Views from the Porch - FIRE!

Ah, the smell of burning sage and scrub oak! It takes me back.

Back to burning eyes and throat, coughing and other stuff that never really bothered me when I fought forest fires back in “the day” as Safire, my daughter puts it. The last year I worked for the BLM was 1975, more than 30 years ago. AAAWWWGH! I am getting old.

So what takes me back, you say? Well we have a large fire about 2 miles from our house. It has burned close to 1000 acres by now and filled the valley with smoke. Safire caught it and Blondie was yelling at me to come see the fire. Since I am an “old hand” I was slow to come up from my office, it was a work day after all. By the time I got there, it was growing very rapidly. I predicted it would almost reach the peak and it did in about an hour. Every so often the fire would hit some thick brush that had more sap and a puff of black smoke would rise out of the grey-white mass. At the bottom you could see flames that I would judge were 30 to 50 feet tall. We could see in the distance all the fire trucks and then pretty soon the US Forest Service bombers and helicopters showed up and started dumping slurry or bentonite retardant to stop the blaze.
I think it’s funny the way municipal fire fighters work a range or forest fire. They want to squirt everything. We did our work with dirt and a little trombone sprayer. Of course we had the bombers as well, but only on the biggest fires, like this one.


I had to get back to work, but it was an exciting lunch watching the mountain burn. Now I have to stare at the blackened mountain all fall and winter. We normally have some nice color on the mountain in the fall, but that is gone now. Ah well. With the destruction comes new life and greenery. It will be back next year.



I have posted all the pictures at Flickr, if you want to see the rest.

Pay it Forward Winner ~ Charayne!

So, we rolled the dice at random.org and guess who the winner was? Charayne! Twice in a row. I figured it was karma, so Charayne gets the Food Network gift certificate.

I loved all of the descriptions and they all made me drool. Of course, at my age that’s not tough, but still......

So, Charayne, I will be in touch shortly and now it’s your turn to create a contest and pay it forward. Have fun!

Babypalooza! - Grandpa Perspective

When all your kids leave, your life changes. You kids still cost you money, but you give it gladly. your life takes on a quieter demeanor, at least at home. I am used to going down into my office at 7:30 am or 8:00 am and working in a quiet fashion until I come upstairs for a quick bite. Nighttime is also quiet. Sometimes too quiet. It’s part of the reason that I work late, I think.

Well, with babypalooza on Wednesday, that all changed. Kids running the racetrack in our kitchen and living room, babies crying, playing in the sprinklers, talking to your kids about their lives while the maelstrom whirls around us. That is the real payoff in life. I loved it, even though it was a bit tiring.

Then there are the pictures. Safire, my daughter on her blog has posted some but here are the ones that she mentioned. So cute!! I love how they all sort of lean and grab onto one another and then of course there are the older ones, posing for all they are worth. Here is a little movie of all the pics, I hope you like them!

The Time Limit

Safire, my daughter informs me that I should publish a time limit to this contest. If I don’t no one will post and we will have only one winner. So, the contest ends on Sunday, August 24. Winner to be announced Monday. So far, Laura has the inside track for the goodies. Oh, and did Safire say I am pretty generous? As in a nice gift card from foodnetwork.com?

The Contest - The Next Food Network Star

Soooo, we have a winner?!

I never win anything (except for a 6 pack of Coca Cola from KNAK (Kay-Nack) radio when I was about 16) so this was a complete surprise. I just like to read the blogs and see what everyone is doing. I never expected this to fall to me. So, here is the contest for the 6 people who actually read what I write here.

The Food Network is my favorite network. Not, ESPN, not SciFi, not HBO, Food Network. I like a show there called The Next Food Network Star. It’s sort of an American Idol for foodies (yes, trekkies, yuppies and now foodies). The winner gets a show and becomes a celebrity. We will have our own Next Food Network Star contest here. You have one meal to cook to impress the judges and make your audiences mouth water. What do you cook? Tell me what and why you think it’s delicious. We are all looking forward to your descriptions.

The winner will be chosen at random as we have done before, but be descriptive, people! Make us drool! The winner will receive some cool food related items.

Robert