Friday morning is the official start of fall, and I'm so ready for it.
After a long and brutally cold winter, we had a VERY brief spring before rushing into a hot, dry summer. It was one of the driest summers on record in New Mexico (and elsewhere, especially Texas), and while we didn't have the 100-plus temperatures that Texas did, we got over 90 more than usual. Actually, it's unusual to reach 90 at all and our highest temperature was only 93.8.
But for the past couple of weeks it's mostly been highs in the 70s and lows in the 40s. Perfect! Occasionally it dipped down into the upper 30s, but we haven't turned on the furnace yet. It's that great time of year when we don't need the swamp cooler or the furnace.
Last weekend our wood guy delivered a load of wood (Ron had called him a few days before; we've been getting wood from him every year for a few years now). He said it was a cord, but it was a very generous cord, more like a cord and a half. It's a mixture of cedar and pinon. The cedar is deep red in color, almost too beautiful to burn. Almost. It puts out a sweet cedar scent as it burns; think of cedar closets. The pinon puts out a scent that reminds me of church incense. I think burning all pinon would be too much, so the combination of cedar and pinon is just right. We burned fires on Saturday and Sunday, just to make sure the wood was OK. It was! Then the weather warmed up enough that we didn't need to have a fire.
Before we got the wood, we had several days in a row of cool, rainy weather and the high temps stayed in the 60s. The house felt a little chilly, so I made oven foods for dinner like Salmon Loaf and Baked Potatoes. And we brought out the extra blanket to put on the bed, a super warm fleecy blanket with the image of a wolf head on it (and smaller wolves on the bottom, so we know which way the blanket goes when we make the bed).
Showing posts with label fire. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fire. Show all posts
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
How I Spent My Fourth of July
We watched the fireworks shows on TV -- all of them. We started out on PBS with "A Capitol Fourth" (the Washington, DC fireworks show, preceded by various musical groups/individuals) and when that was over switched to NBC to see the last half hour of the fireworks show in New York. Then we watched a delayed broadcast of the Boston Pops and the accompanying fireworks in Boston on CBS. All three displays were very impressive.
We thought about grilling steaks outdoors, but even though we grill inside a courtyard, the wall isn't very high and we didn't want to take a chance of a stray spark flying up and out and starting a fire, so we (Ron) cooked them in the oven, under the broiler. He added a bit of Liquid Smoke to the marinade to give it a "grilled outside" flavor. I made Potato Salad from the old family recipe (Thanks, Mom).
Los Alamos Update
Residents of Los Alamos have been allowed back to their homes, although people with respiratory ailments are encouraged to wait until the air is better to come back. The smoke there is still very heavy. The fire is about 130,691 acres and is 30 percent contained.
The air up here in Taos is much better and we can run the swamp cooler whenever we need to, which is pretty much all afternoon and in to the early evening. The high temperature today was 92.7. The sky is looking cloudy and I heard a faint rumble of thunder, so maybe we'll get some rain.
We thought about grilling steaks outdoors, but even though we grill inside a courtyard, the wall isn't very high and we didn't want to take a chance of a stray spark flying up and out and starting a fire, so we (Ron) cooked them in the oven, under the broiler. He added a bit of Liquid Smoke to the marinade to give it a "grilled outside" flavor. I made Potato Salad from the old family recipe (Thanks, Mom).
Los Alamos Update
Residents of Los Alamos have been allowed back to their homes, although people with respiratory ailments are encouraged to wait until the air is better to come back. The smoke there is still very heavy. The fire is about 130,691 acres and is 30 percent contained.
The air up here in Taos is much better and we can run the swamp cooler whenever we need to, which is pretty much all afternoon and in to the early evening. The high temperature today was 92.7. The sky is looking cloudy and I heard a faint rumble of thunder, so maybe we'll get some rain.
Saturday, July 2, 2011
It's Official
The fire at Los Alamos is officially the largest fire in state history. That's a record that really didn't need to be broken. The fire is about 104,000 acres. It's working its way north and has burned 6,000 acres of Santa Clara Pueblo, sacred land, according to the Pueblo people.
The fire that until Friday was the largest in state history burned for five months!
