We had a scary moment this afternoon at Ciyanjano. Tyler and I came home from picking Ethel up from school and I was standing in the kitchen making myself a quesadilla. I saw our gardener Gift out of the corner of my running at top speed through the back yard. My first thought was snake. We still have a big cobra on the loose out here. But then I heard the noise. A loud cracking and popping and roaring. I was running for the door when Tricia ran in yelling, "Fire!" I ran out the front door and ran around to the back to help Gift run a garden hose out to the edge of the fire and try to keep it from getting to our huge grass composting piles and from burning up Tricia's drip irrigation system and getting too close to the house. Ten-foot flames fanned by strong shifting winds quickly devoured about 5-6 acres of elephant grass, dried maize and shrubs and trees. All of us guys were running back and forth from the house with buckets and trash bins full of water to fight back the flames. My biggest concern was the wind whipping the fire up the north side of the house and possibly lighting the trees inside the Ripley Center. As the winds shifted the fire burnt itself out in the lower part of the property while we swatted at it with avocado branches. Finally it crossed out of the fence, jumped the stream and started burning through Tubelange area. Thank God that no-one was hurt and that we only lost a couple of rakes, hoes, and shovel and a few new trees that were too recently planted to handle having all their leaves burnt off. Afterward we were all just sweaty and red-faced, and filthy. I let our guys have the rest of the day off and I had a very cold shower. That's enough excitement for the week.
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