California Smoke Out

It seems like every September, sometimes into October, smoke descends onto our ranch.

We wake up in the morning, open the back door and step into the haze.  It looks like fog, but it smells like a campfire.  The smoke stings your eyes and burns your throat.  But unlike a campfire, you can't move away from the smoke.  It's everywhere.

We are not close to the fires burning west of us, in Sonoma and Napa counties.  Those are a good two hours away.

And the the fires to the east of us, towards Lake Tahoe, are about an hour away.  Maybe less.

There are also fires to the north of us.

Normally, when I head down the mountain for work I can see the outline of Sacramento clearly in the distance.  This morning?  It looked like this.

Random Friday

1.  The heat is on.  And so are wildfires.  There is a fire in the Southern Sierra, by Lake Isabella (near Bakersfield), a good six hours south of us.  I heard this morning that it has burned 60 homes with 1500 structures threatened.  It is zero percent contained.  The drought has turned the Sierras into a big pile of kindling.  The pine trees are drought stressed and so bark beetles have been killing them off right and left.  This past year 26 million (yes MILLION), pine trees died in the Southern Sierra.  This brings the total of dead pine trees, in the past five years of drought, to 60 million.  Here in the Northern Sierras, we have dead pine trees as well.  We've lost a few on our property and they are visible everywhere you drive; stands of brown trees mixed in with the green.  Fire season is just one more reason that I dislike these hot, dry summer months so much.

2.  Brett has been busy.  He finished up the mowing and weedwacking.  We won't get any more rain until late fall so he won't have to mow again.  Nothing is growing (except in the garden) and the grass is brown stubble.  When we muck the pastures, our jeans are covered in fine dust.  The horses keep a layer of dust on their coats, which helps protect them from flies.

3.  Brett also painted the porch that wraps around the house.  He's been wanting to do it since we moved in, but other projects have always taken priority.  I'm not sure how it got bumped to the top... it couldn't have been the fact that we are hosting a BBQ for my department tomorrow, could it?  Brett has this compulsion to have everything Better Homes and Gardens perfect, whenever we have guests.  He threatened to power wash the barn aisle, as well.  Me?  I cleaned the barn bathroom and called it good.

4.  Tex and I have a new area of focus.  He's rock solid, and cool as a cucumber, with me standing next to him on the left, putting on his fly mask, and discussing life.  Last evening, I thought I would stand on his right (since he is very skittish on that side) and see how that went.  He flinched, and flinched, and flinched -- and then he backed away.  This morning, I started on his left as usual.  Since he can't seem to handle me walking in front of him and approaching his right side from the front, I went around the back.  I ran my left hand along his back as I walked to his tail, scratched his butt as I rounded the back, and gave him soft, friendly rubs as I walked back up the left side to his shoulder.  He didn't flinch, but he wasn't totally relaxed either.  I stood there, shared a few cookies, and told him he was a brave boy.  There are so many layers to this horse; it is going to take years to work through them all.

5.  Next week Camille and I are going to be in Big Sur for a few days.  We take a trip together every year; a mother-daughter vacation.  We started the tradition when she was in high school.  I took her on a trip as her graduation gift and we had such a good time, we decided to do it every year.  Of course, that first trip was a big deal trip (France and London), and the four since then have been California destinations. This time we will be "glamping" -- staying in a yurt on the rugged California coast; drinking champagne, eating sushi, hiking (slowly on short easy trails since my foot still spends most of its time in an air cast), talking and laughing.  I can't wait.

Your Fire Questions

I've had lots of questions posed through the comments on this blog and on Facebook.  I'll try to answer them here.

1.  Lori asked if we bring the horses into the barn when the smoke is bad.  Our barn, like pretty much every barn in the Western US, has an open design.  It is designed to promote the flow of air -- which keeps it cool in the summer -- so there is as much smoke in the barn as there is outside.  Unfortunately, there is no place to put the horses that is smoke free.  Fortunately, they don't get silly in their pastures -- they eat, they poop, they walk slowly from their hay to the water trough to their napping spots under the trees.