Officials at the Los Alamos National Laboratory continue to say the air is not contaminated. They've taken air samples and they say the air is no different than the air around any wildfire. The Environmental Protection Agency is also taking air samples.
The air may not be contaminated with plutonium, but smoke-contaminated air is nothing to sneeze at. Well, actually it is. (Sorry, I couldn't help it.)
This afternoon, the air was free of smoke and very hot, so I turned on the swamp cooler and finally got the house nice and cool. Then around 6:30 this evening, I started to smell the faint smell of smoke, so I turned off the swamp cooler and closed the window. Then I looked outside and saw that the air was turning orangish-brown with smoke. It's hard to explain, but it isn't just that the sky changes color; so does the light and the very air.
Ron had just gotten back from Albuquerque about two hours before the smoke invaded; he's been there during the week for the last three weeks, only coming home for the weekends. He has respiratory "issues" and is very sensitive to smoke and other irritants. He had a long coughing spell that made my coughing spells a few days ago seem mild in comparison. I coughed some, too, and sneezed a couple of times (see, it is something to sneeze at!).
The air quality (or lack of) depends on which way the wind is blowing and Friday evening, it was blowing our way. The smoke got thicker and thicker. I watched as the smoke filled the valley below us. It reminded me of the scene in the movie The Ten Commandments, when the final plague, the Angel of Death in the form of smoke, creeps into Egypt, killing the first born. It was the smoke that killed them, choking the breath, the very life out of them.
In Taos, at least, we're supposed to get some rain every day for the next four or five days. Of course that could mean rain for five minutes, but we're all hoping for more than that. Everyone is hoping for rain in Los Alamos. And Santa Fe. And Hondo. And wherever all the other fires are. There are too many to keep track of the the one in Los Alamos is the main concern. I guess we're just hoping for rain all over the state.
The fire that until Friday was the largest in state history burned for five months!
Officials at the Los Alamos National Laboratory continue to say the air is not contaminated. They've taken air samples and they say the air is no different than the air around any wildfire. The Environmental Protection Agency is also taking air samples.
The air may not be contaminated with plutonium, but smoke-contaminated air is nothing to sneeze at. Well, actually it is. (Sorry, I couldn't help it.)
This afternoon, the air was free of smoke and very hot, so I turned on the swamp cooler and finally got the house nice and cool. Then around 6:30 this evening, I started to smell the faint smell of smoke, so I turned off the swamp cooler and closed the window. Then I looked outside and saw that the air was turning orangish-brown with smoke. It's hard to explain, but it isn't just that the sky changes color; so does the light and the very air.
Ron had just gotten back from Albuquerque about two hours before the smoke invaded; he's been there during the week for the last three weeks, only coming home for the weekends. He has respiratory "issues" and is very sensitive to smoke and other irritants. He had a long coughing spell that made my coughing spells a few days ago seem mild in comparison. I coughed some, too, and sneezed a couple of times (see, it is something to sneeze at!).
The air quality (or lack of) depends on which way the wind is blowing and Friday evening, it was blowing our way. The smoke got thicker and thicker. I watched as the smoke filled the valley below us. It reminded me of the scene in the movie The Ten Commandments, when the final plague, the Angel of Death in the form of smoke, creeps into Egypt, killing the first born. It was the smoke that killed them, choking the breath, the very life out of them.
In Taos, at least, we're supposed to get some rain every day for the next four or five days. Of course that could mean rain for five minutes, but we're all hoping for more than that. Everyone is hoping for rain in Los Alamos. And Santa Fe. And Hondo. And wherever all the other fires are. There are too many to keep track of the the one in Los Alamos is the main concern. I guess we're just hoping for rain all over the state.
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Another Day, Another 10,000 Acres
As of this morning, the fire in Los Alamos has grown to 92,735 acres; it's the second largest fire in New Mexico history, but only by about 2,000 acres.
The fire is less than a mile from the nuclear lab, so this fire is "the highest priority fire in the country." Yesterday the firefighters did a lot of "backburning," setting fires around the perimeter of the lab to create a bare space with no vegetation, so if the fire got that far, it would stop because of the lack of fuel. Of course setting an intentional fire is risky. If the wind changes direction suddenly (which happens in New Mexico), it could be disastrous.
