It hasn’t rained here since June. Things are dry.

I was running the dogs this evening at Cottonwood Elementary when I saw a huge cloud of smoke off in the distance billowing up from Ahtanum Ridge. Didn’t think much of it, maybe a hearty leaf fire. A few minutes later that plume was glowing orange at that base. A few minutes after that it was obvious that the orange was rapidly expanding, presumably surging across the parched sagebrush. Eerie to watch an enormous wildfire spring to life. Gave me the chills a little even at my safe long distance vantage.

Back at home I climbed up onto the house roof and sat for a few minutes and watched the blaze spread in the dark. A band of thicker orange creeping out, leaving networked pricks of light in its wake. The pricks reminded me of city lights viewed sleepily from the window of an airplane at 25,000 feet. Almost pretty.

Below are a couple photos from my rooftop. The fire is roughly three miles away from where I was watching. Left, unzoomed. Right, zoomed.

We may be getting a new house here already. I put an offer on a house this morning and it was accepted this evening. I was actually kind of surprised the offer went through so smoothly since it was a bit of a low bid. It was a house I had walked through a couple weeks ago and liked it a lot and then Mary and I walked through it together on Monday.

Google map aerial link

Zillow link with photos

Really nice location in town, convenient to everything, at the end of a cul-de-sac. Fully-fenced 3/4 acre lot (fully fenced, front yard, driveway, everything). The backyard backs up to an irrigation canal and looks out (for now) over a huge open field toward some foothills to the north. A few cherry trees still lingering from a past orchard. Basically just a perfect property for us.

The house itself is old, but in good shape. It kind of reminds me of our place on Hoyt back in Michigan. Built about the same time, coved ceilings, arched doorways. We’ll definitely need to do some updating, but that should be kind of fun with quite a bit of character already built in.