On Sunday afternoon our menagerie increased by 4. We picked up chooks and were putting the finishing touches on the chook shed when we heard the Upwey, Tecoma and Upper Ferntree Gully CFA Fire sirens ring. It was hot and blustery: bad bush fire weather.
Despite our single-minded focus on "operation install chooks", I went inside to check the CFA website. There was an Urgent Alert message for residents of Tecoma, Belgrave, Ferny Creek, Kallista and Monbulk to be aware of possible falling embers. Despite Upwey not being named, I guestimated that the fire was no more than about 800 metres away. No brainer... we activated our fire plan.
Not sure why Upwey residents weren't named in the alert given the proximity to the fire...
Anyway, our already packed bags were loaded into the car, laptops and external hard drives, wedding photos and then our family of three plus two dogs, 2 cats and now 4 chooks (still not out of the crates we picked them up in) were all loaded in.
Our good friends who took us in that night didn't know what they were getting themselves in for! As J said, 11 heartbeats arrived for shelter. A lovely meal and jokes about being refugees with credit cards and we were just glad we weren't watching for falling embers.
And the new, now happily settling in chooks, didn't know what they were getting themselves in for either!
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