2.  Southern California has been getting a lot of rain.  The El Nino effect seems to be starting already.  Unfortunately for us, El Nino influences rainfall in the southern end of the State but not much at all in Northern California.  Up here, we rely on cold storms from Alaska that bring snow to the Sierras and build our snow pack.  Last year, our snow pack was at a 500 year low.  We need a very cold and wet winter.  There is a storm moving across the top of the State that is cold but it is not bringing measurable moisture this far down.  The Valley fire (the hot, fast one that has destroyed 400 homes) may get some rain since it is north of Napa Valley -- which is north of San Francisco.  The Butte fire will not see any rain.  It is south of us -- probably roughly even with San Francisco but on the eastern side of the State, in the Sierra Nevada foothills (also named the Motherlode because of the gold found there in the Gold Rush).  We are also in the Motherlode, but a bit further north.  We are not expecting to get measurable rain.  Although the cooler temperatures and increased humidity are welcome; the increased winds that come with a storm are of great concern to the fire crews.

3.  Tails from Provence asked if we have an evacuation plan.  She assumed that we do.  She assumed correctly.  We are often questioned about why we have a four horse trailer but only trailer one or two horses at any given time to clinics, lessons, or trail rides.  We have a large trailer because it is part of our evacuation plan.  We never wanted to be in the position of deciding which horse(s) get left behind -- and we always kept our herd at four, or fewer, horses.  With the addition of Pistol, a wonderful gift from our friend Buffy, we now how five horses.  We've talked about which horse would be left behind if we didn't have time to make two trips.  It would be either Mufasa or Jackson -- and it would break our hearts to leave either.  They are both young-ish, but neither is (or ever will be) rideable.  They are retirees.  We would put the horse in our front pasture which is huge, with no trees, and the grass nibbled to the ground.  There is nothing to burn in that pasture -- except the fence.  Jackson would be less likely to panic than Mufasa (we would leave the goats and donkeys there as well so he wouldn't be alone) so I think his chances of survival would be better.  Jackson would also be easier for someone to catch if he got loose and ran.  We would write our phone number on his body with a grease marker.  No halter -- the chances of it getting caught on something are too great.  Hopefully, though, we would have enough time to move all the horses and the donkeys -- and the goats.  Kersey and the barn cat, Passage, would go with us as well.  In either scenario.

4.  Whenever there is a fire in the area, Brett hooks up his truck to the trailer so we are ready to go.  He even hooks it up if he goes out of town during hot weather.  There are a number of places we could take the horses; including Sandy Savage's barn.  I expect we would take them to the fairgrounds because that is close and would hopefully afford us the opportunity of going back and getting the rest of the animals.  We would not wait until the last minute.  Not with the animals.

5.  The Butte fire (the one closest to us) is now 37% contained.  It has burned 71,000 acres and destroyed 166 residences plus 116 barns and other outbuildings.  There are 12 damaged residences.  Looters have arrived; and scammers pretending to be contractors.  In one neighborhood, the residents blocked the road, carrying rifles and holding a sign that says: "You loot, we shoot."  I'm not a gun advocate but I did enjoy that newsclip.

6.  The closest fire station is a mile and a half away, at the end of our road, and that brings us a measure of comfort.

Smoky

We haven't been doing much other than keep track of the Butte fire and suffer in the smoke.  The fire has grown to 101 square miles, has destroyed 81 homes and 50+ outbuildings.  That is, that they know about. The assessment crew is still counting...  After being contained 20%, then 10%, then 5% (holy crap), yesterday it was back to 10% and this morning they reported 20%.  There is no estimated date for full containment.  The fire is burning in chaparral and dry grass that is six feet high -- with a canopy of dry oak trees.  It doesn't need wind to move, there is so much fuel from the drought that it moves all by itself, consuming everything in its wake and burning hot, hot, hot.

Thursday, on my way home from work, the smoke was a clearly outlined cloud.

By yesterday, it had settled into a ground hugging fog of grey.  We spent the day wine tasting with the family of Kyle's girlfriend and then, in the evening, went to a fundraiser for a local equine therapy program.  The fundraiser was outside, the program was perfect and the food tasty.  But the smoke.  Oh, my, the smoke.  When we got home close to midnight, I felt like I used to when I was a college student and would come home after being at a disco (remember those?) with friends, reeking of smoke (I didn't smoke, but smoking was allowed everywhere then and smoke always hung over the dance floors).  Last night I wore a black shirt and I kept finding bits of white ash on my shoulders and down the front.  At first, I was confused, trying to figure what I was eating (and dropping) all over myself. Then it occurred to me that it wasn't crumbs, it was drifting ash.  It probably wasn't the smartest, and certainly not the healthiest, thing to be at the fundraiser but the cause is one we believe in deeply.  There were people there who had been evacuated and people there who had lost their homes.  We were a close knit group last night; standing in solidarity.

