You’ve seen it on the news, I’m guessing. California is on fire.
The odd, hot and stormy weather created lightening strikes (which never happens) and that set the dry grasses across the state on fire.
Plus, some idiots decided to start a few… they have people in custody. Idiots.
The smoke is very thick. My eyes and throat itch. I’m sure the horses feel it… I look outside and it reminds me of Bladerunner or some eerie doomsday dystopia.
My work has closed down until this is over.
Is there a silver lining? Dunno. Maybe it is time for Mother Nature to cut back all the fuel in the forests… It was supposed to be 111 degrees today but ended up only being 103 due to the smoke covering the sun…
I feel so much empathy for animal owners across the state… and for the wildlife.
Here is a map of CA. The black circle is where we live (no fires nearby). Yesterday, I drove from my house to San Francisco to visit my mother. I drew a line of that path. As you can see, I passed multiple fires. The smoke was thick everywhere.
The black dot is where I live in Paso Robles. I drove up to see my Mom in San Francisco. You can see my path by the black arrow. I passed many fires and could see/smell the smoke. The red marks are all of the fires up and down the state. (There are many fires near Grass Valley, as well… but my house is fine.)
COMPARISON PICS FROM HERE. (And we aren’t even close to a fire…)
After I took the smokey pics today, I looked back at them and, to be honest, the reality is far more murky and dense. My camera is a bit too generous here. The smoke is bad.
As you can see in the left side pic, normally you can see for miles.
Again, this is out the back. Normally, you can see past Finn’s pasture almost all the way to the ocean.
This is right outside our garage.
Here we are again out front. It keeps getting worse.
BOWING MY HEAD FOR ALL THE OWNERS WITH ANIMALS AND THE WILD ANIMALS…
I hear you… luckily, my house in Grass Valley has always had ample warning. But I totally know what you mean.
I lived in Wilsonville, OR for many years, and never even thought about fire…
Once upon a time I made the decision to move to the Auburn/Grass Valley area and buy a good-sized ranch. Then at a party I met the family of a good friend of mine – they were moving to western Oregon immediately, FROM the Sacramento environs. BECAUSE of fire. These folks were highly competitive endurance riders who competed in Tevis (among other rides) who loved their trail riding in that whole area, not to mention proximity to the Tevis Cup competition. I will quote here as best I can the express of the fears they had: “we never know when we might have an order to evacuate immediately . We NEVER know. We have friends who lost dogs, horses, homes, relatives in California fires. We can’t use our pickup truck for anything but keeping it hooked up to the horse trailer 24/7 and everything pre-packed for emergencies. We buy two of everything. We water down our house and barn every day. We don’t dare have a tree closer than an acre to either. We are so tired of being afraid of fires every single day.”
Needless to say my plans to move from Oregon to that area changed at that moment. I cannot imagine living in fear every single day of losing my horses, my dogs , my home, my life, in these fires.
Prayers for all. Heartbreaking to see the trailers full of frightened hastily loaded horses braving all this to evacuate. EVEN MORE the people reported in the news WHO LEFT THEIR ANIMALS BEHIND.