dear ms b-not today

DEAR MS B-NOT TODAY

i woke up this morning
to rain pattering on our gutters
and
on our front porch

if you have ever lived in a home with a metal roof
or
been in a barn with one
when its raining
well
then you know that peaceful sound it makes
almost
like it hypnotizes you
to make you want to just not get out of bed
to
go back to sleep

well not today i thought
we have to hop in our cars and make our 2-3 hour trip
to ucla
as i have to have blood drawn and a mri of the brain
done 2 weeks after my last infusion

also
we are having our christmas get together tonight
that was delayed because of the thomas fire
that largest fire ever in california

tonight
is when we have it rescheduled
it fits everyone schedule

so
as i go up
thats all i was thinking about
was getting ready for that trip
getting back this afternoon in time
for the get together

then
i thought
that rain sounds real heavy
thats a lot of rain falling
if you live in texas
you recognize that sound

oh no
i thought
theres nothing up in those mountains
to hold all that water from just rushing down
the mountains and hills into the ocean
carrying trees rocks mud houses cars furniture
with it

so
as i turned on the news
there it all was
again
this time it was water related
not fire

mud slides
houses gone
the freeway closed from water and wrecks
people having to get rescued like
they do in texas floods

one guy was pulled from the muck and mud
the old guy was up to his neck
in mud
he survived
lucky him

now we rely on google maps and waze when we travel
they said
2 hours and 20 minutes
i thought
that cant be right
the freeway is closed
the police say dont get on the freeway
its closed

i havent woke my wife she yet
but
we wont no worry
mr policeman
like in texas
when the rain gets bad

we cant drown or wreck
if we dont get on the road
it has bode me well when we lived in texas
it should bode me well
here in california

i think about those poor folks
who survived the thomas fire
just to have their saved homes
get flushed down the hills on a river of mud

i wonder
did we make the right decision moving here
its been one disaster after another
then
ms b comes over and spends the afternoon with us
playing
cooking
singing

all we could say last night
was
nay
its all worth it

we will be safe today
we are away from the flooded area
we are on the second floor of our condo
we plan to stay off the roads today

if we have to we will just do the christmas again
another time
or
make 2018 an even bigger christmas this year

MY THOUGHTS TO MY GREAT NEPHEW
THATCHER
and his family
he is over 6 months old
he has a congenital heart defect that needs to be corrected
it was just discovered recently
when he developed heart failure
he will be undergoing surgery this morning
to have it repaired
its been a long christmas for them

i looked at our granddaughter ms b yesterday
all i thought was
i dont know if i could handle this if it was her

his family is a strong one

whatever your religion does to wish them the best
whether its prayer
or
meditating
whatever your religion or belief system
use it
for thatcher today

the organicgreen doctor

thomas fire an update

THOMAS FIRE AN UPDATE

it is called the thomas fire because it started in santa paula
approximately >40 miles from here two weeks or so ago
near the st thomas aquinas college
the cause hasnt been determined yet
this starting point is well over 40+ miles away from here
it is mostly moving northward and westernly
when its moving on the western edge it can drop southernly
that means it drops on top of us
thats what it did on saturday morning

i felt like for those who live in the south or the midwest
that feeling you get when the tornado warnings go off
you know its about to hit you
but
you dont have a storm cellar to go to
if it misses you
you are relieved

since it started it has burned around 270,000 acres
it will before it is all put out become the largest fire
ever in california
so far it as cost over $100 million dollars to fight the fire
using over 8500 firefighters from all over the country
you see them sleeping in their firetrucks parked all over
the place
in the parking lot where i garden it was mostly full of these
firetrucks on saturday morning full of firefighters
some were still asleep sitting up as i went to check on my
garden just at dawn
thats when i took the above picture from the garden area
you could see the worried look on their faces
they knew they were in for a fight that day
the calm before the storm
it was like looking at the faces of soldiers right before
they went into battle

as of today the fire is 40%+ contained
expected containment is in january maybe in february

so
saturday morning i started watching the news on the local station
about 500 am
the reporter was standing above montecito
giving a report about the glow way up the mountain
little wind was blowing
the next time they came back to him
the wind was blowing
a sundowner its called
usually coming as the sun goes down
this one should have been called the sunriser wind
you could see the leaves and the branches starting to
move above his head
then
the fire just popped up in the mountains
it started moving down the hill
he evacuated and set up down the hillside

from there it only got worse

at day break i went to water my garden as i wrote above
it was calm
looking back towards the montecito hills i could see this
plume
the kind you see when an atomic bomb was dropped
thats all i could think of when i saw the plume
i quickly watered my garden well

as i left i told the firefighters
thinking as i talked to them
of my younger brother joe and my three nephews
all who were or are now firemen
is this what they had to deal with in their careers
they seemed relaxed those firefighters
ready for the day they were
just with a worried look on their faces

on the way back
the winds hit
almost blowing me off the road
the gusts were up to 60 plus mph

for the fire
it was like if you have made the mistake of
pouring gas on a fire
it just exploded that fire and it took off

when i left our condo except for the plume
it was almost crystal clear
when i arrived back to the condo
i was only gone about 20 minutes
it was like a thick fog everywhere
i didnt have my mask on
i could feel it deep down in my lungs
whenever i took a deep breath

when i got inside the news reports came on
the voluntary evacuation area had dropped down
to our street
we had already decided
voluntary meant manditory

