Since Gil and Gary and the rest of the Summer Lake crew were fighting fire at the Inn, the Schmidts, the Napiers, Jorgs, Quinns, Wisdom-Linns, and Baker-Smiths, Jan and I were left with moving 13 horses, tack, the Lodge office (computers and all), and our own personal things. We had  been a safe house for  neighbors who had run from the onslaught . We had thought the holocaust would be stopped long before it reached us, but that wasn’t to be. 

We had originally planned to shift our horses to our wet bottom pastures until Dan Napier told us how the fire roared and huffed and ripped trees out of the ground at their place an hour before.  We changed our plans.  How were we to move 13 horses in  2 horse trailers?  Easy when you have neighbors like ours! 

The word went out and, I swear, they just showed up with trailers and offers of pasture at the Relling/Foster Ranch. John Widenoja came to ask if there was anything he could do to help. He rushed back to CV, grabbed his trailer, pumped up 2 flat tires, emptied a load of grain out of the back and he and Chad Waldron returned all the way to Summer Lake to help.  David Ward, recently back from a tour of duty in the Army, and partner Kathleen loaded up 2 of my horses  while I loaded Gary’s mare in my trailer and we pulled out to deposit them at Kent and Liz Relling’s ranch 8 miles out in the desert, where Napier’s 17 horses were already out of harm’s way. As we drove away, I hollered to Jan that the Napiers were on their way back to help haul and I’d return,  ASAP.  An hour later,  I returned to find the Napiers, John W., and Kent Relling loading up Jan’s horses assisted by two wonderful ODF employees.  Some of her horses hadn’t been loaded in the eight years we’ve been in Summer Lake, so the potential for trouble was pretty good.  However,everyone was patient, kind and competent and horses went in uneventfully (well almost) two by two until three were left. At that point, Dick Otley came wheeling  up the drive.  I hadn’t wanted to bother him because he was so busy trying to keep fire from his  and his son’s ranch , not to mention moving cattle and their bajillion horses! But there he was.  Dick calmly haltered and loaded the last three horses into his trailer  without missing a beat ( what a steady hand) while I grabbed the last armloads of tack which I stuffed in my trailer. Then, away we went. 
What a crew!

When  Jan and I returned to collect cats and dogs and everything else we deamed too important to let burn, Dawn and her  co-worker from ODF and Elizabeth Quinn were here to help load file cabinets and boxes and computers into pickups. Elizabeth thought at the time that her house had burned and just needed to be with people, to help, somehow. How exciting it was when word came that Sheriff, Phil McDonald had seen all the houses and they were ALL SAVED! When he heard that my Mother’s piano was still in the Lodge, Phil even grabbed one of his deputies and David Ward  and stuffed the piano plus two of Jan’s Grandmother’s antiques into David’s horse trailer for the long ride to Rellings. 

 It was a long day and a short night as we turned in at 3 am to the sound of Teressa and Jim Foster’s grandfather clock chiming .  We were so relieved to be out of the burn zone, though we didn’t know what we’d wake up to in the morning.

The next few days were filled with caring for animals and driving the long gravel road back to the Lodge.  Pam Morris brought her generator from CV to power our refrigeration equipment . She even brought cans of gasoline to power it! 

In our efforts to feed the firefighters who were trying to save the forests and homes, we found it almost impossible to get food and supplies in.  Pam took our shopping list over the phone, went to Bend, brought provisions back but couldn’t get over the pass as it was closed.  She gave the cooler to Ken Gilbert who was doing contract work on the fire and could travel the pass. He delivered the goods and kept the guys eating for another night.  Liz Rellling and Lucinda Williams cooked and got things ready while Jan and I made a trip to Lakeview to get food another day.  Stewarts in Lakeview got meat ready so Dick and Pat Weekly could drive to town to pick it  up and deliver it to us on another day and  agreed to wait for payment. The Weeklys, no strangers to fire, did another food pickup for us in Lakeview the next day also.

So many people made it possible for us to continue to feed people and take care of our critters . We are truly grateful for the outpouring of good from our neighbors and friends and the opportunity to give back to those folks who were here to help us all.

THANK YOU AND BLESS ALL OF YOU WHO WERE HERE FOR US!! 

We love you all,
The Lodge Gang