RHH's photos with the keyword: home

We lived in the city of Lynden in northwest Washington until 2017 and my retirement. We went for a walk nearly every day and often took our cameras. These Primroses were photographed on one of our walks and were found in a neighbor's garden.

When we retired in 2017 we purchased this home near the town of Medical Lake, Washington, to be near our handicapped son. The house had been empty for two years and had been a rental for a number of years before that and was a mess. Since that time we've refurbished the house inside and out and recently finished the last major project, new windows. The photo shows the house as it now looks, though before the new windows were installed. We have a son who is a building contractor and he had come out a number of times and is the main reason the house looks like it does. The lawn and gardens were a mess as well, mostly weeds and bare dirt and my wife has worked hard on those, and they, too, are now in order. The inset shows Clear Lake which is across the street and down the hill from our home. We did not purchase the house because of its nearness to the lake, but have come to love the lake, and some of our grandchildren, who now live in the area, love the lake as well.

This is Clear Lake, the lake near which we live. As with many of the lakes in the area, there are sheer cliffs around part of the lake, though where we live the lake is accessible from a park maintained by the homeowners association.

This is what much of our area looks like at present. All the trees in the photo are dead and many have been cut down, though now, several weeks after the fire, the grass is already starting to grow again. The Gray Fire burned 10,000 acres (over 4000 hectares) and destroyed 200 homes. Many of the homes are already being rebuilt, but the trees, thousands of them, will not soon grow back, and our area will not be the same in our lifetimes. Driving through the area is rather depressing. Though the firefighters are gone, there is still a lot of activity. The utility company is replacing many power poles that were destroyed or damaged and many trees are being cut down, especially those that are near roads. Thousands more trees are dead or dying from the fire, and if they are not cut down will fall in the next few years, making a further fire hazard, This photo is typical of what we see when we drive the roads near our home.

I've posted some other photos of the wildfire that ravaged our area, burning 10,000 acres and over 200 homes. Our own was spared as was the facility where our son lives, but the area will not be the same in our lifetimes. This photo was taken at Booth Hill near the fire's origin and shows how hot the fire was, melting metal on some of the old cars that were on the hill.

This photo was taken by my wife last Thursday morning. It shows the burned area between our home and the neighbors behind us. The mist is partly smoke from hot spots, which are still being monitored by the fire crews in the area, more than 600 at the last count. They are not only monitoring areas which are still smoking, but cutting down trees that are threatening roads and power lines, and excavating fire lanes through the burned areas. A number of homes in our area burned, but the firefighters, our heroes, saved most of them. The enclosed area on the left is my vegetable garden which did not suffer from the fire and which we are trying to keep up with. We have it enclosed to keep the deer out. They eat everything otherwise and can be a huge nuisance. We harvested the garden the Monday we were first home again after being evacuated and have harvested it several times since. We canned fourteen quarts of salsa, seven quarts of vegetable soup and five quarts of marinara sauce the last few days and have peppers and cucumbers to do yet..

This the north end of the lake near which we live. The effects of the recent fire can be seen in the trees and burned vegetation on the cliffs in the foreground.

Taken Friday, this is a photo of what is now called the Gray Fire (it started near Gray Road in the area of the photograph). At this point the fire was to the west of us and we thought we were safe, but after burning past the facility where our handicapped son lives and leaving the facility miraculously untouched, the fire burned to the northeast and into the town of Medical Lake destroying 185 homes. At that point the wind changed and the fire began to burn to the east, jumping two lakes and burning many more homes (52 of 60 near Silver Lake). When the fire reached the interstate highway, I90, it turned southwest heading in our direction and we were ordered to evacuate. We stayed Friday and Saturday evening at our church's apartment and returned home last night, though most of our neighbors have stayed away. The fire burned right up to our back fence as the PIP shows (it was taken yesterday), but the firefighters, our heroes, managed to establish a line there and our house and the houses of our neighbors were spared. The report is that three homes in our area did burn, but most were saved though the fire burned all the land around the homes. The interstate highway is still closed as are many other roads in our area and the worry is now that looters will move in, one of the reasons we came home and are watching the homes of our neighbors. It is also very smoky still in our area, but we are keeping windows closed and it is tolerable in the house.

This was our backyard Saturday evening when I managed to get home and get a few more things from our house. The photo is of our back fence and garden and shows how close the fire came. Our home and the homes of our immediate neighbors were spared though three homes in the area did burn. These firefighters, many of whom had not slept for several days, are our heroes, and are the ones who saved our homes and the homes of our neighbors. We cannot thank them enough. This was the only photo I took on World Photography Day for obvious reasons. We were thinking of other things besides photography that day. It is not the greatest photo, but certainly encapsulates the day for us, when we came as close as ever we have come to losing our home and possessions. The fire is now out in our area and we are getting some rain for the first time in three months, so our situation has improved dramatically since the photo was taken.

We have had a long and hard winter. It began late November with a blizzard that brought over 60 cm of snow and we have had snow on the ground ever since. We had snow twice last week, about 30 cm the first time and 5 cm the second time. We've also had very cold temperatures part of the winter and a lot of freezing fog. These photos were taken on one of my daily walks near home and with my old 7D which I've been using since I wrecked my camera.

Taken on a walk near our home, this is typical of what winter has brought for us, lots of snow and frost, low temperatures and no signs of spring yet.

This was the sleepy little farm town in northwest Iowa where I grew up as a boy. We were back there recently and were able to get some photos of my old haunts. When we lived there in the 1960's Doon had a population of about 300 people. It now has just over 600 but hasn't changed much. This is Main Street which had more businesses when I was a boy but even then not many. The other photos are of the house we lived in and of the school I attended. The car is a 1958 or 1959 Ford Fairlane from about the same era.

This is the school I attended as a boy, three grades to a classroom. The school is no longer in operation but the building and grounds are maintained by the church next door which owns the property.

This is the house I lived in as a boy. It is now a rental, very dilapidated and run down, but still a place that holds many memories for for me. The house is on Main Street in Doon, Iowa, a small, sleepy farming community in northwest Iowa.