The real danger is what is on the lab property -- 30,000 drums of plutonium-contaminated waste, stored in fabric tents above ground. The lab director keeps assuring everyone that, "the nuclear materials are safe, accounted for, and protected." But people are skeptical and rightfully so. Experts say that plutonium is the most toxic substance known to humans. Inhaling a single speck of plutonium will lead to lung cancer, with 100% certainty.
For the moment, the problem in Taos is the smoke. Yesterday it was particulary bad and I kept coughing a lot, even staying inside. Today doesn't seem as bad (so far).
The challenge is keeping the house cool. Using the swamp cooler is out of the question. The way those work is they draw in the outside air to water-soaked straw pads, which cools the air, and then the cool air is blown down through a vent to cool the house. It blows with quite a bit of force, so a window has to be open, so the "extra" air has somewhere to go. So the cool air blows the hot air out. The swamp cooler works best in arid climates. But what this means now is that it would draw in smoke-filled air which would be unhealthy and unpleasant. So in the early mornings when it's still cool, I open the windows on the west side of the house (and keep the shades lowered on the eastern windows to keep the sun out) and let cool air in. Also in the mornings the wind is calm, so the smoke isn't blowing in. As the day heats up and the sun moves, I close all the windows and all the shades. In the evenings, I open up the windows again to let some cool air in.
The town of Taos has postponed the 4th of July fireworks display until at least July 21, depending on weather and fire conditions.
The county of Taos tweaked the law a little bit to ban the sale of fireworks anywhere within the county. See The Taos News for the details. The grocery stores had already voluntarily pulled all fireworks from the shelves, but there were still independent fireworks stands selling them. Not anymore.
I'll keep posting updates. Nothing like a national disaster to get me blogging again!
The fire is less than a mile from the nuclear lab, so this fire is "the highest priority fire in the country." Yesterday the firefighters did a lot of "backburning," setting fires around the perimeter of the lab to create a bare space with no vegetation, so if the fire got that far, it would stop because of the lack of fuel. Of course setting an intentional fire is risky. If the wind changes direction suddenly (which happens in New Mexico), it could be disastrous.
The real danger is what is on the lab property -- 30,000 drums of plutonium-contaminated waste, stored in fabric tents above ground. The lab director keeps assuring everyone that, "the nuclear materials are safe, accounted for, and protected." But people are skeptical and rightfully so. Experts say that plutonium is the most toxic substance known to humans. Inhaling a single speck of plutonium will lead to lung cancer, with 100% certainty.
For the moment, the problem in Taos is the smoke. Yesterday it was particulary bad and I kept coughing a lot, even staying inside. Today doesn't seem as bad (so far).
The challenge is keeping the house cool. Using the swamp cooler is out of the question. The way those work is they draw in the outside air to water-soaked straw pads, which cools the air, and then the cool air is blown down through a vent to cool the house. It blows with quite a bit of force, so a window has to be open, so the "extra" air has somewhere to go. So the cool air blows the hot air out. The swamp cooler works best in arid climates. But what this means now is that it would draw in smoke-filled air which would be unhealthy and unpleasant. So in the early mornings when it's still cool, I open the windows on the west side of the house (and keep the shades lowered on the eastern windows to keep the sun out) and let cool air in. Also in the mornings the wind is calm, so the smoke isn't blowing in. As the day heats up and the sun moves, I close all the windows and all the shades. In the evenings, I open up the windows again to let some cool air in.
The town of Taos has postponed the 4th of July fireworks display until at least July 21, depending on weather and fire conditions.
The county of Taos tweaked the law a little bit to ban the sale of fireworks anywhere within the county. See The Taos News for the details. The grocery stores had already voluntarily pulled all fireworks from the shelves, but there were still independent fireworks stands selling them. Not anymore.
I'll keep posting updates. Nothing like a national disaster to get me blogging again!
Monday, June 27, 2011
Smoke Gets In Your Eyes
Smoke gets in your eyes, nose, throat, etc.
