Out of the Art Trails Frying Pan and Into the Kincade Fire….
Our two weekends of open studio were very busy… The set-up, the take down… but we loved having everyone visit the T Barny Gallery and Sculpture Gardens. Sunday night, October 20th the T Barny team had dinner together at Sakeo and toasted to the end of the T Barny 2019 season. On Tuesday, October 22nd the sculptures were covered and we were ready to rest. Little did we know what lay ahead for us?
Kincade Fire starts near the Geysers
We were just finishing our team meeting on Wednesday when our power went out. Melinda and I have gone through many fires above our home in the 35 years we have lived here. So we went to bed feeling fairly confident. At 9:30pm the first of 30 fires engines raced up Pine Flat and we began our fire watch. We have a neighborhood text group and the news was not good. By 3:30 we could see the fire north of our neighbor’s vineyard. The group all decided to leave about 4:30 am. Melinda and I got the dogs in the car along with our Go Boxes and some clean clothes in a laundry basket. We had no sculpture with us.
Planes applying fire retardant
We decided not to leave Pine Flat but parked in our neighbors vineyard watching as the fire moved towards their homes. As dawn broke a surge of fire trucks, dozers, and water planes began saving Pine Flat. By noon we could see the immediate threat was under control. We decided to go back home because we still had 42 sculptures at our place and more to pack. By Saturday, it was clear the fire was not contained and we would have to leave again. We spent the day packing sculptures into my truck, moving the larger ones onto the Bocce court, and putting a bin of T Barny tools and the forklift into our neighbor’s vineyards. We left at 4:30 Saturday and went north to Cloverdale to stay with friends.
Packed up and ready to go
Empty pedestals in the Sculpture Garden
Sculpture evacuation zone in the bocce court
That night, according to the scanner, fire ‘engulfed’ Pine Flat Road and moved south. It was not until we returned Monday morning that we could confirm the T Barny Gallery and Sculpture Garden was still there! With everything burned out around us, we decided to stay home and rough it until power returned a week later. The garden was a mess, but we are now into clean up mode. The whole T Barny Team is here; the sculptures are polished and back on their pedestals, Wendy is on the computer managing T Barny, and we are happy we are able to share this story with you.
Thank you fire fighters!
Fire is contained, happy to be home!