so we grabbed our packed bags
which we packed over a week ago
grabbed a satchel of records
my grandmothers handmade pillow
my electronic stuff bag
my wife she
my motherinlaw
and
off we went to the los angeles area

our older son and his family ie ms b evacuated
with us

my wife she looked at me and we both said
arent we glad we did that minimalist thing
months ago when we moved here
giving away all that stuff to folks that we would
have tried to save

this fire just took off
it raced down the hills above montecito and santa barbara
like a drag racer taking off or a down hill avalanche
you could see it in the eyes and voice of the commander
as he was interviewed
we are in a fight
he said

fought they did
hundreds of firefighters
hundreds of firetrucks
thousands of gallons of water and retardent
miles and miles of water hose had been laid over the last week
it was like
a war battle
well over a thousand homes were saved
like oprahs and ellens and rob lowes and thankful my
sisterinlaws place
a family friend though sadly lost his home
in the hills of montecito
so did a few others
17000 were evacuated
30000 were placed in voluntary evacuation

the fire in 12 hours burned through over 11,000 acres

so here we are on monday morning
the winds are calm
they will be that way for 2 1/2 days
then on wednesday night they are scheduled to take off again

it almost feels like we are in this war zone
we are in the calm before the storm
just before the troops go out for the last battle
that will determine the war

thats where we are today
our bags are packed
we plan to leave again
maybe not as far
but to a place nearby that should not burn

as i told relatives
im use to dealing with thunder storms and tornadoes
but
this fire thing feels different
it more like being in war
we dont like it at all

one firefighter was killed
his group was doing a back fire burning when the fire
jumped back on top of him
he died from burns and  smoke inhalation
his name was corey iverson
he was 32 years old
he has a wife
a small child
his wife is pregnant

here is a go fund me page for donations for his family
and unborn child
i plan to use some of our christmas gift money to donate to them
i rather my gift be to them than to my wife she or me
link to the cory iverson gofundme page

i also was thinking about all that tax fight stuff in washington
all that other garbage thats going on
this is where i want my tax money spent
where it directly affects folks lives
this is money well spent fighting these fires
i would hate to see what his place would look like
right now if our state local federal government didint support
fighting these fires

yes
we all have two days to regroup

yes
to answer those who asked
would you still move here if you had to do it again
as we played with ms b
safe in a friends home in the los angeles area
you betcha

the organicgreen doctor

sb country n news-squirrels 9 togd 7

SB COUNTRY N NEWS-SQUIRRELS 9 TOGD 7

my wife she laughed real hard when i sent her the score
she texted me
this is like that caddyshack movie
isnt it

i didnt think that was real funny
ok
so i chuckled some

i texted her back
i guess im going to have to rewatch that movie
now what did he use against those gophers
i dont golf

so for about a week the new structures i wrote about
in this blog titled
sb country n news-squirrels 6 togd 2
seemed to work
then
zip
the veggies were all weedeated down to the ground
at least thats what it looked like

my goal
i decided to be persistant
until i get a good crop of veggies
for these kindergartners to eat
now
they have replanted the stuff themselves more than once
plus i replanted stuff when they werent looking

they just take it in stride
look at it
say
humpf
and
just move on to playing in the dirt making things
out of rocks and sticks and leaves etc
and
having a good time

my goal is
to light a little fire of interest in gardening
and
to get them eating healthy food ie veggies

i seem to be fighting these varmints in the garden
the general feeling among garden folks ive talked to
is its the drought here
there isnt much fresh stuff to eat right now
around the school
except for whats in our garden

varmints are
squirrels
gophers
mice
voles which are mice like varmints that also dig tunnels

i thought my cages i made would stop all them
well
something ate everything we planted

as i was working i just happened to look back at the bed
with the lettuce
there was this little bird sitting ie perched on the wire
opening in the chicken wire
with a piece of lettuce in its mouth
that explains a lot i thought to myself

thats not a snake its a gourd called a snake gourd

so
i decided to do what i should have done in the first place
use 1/2 inch hardware cloth instead of chicken wire

so i used this bed as a test bed
i dug all the dirt out of the bed to insure that the hardware cloth
was all intact underneath the frame
this keeps the voles and gophers from digging from
underneath
it was intact
in fact i could see where they were digging around
under the bed but couldnt break through the wire
so
then
i took off the chicken wire around the pvc frame
replaced it with hardware cloth
then
replanted a test plant
a sweet pea vine

my theory is
now none of these varmints can get inside this thing
no gophers no voles no mice or rats no squirrels
and
no little birds

so at 48 hours the little pea vine is reaching up towards
the sky looking for sunshine

heres hoping the score goes to
9-8

if this works
i will redo all the frames
and
replant

so when the kids return in january
everything will be growing real good
they wont believe the story when i tell them
oh
yes they will

fire update


this is the thomas fire
that reddest western edge is the one that we are worried about
it sits above montecito where ellen and oprah live
and
is moving ever so slowly
westward across the mountains and foothills
that stretches just above santa barbara

as it moves
if the winds change to blow from the north
the fire will move downward on top of santa barbara
which it is expected to do over the next two days

where we rented when we first moved here is in the
voluntary evacuation zone just above the foothill road
which is the dividing line for the evacuation zones

its expected they will have to evacuate the area soon
then
where we live will be changed to a voluntary evacuation zone
which for us is going to be the
we are out of here zone

the organicgreen doctor