Lyons Fire: the Final Final Update...

Debbie and I were able to drive up to the edge of the Lyons Fire burned area, right at four corners (where Lyons Valley Road meets Skyline Truck Trail and Honey Springs Road).  We drove a little ways up Honey Springs Road to get a view of the burned area.

There were quite a few fire crew members still on scene, both down by the roads and up in the burn.  A spotter plane circled overhead the entire time we were there (photo at right), and a tanker was working the fire as we approached.  CHP has Lyons Valley Road to the east of Four Corners closed off (presumably it's also closed at the intersection with Japatul Valley Road).

The burned area that we could see is shown below.  In the left-hand photo, north is about at the left edge; in the right-hand photo, east is about at the right edge.  The fire burned right to the top of the ridge at right, and quite possibly beyond that – we simply couldn't see from where we stood, and we couldn't go down Lyons Valley Road to see directly, as it was closed.






Here's a very rough map (below) I drew by hand to show the burn boundaries.  I can't tell for 100% sure, but it appears to me that the fire crews managed to protect all the homes on the north side of Lyons Valley Road.  I don't believe there were any structures in the burn areas uphill from those homes along Lyons Valley Road.

Lyons Fire: Final Update...

The fire now has an official name: the “Lyons Fire”, and it's listed on the CDF incident site.  As of 7 pm last night, they're calling it 250 acres and 10% contained.  This morning's HPWREN view from Los Pinos looks better than that report sounds: there isn't the slightest trace of smoke visible:

We saw CDF aircraft flying over the fire site several times yesterday afternoon and evening, and we heard them early this morning as well.  My somewhat educated guess is that they're doing both visual inspections and infrared inspections, looking for hot spots that need attention.

The speed and efficacy of the firefighter's response was very comforting to us.  When you're living in the midst of tens of thousands of cubic meters of highly flammable fuel, as we and our neighbors are, it's really good to know that competent firefighters have got your back...

Early this morning we were awakened by a completely unexpected sound: rainfall.  We didn't get much – just 3mm, or just over 1/10th inch – but it was very welcome nonetheless.  This morning when we got up, we were completely fogged in – that's normal for March or April, but definitely not for September!  It brought a very welcome coolness and dampness, and though it's not enough water to reduce the fuel flammability for very long, it must have been very welcome to the fire crews (assuming they got the same)...

Lyons Valley Fire Update...

“I think you're looking pretty good right now.”

Just heard that from the CDF fire crews.  Just before that, they said that they were down to just hot spots left; the fire was basically out.

Three cheers for the fire crews!  A bunch of people in Lawson Vally, Lyons Valley, and Deerhorn Valley are breathing a little easier...

Lyons Valley Fire Update...

Current view from Lyons Peak:

From all I can see and hear, it looks like the firefighters (both in the air and on the ground) are making great progress.  On the scanner I heard concerns from fire crews about the fire burning toward Carveacre Ranch, but the latest photo looks like they've largely knocked it down.  These things can flare up in a hurry, especially if the wind kicks up, so we're not out of the woods until they've doused every hotspot...

I just heard the fire crews order 500 lunches.  Hard to believe there are that many in the fire crew!

Fire in Lyons Valley...

At right is a map with a pink shaded area showing roughly where the fire is located.  We believe (though we don't have eyes on it) that it's mainly north of Lyons Valley Road, just easy of Four Corners.

The fire is being actively worked as I write this (2:35 pm).  Debbie and I saw an observation plane orbiting, three tankers attacking the fire directly.  We also heard ground fire crews talking on the scanner.

The wind is light, out of the north.  The fire appears to be burning both to the south (presumably driven by wind) and to the north (which is uphill from the fire's perspective).  We're guessing that the fire crews will be able to contain it at the ridge west of Lawson Peak, if not before.  We certainly hope so, as our home is only a mile or so from that ridge.

Below are a couple of shots from the east-pointing HPWREN camera on Lyons Peak.  As always, this is our best information, as it's nearly real time (the photos are updated every 2 minutes, 24 x 7).

The top shot was taken at 1:44 pm today, the bottom at 2:28 pm.  As you can see, the fire teams have already made a lot of progress.  Go, firefighters!

Good Food Alert!