The fire in Los Alamos (officially called the Las Conchas fire) has grown to approximately 50,000 acres. They can't get an official count because high winds are keeping the aircraft grounded (which also means they can't fight the fire from the air). The entire town of Los Alamos has been evacuated; that's 18,000 people. The fire is very near the Los Alamos National Laboratory and there was a small (1 acre) fire on the property of the lab itself earlier in the day, but that was put out.
The fire is a little more than 50 miles away from us (as the magpie flies), so we're in no danger from the fire, but the smoke is finding its way here. Yesterday evening and even this morning, it was just a stream of smoke southwest of here, but as the fire grew and the wind blew, the smoke just inundated Taos. At 2:30 this afternoon I was out in it, driving to work and I could feel the smoke in my nose and throat. Many of the cars had their headlights on, although the smoke wasn't that thick. In good weather, we can see mountains on three sides of our house, but the smoke completely obscured the view of the mountains.
I keep staring out the window at the thick smoke and saying, "This is so unreal."
And it is.
The fire in Los Alamos (officially called the Las Conchas fire) has grown to approximately 50,000 acres. They can't get an official count because high winds are keeping the aircraft grounded (which also means they can't fight the fire from the air). The entire town of Los Alamos has been evacuated; that's 18,000 people. The fire is very near the Los Alamos National Laboratory and there was a small (1 acre) fire on the property of the lab itself earlier in the day, but that was put out.
The fire is a little more than 50 miles away from us (as the magpie flies), so we're in no danger from the fire, but the smoke is finding its way here. Yesterday evening and even this morning, it was just a stream of smoke southwest of here, but as the fire grew and the wind blew, the smoke just inundated Taos. At 2:30 this afternoon I was out in it, driving to work and I could feel the smoke in my nose and throat. Many of the cars had their headlights on, although the smoke wasn't that thick. In good weather, we can see mountains on three sides of our house, but the smoke completely obscured the view of the mountains.
I keep staring out the window at the thick smoke and saying, "This is so unreal."
And it is.
Fire Update
Now the fire is more than 43,000 acres!
And it has a name. All these fires have names so you can tell which is which.
Las Conchas Fire
And it has a name. All these fires have names so you can tell which is which.
Las Conchas Fire
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Rural Life
Living in the country, I've seen all kinds of animals. In the heat of the summer, the animals are more active in the cool morning hours. Driving home from work at 7:00 in the morning, I'm used to seeing coyotes crossing the road (yes, to get to the other side, where the river is so they can get a desperately needed drink of water). One morning I was startled to see two horses running side by side on the road coming towards me. I had to take evasive action to avoid being hit by them, but they looked like they were having fun, running free (having escaped a nearby horse farm).
But this morning I saw something totally unexpected as I drove home. Turkeys. Yes, turkeys. There was one adult and five or six half grown turkeys walking along the side of the road. They were tall and thin, the way turkeys are meant to be, not the plumped-up, hormonally-injected commercial turkeys. These were either wild turkeys or more escapees from a nearby house or farm. They weren't in any hurry; they just padded peacefully along the side of the road.
In fire news, there's another fire to report. Ron and I went to the grocery store this afternoon and driving back, we noticed big smoke clouds billowing up, but they weren't where the smoke clouds from the Santa Fe fire had been yesterday. So we realized there was another fire (Sigh). Sure enough, I checked the website of our favorite Albuquerque TV station, and they said there's a fire 12 miles south of Los Alamos. At 3:15 pm the fire was 100 acres and of course was 0 percent contained. Click here for the story. It's hot and dry today, and very windy again. The weatherman on that station said it's officially the windiest spring and summer ever as well as the driest.
Update (5:15 p.m.): The fire is now 400 acres in size and the smoke from the fire is showing up on KOAT's weather radar!
The new security guard at work is already wishing for winter. His view is that when you're cold, you can get warmer by putting more clothes on, but when you're hot, you can't do much to get cooler (except turn on ceiling fans and the swamp cooler (which is more efficient the drier the air is, so of course it's working great these days)).
But this morning I saw something totally unexpected as I drove home. Turkeys. Yes, turkeys. There was one adult and five or six half grown turkeys walking along the side of the road. They were tall and thin, the way turkeys are meant to be, not the plumped-up, hormonally-injected commercial turkeys. These were either wild turkeys or more escapees from a nearby house or farm. They weren't in any hurry; they just padded peacefully along the side of the road.
