The Front Porch Swing

[perchie.girl]

Quote: LOL.... thanks.... its MILES from the family here. And about a hundred miles from Katee... I am thinking the evacs are also due to smoke and to give the fire department room to work.

Many of the people here are letting their lawns die. 300 and 400 dollar water bills are great motivators for Xeriscaping... The artificial Turf people are making a killing.

deb

 

[Blooie]

Praying hard! We lived in Tierasanta and the fires in Murphy Canyon got pretty close and scary. When the Santa Anas come through you can actually cut roses off your plants and bring them in as dried flowers and that's no exaggeration. So watch the weather, watch the sky, and if you have to, get on Katee and go!

 

[LBejaran]

Laura, we got 3" last night and are expecting more tonight.  The winds knocked down some pretty good sized branches and it knocked my corn down again.   

Just hope the rain will keep coming all summer.

Lisa

From the looks of it, we got about 3 inches this morning and last Friday, we got about 4 inches. This rain is really a blessing but I do have to hurricane-proof my coops now that I've seen what normal rain will do. I feel especially bad that that one chick died, so I definitely need to put in something that'll block the water from coming in.

I am also glad that I listened when people said to use the deep litter method in that chick coop. Had I cleaned it out every time it needed new hay, the water would have turned the dirt floor to mud and all those young birds would likely have suffered through the night. Luckily, I have about 4 inches of hay built up that keep their feet from touching a muddy floor.

So glad we finally took down that big tree behind our yard. Our fence is damaged enough. We didn't need another thing to fix.

Sigh.....  we are at 9 percent  humidity oficially .....  The Annual rainfall for last year was three inches total...  

deb

I don't remember the last time we had that little rain here, but we are prone to hurricanes. We're very fortunate that our house was built on slightly higher ground so we haven't been flooded at our house. I really wish we had a rain-saving system, though. I want to be prepared for days when rain just isn't coming.

We do have one saving grace and that is our well. The problem is that I don't like using it a lot because it feels wasteful. Sure, the water goes back to the land, but it doesn't always feel responsible to use it. If I can set up rain barrels, I would feel better about using water for the lawn and plants.

 

[TexasLisa]

Blooie somehow I can't see her grandmother getting on Katee. Then again if Deb is like her grandmother, I can see it!

Lisa

 

[BCMaraniac]

LOL.... thanks.... its MILES from the family here. And about a hundred miles from Katee... I am thinking the evacs are also due to smoke and to give the fire department room to work.

Many of the people here are letting their lawns die. 300 and 400 dollar water bills are great motivators for Xeriscaping... The artificial Turf people are making a killing.

deb

Deb, the report I heard was Shepherd Smith on Fox News. They broke into regular programming to report the evacuation. They showed what appeared to be a satellite image that was zoomed in......and their was lots and lots of smoke.

 

[perchie.girl]

Praying hard! We lived in Tierasanta and the fires in Murphy Canyon got pretty close and scary. When the Santa Anas come through you can actually cut roses off your plants and bring them in as dried flowers and that's no exaggeration. So watch the weather, watch the sky, and if you have to, get on Katee and go!

Yep I used to knock the rose petals off shake em out on newspaper and the next day put together Potpourri. Or cut the roses hang them upside down while they dried then spray them with varnish.

Tierrasanta.... WOW... So you know where Santee is. Its hotter now and drier than when you lived here I am sure. When I boarded my horse here in Santee in 1967 we would do a trail ride crossing over Miramar land then under the freeway to a Horse horse show facility on General Dynamics land. It was a twelve mile ride. Part of that was through Tierrasanta land.

BTW Tierrasanta was once a Gunnery range. There were signs all over the place that we ignored stating "Warning Unexploded Ordinance" I couldnt figure out why they would build a big housing development in that area. We stuck to the roads... But every year some kid would find a shell bring it home or try to open it with a hammer..... so sad even after 40 years they were still dangerous.

what years did you live here?

deb

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote: The fire is making alot of smoke. The chaparal is loaded with oil. Makes it Drought tolerant.... and very flamable. Some of the stuff goes up like Kapok. Lots of Eucalyptus again high oil content.... and very very tall.

deb

 

[Tomtommom]

My rain barrels are running a bit low already... only have 4 40gallons. We could use a little rain again.

 

[rrrmamma]

Fire Season is here,

Today the temps jumped up to high ninties and the humidity is down to about 15% The winds are BLOWING.... Santa Anna winds have just started so they arent up to full force yet.

The fire is burning in the area between Rancho Bernardo and Ranch Santa Fe. At three hundred acres right now.... Schools are being evacuated.... This is a residential area not a backwoods area. The schools are evacuatiing to another school out of the burn area. They are evacuating homes in the burn path. One fellow evacuated but had to go back to make sure his gas main was off.

He found his mulch on fire. So he took a moment to get his fire hose out and put that out. While he was doing that a fireman called to him from the canyon and told him to water down his eves and Mulch and Firewood pile. There was even video shots of smoke coming out of the storm drains.... Probably convection pulling air from smoky areas up through.

Things to know.... Where to shut off the Gas. What things are vulnerable to burn on your property.... Here they recommend storing firewood over 50 feet from the house. Keeping a clear defensable space 50 feet from the house.... Then another 50 feet from the house remove 30 percent of the overburden... dead stuff as well as thinning out the green stuff.

I personally would move any barbeque fuel like propane tanks away from the house.

deb

I do not miss "fire season" in CA. I lived in Frazier Park for 20 years and went out every day during season to check for smoke. I will take the winter in Ohio over fires and earthquakes. I survived the Northridge quake. We were just 6 miles from the epicenter. We had a lot of damage but no injuries. Friends of ours were not so fortunate.

 

[perchie.girl]

Ok final final figures on the fire.... 800+- acres, 300 evacuations.... The police chief said that 20,000 figure was someone making a guestimate.... LOL. They have the fire contained mop up will continue through the night. No houses were lost no lives were lost and no people were injured.

Whew

I have lived through two firestorms in San Diego 2003 and 2007 First one we lost 1500 homes and 15 lives.... second we lost 2000 homes and about the same amount of lives. IN the first one we were evacuated twice...

A boat load of people got in trouble for the way the fire departments were not communicating. A plan was drawn up and for this fire everythihg worked No one had to ask permission to do their job in someone elses district. It could have been bad very bad.... Yay for people actually forming a plan and working it....

deb