9/17/08 Fall fog

The first fall day, high of 63, wind blowing fog over the hills. I cleaned the gutters, wind blowing fir needles and dirt into my face and eyes. Chance of rain tomorrow night, increasing on Friday. We hope. It'll distract from presidential politics and--choke!--the economy.

7/9/08 smoky sunsets

On 7/7 air temp hit 106 degrees. The photo is near sunset, pall of
smoke in the distance and the CalFire base camp in the valley at lower
left.

On 7/8 we went to the beach. It was cooler but air quality not much
improved. That white blur right of- and just below center is the sun.


A new road sign near town. Yes, we know...

6/30/06 fire, music

Cal Fire, a state agency, has taken over fire administration. The flats below has turned into a vast encampment (the photo shows a small part) where dozens of bulldozers, water trucks, fire pumpers and other equipment is staged. All around are campers, trailers, and small tents for the fire fighters, with very large tents for administration, cafeteria, etc. This is what parts of Iraq must look like. Smoke has cleared considerably; we can see stars at night, and the hills across the valley. There's is still a threat of new lightning storms and it's cloudy now.

We buried our anxiety in the Kate Wolf Festival with our great kids and their friends. Exhausting but fun: got there at 2:00 yesterday afternoon, left at midnight after a long Ani diFranco set. This was the third such day in a row. We're in recovery. More photos at www.flickr.com/photos/lao_ren100/.

6/27/08 fires

This is the "island" in front of us. 6/27/08, 3:50PM

6/23/08 fires

Maybe you've heard we have fires nearby. True, about 100 in this
county alone and 100's more in surrounding counties. On 6/20 and 6/21
we had thunderstorms and lightning lit the forests. No blazes in our
immediate neighborhood, but we have friends who've had to evacuate,
and others are prepared to. The cloud photo is of some of the storm;
the shot down the valley taken an hour ago. The hills have disappeared
into the smoke. A chopper, loaded with retardant, is passing as I
type. We're OK, cough, choke...

6/21/08

Lightning. Thunder. Seriously dramatic clouds. Choppers and planes
looking for lightning-strike fires. I got the roof on my shop while
all this was happening. No rain.

6/8/08 rodeo

We went to the rodeo. Sorry we didn't see you there.

5/25/08 smoking table

Let's see...

kitchen chairs
kitchen table
beds
couch
dressers
shelves
books
...

yes!!!

5/15/08 Toxicodendron diversilobum

Poison oak (and ivy and sumac) causes an allergic skin rash on contact. It grows as a dense shrub in open sunlight, or as a climbing vine in shaded areas. It appears everywhere in the west. The toxin is called urushiol; the name comes from the Japanese word urushi, which denotes a lacquer produced from the sap of kiurushi trees (Lacquer Tree). 1/4 ounce of urushiol is all that is needed to cause a rash in every person on earth.

We have it. It's seasonally beautiful, always toxic and we try to remove as much as possible. The big limbs are from a particularly huge growth. That's me in full protective gear carrying the base of a three-stemmed vine of it, and the chipper with poison oak (only) chips around it.

5/7/08 I forgot! (to partners)

About 20 years ago Steve and I were clearing brush on the road near the water tanks. I had the land tape measure with me. It fell into the slash pile and was lost.

I found it! I know how relieved you all are.

5/6/08 dead trees (to partners)

THINNING WOODS. The woods are thinning themselves and views now stretch right thru areas which were visually blocked recently. Except at our house I haven't removed a live tree of any kind, but just taking out the dead manzanitta and madrone opens the view shockingly.


CREEKBED; We've sporadically forayed into the creek bed near the cabin to reduce the hazard of it's becoming a chimney in the event of fire. We've removed a lot deadwood (nothing alive). Yesterday we took out 14 trees in a band no more than 25' wide above the creek crossing (now with a footbridge, which can be removed if there are objections--see pic), six of them still standing. There are at least 6 more in that area, plus a large dead fir which I don't want to fell alone. The hillsides are very steep; my current policy is not to look up.

NEIGHBORS. Many and close, their dogs, noise, houses and stuff. 40 acres doesn't seem so large anymore. Fewer gunshots though.

EMERGENCIES. Libbe is a principal in Laytonville's efforts to formulate an emergency response plan, coming along nicely thanks to much volunteer effort. An interesting bit of info from the LVFD is that we are not considered likely to have a devastating wildfire as neither the topography nor weather is as conducive to that in S. Calif. Danger from an earthquake might be more likely or--interestingly--victims of some kind of horror in the Bay Area (terrorism, disease) fleeing north to safety. In any case, Laytonville's biggest problem is the single ingress/egress route along Hwy 101. My preparation: stock up on wine.

SPENDING YOUR MONEY. Not a dime. I'll try harder.

4/14/08 Pacific Northwest

We're back from 10 days in the Pacific Northwest. About half the travel distance parallels a highly active seismic zone, all along the Cascade range, including the temporarily dormant volcanoes of Mt. Hood (Portland), Mt. St. Helens (between Portland and Seattle) and Mt. Rainier, overlooking Seattle or, as I like to think of it, Pompei on Puget Sound. There were many compensations for our dangerous journey, not least the trees coming to life, especially the incredible cherry trees throughout Oregon and Washington. More on my flickr stream: www.flickr.com/photos/19787789@N04/.