite a bit in this area lately.

I tell you, keeps you grounded when you think about a place like this burning up in a fire. I’m very glad we have quite a large area cleared around the house too, for a fire zone. If it had got to the barn we would have had to get the horses out, and they’d be kicking and rearing up, just like you see in all the movies when the barn inevitably burns down.

OK, now I’ll get back to my exciting real job of desktop publishing. I think it’s time I joined the volunteer firefighters! You get to drive big trucks and where orange jump suits! Very cool.

Cam