This is for my readers in Jamul.  If you like high quality unsweetened dried fruit, there's a treat waiting for you at the vegetable and fruit stand in Jamul, near the intersection of SR 94 and Steele Canyon Road.  Right now there's a pile of one pound clear plastic boxes full of some of the best dried fruits I've ever had, just next to the checkout counter.  They're $6.95 a box, which is a very good price.  Each box has an assortment of fruits: apricots, peaches, plums, apples, pears, nectarines, and more.  All are seedless.  The degree of dehydration is perfect for just eating.  The fruit is uniformly flavorful and of high quality.

I don't know if this is a new line they're going to be carrying more-or-less permanently, or if it is more of a one-time deal.  I didn't take any chances; I came home with five pounds!

Rattlesnake Season is Here...

A couple days ago, my neighbor Wayne told me that he'd seen a baby rattlesnake in his yard.  Yesterday, while mowing in our back yard, I saw three: one adult and two babies under a foot long (I transported them all to a lovely new home in Cleveland National Forest).  Then this morning I read this harrowing story of two parents trying to get care for their two-year old child who had been bitten by an adult rattler in Deerhorn Valley (just a couple miles south of Lawson Valley, where I live).  No word on the child's condition, other than that he or she is checked into Rady.

So it's that time of year, folks.  Watch your kids and your pets...

Rainageddon Update...

We're now at 2.7 inches (7 cm) of rain for the storm (click to enlarge the graph at right), and the NEXRAD radar shows more headed our way.  The forecast calls for a 40% chance of rain today, then fair weather the rest of the week.  Man, are we wet!

Rainageddon Update...

We're at 2 inches (5 cm) of rain for the storm.  The image below shows the NEXRAD radar image at 6:31 am this morning.  This time I've turned on storm tracks (that's the “Z1” with an arrow) and precipitation monitor.  The blue areas show frozen stuff (snow, in other words) in the mountainous areas.  When the weatherman says “scattered showers”, this is what it looks like on the radar...

The image below is from my rain gauge, showing all the rain in the past few days (the time is GMT).  The most intense rain was near the end of the day on the 17th, which was in the early afternoon yesterday (PDT) – we got a half inch in a half hour, a veritable downpour in these parts...

Rainageddon Has Started...

As of this post, we've had exactly 1 inch of rain from this storm – and we've only just begun.  Below is what the NOAA NEXRAD radar showed just before this post:

Rainageddon...

Last night on my drive home, I heard a radio announcer talking about the rain storm expected to hit us tonight as “rainageddon”.  It earned this moniker because of the amount of rain expected: up to 2 inches (5 cm).  Anyone from a place like, say, Hawai'i would be greatly amused by this.  We consider 2" of rain to be “rainageddon”, but there that would barely qualify as a morning shower...

This morning the dogs and I took our morning walk through a thick cloud.  Visibility was about 100 feet.  When we walked down to the end of our driveway, our house was gone; just a vague fuzz of light in its direction. 

As usual, Race was all about the pine cone.  I kicked; he was happy.  The three field spaniels, though, were in a frenzy of smelling, just as they always are in wet air.  The three of them would run around, seemingly at random, until one of them found something enticing.  Then upon some signal not apparent to me, all three would congregate at that spot – noses together, bodies angled precisely 120° apart, forming a perfect three-pointed star.  After sufficient sniffing of the exquisite spot, in concert they'd break off and commence the random searching, separately, again.  This pattern repeated ad nauseum for our entire walk.  The usual peeing and pooping occurred, mind you; it was just incidental to the real mission of smelling...

Just another morning in Jamul!

Morning...

The sky was beautifully clear and moonless.  The dogs did their usual things; the brown dogs smelling everything, the border collie consumed with pine cone play.  Orion was well up over the horizon in the east, and the Milky Way brilliant straight overhead.  Dogs across the valley were howling; probably coyotes or perhaps a mountain lion within their ken.  The temperature was down a bit from the past week; there was a refreshing coolness that we haven't felt for a while.  It was a very pleasant walk.

