Life in Lynch Lair at Wildcat Station

[Greg]

My neighbor Mariah called around 12:30, waking me from my traditional noon nap on the couch. Mariah wanted to know if I could see the fire on another neighbor's property, the Brechbuehls. Fire? I looked out the kitchen window and started to tell Mariah I couldn't see anything until I moved another foot and could seek huge plumes of brown smoke billowing over the cattle ranch. Yeah, Mariah. I can see the fire.

Since I have a Y chromosome, my immediate thought was to get a better look. I walked down the path to the house pad on the neighbor's property. I still could only see smoke for most of the walk. But when I got to the flat spot, I could see the flames. At this point, my survival brain sent the message that maybe this could be dangerous to my house, too. I called tQ back at the house to wake her from her nap. She didn't respond to the call so I decided it was time to hotfoot it back to the house.

When I crested the hill and could see the Lair properly, I spotted a Madera Sheriff's County SUV in the driveway. Then I saw the Deputy coming around the corner. 

Deputy Williams had stopped by to tell us that we were under an evacuation order because of the fire. Great. tQ popped out of the house, rubbing sleep from her eyes, to hear the evacuation announcement. What should we bring with us? We couldn't grab all the cats. My thinking was they just wanted us out of the way for a bit.

The evacuation order came from Fire Captain Brechbuehl, who also happened to own the property that was currently on fire. tQ took the order much more seriously than I. She started packing up her computer. I just wandered around the house thinking about what to grab.

Deputy Williams returned. The order had been changed to get ready to evacuate, but we could stay at the house for now. The wind had shifted and was blowing away from the house.

I stood out in the front yard and watched the tanker planes drop fluorescent red retardant on the fire. A neighbor from Eagle Drive, the nearest street to us and on the other side of the fire, drove up to the end of the cul-de-sac to look at the fire. Her name is Maria. tQ gave her a tour of the property.

Then Skip Hagberg drove up on his quad bike. Skip is your stereotypical weathered old-time cattle rancher. He leases out the property to the east of us where he grazes his cattle. Now, the fire is a godsend. I've been trying to find out who owns that property so I can make a hiking trail up there. Skip was a little hesitant to give permission since he doesn't actually own the property, merely leases it. But at least now I know who to talk to for permission.

Oddly, I might have worked with Skip's brother Steve Hagberg in Los Angeles on Child's Play 2. Steve Hagberg was the coordinator. We did not get along. If it's the same guy.

I spent a good hour watching the smoke and the tankers. Equipment kept arriving to fight the fire. I saw two flatbed trucks pull up with bull dozers on them. There were a lot of fire engines. I guess if you are the fire captain and your property catches on fire, you get to play with all the fire fighting toys.

By about 3 o'clock they had the fire pretty well contained. Deputy Williams returned to say the evacuation notice had been lifted. They think the fire might have started from people shooting their guns down in the valley below us. I got the raised eyebrows from Skip when I mentioned all the gunfire. I guess only stupid people fire off their guns in the middle of fields of extra dry grass. I mentioned all the shooting to Deputy Williams.

We walked the dogs on the road closer to the Brechbuehls to see how bad it was. Most of the walk we didn't see much burn damage, but we could see one of the Brechbuehls pastures was completely charred. We thanked the fireman we saw on the road. We joked that it was a lovely day to fight a fire since it was only in the 70s, whereas on Thursday the temperature was 106.

This morning I took a long walk down into the valley to see if I could see the extent of the fire. At the bottom of the road, the usually locked gate was open. I took of advantage of this to walk further into the property. I saw one small shack, about the size of my undead-shed, that was completely surrounded by char and yet was untouched by the fire. Further along, I saw a single wide house trailer that had been completely destroyed. It was surrounded by burnt debris. It kind of looked like where the fire might have started. Or ended.

On the one hand, it was good to see so many of our neighbors. I'm glad it didn't hurt the Brechbuehls home. But they did lose a lot of fields that were probably destined to feed the cows.

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

Yikes!

So, youse guys getting a general evac plan together for future Smores Parties?

[Greg]

Yeppers. Starting with putting together a go-bag.

[Drunk Monk]

Fire.

I've had several friends lose everything to fire in the mountains.  You even know Hoel, Greg, from TCEC.  And Dan came oh so close.  Oz is just a preview.  

I warned you about fire. On this thread. T-swizzle even helped. 

Fire bad.

[Greg]

I'm building the mother of all cutting stations/tool storage. I've built the carcasses and I needed some hardwood to make the doors, drawer fronts, and face frame. I found a lovely place an hour away in Fresno called Saroyan Hardwoods. They have lots of lovely lumber. And they are taking pandemic precautions!