We woke this morning with burning eyes and headaches.  Morning chores were... a chore.  The grey has gotten denser.  I could hardly see the horses in their pastures.

We are meeting up with the wine tasting group for lunch at a winery in Amador today.  Then, we are coming back home and staying inside for the rest of the day. We will only venture out to feed the animals.

Lucy and I are going to be horribly out of shape for our clinic in two weeks.  But, there isn't anything I can do about that.  There is no way I can ride her in this smoke.  When the smoke clears, we'll get back to work.

Random Friday

1.  While fellow bloggers Lori and Mary Ann are cooling off, we have been back to triple digit heat this week.  It was pretty warm at work Thursday --

We have tried to avoid being outside but that didn't work out too well for Brett.  We had a large stretch of fence come down so he had to fix that.  Our neighbor, Marv, was helping and Marv suggested that they also remove two dead pine trees while they were at it -- pine trees are dying right and left up here due to the drought.

2.  We also had the farrier out this week.  He and Brett worked out of the sun, inside the barn, where it was "only" 98F.  The horses were all well behaved -- probably too hot to be silly.  Except for Lucy who kept arching her neck like a giraffe in an attempt to reach the bucket of carrots sitting by Brett.  Pistol has shoes now so she's ready for regular work -- once the weather cools and the smoke clears.

3.  There is a large fire south of us and east of Jackson, the Butte fire.  Fortunately for us it is burning in a southeasterly direction, away from us.  Unfortunately, it is the largest fire in the State right now.  Wednesday when we went to bed it was 4,000 acres and 30% contained.  Thursday morning it was still 4,000 acres but down to 20% contained.  Thursday night... 14,700 acres and 10% contained.  Nine homes have burned, numerous evacuations are in place, and there is no estimate for containment.

Butte Fire, Sept 10 @ noon; photo by Shannon Prieto posted on YubaNet

Our community is covered in smoke; the sky is dark with an eery evening feeling all day -- eery because there is an orange tint to the air and the sun is a bright reddish orange ball; looking more like the moon than the sun with its brightness muted by the smoke.
This morning, Friday, the fire is still only 10% contained -- and grew overnight to 32,000 acres.

This photo was taken by our neighbor earlier in the day; before the smoke settled lower to the ground; thick and dense

4.  I stopped at Hooverville Orchards on my way home from work and picked up some fruit.  There are only a few varieties of peaches left but the apples and pears are starting to come in strong.  I loaded up three bags -- plus a pie -- and headed home.

Apples

The last of the peach varieties

5. Kyle, his girlfriend, and her family had been planning to stay in Jackson this weekend and do some wine tasting.  The family cancelled their original hotel reservations since Jackson is fairly close to the fire (the lady at the hotel was happy for the cancellation in the midst of all the fire-related chaos in town) and made new ones closer to Placerville, away from the fire.

Smoke in the Forecast

This evening as I accelerated onto the freeway after work, I looked up at the Sierras and saw smoke. Dammit. Yeah, I know its a bad word but that is what I thought as the smoke billowed up into the air and then leveled out in an orange layer across the foothills.

This fire isn't close to us; its probably 30 miles to the north, close to the town of Auburn. But it has already burned 380 acres, caused evacuations and closure of the 80 fwy.  It started this afternoon (cause still under investigation which means it might have been arson).  It is only 10% contained.

When I parked my car at home the sun was hiding in an orange haze and the smell of smoke was definitely there. The weather forecast for tomorrow? Smokey.

The King fire is almost out, thankfully.  It is 98% contained and topped out at just shy of 100,000 acres.  I hope that they get this one out more easily.  We have cooler temperatures in the next week which isn't as good as rain but is better than hot and windy.  There are signs hanging on the freeway overpasses and posted on street corners, thanking the fire fighters.  Yesterday a plane carrying flame retardant crashed into a ridge in Yosemite, killing the pilot.  It's dangerous work and we so appreciate their efforts and heroism.

