Well, I didn't get any rain that did anything but put a bunch of dirty dots on my car. It looked so bad that I drove through the carwash at Sam's yesterday just to be able to see out of the windows.
Now, this weekend, we are planning on a light freeze Saturday and Sunday night. We always seem to get a freeze during the last two weeks in March.
The storm was east and north of us. Saint Jo and Muenster had hail and high winds. Some of the hail was softball size, but most of it was egg size. I've got to call my brother in Whitesboro this morning to make sure he is okay.
And last night, Kathy and I were fighting a grass and brush fire on the property we just sold. We are not sure how it started, but she smelled smoke and went to investigate. Nobody was home and the fire was going like gangbusters in dry grass and into the edge of the woods. Kathy didn't have her glasses and her eyes were watering so bad from the smoke that she called me on a speed dial button. She asked me to call 911 and get the fire department on the way while she tried to get hoses put together.
I was showing a prospective buyer the 11 acre tract we have for sale, but I called 911 and told them where the fire was. I then excused myself from the clients and went to help Kathy. She was exhausted from dragging three 100' hoses and hooking them up. She knew she had left some hoses in the wellhouse, but had to drag all three of them about 400 feet and then hook them together and drag them to the fire. I got there as she was heading to the fire's leading edge with the hose. I told her to let me drag the hose and she should rest. The fire was easy to knock down with a spray of water. I walked upwind behind the fire and was able to stay away from most of the smoke. I made sure I wet my walking path in front of me as I dragged the hose. By the time the first firetruck arrived, I had over half the fire out and was running out of hose. I was sure glad to see them because the fire was getting into the edge of the trees and would soon have had the woods ablaze. Within 10 minutes, the fire was out and we were treating reflashes and smoldering limbs on the ground. A huge pile of trash that had been piled up nearby was no longer there. It was only ash.
The new owner of the property said he didn't know how the fire got started. The neighbor across the street said he had smelled smoke the day before, and thought there was someone there. Since the trash pile was completely burned, I'm thinking someone set the fire in the trash pile and it took 24 hours to burn and get out of hand. I have no idea, but I do know that pile of wood, telephone pole scraps, and treated timbers would not burn up within the hour to 1/2 hour before we got there. It had to burn a long time to be completely burned as it was. Those telephone pole sections were 12" in diameter and about 4' long. They just won't burn up that fast. The owner thinks somebody set the fire on purpose when he was not there. I just don't know how it got started, but I'm sure glad Kathy and I got to it and kept it mostlly under control until the volunteer fire dept. arrived.
