I was keeping a personal blog during the months after the fire. I would like to share that now with some pictures in tribute to Hale Mauka I - our beloved Mountain House outside of Boulder, Colorado that burned to the ground one year ago.
My fire story
Trying to explain what it is like to have your house burn down is similar to childbirth – you just do not understand until you experience it. I think it would have been easier if we had the opportunity to save some stuff. As is was, we were on a cruise the South Pacific and learned about the fire via email. The first day we thought – oh, Emerson Gulch is far away – we don’t have to worry. The next day we got a picture of our house engulfed in flames. We were a featured house burning down on Channel Nine news. Not a claim to fame that I wanted to have.
We had a pet/house sitter – who gallantly saved 10 of 11 cats (we breed Maine Coon Cats). The dog was at a friend's house. Sweet Jessie grabbed her computer and left in a panic – lots of smoke and confusion. She and everyone else in our neighborhood never believed that the house would burn down; but it did. We lost everything else – photos, family treasures, antiques and stuff. So much was unneeded and can be replaced. Some things are irreplaceable. I miss the pictures my great grandmother made out of buttons – one was a flag with 48 stars; the other was a bouquet of flowers. Same great grandmother made handmade quilts – I had six total – all in like new condition as the tops were quilted but never made – I had one quilted by a church group and put up on display. There were several antiques also – the carved old man chair made of oak – from my Dad’s grandfather – I cannot even find something similar to add to the insurance “list”. I was an avid collector of glassware and porcelain – it must have come from my childhood days of running through my grandparent’s housewares store in Greeley, Colorado. They stocked china, figurines and vases – Lefton, Heirlooms of Tomorrow and Hummel’s. I had a passion for this stuff and collected like crazy. My great grandparents had a salt and pepper collection which was my favorite. I loved them and had china cabinets full of salt and pepper shakers – over a thousand. I was an EBay addict.
If there is one piece of advise that I would say to everyone - save a copy of your pictures on the Internet or make several copies to give to family for safe keeping. Losing 40+ years of all photographs, movies and cherished memories is the greatest loss of all.
When we went to the house after the fire, all my treasures sat in a pile of rubble – dang. I was too sad to even be mad. What a loss that was.
Now I have an aversion to stuff – I don’t want to collect art or china or crystal or buttons. Part of me says – no reason to have or collect anything. I realize that this is my F-IT response to having lost so many things that I loved and adored. I can use the excuse of living a simple and uncluttered life – when the truth is – I collected because I loved these things, and they are gone and I have to move on.
I had a penchant for Indian jewelry – It began in my childhood when my parents took me to Estes Park and they bought my first turquoise bracelet. In college in the 1970’s, my college boyfriend made beaded leather purses and we drove to the Navajo reservations and traded for pawn jewelry. I also was enticed by my Grandmother Helen’s squash blossom – which I gratefully inherited – what a treasure that was. I took one piece of turquoise on the cruise – which I still have. My sister kindly gave me a strand of turquoise also – which is safely hidden in my house.
I have this fear of loss – I don’t want to have anything of value in my house because I am afraid that it will go away. I don’t want to own jewelry because it may be gone.
A simple life has value – we have moved into a small condo which is really easy because we don’t have any stuff anymore. We have agreed to not buy movies, or books or plants or DVDs. Although I did replace my Spanish DVD’s and our favorite Indian Cook books. I can do without china and crystal – although I truly loved them. We have the essentials and that is okay.
Stress
I did not expect to have a dirge of depression with the loss of our home. Curt and I both went through the blues – anger and sadness, emptiness and uncertainty. There were a few times we were at each other’s throats. The loss of our home was a loss of who we are and what we do. We lived at Hale Mauka - mountain house for ten years. In that time we built a two story garage, new Trex deck, new roof, new greenhouse, remodeled kitchen and three bathrooms and Curt built an electric car, installed a solar heat and hot water system and had photovoltaic panels installed. We built an incredible garden – hours of clearing land, terracing garden plots, building a pond and deer fence and creating stone walkways. We harvested several years of Hale Mauka honey from our hives. Grapes, apples, cherries, peaches, raspberries, strawberries, tomatoes, hops, lettuce, carrots, potatoes, squash, onions, asparagus, peppers, many herbs and spices, horseradish and more than I can remember. The flowers (Linda’s passion) – daffodils, tulips, roses, lilies, Clematis, incredible columbine – and the iris – Linda loves her iris and had hundreds – each June was a celebration of the blooming iris. And the peonies – what a joy. They survived the fire – dang hearty those plants are. We would scatter wildflowers and the beautiful meadows would appear. Curt’s drip irrigation kept everything going……many thanks.
We walk the graveside of our home and the hearty bulbs shoot their green fronds boldly followed by a burst of golden yellow or fire engine red. Amazing when we remember the wood stove that melted in the fire and the glass that melted and entombed a figurine. What magic allows the beauty of an iris to shield itself from a fury of a fire if just buried below the surface of the inferno? The teak bench and plastic yard chair – just a few feet away from the house – sat untouched.
The koi survived – yeah, the FISH live. We had Goldie for perhaps seven years – she was about 15 inches. She and her babies went to Pet Smart in Superior. My lovely daughter appealed for help and found them a new home. That pond sits now empty – awaiting a new land owner who does not have angst about the land that we nurtured and loved. An owner ready to recreate that dream on a hill outside of the Republic of Boulder.
The Fire Department
It was ironic that Curt and I were cruising the South Pacific when our house burned down – we were members of the Four Mile Fire Department and we would have been fighting the fire ourselves. Several fire fighters lost their homes – including Cash who lived on the top of Arroyo Chico. Only one family decided to rebuild after the fire on our road. After the fire we had many of the burned trees cut down. Linda harvested most of the iris, roses and peonies and distributed them to friends and family. When we go back to the land we want to clean everything up – wanting to recreate the land that we loved. We decided to move to Maui rather than re-build – a dream of ours for many years. Arroyo Chico and Four Mile canyon will always remain in our hearts as a place of love and creation of our dream home. That dream continues as we start over with a new homestead on Maui.
