Crazy Week

 I have had a week, yowzer.

Last Wednesday Walker Fire was called out for a downed powerline that caused a tiny fire, more like charred the ground along the path of the wire. With all the rain we've had (more on that in sec) this wasn't serious but the ground got so hot that it melted or fused the sand/dirt/rocks together to create fulgurite. This was a first for me.

Friday late morning we had a whopper of the thunderstorm and our house had a lightning strike so close that it damaged our solar, water, internet, Directv, landline and electricity. My wife was just about to leave the house when it hit, like grabbing stuff to walk out the door when BOOM. It seriously might have killed her. I was able to get one phase of our electrical panel to come back up but it wasn't until this morning that we were able to get our well control box fixed to restore water. We have electricity but not through solar for now, they have to come back after parts come in.

Directv comes tomorrow, internet not until next week. We were showering at the fire house and filling the tank on the toilets manually to flush. I'm able to get online at our rental and at the firehouse.

Friday night Walker Fire had its first ever swift water rescue call when someone tried to drive through a spot on the road that turned into a rushing river from all the rain. I was first on scene. I have no training for this, we've literally never had a call for this but we have more basic training for securing vehicles if this had turned out to be worse than it was. I parked close, walked up to the point where the water was and shouted to them if they were ok, they were and everyone was accounted for. The back of the SUV was barely in the water if at all. I walked up stream to where it was narrower and was able to wade through although I really had to pay attention to not create a second problem or as I like to say, I was not going to make it worse. 

I then went to the passenger rear door opened it up, asked again if they were ok, yes. "Hold on." I went to the back door opened that up, "ok, grab your stuff, let's go." It couldn't have been less dramatic. 

Late Sunday we got called out for a possible lightning caused tree fire. As is often the case, this involves loading up with gear and wandering through the forest looking for a tree and then cutting it down. No tree found but it was a challenging hike for having to carry the sawyer equipment.

In the middle of all that I prepared my presentation for the following.

 

Here the link to register. Please check it out. I'll talk to an empty zoom call, I don't care but it will be fun if anyone wants to join in and ask some questions. It's free.  

Back to the current monsoon season. In the middle of the winter, the Forest Service said it was going to come a little early and be very strong. They were right on both fronts but strong is an understatement. It's lasted about a month longer than normal, we've had about two feet of rain so far with more rain forecast for the rest of this week. 

Hopefully everything will be back on line at home no later than next Monday.