Made it home at about 12:15PM after waiting only a few minutes at the check point. Only a couple dozen cars in front, about the same in back. One look at my driver's license and I was good to go. The road was 2 lanes up to the check, and predictably only one lane beyond. Very fitting for the total cluster F*** this experience has been. People were cutting in and out, jockeying for position, but a nice guy in a Dodge pickup let me merge. The speed limit beyond the check was 65, and all the idiots were only doing 55. I showed 'em how it's done.
I left the gate open when I left, but stopped to look things over. Wires from the battery were burnt off, so the gate will be on manual for a bit. A fair number of good sized oaks were down along the way in along the driveway, lots to keep me warm in the coming weeks. The 10 cord pile of manzanita was gone, not even an ash pile. That stuff burns really clean; wish I'd been around to see it. My split wood pile was covered with a tarp, and it survived fine. All the shrubs at the outer edge of the 30' fire safe zone were burnt to a crisp, nothing inside the ring was harmed at all. Not even the vinyl on a pair of motorcycle seats close to the edge. The parts van got a little warm up on the rear bumper that hung over into a patch of rosemary and sage, but that's about the extent of the damage.
Inside the house there was a faint smoky smell, but I wasn't as thorough as I thought with the frig and there were a couple streams of dried water at the bottom and a musty/rotten smell in the kitchen. Air freshener will have to do tonight; tomorrow everything gets a hot water and bleach wash. The jet pump on the well was acting up; the D-Square pressure switch needed flipped a couple of times to get it going again. I'd like to find a better, more reliable brand of switch, as this is the third one that's gone bad. Someone turned off the propane tank, so I had to relight the water heater, and a couple of smart devices are too dumb to reconnect to the network. That's about the extent of the damages. Christmas came early this year; I'll be happy even if all I find in my stocking is a lump of coal.:laughing:
The Vanagon fired right up, so I headed over to Marie & Scott's to deliver the can of coffee beans she'd asked for. On the way I noticed my body shop neighbor picking through the ashes of his place and stopped to commiserate. His house is gone, along with quite a few antiques and parts for his big collection of fifties era cars, all of which are in some stage of rebuild, and most of which were untouched by the flames. His single wide trailer is still there, and is renter was very happy. So his his big barn; that would have been a big tragedy to lose. I helped him tarp a couple of his cars, then headed on over to the Hunter's When I found Marie, she was leading a new mother goat and her kid back to the barn. She said she'd lost twenty babies that were born dead, but the last ten were fine. Sounds like goat moms to be don't like being scared by fire.
It'll be a while before things settle down around here, but I'm a lot better off than most. Time to get a fire goin' in the stove to take the chill off, but 65F inside is still pretty mild, another thing to be thankful for.
