Do not sit here

One of the chairs by the table on the screened in porch. Take only photos and leave no trace applies at my house as well as the Forest. The spider stayed.

Tomorrow is the 6 month anniversary of the horrible flooding of Hurricane Helene. Progress is being made but there are still abandoned homes, cars and piles of debris which includes huge tree trunks. So much work even with the help finally from the federal government. Now, there are two major wildfires in the South Carolina mountains. They are in areas near where Jerry and I visited just last week on Monday. So many downed trees along with very low humidity, brisk winds and rugged steep terrain make firefighting a struggle. They are dumping water from the reservoirs and ponds but the fire keeps spreading. Mandatory evacuations are now occurring.

In North Carolina there are also two fires at Green River Cove which was completely flooded during Helene. These two fires are very close to being one giant fire.

I have hiked in all these areas. It will never be the lush green forest that I loved as it will take years for the earth to recover. It may take years to reopen the trails. I heard the SC fires were started by people who disobeyed a camp fire ban. I also heard they were apprehended. The NC fires were from limbs blowing in high wind hitting a power line that created a spark.

We have chances for rain this weekend so do some rain dances, send clouds and keep the firefighters and first responders in your thoughts.