Good Morning!!!! 66F @ 5:45AM. Sunny. High 96F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph.
Heavy smoke again this morning, enough that the air monitor inside had turned a sickly greenish yellow. Plugged in the air filter, which took a sniff and went to work. I should probably get a replacement filter for it on order; it's gonna be a long, hot, and dirty summer. The outside air quality monitor is showing "Hazardous for healthy people", so I'll do inside stuff this morning until the winds switch and blow the smoke away to the north.
I had a pair of electric blue polyester pants with matching color polka dotted shirt in junior high school. Never was into bell bottoms. I stopped listening to Bee Gees music when they came out with
Stayin' Alive.
Nice rescue, Ken. Pretty flowers, too.
FWIW, I wormed the battery leads outside the case of the Honda generator here, Billy, and hook it to an old motorcycle battery with jumper cables when I'm too lazy to use the recoil starter.
After the smoke cleared yesterday morning, I went up to the water tank and installed enough fittings to close off that end of the lines. Bit of a plumber's nightmare, but it'll look fine once the dirt is back into the trench. I was a few fittings shy of being able to finish up the down hill end, so made a run to town.
Once I got up over the edge of the canyon, I got my first look at the smoke cloud from the Dixie Fire. Not nearly as big as the one the Camp Fire put up, but impressive none the less. It was even more visible from Chico, even though farther away. The fire doubled in size again, reaching 5000 acres with very little containment. I did read that they were able to get dozers on part of the fire line yesterday, so hopefully the numbers will improve. The smoke is so heavy they couldn't get fixed wing tankers over the fire, but the air was full of the constant buzz of helicopters, including the dual rotor Chinooks. New evacuation orders were issued for a couple of small settlements along Highway 70 in the Feather River Canyon, though CalTrans still thinks the road itself is still open. Tried contacting the organizer of this weekend's camp out to ask if he had cell service at the campground, but since he's not returning the call it's unlikely he does. Betweenn that and the smoke, I think I'll just stay home.
In town, seems like about half the people are still wearing masks, mostly store clerks, but other shoppers, too. Only about half the folks in this county have gotten vaccinated, in spite of all the government publicity.
The new gate opener is acting up, again, seeming to forget if the gate is open or shut and activating the mechanism in the wrong direction. Might be a charging problem, as it uses more power than the old one and the solar panel might not be keeping up. What next?
Installed pressure gauges on the down hill side of the water pipes from the new tank when I got home; today I'll put some air in the lines and see if they hold. Hopefully get an inspection scheduled so I can start filling in the trenches.
TGIF gang!
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