California Fire Season 2020 Style

I'm back at my friends horse ranch after being gone for a month while the RV was getting some work done.  I might blog about that later, but for now there are more important things to talk about.

First off, the kitties and I are in a safe spot according to a fire person, who came by to look the situation over, because the horses and cows have eaten all the grass.  

Here are some pictures of what's going on in California in general and Willits area specifically.  Some of these pictures are taken from web sites, some from Facebook and some are mine.  I'll make note of which is which.

This big boy flew right over the RV Monday evening

 around 5pm.  It made many drops of

fire retardant, which is colored red

 so they can see it on the ground.  

A 747 air tanker. 

This is what the area around Willits is like and 

some parts have even more trees.

Lighting strikes cause fires. 

 This is why we burn.  

Not my picture.

At 12:16 pm Monday,  Labor Day,  a fire started, 

not by lighting but by man, northwest of Willits.

This was taken from the horse ranch. 

 It's about 10 miles away as the crow flies.

This is the Oak Fire.  

My picture.

Around sunset, 6:00 pm, Labor Day. 

 The Oak Fire. 

 My picture.

Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2020, at about 12 noon.

 It's so dark that the barn lights have turned on. 

We are now blanketed in smoke from the 

fire in the Mendocino National Forest 

to the east of us.  

The August Lightning Strike Complex Fire. 

 My picture.

Around 1 pm it looked like this. 

 We felt like we were on the red planet, Mars.

Not my picture.

By 2 it was dark as midnight. 

 I went out to call the kitties in and needed a flashlight.

A picture of the Willits arch downtown.

Not my picture

This is a screenshot from my phone 

showing the planes fighting The Oak Fire.

This app, FlightRadar24, 

is free and it shows planes in the air

and when you touch a plane it shows 

this info below and shows their flight path.

This is the CalFire spotter plane, 

circling the fire telling the other

planes where to go. 

 At one time Monday afternoon

there were 9 planes and helicopters 

fighting the Oak Fire.

A satellite picture of California. 

 All our smoke is coming from a fire

 not labeled but

 it's burning under the O 

in the Oak Fire name.

The Lightning Complex Fire.

If I haven't completely bored you by now here are some web links with more info.

This first link is of a Fire and Smoke map.  This is for the whole country.

Smoke and Fire

This second one shows our county fires.  You might need to zoom out, it loads the map a bit off.

Mendocino County

If you zoom in on this second link, I'm at the southern end of zone 8, and our fire is moving north, away from town.

There's no end in sight for the fires to be out.  The planes couldn't fly around Willits,  for our fire,  because of the smoke.  I hope they were off fighting other fires.  We're supposed to be getting high winds in a day or two and that won't help the fires, it might help with the smoke.  But without winds the ground crews can get in there and work like mad, which they are doing.

New Car

Two years ago I traded our older Honda CR-V in on a newer Honda CR-V.  The seats in both Hondas were uncomfortable for me but I stayed with Honda because they are the most popular car for towing behind an rv.  Well, there came a time when I just couldn't stand it anymore.  Now that I"m parked in one place, thanks to the pandemic, it was time to address the car problem.  I did a bunch of research online and then went to my local car dealer where a salesman who knew all about tow cars, what could be towed and what couldn't, was there to help me.  After driving a used Jeep Grand Cherokee and others in the same class and size of suv's I came to a Ford Explorer.  All the other cars made my back hurt with in several minutes but the Ford didn't.  

So, meet my new 2013 Ford Explorer, XLT, 4 wheel drive. 

It weighs a few pounds more than the Honda and for that extra weight I get seats that don't hurt my back and more storage.  Because let's face it, full time RVers use their cars as their garages.  The Explorer is the next size up from the CR-V.  I'm sure the extra weight will affect the gas mileage on the RV but oh well.  I'm not in this life style for the gas mileage.

That's it for now.  I'm still in my 'safe place' in the mountains.  I hope all of you are safe as well.

Until next time.

Ev

Propane Management

Remember this picture from last post?  Ok, let's talk about being parked for a long time, for me that's more than 2 weeks, in cool weather.  

My onboard propane tank is small by some standards, it's about a 7 gallon tank.  And when that tank gets low on gas I have to pack up everything and drive the rv to a propane place to get tank filled.  Not anymore, I've installed what's called an "extend-a-stay" kit on my tank which allows me to use a portable tank and when that one is empty I just put it in the car and take it to a gas station to get it filled without having to move the rv.

Notice the "do not close this door" sign?  This door is held open with a small clip barely visible on the right side near the hinge.  That is the third clip because propane fillers don't pay attention on how this door is held open and they just close it by pulling down, breaking the clip.  My sign still doesn't stop them from closing the door.

Shinny new brass fittings.  The main tank is shut off allowing
 propane to flow from portable tank into existing rv propane lines.
I'm not filling my on board tank, I'm bypassing it.

I also bought a propane tank for my ProCom propane heater.

Enough about propane.   Next post, new tow car.

Here's Bubba getting to know the neighbors.  

Springtime in Northern California

Springtime in Northern California means green rolling hills dotted with oak trees.  The type of grass that we have here grows in the spring and by summer it has bloomed and gone to seed and died leaving the hills golden brown.

California highway 101, north bound, as it passes through Redwood Valley.

