Smoke gets in your eyes

[RobertN]

Awe shucks, I knew what you meant /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Around here, with the urban wildland interface, our crews see more wildfire than most bigger city crews would. You'll notice that most of the engines around here are smaller than what you would see in Sac, San Jose, ect. They need to be, partly so they can manuever the tight windy roads and drives around here, and also so they can manuever off road.

Our guys(there's a few gal's too) will immediately get right in to the thick of things. They will pull out slowly later on though, as more state resources come in. At that point, they will go back to covering thier own districts, which may have been left thin.

There are only three trucks on the west slope. T85 is in El Dorado Hills. I've seen pictures of it buried to the frame after they tried to help fight a grass fire. They did not like the fact that someone somehow got pictures that circulated the local districts /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif Diamond El Dorado has T48, and County fire just got T26 from a district back in New York.

Mutual aid will find engines really traveling. Both of us are in El Dorado County Fire district. Out engines have been to So-Cal a number of times. We also had engines that made the trip back to Yellowstone and Montana a few years back. E228 out of Shingle spent some time in the thick of things down in San Diego this year.

Defensible space is so important. People can save thier own houses just by having that. The FD can drive past a house because it is too dangerous to put thier crews in there. It is a tough decision, but it can happen.

 

[v8dave]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Dave; Think I'll stick with th weather problems in Michigan as well. Hope YOU don't catch fire! Looks like you've got some nice scenery to enjoy when you can see it. But you do have a problem. That SD in your drive is guilty of improper color etiquite. Shame on you!!!! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif )</font>

Well, John, you better not look inside the shop. There's an orange tractor in there.

I actually ordered that truck the way it is, had to wait 3 months for delivery. I didn't like the reds they were offering at the time. The closest alternate choice was a two tone red and brown [49er colors]. But, my previous truck, a F150, was a nice dark red. I had a slew of Mustangs around 1990 that were all strawberry red (I worked for Ford and the company cars were a 5.0 5 speed for 3 years in a row).

We had about an inch of rain today, started light but had a few loaded cells go through. I'm sure the fires are now well on their way out.

RobertN, we've noticed that the number of rain days here in the foothills are about the same as the South Bay area. The difference is the amount of rain that falls in each storm. It is a lot more. Also, the South Bay is more sheltered from the wind. We've had some screaming winds here. Blew some shingles off my neighbor's house. Never saw that in the Bay area.

 

[v8dave]

Gary and bczoom, there hasn't been any lingering smell from the smoke. Which, frankly has surprised me. I guess the out of doors gets cleansed by the wind and rain. The house has been clear all along as we have an electrostatic precipitation filter on the HVAC system. We just turn the fan on and let it recirculate the air in the house. We had one in our previous house and put one in here for my wife's asthma, it has worked remarkably well as a deodorizer for both houses.

 

[_RaT_]

Dave, how about the weather the last couple of days? Nothing short of spectacular. Clear, cool (61 degrees) and sunny. I love it. Those rains were wonderful other then highway 50 falling apart (again)! I can see the Sierras from my place and they are covered in snow. I see some palces got 3 to 4 feet of snow. Rat.

 

[v8dave]

Yes, the weather has cooperated nicely. I got my storage units unloaded into the shop and enough put away to get the Kubota, two cars and a motorcycle into the new shop. My wife is thrilled, her car is now in the house garage.

Need to get more put away/organized before I can easily park the truck in the shop. Besides, the driveway isn't done yet and I have a 9" rise and ramps to contend with. Supposed to start the driveway Wednesday. Hope the next storm is done by then.