07 September 2007

Sounds like the city today.

We have been waiting all summer to finish laying loam and grass seed on our back and North side yard. Rumor is that if you do it in the summer all you will get are weeds. So we patiently waited until September then ordered the loam. It was delivered yesterday, and we thought we would spend today moving it, spreading it, and if we were lucky starting to york rake it. Art was up early and in the Bobcat. Slight snafu when one of the hydraulic lines broke, but he quickly and efficiently got a new one installed and was back up and running. He moved pretty close to ten yards of dirt. When he came in for a drink and a rest, his fire pager went off. Something about a car on the highway. Six and a half hours later he came home. Turns out the car was a pickup truck loaded with fifty bales of hay towing a trailer with another 100 bales of hay fully involved (aka- totally on fire) on the side of highway 101. Art and only two others showed up in the engine initally. They didn't even pack up because they didn't think it was any big deal. Before you know it they re-toned our town and called Wilton for Mutual Aid. Flames were shooting forty to fifty feet in the air. The tires were blowing up because of the extreme heat. Of course the trees are pretty thick through that stretch of road, so the first thing they did was foam the trees. We have been having a pretty severe drought and the last thing we need is a brush/forest fire. Art was smart and fast enough to pull a can of gas and a can of kerosene out of the cab of the pickup before they exploded. They soaked the area, truck, trailer, and hay with 5000 gallons of water. Art spent a better part of the day with a pitch fork spreading out the hay to soak it. They had left the scene and were filling up the truck when the hay re-kindled. So back they went for round two. I sure hope we get some rain soon.
Update at 8:00. Art got home, ate some dinner, took a shower, sat down for five minutes then his pager went off again! This time a motor vehicle accident on the top of Pack Monadnock. All these sirens around town today makes me feel like I am living in a big city again!

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