i got TWO paper maps from the AAA place. She just gave them to me. This one is of North California. See all the Green. National Forest, all the green. And then, extending from all that green is
forest
where now, many homes are built. In forests. The ....people....species, homosapiens....all building these homes WANT things in those homes. They want not just an electric lightbulb to see to cook and read, but they want freezers full of food. TVs. Instantpots to cook a dinner in an instant. What else...?....lots of stuff. Requiring electricity. AND they do not want FIRE.
so well, ok. now what do we do?
they are saying that tonight an extreme WIND "event".
so now, we don't just need to be alert to Fire, but we need to be alert to Wind. Wind. I think of that, being from New Mexico where extreme WIND conditions are a regular experience. Here tho, they push fire. They knock down trees. In New Mexico there's not much to burn, not trees to knock down in a desert. Here, they say if you are in a travel trailer and there are large trees nearby, move....move your space. Hmmmm.
We need to stand and FACE.
i spent early day moving the plants we bought at the Master Gardeners Sale to safe space from wind.
this Place here. This Hill. It's at the edge of "civilization" and Forest. Not deep into Forest. I understand the desire to live deep into forest. Totally. But maybe we cannot. OR, maybe we can. But simultaneously know that at any moment it might all be lost. That what we NEED might take us out.
the first pic is of an Air Plant i got at the Little Red Hen Nursery. It can go anywhere. Be moved around. I spritzed it with water today. It was happy.
How to live like an Air Plant?
Dark is approaching. Talkie is UP on her branches. I can hear in the distance the whir of generators fueling our beloved place of Lakeside Market...its grocery store, its gas pumps, its propane refill station. There's a lot of traffic that i hear. People are getting ready. But we keep getting ready in a crazy way that cannot sustain.
I am not at all sorry to have become Here in the midst of this. California, the place where so much is GROWN for the entire country, California...such an iconic place...i am not sorry to be here now. But i would hope that the whole country will watch, as we burn. Will somehow understand what's happening. That what we are doing, wanting to continue doing, is not working.
i have an urge to go on. To keep recording, as witness to this night. But i'm tired and morning WILL COME and the Goats will want to be fed and given water. So...enough. What will be, will be.
