Mark's Time at the Ranch and a Fire Report

Since Denisa is isolating with her Mother, Mark is now isolating at "the ranch" with his Mother. This is the same ranch where he was raised, so it definitely feels like home to him. In those ten days that he and his Mother were together, Mark didn't take even one picture of the two of them--largely because his Mother hates to have pictures taken of her. But he did take a few pictures of the things they did together. For example, one day they made the nine-mile drive to where our nephew is building a new log home.

We also had a nice holiday zoom meeting with our children and some of the nieces and nephews on the Engelman side of the family. We had relatives from Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas, and Newfoundland, Canada, zoom in for a visit. 

Another day they were entertained by a tom turkey and his hen that were eating the leftover grain from the bird feeders right outside the living room window.

Tom was fascinated by the big turkey he saw reflected in the window. He stayed fanned out and pecked at his window reflection for over an hour!

Being on the other side of the glass window meant that Mark could take close-up pictures of that wrinkly old turkey face.

But mostly, the two of them just stayed at home and enjoyed each other's company. They played cards several times every day. The favorite was a game in which winning a star and a zero score is the goal. One day Mark took a picture of the score card to show how soundly he was being beaten by his 92-year-old Mother. She had every star from the first six hands they had played so far, while Mark continued to fall further behind.

Another activity was looking over the fire damage from last month. A raging wildfire came across Beaver County straight toward the ranch, and the three houses on this property. It got so close to Mark's Mother's house that it burned a small shed a few feet away, and melted the paint on the metal siding.

Those flames were so hot and so tall that it melted the plastic shutters and broke the glass on the second floor window!

It's hard to see in the shadow, but the fire burned the grass all the way to the cement foundation and got the trees on the other side of the house as well. Basically, her house was surrounded by flames but didn't catch fire! They've had some nice rains since then, so the fresh green grass is covering just how seriously close the fire got to burning this house. It's truly a miracle that Mark's Mother still has a house to live in!

They walked the property around the three houses to see where two barns and some other buildings were burned to the ground. Another day they took a drive to the creek that flows just below the houses to see the burnt trees next to the creek. This fire continued four miles into Beaver, where it burned down 5 houses in town.

Mark also worked on some clean-up projects around the house, and tackled a list of honey-do projects for his Mother. They enjoyed their time together, even though it wasn't the ten-day-isolation that we had planned with both our Mothers and both of us together. The one thing that we have learned this spring is that our plans keep changing. But one thing that never changes is that our Mothers seem to always enjoy these visits.