24/7 Chat About Anything

[maki2]

Travelaround, call your van build person and ask him to send you the list of panels and parts that need to be ordered so you can place the order yourself and get them there ASAP. Tell him you know he is busy but you want to take care of that Monday morning. Do you have a check list for al the materials they need so you can make sure they have been purchased including the ones they said they are getting?

 

[maki2]

My van builder is very lazy, but unfortunately I can't fire her. She has a lifetime, non negotiable contract. She says no work on the build today, she has other people to work for, people that actually pay her for the work she is doing. I can't argue with that as I am not paying her anything.

 

[nature lover]

As a birdwatcher I’ve listed over 400 species and my favorite is whichever one I’m seeing now. But the raven is cool. I often spend time at a Hawk Watch in the fall and winter at Fort Indiantown gap PA. We have ravens there and they come out and do the loop D loop‘s and they’re playful flying it’s really neat. They are among the most intelligent of gods creatures. When I camp in Perry County I see them or hear them regularly.

 

[maki2]

Yesterday evening I was sitting in a bright red outdoor chair reading a book and a humming bird hit the lower back of my head. I heard the noise of the wings before the strike. Of course it did not hurt but it was interesting, never before had a humming bird think I was a flower.

 

[user 30781]

My ex and I were visiting the San Diego Zoo on one of our early trips to CA.  I had just finished a red fruit paleta (Mexican popsicle) right before we went in the hummingbird aviary where they fly free all around you.  A hummingbird came right up to my lips and wouldn't go away.  It was the coolest thing!

I have only seen three ravens that I was sure were ravens here, one on top of a power pole where I was working and two on a line by McDonalds.  All of them making their raven noises.

I do get to see a lot of hawks, eagles and ospreys from my home though, I live right above a big orchard and the Columbia is right across a 2 lane highway from that.

 

[maki2]

The Ravens here in Northern Arizon are much larger than the crows but nowhere near as large as the ravens around Anchorage Alaska. They get huge in Alaska, 24" tall with a 48" wing span. That is a very large black bird. No mistaking them for a crow.

 

[maki2]

My campsite mates came around in the evening, that green grass was being enjoyed.. There were 5 of them but only 2 made it into this shot while looking out the door of my screen room. They did bed down nearby, I could hear them talking to each other.

 

[NctryBen]

We finally got quite the rain last night. What a blessing!

 

[user 30781]

Woke up from a nap to a neighbor texting me, go outside and look.

[img=300x400]

Might have been caused by a plane crash is what I'm hearing.  Did hear something about aircraft incident but the scanner is so busy right now it's hard to tell.  This is across the river and a couple miles west of me.  LOTS of evacuations.  Fire is moving FAST.  Oh man.

Evac notice alert over the phone just now. Not for me, for people over there.

 

[user 30781]

One helicopter and six water boss planes scooping water and a big retardant jet just flew over my place on its way from the airport.

 

[user 30781]

A plane did crash at Mission Ridge but the fire was started by someone welding or cutting metal outside. They've stopped its forward motion towards residential areas.

Fascinating watching those water boss planes work in tandem, one right after the other, like they're on a string.

 

[user 30781]

I've never seen a fire so close being fought by air like this. A second tanker is working now and I just watched it dump along the crest of the hill. A pilot plane flies in front of them and lets off a trail of black smoke for the jet pilot to see where they want the retardant dumped.

The largest of the planes are referred to as VLATS or Very Large Aircraft Tankers. Some of them are DC-10's and others are 747's which can carry up to 11,000 gallons of retardant. The cost for each drop is $65,000 plus about $22,000 an hour in flight time

 

[user 30781]

Retardant drop

 

[travelaround]

I'm glad they're doing everything they can to control it. We don't always get retardant drops around here. They just let the forest burn and "manage" it. Smoke is terrible today.

So, is that fire out yet? Is it on Inciweb? Percentage of containment? https://inciweb.nwcg.gov

The fire south of here about 12 miles is slowly coming north toward us and is only 1% contained. 33,242 acres now. I'm hoping it won't come to our town and burn the rest of it. They don't expect to have it contained until the end of September.

 

[user 30781]

Oh no, travelaround! That's scary.

I think the fire is mostly under control right now, I can see flashing lights on top of the furthest hill you can see in the pic so they have people up there for the night. Won't really know what's going on until tomorrow I think. Pretty sure it's not in Inciweb, they haven't called in state resources yet.

 

[travelaround]

Always in the past fires near our town were quickly extinguished, like your fire. Last year on September 8 was the one exception because of the wind. Most of our local firefighters were out of town working on other fires and only a small group was available early that morning, and they did try to put it out at the source, but it soon got away from there and started downhill toward the area where my daughter was living. The wind gusts never stopped. The fire traveled 6 miles in 2 hours.

Normally a fire 12 miles from here would not be a big concern for me but because of what happened last year I'm triggered and sitting here wondering if winds will pick up and carry the fire into our area. I know I'd have enough time to get out and save a lot of my stuff, but probably not all of it. I'm considering taking things out of the cargo trailer and putting them in the skoolie on my property. It would be a huge job. The skoolie isn't likely to burn as that area already burned!

 

[user 30781]

^^ That's what I'd probably be doing.

I've got a list on my computer desk of what to grab if I have to. My side of the river is all residential so probably ok. I'm right at the edge of a cliff with an orchard at the bottom but my landlord burns off the hillside every late winter, bless him. My worry is the big hill straight across the river. If that ever went up and the wind was blowing from the south we'd probably be evacuated.

edit: Just went out and had a look, now that's it's dark you can see patches of fire here and there on that furthest hill. The other side of that is Blewett Pass.

 

[travelaround]

Hopefully you won't be evacuated. It helps a lot that your landlord controls what grows on the hillside. I've had fires nearby while living in this town in the past... like one on the hill across the river from me. Once there was a fire on the next hill over from where we live. Both times the fires were put out without us being evacuated. The wind is a big factor.

 

[user 30781]

State mobilization authorized

https://www.kpq.com/3rd-alarm-brush...SMSp8IEjaUIJqimObtasdCxTlKXB3MuQOYAzhB7iOHmv4

 

[nature lover]

WOW, I really feel for you guys in the west going through this year after year. It Feels funny to be sitting here safe and having lots of rain. Where I’m at in PA we get the end of the hurricane so we only get the rain. they talked about flash flooding for this weekend, that warning expired at. 2 PM today. The lane on the farm where I’m staying was flooded over last night and the boys had to walk through it rather than take the truck through. But this morning it was down. I have the physical strength and emotional strength I’d love to see the west but I am very content living here with some of the beauty we have in our forests and no “major” fires. God bless you all. God bless all the nomads and keep them safe. “No mader” where they be,