every evening, after giving Water to the Wall Garden at A, i walk up this road/drive toward this setting Sun. Right now it is RED. This pic does not represent it well. it's Red. But well enough to give a glimpse of what Fire might look like, in a close distance.
Jaime commented yesterday "If i am going to worry effectively, I need details. How do you stay alerted? How do you evacuate with the goats? Where do you go?"
First, i am educating myself about Fire ongoing. There is a lot to learn. the science of Fire even has a name, which i forget at the moment, but in a category of Earth Sciences. And to say that i work at it, but know not much at all yet. Understand not much of it's dynamics here.....in this land of such LUSH ness that really, in these summer months is so much more of what i know to be desert. Where i came from...so much more Sky Water...the monsoon rains of July, then the occasional electrical storms throughout August and September. THIS, here, in this land of Forest, this is
dry.
NO precipitation. None. and this is normal. What is not normal is the increase in overall temperatures. The changes to seasonal norms ie beginning and endings. It IS changing. When ground igniters begin early and dry sooner, when the temperatures exceed 100 degrees for days, it ripens the opportunity for Fire. Any small spark. small. spark. I forget the percentage, but the vast majority of California fires are the result of human cause. Little things. a spark from a lawn mower even. The fire now that rages in Redding...from some defect in an automobile. Who would guess.
so i learn. Daughter Jenny reads copious info and shares it. I read all that i find. I watch CalFire site. What i am grateful for tho is that i don't have TV. Jenny said today that people actually get sick from TV. Usual programing is replaced with 24/7 coverage of major fires like this one now to the north. She works at the hospital in Chico and people come in sick from worry.
so to Jaime's wonderings:
how do i stay alert? Easy, here. The Hill is just off a major road of Olive Highway. Just down the way , like maybe a quarter of a mile at most, is that market/gas station. Lakeside Market. Which becomes the command center for CalFire for anything in this area. They also are invested in keeping it. Gas pumps, underground propane resource tanks. Not to say it couldn't happen. Knock on Wood. Anything can. But they are very invested in keeping it alive.
There have been two small fires close already. One at the lake not far and one just over the way...we could see the smoke rising from the driveway....smell that one, ash fell here and the Goats were anxious. What i have come to know is that if anything is at all nearby, the sound of emergency vehicles going up Olive Highway is constant. It begins with police sirens, changes to police sirens and intermittent Fire Vehicles that emit a loud long sound, and it increases, until it's almost constant. It might sound horrible, but really, it's not. It's reaassuring. They are ON IT. I have an incredibly HUGE admiration for CalFire, for local FireFighters.
How do we evacuate with the Goats? this is what that movable shed is for...so we can clear the Goat Boat, make it ready. We need, to, to get the horse trailer emptied. right now, half of it is filled with solar panels. It needs to be where it can GO. Maybe down in the Rooster Swamp in the summer months?
We, I, continue to use the stainless steel milk bucket with pellets in it to rattle and that draws them quickly. Do that, and load them. Leave. There is of course too, Tazmeena, Puppy and Tay. This is why when there is a "maybe" evacuation warning, we get Ready.
Where do we go? I don't know. Depends on where the fire IS. There are endless sites that give info, many places where people and livestock can hunker down. Everyone around offers refuge. So you wait to be told. You get OUT and wait to be told. The roads are full of people helping....giving information. People come together.
So...all that. and do i wish i hadn't come here? No. Somehow it feels right. Somehow i am up to the Risk. Not sure how, but i am. I don't worry. I listen. I watch. but i don't worry. I love this Hill more and more every day. So much Magic here, Earth Magic. It might burn. No way to know. as i've said, it's Luck.