My original plan was to buy a bunch 3' and 4' pieces because I didn't need anything bigger. Plus, I have an SUV instead of pick-up truck with a lumber rack.

Saroyan didn't have that. They had lovely boards ten feet long. Lovely. I bought a lot of them. More than I need. But as I was putting the boards cross-ways through the car to make them fit from the rear to front dash, I bumped the front windshield. I hit a previous small crack. Now I have a really large dangerous crack.

I spent the hour drive home white knuckling it watching one of the cracks to see if it was growing. I haven't driven that slowly on the freeway in a long time. I had visions of the 500lbs of lumber pushing through the front windshield or having it coming loose from the strap and rolling over on me. But I did make it home.

I called to get it repaired because I need to drive to San Jose to get a flight on Thursday. The glass places can't do it until next week, so I'll be taking tQ's car to the airport. (It's about $400 cheaper for me to fly out of San Jose)

The car sat out in the sun for the last two days. Turns out heat and sun effect windshield cracks. The main crack from the starburst of cracks now extends three quarters of the way across the windshield.

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

As uttered previously on this thread: Yikes!

[Greg]

It's been a long year this week.

[Drunk Monk]

That sux. Sorry to hear.

If you remember my henchman Puga from TCEC, he moved to Sacto and his gf (Sarah #2, his previous wife and also a dear friend is also named Sarah). S2 is a respiratory therapist, a front-liner, and also a friend. She just bought a house. Puga is handy like you, and really should get his contractor's license, but seems content to be a janitor/maintenance for Sutter (essential worker). They bought a truckload of laminate flooring for the new house, packed by the supplier. They lost the load on the freeway.

[Greg]

Uggh. That happened a couple of times on shows where the driver would show up at the site only to realize he had lost the load. Good times.

I'm getting the window fixed next Thursday. I had to drive with the cracked window to get some gas in Oakhurst. One of the things I had to do before I got the lumber was to fill the car because it was close to empty. On the drive home, I realized I had forgotten but didn't want to stop. I was in that need to get home mood and get the wood off the windshield. tQ is going to need my car full of gas while I'm gone in case of emergencies. Could be a kitten uprising. You never know.

[Drunk Monk]

Kitten Uprising!

You know what that sounds like? Like a band name. 

[Greg]

The idyllic seclusion of the Lynch Lair neighborhood has been breached.

When we moved in, we had two neighbors. One was at the opposite end of the court where you first turn in to get to our house. The other was at the end of Misty Ridge Rd before the road turns down a steep hill. I guess we also have the shooting party as neighbors, but they are here infrequently.

Well, that has all changed. It started with a couple who bought a piece of property near the end of Misty Ridge Rd. They took forever to put their piece of property together but finally got enough of the their manufactured home done so they could move in. It took them about six months to get to this point.

There has always been vacant home on the corner of Misty Ridge and Grub Gulch Rd. We actually were going to take a look at it but at that time the owner said no. Then the house went into foreclosure. It stood empty for many months. Then it was fixed up and put on the market. Some fool has bought it and moved in. We haven't met them yet. Although we have talked to the people in the manufactured home.

To back up, our home sits on a group of four parcels. There is one well to serve all the four properties. Since we were the only people living on one of the parcels. it hasn't been a problem. About a month a guy, i started noticing a guy checking out the property that we share a property line with. I was wondering what he was up to. If we had the money, we would have bought that parcel, but we don't and so we didn't.

Well, the guy didn't buy that parcel. He bought the parcel across the court from us. He's been using his skip loader for the last week to level out the pad. Yesterday, he dropped a sea container on the pad. He's going to use this as his house. It is not in the least bit attractive to see a sea container sitting out in the field surround by white oaks and pine trees. We can see it from our house. We have met these neighbors, too. They mentioned this was their plan when we talked to them. I hoped they were kidding. Nope.

My biggest complaint is the lights. The two new neighbors leave their super bright porch lights on all night. It used to be when i walked the dogs in the morning, it was pitch black. I could see the stars. I could glimpse the wild life. Now, I'm squinting away from these lights to save my night vision. I don't like it. Get off my lawn, err neighborhood.

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

Housing prices are dropping here in town...! Move back! You’ll still have lights at night to hate, but such a variety of people to despise! Endless! We also have *traffic* as an added free bonus.

[Greg]

What about an AQI of 285?

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

We can arrange that. Seems to be a yearly occurrence now

[Greg]

I'm thinking I'll just plant a lot of trees as a privacy screen and dig a moat and construct a trebuchet to launch cats.