*choke*, *hack*, *gasp*We woke up to another blazing orange sun, this morning--and that eerie, amber-colored light through the windows. This is a phenomenon well-known to us from having lived near various and sundry wildfires throughout our lives in SoCal. But moving to NoCal hasn't diminished the frequency of the experience. A year ago this week, the Angora fire near Tahoe (50 miles SE as the smoke floats) sent thick, brown layers of smoke our way. A couple of weeks ago, the Paradise fire, NW of here about 50 miles, contributed a surprising amount of heavy pollution in our neck of the woods. Late last Saturday afternoon, as we were sitting in the living room chatting with Dylan, an impressively noisy, dry "electrical storm" blew through the area. What we didn't realize at the time, was that about 8000 lightning strikes (how do they count those?) started more than 800 fires in Northern California. Many of them are not too far away from here in the Tahoe Nat'l Forest. The Fall Fire is about an hour away near the area we backpacked last year. But the closer one is about 15 miles up the road threatening the tiny town of Washington. Hence, heavy atmosphere that fills our lungs and stings our eyes, today.
This is just the way it is, around here. Especially, nowadays, having had so little rain this spring. We might have some wet years, when it's less likely that fire will threaten somewhere near. But, most years will be like this, I'm guessing. And we, like many others, have chosen to live in a heavily wooded area that, under natural conditions, would burn quite regularly, as opposed to the suburban environments where we have lived most of our lives. It complicates the situation for fire crews, obviously. So, we try to trim the brush and tree limbs close to the house (eventually for the entire 7+ acres), and keep our eyes peeled. It's worth it, for us, if not for the firefighters. All the same, today, I'll enjoy our lovely woods from indoors...