Last night we brought little Jahar (our new Savannah Cat kitten) home from the breeder.  This is a traumatic transistion for the little fellow – coming from a home with dozens of fellow Savannah Cats (and mom, of course) and going to a strange place where he's all alone (as we have him in isolation for a while).  We brought him into our bedroom in a carrier, which we plopped on the bed.  Door closed to exclude the rest of the menagerie, we opened the carrier door.  Jahar blinked, laid down, and stayed quiet and still – and still in his carrier.  This went on for a couple of hours, but finally he got to the point where he decided that being in the crook of Debbie's arm wasn't so bad.  He ended up spending the night on the bed with us, mostly right between us, always quiet and still.  But around midnight Debbie got up and showed where all the vital things were (water, food, and litter box) and Jahar did a bit of tentative exploring.  There was a pitiful kitten cry every once in a while, but he did all right.  Then back to sleep for all of us...

Good News for Jamul...

Jamul is in a hot zone.  Not for temperatures, but for real estate prices:

A standout was Jamul, where the median price for a single-family resale home shot up 15.2 percent, rising from $375,000 last year to $432,000 this year, based on about the same number of sales during both time periods.

Sounds good to me!

Warning: ASI Hastings...

In years past, we have done business with ASI Hastings on several occasions – the installation of our heater and air conditioner, and two major repairs.  We were pleased with that work, with the people they sent out here, and with the price.  Pleased enough that I recommended them to my readers, friends, and neighbors.

Today we had them out to repair our air conditioner, and it will most likely be the last time we ever call ASI Hastings again.

My wife called them this morning and asked for them to repair our air conditioner, which had just completely failed.  There are two major issues I have with what they did.

First, the prices for the repair items are just insanely high – hundreds of dollars for a contactor (relay) and startup capacitor.

Second, they sold my wife something we didn't ask for at all – an air cleaner to take dust and odors out of the air.  We asked for a repair, not some things we neither needed nor wanted.

I'm done with them.  Anybody got a good recommendation for a local (to Jamul, preferably) air conditioning repair firm?

Bobcat Babies!

Don and Jan Maxted (I think from Deerhorn Valley, in rural Jamul) have a bobcat family living near them.  Don got this beautiful photo.

We've missed our bobcats, whose local population was decimated when the 2007 fires killed many of them and their prey.  I sure hope this is an omen of their return!  We sure have plenty of varmints out here for them to eat...

Mongols in Jamul Update...

Nothing to say, really.  There were no incidents that I've heard of.  Debbie reports that late yesterday evening the law enforcement presence was no longer in evidence – hopefully that means the Mongols have all gone back to wherever they came from.

If you have any news of Mongol activity in Jamul, please drop me a line...

Mongols in Jamul!

All day today we've been noticing an intense law enforcement presence in the Jamul area, with far more sheriffs and highway patrol in evidence than we normally see.  Several readers wrote to see if I knew what the heck was going on – I didn't.  But just a few minutes ago, Debbie and I stopped alongside 5 sheriff's cars parked together on Skyline Truck Trail and asked them what was going on.

“Mongols” was the reply.  The Mongols motorcycle gang is gathering in the Jamul area this weekend, and the law enforcement folks are here to make sure they don't get too rowdy.  Oh, and to protect their civil right to assemble peacefully, too.

Debbie and I are torn between being comforted by the law enforcement blanket, or disturbed by the fact that law enforcement perceives the need for such a blanket.

We are unambiguously comforted by the presence of weapons and ammunition in our house, though...

Chicken Pasta Soup...

It's a chilly morning out here in the sticks; mid-60s in the house and I'm sitting at the computer working.  Yesterday I stopped by the Bravo Cafe near Jamul and picked up a quart of Manolli's lemony chicken pasta soup.  Just now I reheated it and slurped it down.  It's a lovely soup, with a light, slightly creamy broth that's quite lemony.  Plenty of chicken and tiny rice-like pasta, and some vegetables.  Just one of the many reasons why we love the food at Bravo!

But aside from the great (and plentiful!) food, the people there are what really makes the place.  Yesterday Milton and Esmeralda (two of Manolli and Rosio's kids) made up my order of soup and iced mocha (for Debbie), while Manolli churned out sandwiches and other goodies.  This family is a fixture in the Jamul area – hard-working immigrant Americans full of good cheer and good will.  Jamul would be a different – and lesser – place without them.

It just occurred to me to look them up on Yelp, and I'm delighted to see that every review up there is a solid five stars!

Found Emu...

Seen on a piece of chipboard posted along side Lawson Valley Drive this morning on my way to work (at 4 am!):

Found Emu

Heh!

Update: added photos

Rain...

Just over 4" (10 cm) storm total – and two more days of storm to go.  Woo hoo!