Blue Skies, Hat Fire And Carr The Bear Cub

Stay with me on this multifaceted post.  Yes that is blue skies taken yesterday afternoon and enjoy it when you can cause as of now it is smokey skies again. And we had stars last night in the weeks since the Carr fire began I remember seeing stars on only three nights. There may have been more that I saw but forgot when I spent my nights sleeping on the deck because of the issues with our off grid solar unit. 

As of 7 AM today the Carr fire checked in at 186,416 acres with 55% containment. There is also a lot ouuing and aweing over little Miss Carr a black bear cub read about her here

https://abcnews.go.com/US/wildlife-officials-vets-optimistic-tilapia-skin-heal-bear/story?id=57121689

The new kid on the block is the Hat fire. It is about one and one half hours up the mountain to the NE of us. It was started (I use that term as right now the scuttlebutt is lite intentionally ) on Thursday late afternoon and is currently per Cal Fire info of 7AM today 1,900 acres and 25% contained. 

I am feeling rather like the bologna in a sandwich but the bread is fire. If you want to keep up with the stats or are interested in the monster that is burning in Lake and Mendocino counties go to 

http://www.fire.ca.gov/current_incidents 

this site is update at least 3 times a day and has reliable info on all California fires including referral to fires that are not considered Cal Fire incidents. 

Ok fire stuff over for today. On Thursday I took a much needed off the property to the hamlet of Mineral. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mineral,_California

A fiber friend has a designated camping spot up there all summer . She spends 5 days a week there and the weekend at the house on the valley floor. A great get away from the heat retreat. So she invited some of the ladies up for a fiber day in forest. The photos below were taken on my drive up. Intentions were honorable to take photos of the gathering but did I? Oh heck no found myself so into spinning , visiting and just relaxing (can we say "breath") I never got a one.

The road to mineral. The smoke you see is headed to Nevada's Great Basin. Apparently it has proceeded to as far away as Michigan today per a FB contact. 

Lane Valley Road a short cut from my place to the fiber day.

This chimney on Lane Valley Road is all that is left of an old homestead perhaps. The left side of the chimney has a very wide substantial opening that leads one to think it was in the kitchen of a large ranch house and was used for cooking and heating. Or perhaps in the main room and used for both. 

As everywhere in the mountains and foothills of Shasta and Tehama counties there are cattle.

This ample Black Angus bull and the Hereford blue with the very to standard horn set (they have been tipped at the ends for cowdog and cowboy safety. Also for less damage to be done in a "boy fight " ) and the cute curly do on his forehead were both hanging out grazing with the boys. They were also eyeballing the heifers across the street. ;-)

  

Caught this guy fueling up in Redding on Monday . Got a much needed giggle from it as it seems we could get our Crepes & Fries plus fuel if need be. There was a pickup attached further forward.

The first three of the new , larger solar panels are in place before I left to run errands yesterday.

When I returned about 5 hours later this is what I found. Much to my delight! However we still have to have the industrial size batteries arrive get these panels on the system all the wiring is now in place. The older panels on the stand alone are all tested out in good working order so we have 12 smaller panels 75 amps each and these six which are the new are  150 amps each which will give us a total of 2500 amps in the end. I am hopeful we will be back on line by the end of next week at the latest. It will be wonderful to have the cooler and lights up and running. We have been very conservative with the unit since it began showing its needs by slowing down the generator. So we haven't had conventional living after sundown. And when this all comes together  our generator use will be relegated to the back seat so to speak which is what the original plan was when we moved here.

The tree that was standing behind the generator pump house until the additions were added. So in another year or two, as it was a live healthy tree but had to go for the sun angle, we have more heat for the winter.

As if that weren't enough excitement we had this. Check out that left(right in photo) eye that was the loser in the fight. It is even worse today. Geoffrey managed to get a shingles infection in his optic nerve. It is nothing to be toyed with as everything from blindness to annoying stuff such as debilitating pain are on the list. So he has been down for the count since Wednesday when he finally agreed to a visit to our O.D. who marched him directly to the ophthalmologist office for appropriate care.   He is sleeping almost constantly and is very painful still. He is on AB's and eye drops with a follow up appointment next week. The fun never ends at Walnetto Farm!

Let us make this post a bit longer shall we? I got this cute tote in the mail yesterday from my sister.

The back and the photo below splain Lucy. And I am going to keep my eye out to see if they do a repeat performance for this year. As this is a cause I can get behind.

Almost forgot. This cute canister is what the adorable tote was stashed in. Just love it and my dog cookie jar desperately needed replacing. I am feeling so loved with all the unexpected goodies!  

Well I hope you have made it to the conclusion. I will end until it is over and the fat lady sings "Please pray for California " and hope to see you next time!