New Jersey Transit

Night sky in New Jersey

Waiting for the train to New York.

Molly's Many Marvelous Makings

Pictures and things Molly has made. From earlier this year. 

Clara's off!

She's off for a week of camp. Can't wait to hear all the stories! We'll miss that kid!

FWIW, she looks tired because she was! We got up waaaay early (5:30 am) to try to beat the traffic to San Jose where the bus pick-up was. We made it in plenty of time, but did forget her sleeping bag (they say they have plenty of extras) and later I realized I had forgotten to give her letters to the staff for delivery later in the week. We figured out a work-around for that, too. 

County Fire

It is once again fire season in California and this time we've already been impacted. The dramatic County Fire, which started on June 30th, burned through our property in the Capay Valley on July 1st. The fire started near our property, but for the first day the wind blew in the other direction. We happened to be up at the property with some friends that day, and soon decided to evacuate back home. 

When the winds shifted on the second day, the fire jumped the containment lines and came through our property. Remarkably, only one yurt was destroyed and a pop-up tent was damaged. The firefighters bulldozed fire lines and sprayed fire retardant and water. They were able to completely protect the barn, our yurt, our water tank, the bathroom shed, another shed, and the bee hives. 

On July 4th we went up with Eugene and Mark to evaluate the situation. The fire was still burning just north of our property, but there was very little left on our property to burn.

The oaks on the lower part of the property were mostly browned on the bottom. The trees and shrubs on the upper part of the property, where it was primarily chaparral, were completely burned. The grasses throughout were burned. And dead trees and logs burned to white ash. In the end, it's all probably the best for the vegetation, which is adapted to being burned. I hear we can expect a beautiful wildflower season next spring! And this should open up the "back 40"--a portion of the property that we were never able to access because of the thick chaparral.