In fire news, there's another fire to report. Ron and I went to the grocery store this afternoon and driving back, we noticed big smoke clouds billowing up, but they weren't where the smoke clouds from the Santa Fe fire had been yesterday. So we realized there was another fire (Sigh). Sure enough, I checked the website of our favorite Albuquerque TV station, and they said there's a fire 12 miles south of Los Alamos. At 3:15 pm the fire was 100 acres and of course was 0 percent contained. Click here for the story. It's hot and dry today, and very windy again. The weatherman on that station said it's officially the windiest spring and summer ever as well as the driest.
Update (5:15 p.m.): The fire is now 400 acres in size and the smoke from the fire is showing up on KOAT's weather radar!
The new security guard at work is already wishing for winter. His view is that when you're cold, you can get warmer by putting more clothes on, but when you're hot, you can't do much to get cooler (except turn on ceiling fans and the swamp cooler (which is more efficient the drier the air is, so of course it's working great these days)).
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Wildfires!
This blog post will sound familiar to one of my sisters. She sent me an email asking about the wildfires in New Mexico and after sending her a reply, I thought it would make a good blog post, too. I've made a few changes.
There are wildfires all over the state; it's getting ridiculous. It's a combination of high winds, low humidity (single-digit!), and no rain. The "April winds" are finally over as of yesterday, according to the weather guy on TV. Seriously. The sustained high winds are usually only for the entire month of April, but this year they started in mid-March and kept going until mid-June. And single-digit humidity has been the norm for the last several weeks. According to the weather station we have at our house (so we can always know how miserable we are), the humidity a few days ago was 2%! I didn't know it could get that low. I told Mom that when it gets up to 15% it starts to feel muggy! When I go outside I can feel the moisture being sucked out of my skin.
The fire on the border with Arizona blew a lot of smoke into Albuquerque, with all kinds of air quality warnings. It blew a little bit of smoke here for a few days, but it wasn't that bad here, compared with Albuquerque.
There's another fire in Raton, near the border with Colorado that made them shut down Interstate 25 for several days. The fire started on one side of the interstate, but then it managed to jump over to the other side. We have friends who live up there and they had to evacuate. For several days they didn't even know if they still had a house or not. Fortunately, their house survived, but the fire came within 1,000 feet of their house -- flames 200 - 300 feet high. A DC-10 airplane dropped slurry in the area, saving their house and about 15 other houses.
Here are two videos on youtube.
In this one, the noise you hear is the wind hitting the camera's microphone.
And now there's a fire just north of Santa Fe. We could see the smoke the first day, as the wind blew the smoke our way.
And there are more fires in the far southern part of the state.
The first 10 minutes of the local (Albuquerque) TV newscast is devoted to updates on all the fires in the state, which is kind of a welcome change from the usual, the first 10 minutes devoted to shootings, stabbings, horrific drunk driving accidents, etc.
There are wildfires all over the state; it's getting ridiculous. It's a combination of high winds, low humidity (single-digit!), and no rain. The "April winds" are finally over as of yesterday, according to the weather guy on TV. Seriously. The sustained high winds are usually only for the entire month of April, but this year they started in mid-March and kept going until mid-June. And single-digit humidity has been the norm for the last several weeks. According to the weather station we have at our house (so we can always know how miserable we are), the humidity a few days ago was 2%! I didn't know it could get that low. I told Mom that when it gets up to 15% it starts to feel muggy! When I go outside I can feel the moisture being sucked out of my skin.
The fire on the border with Arizona blew a lot of smoke into Albuquerque, with all kinds of air quality warnings. It blew a little bit of smoke here for a few days, but it wasn't that bad here, compared with Albuquerque.
There's another fire in Raton, near the border with Colorado that made them shut down Interstate 25 for several days. The fire started on one side of the interstate, but then it managed to jump over to the other side. We have friends who live up there and they had to evacuate. For several days they didn't even know if they still had a house or not. Fortunately, their house survived, but the fire came within 1,000 feet of their house -- flames 200 - 300 feet high. A DC-10 airplane dropped slurry in the area, saving their house and about 15 other houses.
