We left here last night to stay with friends because the house was too full of smoke and we figured it wasn't good for any of us especially Daniella. We packed up a few things, in the dark as there was a power cut, and as I packed I wondered how much should I pack, that awful feeling of will it all still be here in the morning! As we drove up the drive way there was and eerie glow in the gum plantation behind the guest house. Not having power enhanced the glow and the smoke above the trees was all lit up making the hillside seem like it was rolling towards us. You could even see it from the tar road like a huge bonfire. We prayed as we drove away from our land, our home, and trusted it all into the Lord's hands, what would be there tomorrow would be what He wanted us to have.
We spent the night with our friends who provided us with some comic relief, it all seemed like a bad dream, and as we fell asleep that night, I could just see flames in the grass.

We returned this morning to assess the damage. The Lord He is good. A lot of land was burnt, the fire started on the next property and went over the hill behind us, probably about 1000 acres of land . About half of our land was burnt, but there are still beautiful Msasa trees with their colourful leaves, making quite a contrast to the black, scorched earth below them. Our houses are safe! Our neighbour's house is safe. They were just hear to pray with us to say thank you to the Lord for His protection. I realised today He may not answer our prayers as we want them answered, He does it His way, and He gets the glory!!

24th September - One of those days

Our little baby girl was 6 months yesterday! It is so amazing to think back to the day she was born. She was so small and helpless, now she is sitting and eating real food. She is such a blessing to us, so joyful and full of character. A real bundle of joy!

I am writing this sitting out on the deck. It is a HOT September day, a slight cool breeze blows every now and then and there are a few wisps of cloud towards the South. Last night I sat out here too just after dark and it was still and heavy. Then a gentle breeze came and the little pitter patter of rain drops began to squeeze their way through the roof above the deck and splat on the wood...and that smell that we all know of rain on the dusty earth rose to my nose. It didn’t last long but it came which means it may come again. We have reached that time of the year where my faith is tested every year, when the water supplies start to dry up and you look at the sky when there is not a cloud in it and think “Well Lord, it’s up to you!” Especially now having a little munchkin, who doesn’t know that making an outfit dirty every day causes a pile of washing to grow daily. I finally have a working washing machine and not that much water to wash with. But our God is greater and bigger than any water problem. In the last few weeks we have actually seen the dam by the shade house rise! Now who can explain that!

There are two stories I have been meaning to write about and I finally have a chance while Daniella is asleep.

A few weeks back there was a lot of wind and behind the back fence there is a rather large Gum tree that has died from being eaten alive by termites. With a strong wind one of the branches snapped off and landed on the fence, squashing it! So my lumber-jack husband decided he needed to take it down. But to do that he would have to take a few others around it down as they would all hold each other up and probably land on the fence anyway. He found one and saw the spot where it needed to land, worked out the placing of cut etc etc and set out to take it down. Now for those of you who know the story of the tree landing on Matt’s leg a few years back and all I said to him was “why weren’t you wearing a hard hat” this time he did put his hard hat on. Daniella and I watched from a distance, I always get a bit nervous of those trees as you can’t really judge how far the top of it is going to land. I had the camera ready and Matt began to cut. It was landing perfectly where Matt wanted it to, HOWEVER.... the top of the tree was spaced out slightly more than Matt realised and its top branches collided with the tree on the side of it and pulled that one down to...and guess where it landed... on the fence! At least he was wearing his hard hat! All I could say was oh dear! It flattened about 10metres of fence and the little pedestrian gate that was there was completely wrapped around the trunk of the tree. Poor Matt just shook his head. Not as he had planned! The fence is all erected with poles now and at least the gate keeps the dogs in. The dead tree is still standing though!

The other story was about my rescuing the “bush baby” one early morning. Matt slept in the single bed in Daniella’s room because he had quite a bad cold and didn’t want to keep Daniella and I up. That night there was a soft rain that fell most of the night and it was all misty and wet the next morning. At about 5.30am I could hear the dogs outside the window making quite a racket and when I checked to see what was going on, they were both standing under the avocado tree, looking up into it and I noticed something in the top most branches, stranded and very wet was what I made out to be a bush baby. Daniella was awake and I rushed through to the other room, handed her over to Matt and said I was off to save the poor little thing who looked like a drowned rat. Matt of course just grunted at me and didn’t make any attempt to help, understandably. I grabbed my gum boots and rain coat and found a box that I thought I could lure the animal into, safe from the snapping jaws of the dogs. I got up under the tree and had a look at my “bush baby” thinking hmm it has a very funny face. As I looked closer my bush baby turned out to be nothing but a drowned rat! It was a huge cane rat!! I of course was very disappointed as there was no ways I was going to be saving a rat! Matt had a good laugh and I won’t describe the end of the rat.  

The time is now 6.10pm and Matt and our guys have been fighting a fire since about 1pm. It started on the next door property – all we could see from the house was the billowing smoke and we could hear the crackle of the fire as it ate its way through the trees and grass. Matt rushed off up the hill with teh guys to fight it from crossing on to our property. There are fire guards but it was a pretty windy day so could jump easily. I stayed at the house and probably prayed continuously for an hour, singing praise songs and believing the fire would go out. The wind blew and seemed to blow it in the opposite direction from the house. After a few hours though it turned and was coming up towards the bottom of our property, it had jumped the guard and was tearing up towards our house at great speed. Matt came in and broke the news that it had jumped the fire guard at the back of the property too and was coming down towards the house too! My faith level went from high to very very low. It is dark now and we can still see the glow of fire in the gum plantation and small snake like glows along the hillside! I ask God why? Why us? Why didn’t my prayers for it to go out work? But I can say thank you Father that we are safe, our home is safe, our staff are safe. It could have been really bad! It rained last night as I said this morning. Tonight not a cloud in the sky!