This morning same mountain:
This morning to the east:
So I get to those pics a little later on, otherwise I forget the sequence of everything. Hah.
Song of the day: “Disturbia” by Rihanna. There we go again. It surprised me considerably.
Yesterday started relatively early with the preparation for another canning session. The day before that two buckets of prickly pears got picked and while tenant and Dani were making their way down the mountain, I started burning the thorns of the soft yellow skins. It took me two hours to get them all done, and then another hour before we had them all peeled and cut, but then the nasty part was over. We could wash our hands, despite the fact that it does very little to dispose of the remaining thorns and put the prickly pears on the stoves. Adding sugar, lemon juice, a pinch of salt, pepper and mint, we put the concoction on the fire and let it boil for a long time. The pots that had been cleaned the day before got filled as soon as the liquid was separated from the meat and pits, we had ten wonderful pots of syrup, three pots of compote and another two cups for chutney. All in all a good produce for a day’s work, eh.
Well anyway, I read 26 pages for “V.L.” afterwards, which was a good thing, considering I’ve been totally slacking with V.L. for the past few weeks. “S.N.” is taking so much of our time that I can hardly get anything else done. As is usual for S.N. really. So consuming.
Be that as it may, “V.L.” is not bad at all, in particular because this is the completely unedited version. The mistakes aren’t as big as I expected, and though I have made some changes, they were nothing major
After that I was pretty tired, so I went up to my cabin for half an hour nap that would allow me to get through the remainder of the day without falling face down on my computer. Hah. Was a nice half hour, thank you very much, even though the weather consisted of a rather pressing moist heat for a change.
Got up and then headed for the terrace in front of my cabin to join big brother in the edit. Luckily he’d gotten quite a bit done while I napped, so we could immediately get to it. Good thing since we had to make a pick up in town later that night.
It was around ten in the evening when grandpa and caregiver came down saying “have you guys seen the fire?” Big brother and I looked up. “Fire? What fire?”
“Look!”
We did, and it was massive. It must have spread across the mountain, on the other side of our valley, within three hours because I hadn’t seen a thing while he was on my way up before my nap.
Raging across dry country-side, devouring everything in its past during heavy winds, was a fire-worm of old, crawling over the sloping mountain peak straight across from our property.
The wind was such that we knew no helicopters could be deployed. And boy would they need them. There were warning lights flashing across the many miles of fire, both orange and blue, and on the main roads we could see long lines of cars driving away from the disaster going on.
Turns out, that while the fire headed in the direction of the coast at least five hundred people were evacuated. Horses were carted off and the toll highway was shut down as the fire raged on well into the afternoon of today…but I’m getting ahead of myself, aren’t I? Back to yesterday.
We all gathered on the highest part of our property and looked at the scene discussing what to do if it came to an evacuation again for us as well. We have a location we can go to, and if push comes to shove, we should be able to rent a van somewhere like the last time so we can get the dogs out. Though, in this case, that will be worst case scenario. First we would try to save the property, of course. But anyway, the scenario was discussed and then, since we had to go out anyway, big brother and I decided to head on down the mountain to check the ongoing from nearby prior to our pick up.
The dogs feel something is off immediately, of course. They'll be barking, howling and making a genuine nuisance of themselves on the overall. Poor darlings. They sense that we're tense, naturally. In fact, in these sort of situations they'll actually stick to us like glue. Heck, in an emergency, I think that my personal pack will be so "stuck" that they will not leave my side at all if it came to running off somewhere. Let's hope I never have to find out.
Several roads were shut off by the cops, sirens were howling all round, lights were blinding and there was so much traffic on the road, it was almost day-time. Everyone was heading out of town to check on the progress. Boy, those were high flames. Higher than some of the buildings, in fact, but as usual the fire department was so capable that they kept it under control in most cases.
We heard that the fire has been deliberately set. Apparently some sort of asinine idea of clearing the land for building. Turns out that the local government was so wary of this particular practise that they made a law. If the land is wrecked by fire, and there was not a prior permit to build, you can’t build on it for 25 years. That should teach this a-hole.
We headed back home, taking the other road since the southern one might be compromised. Had no trouble getting home thankfully. Prior to getting to our respective beds late, we did a final survey from the mountain and watched the fire head fast to the small coastal towns southward.
Woke up to a rather dark sky. The fire, as it turned out was still raging, and high plumes blocked the early morning sun as I got up, grabbed my phone and stumbled my way to the top of the mountain once more. It looked like a friggin’ battlefield. Jeez. There were massive plumes of dark gray smoke towering into the sky. Choppers and planes were attacking the plumes from all sides, circling and swirling like bees to a hive. All very impressive. They do know how to battle a fire here in these areas. And boy did they do a good job again. Seriously, I saw places where the fire stopped just short of yards.
I had several appointments this morning, but first we had to unload the car. Then I had to get dressed to make it in time to town hall for my appointment. It all went fast in there, and I got referred to another address in town, which I should be able to make in time before siesta started. Big brother and I headed down the mountain and just barely managed to find a parking spot in an area that was literally bursting at the seams. Jeez. I was in line there for 30 minutes (I know, bureaucracy, aaaarg, right? I need a number, for crying out loud!) only to hear that I had been sent to the wrong address. Darn it.
Another appointment, and picking up more paperwork along the way, I decided to leave the rest for another day and got some minor groceries before heading back home. We decided to take the scenic route through the country. While driving there, (it was further than it appeared during the night) we saw a huge helicopter come in to drop another ton of water over a persistent smoke plume. Rather impressive. It was one of those executive class things, heavy rotors and blocking out the sun and everything. Almost felt like we were in the movies or something.
Once home, after bringing all the news and such to the “home-front” we headed down to the yard and planted potatoes in the newly turned patches. By now I’m pretty much done, and I really should get to work on the edit again.
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