Here are two videos on youtube.
In this one, the noise you hear is the wind hitting the camera's microphone.
And now there's a fire just north of Santa Fe. We could see the smoke the first day, as the wind blew the smoke our way.
And there are more fires in the far southern part of the state.
The first 10 minutes of the local (Albuquerque) TV newscast is devoted to updates on all the fires in the state, which is kind of a welcome change from the usual, the first 10 minutes devoted to shootings, stabbings, horrific drunk driving accidents, etc.
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
I Didn't Do It
I went to the Taos News web site this morning, as I do a couple of times a day, and was shocked to see that there had been a huge fire at the construction company where I used to work. Click here for the story.
I immediately texted a friend of mine who worked there when I did (he left a few months ago). He had already heard about it, but didn't know the cause of the fire. We teasingly accused each other of starting it, but I have an alibi. It happened at 1:30 in the morning; I was asleep in my bed.
A little later, I drove past the place to see what was left (pictures of the scene hadn't been posted on the web site yet). As you can see in the story, the warehouse has serious damage, but it's impossible to tell whether the "office" part, the part in front was damaged.
When I worked there, the warehouse held tools, vehicles under repair, various building materials, and the owner's motor boat. It was also the storage place for old, inactive files. Uh oh. And of course the computer router, telephone wiring, and circuit breakers were there, too. Uh oh.
When I drove past this morning, there was a State Police car in the parking lot (with its headlights left on, which I thought was strange), so I didn't stop to take pictures or say hi or anything like that.
If the results of the investigation make the paper, I'll post an update.
I immediately texted a friend of mine who worked there when I did (he left a few months ago). He had already heard about it, but didn't know the cause of the fire. We teasingly accused each other of starting it, but I have an alibi. It happened at 1:30 in the morning; I was asleep in my bed.
A little later, I drove past the place to see what was left (pictures of the scene hadn't been posted on the web site yet). As you can see in the story, the warehouse has serious damage, but it's impossible to tell whether the "office" part, the part in front was damaged.
When I worked there, the warehouse held tools, vehicles under repair, various building materials, and the owner's motor boat. It was also the storage place for old, inactive files. Uh oh. And of course the computer router, telephone wiring, and circuit breakers were there, too. Uh oh.
When I drove past this morning, there was a State Police car in the parking lot (with its headlights left on, which I thought was strange), so I didn't stop to take pictures or say hi or anything like that.
If the results of the investigation make the paper, I'll post an update.
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Fire Update
On the news last night, they said the fire was now 400 acres and 30 percent contained. I hope they didn't have the 25 mile an hour winds near the fire like we had here last night. There was no storm, just tremendous winds for two or three hours. It's unusual to have strong winds like that at night.
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
The First Fire
The first local fire of the season started yesterday. I didn't get a picture of it, but there's a good one on a great local blog I just discovered, Farr Feed. I had been inside all afternoon (escaping the heat) and didn't know anything about it until about 5:30 when Ron got home. He called on his cell phone from the driveway asking about the fire. I ran outside to look and was shocked by the huge cloud of smoke to the northwest of us.
It looked like it was near Tres Piedras, which worried us a little, since we own 40 acres south of TP. We hopped in the car and drove up Blueberry Hill to get a better look. We drove partway up and saw that the fire wasn't quite to TP and wasn't endangering our property, so we turned around and drove home to watch the news and see if they would mention the fire.
It wasn't the top story, of course, but the did mention it. At 6:00, it was only 40 acres, but it continued to grow. They're calling it the Double D Fire, since it's near the Double D Ranch, which is east of Tres Piedras. They expect to have the fire fully contained later today.
It looked like it was near Tres Piedras, which worried us a little, since we own 40 acres south of TP. We hopped in the car and drove up Blueberry Hill to get a better look. We drove partway up and saw that the fire wasn't quite to TP and wasn't endangering our property, so we turned around and drove home to watch the news and see if they would mention the fire.
It wasn't the top story, of course, but the did mention it. At 6:00, it was only 40 acres, but it continued to grow. They're calling it the Double D Fire, since it's near the Double D Ranch, which is east of Tres Piedras. They expect to have the fire fully contained later today.
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