Clearing land...Indian style.

  Last weekend while clearing some land a burn pile got out of hand and took off up the hill out of control.  With the recent wildfires burning down the town of Slave Lake, it became a very near panic situation on our rural farm.  We pay dearly for house insurance because we do not have fire protection  outside city limits (we are 26Km  from downtown Dawson Creek---the rocking metropolis).  However, what we do have is amazing and perceptive neighbours whose farm house looks down to our 1/4 and saw the smoke arising.  We now call this the dinner signal! 
  One quick phone call to our neighbours resulted in a full on fire fighting crew: Mom, Dad, 2 kids (under 12), nephew, Grandma and Grandpa came running over with buckets, water pump, hoses and water bottles.  This was a crew who has fought a fire or two or more and knew how to fight for their lives!  We are ever so grateful to their quick thinking and expertise.  In just over 4 hours we were able to successfully put out the fire. I think it worked out to about 1 hour an acre.  Now this is quick land clearing!! Our neighbours informed us that this is how the Indians used to clear land.
  Once the fires were doused we sat down to a mighy neighbourly smorgasborg quickly put together by our teen girls (so glad we had a large roast in the oven and a full fridge for the neighborhood fire fighting crew).
  Yes, we are the new neighbours and the proverbial "city slickers"  on a fast learning curve to Northern rural living.  Our family is used to the more wet and temperate climate of  the Comox Valley on Vancouver Island (our old stomping grounds). Fires do not become a problem on the wet coast until the dry days of late summer.  I shiver to think of what could have been, had our neighbours not pitched in.  I was on edge for 3 days after this wildfire worrying that the smoldering remains would somehow reignite.
  One week later, I am surveying the "damages" of our charred acreage and am absolutely stunned by what I see.  Grass, saplings and all kinds of greenery is poking through the black soil. New life quickly has started. In a burn pile, a red breasted Robin has made a nest and has laid her delicate blue eggs... it reminds me of a passage in the bible in the book of Mathew about worry.  Why do we worry when God looks after the birds of the air and they do not worry about what they will eat or wear.  Are we not more valuable, that he would look after us??
  Another Northern escapade that has taught me well about God's mercy and grace.