Walk

We walk Klaus up to the park and throw the ball for him. Then he drinks from the horse trough.

Hard work

Dad and I made a lot of progress after the fires. We've got to put in the drip irrigation and get planting. I'm so excited to pick out vegetables and herbs. I'm going to plant marigolds in the bordering flower boxes.

After all of this fire madness, of course we're supposed to get 2.5 inches of rain in two days (remember, we average 12 inches a year). Our city will be under mud. There's a general bad feeling about this Winter rainy season. Dad, Ben, Dave, Randy, and I spent the weekend hauling sandbags into trucks, up stairs, and along the V-ditch. We have over 2,000 sandbags between our backyard and Dave's backyard. We're considering evacuating. We'll see how much rain falls and how fast we get it.

Update: We ended up getting 2 inches of rain in 6 hours. No mudslides though!

Orange County Register

More and more pictures of our neighborhood are showing up on the OC Register website.

End of our street:


Across the street:

Dad has pictures of fire shooting out from the garage. This is just as the fire begins to burn up the street.

Dave on his roof, picture from my front yard.


The street above ours lost eight homes in a row as the brush lining our street burnt uphill:


"Yorba Linda took the lion's share of the destruction - losing 118 homes and suffering an additional 63 damaged. The majority of the homes were next to wildland interface areas."

Devastation

View from the front yard. There used to be a house at the very bottom of the street. If you enlarge the picture you can see the chimneys of burnt houses sticking up along the ridge. The dark spots under the trees are areas of burnt vegetation.

Below is the house across from us, just to the left of the view down the street. The fire burnt up the back of the hill to their house. The fire continued up both sides of our street behind our houses and destroyed the neighborhood above us. The lost homes count is up to 100 now.




Just down the street to the right there are at least five homes lost.

Fire!

Potentially bad news.

Update #1: BAD BAD BAD NEWS! Our street is on fire. We don't know if our house will survive. Very windy and dry. Absolutely horrible.

OC Register reports on my street:

"Alder Avenue in Yorba Linda is ablaze
November 15th, 2008, 4:29 pm · Post a Comment · posted by Martin Wisckol, politics reporter
Register reporter Erin Welch arrived on Alder Avenue in Yorba Linda just as Stanton firefighters attacked a blaze at **** Alder. The house appears to be a total loss, Welch said.
Welch talked with resident Dave Smith, who lives across the street at **** Alder. Smith said he left his children’s soccer game to rush home to protect his house. He and other residents of the street used garden hoses to wet down their houses. All of Alder Avenue is under mandatory evacuation."

Update #2: The house survived. Dad and Dave next door saved our houses. Dave really saved them when he got there as the fire engulfed the neighborhood and was burning palm trees in our front yards. Dad returned on foot to help fight after getting grandma out of the area. He ran up as Dave was on his roof fighting fire surrounding the houses. We're allowed back in our house but the house across the street is still on fire. We're making sandwiches for the eight Manhattan Beach fire fighters that are knocking down the remaining flames. It's hard to see the full damage right now. In the morning I'll take a walk and post pictures. Newscasts report 67 homes burned but I think it's more than that.

San Francisco Ballet

Rather than cram into the movie theatre to see the new James Bond movie, Ben and I opted to see San Francisco Ballet at 75: The American Tour. I finally found a seat in the Orange County Performing Arts Center that I like. The bottom of Tier 2 in the center of the theatre. The problem with OCPAC is that there is not a single good seat in Tier 1 and unless you're in the first fifteen rows of the Orchestra section, you cannot see the stage. Tier 2 is closer to the stage than 3/4 of the Orchestra section and you get a straight-on view of the whole stage. Fabulous! I loved the music and the dancers were amazing. Sofiane Sylve is now a Principle with SFB. I had no idea but I'm not surprised-- she is wonderful. What a treat it was to watch her dance! Check out her amazing pirouettes below!



Photo by Erik Tomasson

Garden Update

The boxes are built and the trellis is up! We've got to lay the weed-block cloth, add some gravel to the pathway, pour in the soil, and get planting! Perhaps my next garden update will involve plants! Go look back at my October garden post and see how far the garden has come!

Homemade taco shells

Whipping up some of my homemade taco shells at Gwen's apartment last Friday.

CIF Championships

Mountain Meadows Golf Course

What is it to you?

Watch the entire video.

I am ashamed to be a Californian. Ashamed. I'm not being intolerant of intolerance. This is about fundamental rights. It is disgusting that I am surrounded by 46% of California that has voted "Yes on 8".

CIF Regionals

Sara played in Regionals yesterday at Yucaipa Valley Golf Club. It was so cold and cloudy. Sunscreen wasn't really needed.




Sara made the cut! Finals on Thursday!

Halloween!

I was Indiana Jones.