Where There's Smoke...

On a previous trip to Mt. Shasta

to see our daughters family, I stopped in

Shasta Retreat, a neighborhood in 

 Dunsmuir, to capture a bit

of the newly emerging fall colors.

It's a special place to my own

family. One that my cousins and I 

to return to now and then.

It's the neighborhood

where our moms grew up.

As kids they (our moms) 

helped Grandpa build 

their home there.

I like having the opportunity to stop 

there once in a while on my way to 

and from our daughter's home.

  I have no photos for the rest

of this post...

~~~

Last Thursday we went up to Mt. Shasta

to help our daughters family in anyway 

we could.  Their house caught fire

and it burned about a third of the house.

The rest of the house is severely smoke 

damaged and most everything is lost.

Anything plastic expands in the heat

of the fire and it gets permeated with

the smoke.  Once cooled it all contracts

and there's nothing you can do to remove

the smell. All their electronics are gone.

Just about everything is damaged beyond

repair.  The restoration company tested

their clothing and the smoke damage

is too extensive to clean and it's cheaper

in the long run to just purchase new clothing.

Beyond the loss, 

there's also the emotional damage

to deal with. 

At first the shock of the fire

 helped to mask the feelings.

After that,

 there's  a wild range of emotions

to deal with.

Everyone but Jon, our son in law,

was on their way to school.

Jon tried to fight the fire for a very 

short time trying to get a handle on it

after calling 911.

He received some burns which 

are not too bad thank goodness,

and  then there was also smoke inhalation. 

He was treated at the hospital

and is okay.

Wiring or a porch light

 was damaged when a company

delivered firewood to their home.

It's delivered in  wood and wire

structures that resembles large 

closets with roofs on them.

Each one is large enough for 

half a cord of wood (I think).

They're delivered from a truck using

a fork lift (I believe) and the structures

were set up along the front of the house

against the garage door. 

One of those structures hit the porch light

and then a week or so later the

damaged wiring started the fire.

The garage, a music room,

and a workshop room where Jon's 

works for his own electronics business

burned. The rest of the house

is blackened with soot and smoke

and I can't even explain the smell

that permeates everything.

They do have insurance.

It's going to be a struggle for quite awhile.

Temporary housing is in short supply

up there because of the wildfire that

swept through the town of Weed a couple

months ago. That fire burned more

than 100 homes.

Kristine's family needs

 to be close to their schools.

There's five different schools 

that everyone goes to because of their

age differences. There's preschool for 

Katelyn, elementary for Conner,

AJ in middle school,

Isaiah in high school and Kristine

is taking courses for nurses training

at the college in Weed.

They need a place to live temporarily

while their own home gets repaired.

It's going to be tough to find a home

for 6 people, 2 dogs and 2 cats.

Right now they have a place to stay

until the day after Thanksgiving.

After that ~~~ we'll see.

So anyway,

I'm going to be away from the blog

for a short while.

We're getting ready for company

that's coming for Thanksgiving.

Kristine and her family will be here.

Our son and granddaughter

will be up from Los Angeles.

Plus we have Rick's mom and her 

husband coming over from Brookings 

as well. 

We'll have a full house

and a heart felt THANKSgiving.

We're grateful 

that everyone is okay in spite of the fire.

Kristine's family will be strong.

It's just going to take some time

for anything to feel 

somewhat normal again.

Take care and enjoy your Thanksgiving.

I'll be back sometime the following week.

I hope!

2014 American Cancer Society Think Pink Tea

This years Think Pink Tea

might have been the last one.

Unfortunately there were only two

of us hosting a table that weren't 

part of the volunteers who work

at the ACS thrift store.

This year, there were even fewer tables

than last year.  Just four tables.

It wasn't hardly worth the work it took to

put this tea together for the ACS volunteers

or the hostesses.

This year I used an 

Autumn Sunflower theme.

I started getting everything together

in late September 

 as the ACS didn't let us

know if we were even having a tea

until then.

We were wondering and waiting.

I didn't want to go to the expense

of buying everything I needed,

if we weren't going to have the tea.

This year I reused the tablecloths 

that I had sewn for a previous tea.

I also reused the chargers, 

but the matching napkin holders

were used for the first time

along with new napkins.

 You can't really see clearly

what's inside the gift box,

so I added this sign to entice everyone

to use their raffle tickets on my centerpiece. 

The tea was held at the

 Win River Resort and Casino. 

 They supplied the room as well as the 

tea and food served.  They didn't charge us

for the room or the tea service, so 100%

of everyones entrance fee and raffle ticket money

went to the American Cancer Society.

They also let us use their chair covers.

You can see the difference between these

two photos with the chair covers

off and now on.

We got to choose between black and white.

  

The gift bags hold coupons

for the ACS thrift store, the program,

and a sandwich zip baggie 

in case my guests want to take  

 leftovers home.

 I also included extra napkins 

and a thank you

note for each of my guests.

The tea plate included four 

 little sandwiches of egg salad,

 ham and grainy mustard,

smoked salmon and a cucumber sandwich.

There was also a tiny scone.

The sweet side of the plate included

a chocolate covered strawberry and

a nut cookie.

We had to work around the table legs

for place settings so that's why

the chargers aren't spaced evenly.

It really shows in the above photo,

so I wanted to explain why it looks

a bit off.

 

Joyce is my husband's cousin,

but we've always called her Aunt Joyce

because she's a generation older than us.

This is her Gingerbread Man Table.

She used  gingerman cookie cutters

for a napkin holder.

  

The last two tables were put together

by the lady who took over the Think Pink

Tea after someone else retired from the job.

She used a Candy Land Game theme for this table.

I like the clear plates that let the placemats 

show through.

Her centerpiece was a collection

of candies from a local candy shop.

Her other table was a garden  theme.

Those windows in the background

let in a lot of light, making taking photos 

in this direction a bit difficult.

That's it for the tables.

Kinda disappointing because

there used to be from

 28 to 34 tables in previous years.  

 Getting to see everyone's ideas for the tables

was what I really enjoyed.

I miss that.

Here's the sales table

they set up with items from the thrift store.

This is were the ACS volunteers shine.

I think they set up beautiful displays

of the merchandise.

Everything here was donated

 to the ACS thrift store.

They also put on a terrific fashion show,

using models of all sizes and each was wearing

clothing and shoes that were from the thrift store.

That was a lot of fun to watch.

Afterwards Joyce and I talked with

a member of the ACS team.

She said that the tea would be canceled 

next year if they were unable to get

12 people to host the tables.

I think that's for the best.

It was disappointing to see only four tables.

So, it's going to be a wait and see

if we can do this again next year.

That in itself leaves me in a bind,

not knowing whether to prepare for

next years tea or not.  I'd like to try for

a woodland Christmas theme

using whites and browns.

Now's the time to find the stuff 

I need for it, but I also don't want

to be spending money unnecessarily.

We'll see what happens,

but I do think it's time to give it up.