Preparing for the Worst.

Maaike turned to Willem.

“Arnold and Eduard are at marriageable age now Willem and I think we need to take an interest in encouraging them to look for life partners. Specially Arnold as the eldest he will be inheriting this property and will need to be producing children to help him run this place. We don’t know what the other children plan for their future but of course Evi will eventually marry and join her future husband. Even though she’s sixteen she soon plans to relocate to town and join nursing school and once she’s in town boys will be attracted to her.”

Willem laughed as he surveyed his wife beside him.

“May leave the young folk to plan their own future. They are hardly hermits and regularly attend dances in town and are well known in the community from their visits on business there. I’ve seen Arnold and Eduard eyeing off two of the young ladies who work in the farm produce cooperative store we visit regularly and have an investment in, and they seem to be very responsive to our boy’s attentions. Liam and Noah are still finishing technical school in town, and each has spent school vacations working with some of the businesses there. I wouldn’t worry about them. Marriage will fall into place in its own time.”

Maaike was not satisfied with that explanation.

“But Willem, Arnold is coming up to twenty-four and he needs to be settled with a wife and family of his own. It will be nice to have another woman to talk to when Evi leaves to do her nursing training.”

“Just leave it to Arnold and the rest of them, May. There’s no need for you to interfere.”

They were just finishing their lunch when Maaike alerted to sounds of aircraft in the distance. She stood and went to scan the sky. Looks like a news helicopter in the distance though I can’t tell which TV Channel it represents. The helicopter passed from the east coast and headed into the mountains. Willem stood and joined his wife holding onto the rails at the edge of the veranda. There was another sound coming from the hills, so they moved around the veranda to look toward the mountain. Willem spoke.

“Sounds like more than one trail bike so Arnold must have seen something. I’m not surprised as we’ve had extra high temperatures for too long now and judging by history, we are going to be dealing with a fire emergency. They usually cut power to the transmission lines if it heads this way, so I hope Eduard has checked out our emergency power supply and pumps which keep all building roofs wet to extinguish flying embers. The cattle breeding stock will need to come to barns which will hopefully keep them safe. I need to contact Liam and Noah and tell them to drive the breeding stock into barns where they’ll be safe and if we have any equipment out there in the fields that will need to be bought under cover too. The fields they are in are well watered and green but all those trees around the river have a significant eucalypt presence those trees explode in a fire, and we don’t want our prize cattle in any kind of danger. I’ll alert the boys now and take my horse to help them gather everything to safety. We need wet towels to protect our breathing as we check out the barns while the fire passes through. You can get those ready while I’m out with the boys. Phone Evi to alert her and tell her to stay with family in town until we clear her to come home.”

As he headed downstairs to the horse corral Arnold and Eduard roared home on their dirt bikes. Maaike paused on the veranda to watch as her three men spoke together then went to pick up the phone to contact her daughter in town.

Willem and Arnold took horses and sped down to the fields where Liam and Noah were working. Eduard headed back to the workshop to give the emergency power system a final check then ran a quick test on the spray systems on top of the barns and house roofs to see they were working well. Windmills were still pumping into the ground storage tanks and there was adequate to cover the few hours the spray systems would need to work, Next, he turned his attention to the camera drones and rechecked to see spare batteries were fully charged. They had permission temporarily to put those drones up in the sky to pass on images to the fire service in town but would take them down when instructed to do so they were not a hazard to the water bombing planes flying over.

Evi initially followed her parent’s instructions and stayed with an uncle who was one of the business operators in town. She often stayed there and intended to stay there while she did her preliminary course work in nursing before moving into hospital nurse training quarters later.

Back at the property the four men scheduled shifts during the night to monitor pictures of the mountains which were relayed to fire service in town where bushfire management was controlled. Eventually the drones would be bought back to earth and the country monitored through satellite images in real time which would give minute images of the hotspots to be bombarded with water and fire retardant. By that time water bombers would be in the air constantly seeking to prevent spread of the fires.

Soon the prize breeding stock were in barns. There was a lot of work to do to service their stalls and keep them supplied with fodder and water. It appeared that fire service had been on the ball and managed to control the fire outbreak first identified on a distant hill by Arnold. So next day the Berg’s were informed it was all under control and they did not need to be vigilant for the present as the satellite coverage of the hills would continue for a time while hot winds from the west combined with this excessive heat. Willem decided to keep his breeding stock housed for the time being as a precaution.

Two days later the Berg’s were informed there’d been another fire outbreak about ten miles from where their property nestled among the mountains in the river valley. They were in a small river valley so somewhat vulnerable if a fire swept around the mountains circling them in a u shape. That had happened in the past and during grandfather’s time it had been catastrophic for the property and taken years for them to recover. They did not have in those years all the things in this modern age to protect them and their livestock as fires swept over them. Cattle had been lost, barns damaged but they’d managed to save the home with only minor fire damage.

Between chores in the barns the family watched warily plumes of smoke in the distance and regular flyovers by water bombing planes drawing their supplies from a lake system twenty miles away. The fire service was confident in bringing this new outbreak under control until informed by the weather service that a thunderstorm system was moving in from the west with little rain but lots of electrical activity and lightning strikes. Maaike who rarely had an interest in the TV news during the day kept the TV on while she worked around the house following the weather channel. The family watched dark clouds gather in the distance and overnight it hit their mountains with multiple lightning strikes. Once again, the family took shifts during the night to watch the mountains surrounding them.

About 4am after a series of lightning strikes flames appeared on all sides of the mountains enfolding them in an embrace. Soon the sky around them was a blaze of fire towering over their valley with embers on fire drifting on strong winds into the valley below. Their family property was once again in grave danger as smoke filled the valley and Willem initiated their crisis management check list posting each family to their assigned places to protect their assets as best they could. He was sure they’d come through this crisis safely and relaxed as he observed water spray pumping over all their buildings. His son Eduard could always be relied on to keep their machinery operational. He used the satellite phone to contact fire services and was assured they had a plan to water bomb the boundaries of their property but of course they could not control floating smouldering embers drifting over the property.

It was just as the sun penetrated through smoke at commencement of the day that Willem noticed lights penetrating the smoke heading from the gateway to their property and called out to his wife in surprise pointing in that direction. Two of his brothers from town alighted from their vehicle and to add to their surprise Evi emerged with several bag loads of groceries from the supermarket. Willem shouted as they approached.

“You shouldn’t have come through that potential fire risk between here and town and Evi we told you to stay with your aunt until this was over.”

His brothers laughed. They were part of the volunteer firefighters in town but had done their job well and all possible ground fuel had been consumed between this property and town so the town was protected on all sides after their careful backburning over several previous weeks. Evi looked at her father and then turned to her mother for help with all the groceries which she was struggling with while her uncles’ unloaded masks and protective gear on loan from the fire service. There was enough for the family though no guarantee for the fit.

“I’m still a part of this family dad so this is where I rightly belong when our property is being threatened. You know you can use our help.”

Willem nodded in appreciation.  They certainly could use this extra help as fields burned and they all turned their attention to keeping those lighted embers off parts of the buildings where the flames settled. Water sprays would give a lot of protection but grounds around the buildings needed to be constantly circumnavigated to see those embers didn’t get inside to ignite vehicle fuel or their store of dried hay and grains.

To be continued.

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