A Little Drop of Rain

Last night, as Brett and I headed upstairs to bed, lightening lit up our room and thunder crashed.  We were surprised at Kersey, who sat looking at us with her tongue hanging out and her usual happy grin.  Sedona was absolutely undone by thunder, ripping screens on the windows to shreds in an effort to get inside.  It was really the only time she wanted to be inside and, even then, she would sit on my foot and whine pathetically.  Unlike Kersey who wasn't going to let some pyrotechnics interrupt her beauty sleep.

We hoped that there would be enough rain to counteract any lightening strikes and to help the firefighters working on the King fire.  This morning we woke to cloudy skies and a few hundreths of an inch of rain in the rain gauge.

It was just enough to turn Lucy into an appaloosa.

In the mornings, the horses get their vitamins and supplements.  Kersey is always happy to clean their bowls afterwards.  There isn't much left, just a few crumbs of low starch supplement with a bit of glucosamine mixed in.

While I got to work mucking the donkey and mare pastures, Brett doles out hay to the goats, donkeys and horses.  He takes care of the hay because I am allergic to it.  If he isn't home and I need to feed hay, I wear long sleeves and gloves and hold my breath a lot.

The sun was just peeking over the hill as we finished up.

We didn't have nearly as much smoke today; just a faint whiff of it in the air.  After church (first time Brett has been able to sit with his knee bent long enough to get through a church service), we went to the nursery and picked up more gopher repellent.  Yep, they ate three more plants.  I bought two big bags and plan to use it liberally -- its organic and won't hurt the plants or Kersey.

Brett's knee is doing well.  He walks with no limp at all (unless he's tired).  He's trying to make it through the night without pain pills and that's going okay.  The knee wakes him up and he tosses around a lot, but he doesn't want to be dependent on the pills for sleep.  Starting tomorrow, he will have full morning chore duty by himself.  I have been going into work late so I can help him but my five weeks of doing so are over.  I'll be heading down the road as the sun comes up instead of heading out to the barn.  (I'd rather head out to the barn).

The rain overnight helped the fire and the lightening doesn't appear to have caused further fires.  The King fire is 17% contained tonight.  There have been ten homes burned to the ground and 22 "other structures."  There were some displaced people in church this morning -- it really brings the tragedy of the fire home.

Have a good week everyone.  Fall starts tomorrow.  Yahoo!!

Still Smokey

This is what we are living in:

Lovely, right?

The fire is still only 10% contained and growing every day.  I believe it is over 80,000 acres now with the length being over 20 miles.  It is still burning away from us, thankfully.

This morning the newspaper had a graph showing the fire and concentric colored circles indicating smoke density.  You guessed, we are right in the middle of the worst smoke area.

We decided to drive south-west to the town of Volcano for lunch and then do some wine tasting in Amador County which isn't in a "hazardous to your health"  smoke zone.  Needless to say, I didn't ride Lucy this morning and I didn't take Kersey for a walk.

My sister, my neice and my son are all visiting my dad this weekend; wine tasting as well.  The drive (six hours) to his place is a bit more than Brett's knee can handle yet so we didn't go.  Kyle called me while we were out; my dad had a bit of an episode but he is, thankfully, fine.  It did give us all a scare though.  I am very thankful that my sister was with him when it happened.

Tonight as we were finishing chores, we got a few drops of dust dimple rain from the orange tinged sky.  Hopefully, it is raining harder over the fire.  At the least, the increased humidity and cooler temperatures should help the fire crews -- who have come here to California from as far away as Alabama and New Jersey.  I'm wondering where Dom's friends, who are here fighting the fire, are from.

Sand Fire Update

Some of you have heard about the Sand fire which is burning very close to us.  Fortunately, the fire is now 50% contained and we are not in any danger.  It was not a comfortable feeling for me to be away from home while ash and blackened leaves were raining down on our property.  Brett, thank goodness, was home and had things well under control.

