Smoke gets in your eyes

[v8dave]

Well Florida gets their hurricanes, the midwest tornados and winter, the east gets winter and summer and in California we get earthquakes and forest fires. Since it doesn't rain from May to November the long dry season creates lots of dry forests.

There are three fires going at the moment. One too far away to effect us, execpt the lack of fire fighters, but it has gone past 10,000 acres. Two semi-locally. The closest is about 10 miles east and is several thousand acres, the next is about 30 miles south and is also several thousand acres.

There wasn't much wind yesterday and the smoke settled in. It got a lot thicker last night. So thick it looks like fog laying in the valleys. Except fog has some edge contours. This is just everywhere and stinking up the place.

I going to post some pictures of the local conditions.

Here is a shot down the driveway to my new shop. I'll post a picture in the clear of this (almost) same shot next for a contrast.

 

[v8dave]

Here is a clear view down the shop driveway to show how much smoke is obscuring the view.

 

[v8dave]

Here is a shot of the Sun, looking South/East, down and over my neighbors house. This was taken about 8:30 AM today.

 

[v8dave]

Here is a shot East out our and the neighbor's back yards into the neighboring pasture. You can't tell it's a pasture.

 

[Golfgar4]

Smoke gets in your eyes......

....and your nose, throat, lungs.......

.....and in your hair.....

.....and in your clothes......

I'll take our occasional tornado and winter! /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

Hope it doesn't get any worse or threaten your nice home. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[v8dave]

Last picture--down the road in front, You can almost tell there is a valley in there.

We've had several fires this year that have been nearby. The closest about a mile away. But they still called the air bombers in. They ended up using helicopters but still had the air boss circling the neighborhood as he was calling the dumps. A bigger fire was about 3 miles away and it was several hundred acres and had lots of water bomber activity. You could see them make their runs all afternoon.

One of the joys of living in the country. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

P.S. We feel safe from these current fires. We live on a county road with good (fire truck) access and have a defensable piece of property. When forest fires get near homes, the town fire fighters defend the houses while the forestry services firefighters attack the burning forests. The key to saving your house is having safe exits for the firefighters to get the heck outta there if it gets really bad.

 

[bczoom]

Yuck.

I too will take snow over that.
After it passes is there any residue or smell on things?

Nice place you have there (when it's clear).

 

[slydog]

Hey Dave,
Beautiful place you have there. My wife and I drove over through Placerville about a year and ahalf ago when we were in Tahoe for a week. We went up to the old sawmill/mining town just north of you there on old Highway 49 and went through all of that. We had a couple of beers in the Hanging Tree bar, and went through that GREAT hardware store yall have there in town. What a great part of the country you live in. The Sierra's are some of the most beautiful mountains in the country.

Ken

 

[California]

Dave,

Same thing 100 miles west.

Smoke from the fires north of Napa is blowing down the Napa Valley and out the Golden Gate (SF Bay entrance).

Thankfully I'm west of that plume. This photo shows our eastern horizon yesterday.

I figured you guys were having a hard time when I drove to Sacramento in the evening and west of Davis the Caltrans changeable message sign said:
FIRE - US 50 CLOSED EAST OF PLACERVILLE

I hope you and everyone near you are safe.

 

[v8dave]

Slydog, thanks for the comments. I live north of town about halfway between the sawmill/mining town (Coloma) and the town proper. We like it a lot. It's just 2 minutes to great motorcycle riding--when the counrtyside isn't burning.

While the oldest hardware store in the west is a tourist attraction, they're actually a well stocked hardware store. Yesterday, I bought furnace filters and some electrical parts there.

Regards,