I've moved up into the hills near Willits.  I'm on a friends property, and plan to stay here for a while.  I have water, electricty and a sewer connection so I'm all set.

I will talk about those two propane tanks next week.

Wood pile for the kitties to hunt lizards in.

Going for a walk to show the kitties the yard.

Chicken coop, soon to have chickens.

Eucalyptus tree shedding its bark.

This next picture is taken out my door.  I have a new screen setup.  Years ago I bought one of those magnetic screen doors 'as seen on tv', and it had two black stripps of magnets down the middle, it worked but obstructed the view. Let's go back a bit.  The rv has a screen door but when the kitties are outside I leave it open so they can have free running in and out privileges. Ok, back to now.  The old screen was getting a bit worn out so when I went to order a new one I saw ones made for sliding doors which had one big panel with a narrow panel on the side.  That's what I got and when it came I cut the narrow side panel off and hand stitched a casing at the top, removed all magnets from the sides, as they were getting stuck on the door, and now I have a nice view. And it keeps the bug out where they belong, and the turkeys too.

I clip the corner up so the kitties can

duck under it to come in.  Also in this picture

you can see the curtain tucked up on the left? 

At night I drop that down over the door for privacy. 

The other curtain you see closes off the cab part 

of the truck at night.

I'll be back soon explaining the two propane tanks.

Evelyn, Bubba and Missie

Missie

Bubba

Where Are We Now? Willits, California

Monday I was in the desert outside of Yuma and by Friday afternoon I was in Willits, California.  Because of COVID-19 I decided it would be good to go "home".  Home is where my long time friends are and it seemed like a good idea to hunker down among friends in a small northern California town.  I'm parked at my friends horse ranch, safe and sound.

Snow above the Grapevine, interstate 5.

The trip north was interesting.  Lots of truck traffic but car traffic greatly reduced.  I came north on i5 and because my fuel gage doesn't work I stopped to fill my gas tank about every 150 miles, that's about 1/3 of gas used.  I just didn't want to take a chance of getting into a bind of having to look for gas when I was in desperate need.  I usually stay a night at the Morongo Casino in the Palm Springs area but they were closed and had all their parking lots closed off so no over-night RV parking there.  Down the street from the casino is a small farmers market type grocery store.  I went in and asked them if it was ok to spend the night in their parking lot and the supervisor on duty said yes that was fine.  Spending the night in places like that means I don't really sleep, just little cat naps all strung together, not very restful.  I was up and driving by 7am and scooted around the Los Angeles area and onto i5.  Normally I only drive about 3 or 4 hours a day.  By then my back is tired of sitting but because this was going to be a fast trip I drove 7 hours for 2 days in a row.  My second night I spent at the ELKs lodge in Los Banos, parked on the street because their parking lot is very small.  I didn't have any trouble on the street, just the street sweeper going by at about 4am.  Drove from Los Banos to Willits, getting here at about 1pm.  My friend had my spot all mowed and ready for me.  And the kitties are very happy to be out of the rv.

Look, we had fog and 34º last night.

So I'm ok and off the road, safe, for awhile.  I hope all my friends and readers are safe and that all of us come out of this healthy.

Evelyn, Bubba and Missie💖

More Rain

This is where I moved to last week.
 You can see to the left of me a small water run off creek,
in the desert we call those washes.

When it started to rain the other day the ground was getting a bit mushy
 near our wash. Do you see the lighter areas of sand/gravel?
  Those are the ways the rain water follows
on its way to the washes.  The washes are easy
to find as there's more plants growing along them.
You can see that I was parked in the one by the car.

So I started up the rv and very slowly backed up
to a bit of ground that was higher. 
It was easy to see when I was doing it as
 there was water all around
 except here where I'm parked now. 
I just left the car there until the next day.


You can see that my leveling jacks were
sinking into the gravel.


But, I'm a puddle walking kind of gal so I've been having fun.
Unlike Northern California, the water here is warm,
about 68º if I had to guess.

Everybody benefits from the rain.

You might notice that my friend, Kyra has left.  

She has moved on down the road.  

I plan to be here a couple more weeks

unless it gets to hot and then I'll move

 on down the road myself.

Winter Storm and a New Front Yard

Rain behind Kyra's RV, it soon was over us.

It doesn't take much to bring the flowers out.

Bubba practicing his tree climbing skills.

And his napping skills too.

Out and about in the desert you come across fire rings, most of this rings

stones have been taken away.  It's always a good idea to drive way around them

because many people burn wooden pallets, which have nails in them.

Last evening at about 5:30, two 5th wheels came in and parked pretty close to me.  I mean, come on people we have the whole desert and you have to park within less than 50 yards of me.  Of course Bubba thought they were here for him to go visit and I had to go call him back home.  When Missie came in for dinner I moved the RV to the other side of Kyra, it's ok if they go to her house.  So here we are looking back at Kyra and our old spot.

Our new front yard.

Missie thinks this is a good spot.

It's been warming up out here, most campers have left, not only our friends but all the other boondockers as well.  The snakes are out, although I haven't seen any I can tell that the kitties have.  Cats tend to get a little jumpy when there are snakes around.  They are always on-guard, but even more so when snakes are out and about. Pretty soon I'll be heading back over to San Diego county area where it will be cooler.

 

Missie rolling around and being cute.