Currently, the fire has burned close to 4,000 acres taking ten homes and an additional seven out-buildings.  There are 1,900 firefighters, 196 fire engines, 6 planes, 8 helicopters, 30 dozers and 50 water trucks fighting this fire.  Yep, they have a ton of resources on this fire.  It is called the Sand fire because it started on Sand Ridge Road, by a vehicle driving across the very dry vegetation.  Darn drought.

There are still 500 structures threatened and a number of communities evacuated.

Thank you to those of you who knew of the situation and offered us a place to put our animals should we need to evacuate.  It provided HUGE peace of mind.

Getting Rid of my Goat

My gallbladder, that is.  Brett said he felt like he was living with a goat because my gall stones made me burp in a distinctly goat-like way.  Its embarrassing enough to be burping at home, in front of the love of my life, who tried to snag a goodnight kiss between eruptions, --but at work?  Downright unprofessional.  I spent a lot of time working with my door closed, or on conference calls with my speaker phone on mute.  I would sneak a burp or two on the stairwell on my way up or down from my office but they still popped out in public occasionally.  I did pretty well managing the acute episodes (severe pain) with my diet but I wasn't always successful and this girl cannot live happily without cheese, cream or well marbled meat.  I love fruit and veggies, truly I do, but every once in awhile a chocolate malt just calls my name.  This morning I had surgery (my maiden voyage with general anesthesia, I was a bit nervous) and they took my gallbladder out.  So far, the recovery is going well.  I'm sleeping a lot and dreaming about milk shakes, pizza and reuben sandwiches.

Yesterday we signed papers for the house.  They were sent to the seller, who does not live in the area, and he signed them today.  I have been told that he dropped them at FedEx and they are winging their way back to the title company.  If the stars aligned, the title will be recorded with the county tomorrow and Oak Creek will officially be ours.

In other updates, the fire down by Aspen Meadows was 70% contained this morning.  There were a few minor flare ups due to root balls igniting (does that sound right, Feral Janice?) according to the fireman who was escorting residents up the mountain.  The road is closed to non-residents indefinitely.  When I checked FB a little bit ago, one of our neighbors had posted that there was a significant flare up and the fire was off and running again.  I hope they corral it quickly.  There is a fire station down the road from Rancho Capistrano with "hot shot" fire fighters -- remember the expert elite group that were killed near Flagstaff Arizona?  Same elite group.  We always felt an extra measure of confidence knowing they were close by.  It sounds like they, and the multiple other agencies that helped, are doing a fantastic job.

At Oak Creek Ranch, Brett has been busy.  He dug out the star thistle on the dressage court and then used his tractor and box scraper to level it out.  Next he attached the harrow and dragged it.  The arena is beautiful and begging to be used.  The surgeon told me that my abs should not be damaged too much by my surgery -- the gallbladder is above the abdomen, wedged under your right boob -- so I'm hoping Winston and I will be out there soon.

  

 

Aspen Meadows under Evacuation

Please send positive fire fighting thoughts to Rancho Capistrano, the equestrian community where Aspen Meadows is located.  The community is under threat by a wild fire and has been evacuated.  The terrain is very rugged; the fire started on a canyon where we rode all the time.  It is 1200 acreas and growing; no containment.  We have many friends there -- and of course, our beloved Aspen Meadows.

On a less important note, escrow did not close today but we are chugging along.  Everything has been approved, we're just waiting for the documents to be completed.

Fire Season

Late summer and fall are fire season here in Southern California.  With all the rain we had last winter, the weeds got really high.  So now we have lots of high dead grass for wildfire fuel.  Last week there was a fire east of us.  Today driving home from work I passed a fire about 15 miles north of us.  The fire came right up to the freeway and then retreated.  When I passed, there were fire trucks, fire planes, and helicopters aggressively trying to keep the fire from crossing Temescal Canyon Road and burning Tom's Farms.  Tom's Farms is a landmark.  It was just a fruit stand off the highway when I was a kid, then they started selling burgers, and now they have expanded to include an antique store.  It would have been a loss.  They were able to get the fire contained and Tom's Farms is safe. 

The fire season lasts until November when the weather cools.  Rains start at the end of November or December.  October is the most dangerous fire month due to strong, hot winds ("Santa Ana winds") that fan the flames. 

I took these pictures with my Blackberry as I was driving on the freeway past the fire: