The Wallow Fire came to our part of Arizona and destroyed. We have gone on a couple drives to see all the damage. Some areas, despite being severely burned, still have some green. I couldn't believe all the destruction that was done, but the optimistic part of me was really surprised that it was still pretty in many places. 
Even though the fire is gone, the problems are not over. We are right in the middle of monsoon season so the new worry is flooding and mudslides.
Besides people sandbagging areas or putting up barricades of hay bales, there are now big helicopters that are loaded everyday all day with straw to drop over the mountain sides. The hope is that this will help prevent the ground from eroding when the the rain is heavy.
Because Trevor drives all over this area with his job, he has been able to watch the helicopters at work. Each day he has come home saying how much he wants to take Brody to Alpine so he can see.
Brody is, after all, ALL BOY! He loves to see 'hockers' so we went on one of Trevor's days off. Brody was totally into it! Well really, all of us were. Ryder made noises and his head went back and forth between the 2 helicopters not sure of which one to watch.
The first place we stopped was along the highway and they carried the straw right over our heads. We told Brody to wave to the helicopter and as it flew over us, the pilot could see us and he stuck his hand out and waved back! On his next trip over us he did it again!
The second place we went was right up to where they were hooking up the huge bags of straw to the helicopters. With the helicopters making the air blow around us, their were bits of straw everywhere. It clung to our clothes, made our hair look like we had dandruff, and got everywhere inside the car because of one slightly cracked window.
As we left and began our journey home, we were able to see the helicopters dump the straw fairly up close. It was just a neat site to see, and although the trip was made for the sake of Brody, we all really had a good time.
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