Well,Well,Well This Has Been A Hell Of A Week Or Two

This is a photo of the sky at my house in the week since the Carr Fire began. Yes that ball up top is the sun and yes it is not altered in anyway. It is what we see with our eyes. And please forgive me if I do go on with little diversion about this monstrous fire. This fire that after a week has grown to just shy of 100,000 acres , taken 6 lives including two preschool age children and their great grandmother. And the fire that is now heading into Trinity county just to our west with as much unpredictability and insanity as it began with.

This is the map of the fire a day or two ago . The major change would be that the area to the left has crossed the dotted line in front of it entering the next county. Otherwise it is finally somewhat stabilizing and some folks are even repopulating their neighborhoods. Of course in a mountainous terrain such as Shasta county we in general aren't meaning urban type neighborhood. But several of those were involved too and lost in the fight.

This is what it looked like driving home from the valley floor on Saturday. It was the same day we had a visit from this sight for sore eyes.

https://www.sfgate.com/local/article/Worlds-largest-fire-airplane-supertanker-carr-13111197.php 

I was under this in a cool spot by the river visiting with my sister by phone when it came out of the smoke and I can tell you it takes your breath away. 

As far the critters are doing well as can be expected. Yarrow has been doing some heavy working with Sherman at night. How do I know ? Well that is the other side of the story. I have slept on the deck literally for over a week now. Why? Because we have such an unpleasant inversion layer locked in place above the house cannot cool off because we can't use our cooler. Why? Because we have been having issues with our almost 18 year old solar unit. Part of it is wear and tear , part due to extreme temperatures, part to batteries and panels that need replacing. Even though it wasn't used a lot during its first 12 years of service and we have been here going on seven years , it is an older system. 

So what are we doing? Besides praying for cooler weather? Preparing for our upgraded unit. Geoffrey has been taking down trees for the new panels that will go on the East side of the pump/solar house. 

We will be replacing all six of the original units panels.  You can see the unit below in the center to the left of the buck pen. Of course that is a stock photo from last winter.  We will also be getting two batteries that will weigh in at about 1200 pounds each and will replace the entire bank of 15 smaller units we have now that are on the way out. We also have a few smaller items on the list. We are working with the small local business that put this unit in originally the owner is a super guy well educated in solar as he has been in business since 1971. Yes he is 75 years and still logging 16 hour days in the field. In the end we will an updated unit that will serve us well, push the propane to a backseat (this has been my dream carbon footprint and all you know) and give us a leg up if and when it comes time for us to downsize a bit. I am very excited!  Hopeful this will all come together in the next two to three weeks and the apparent cool down headed our way means we can nurse this system along as Geoffrey has already and we can get back our trusty swamp cooler and stop feeling like we live in one. I have managed to drop 6 pounds in the last 12 days between the heat and chores. 

  

I will take photos and keep you updated with the progress. Until then once again I will close with please pray for us in California. I have lived in three counties in this great state and two of them have major blazes in them and other parts of the state.