More thoughts in the time of COVID-19 …
Last saturday the first item I saw on the morning news feed was that California is asking Australia for firefighters. I looked at a map and found the entire three quarters of the state south of us, as well as the two counties east of us, would appear to be on fire.
And yesterday a headline read “California blazes have scorched more than 1.5 million acres and killed 6 people.”
There was a reach-out to Mark seeking any kind of help available but he has none to send … of those on the roster one is ill, one unable to commit to a three week assignment due to being in Fire Academy (he can respond here but can’t miss otherwise), another is unable to sign on for three weeks (the minimum contract time) due to family concerns, one does not have a license to drive the big trucks, and Mark (in addition to being the local Fire Chief) has his church to look after as well as being responsible for homeschooling Paul. One task the landowners’ association will have to take on in the coming days is emphasizing the need for increased fire coverage in our area and that means more locals have to get involved.
Mark has been working diligently to get our home acreage cleared as much as possible. When you live in a forest (which has grown up over the last forty years) that is a continuing task. Fortunately we have a good well and the immediate area around the house is being kept watered.
One thing about these fires which I can’t understand is that the wine country in the center of the state (Napa-Sonoma just north of San Francisco) has burned over at least three times in the last four years. What is there left to burn?
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Last week I mentioned the article in the Smithsonisn about travel in the Edo Era in Japan. The author spent time retracing the routes and making comparisons. His observations included vivid impressions of bath and toilet facilities, bedding, paving or lack thereof, and available food … (acceptable and/or exciting vs repulsive including snake wine, fermented octopus in vinegar, boiled horse intestines in miso, and fresh bear liver). I’m not sure I would have made a good traveler in those days … at least not a well-fed one.
However, I was caught by the end observation of an Edo Road traveler from back then who noted …
“The moon and sun are eternal travelers. Even the years wander on. Every day is a journey and the journey itself is home.”
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Another death …
In the past, George and I “manned” a fire lookout on top of Paradise Craggy overlooking the Anderson Grade between California and Oregon (its unique claim to fame used to be that the outhouse was cantilevered on 4x4s out over a 250’ straight down drop … it has, since our time, been re-engineered to be more secure with angle bracing and solid flooring rather than spaced planking.
Every spring the USFS and CalFire would hold a training session for those of us signed up to do lookout duty and we got to know a lot of the regulars. One was Nancy Hood who (in 2015) had been a USFS lookout for well over 50 years, mostly at the Lake Mountain Lookout in the Six Rivers district.
Now news that the final call has gone out for another of the old-timers … Joel Smith, of the Siskiyou Bear Lookout just across the Oregon border in the Shasta-Trinity Forest, with whom George used to chat when fire danger was low.
“Status 3. Time to come home.”
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Last thursday I received an unexpected gift from Mark.
Some time ago, I was doing family history research into Professor John Henry (Johannes Henrich) Kurzenknabe, one of my husband’s maternal great-grandfathers. He was born in Germany in 1840, immigrated to the US when he was 15 bringing with him only the barest necessities and a violin, fathered 15 children (George’s grandmother was #8), and died in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania in 1927.
As part of that research I found a collection of hymns he had composed while serving with the Salem Reformed Church in Harrisburg. I gathered them together into a book which I added to my genealogical shelf where Mark found them. He took the collection to his church and showed it to their organist who proceeded to start to play after figuring out that one was in an unusual time (like Dave Brubeck’s work).
Mark recorded a selection on his phone and brought it to share with me … a real gift.
I look forward to hearing more.
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Our problem concerning the water, which ran across our land for over forty years providing us with electricity and a full water tank for firefighting and which was arbitrarily cutoff a couple of years ago, is reaching an end. The result is not what I had hoped but is consistent with today’s world and holds trouble for most of the holders of smaller water rights in Siskiyou County, particularly those who use hydro for alternative energy generation.
It has been found that 1. our water rights apply only during the wet season (November to March which makes no sense since our adjudicated rights are for irrigation); 2. that our low number rights (#12 on our section of the Shasta River) are harmful to higher number holders downstream (#s in the 20s) so our water will be withheld at the discretion of the Deputy Watermaster; and 3. that non-consumptive power generation is not allowed on our land regardless of how long it had been in use approved by whichever or however many government agencies.
Our attorney says we have a strong case for a court challenge, just maybe not a SURE case in Siskiyou County where the downstream users are mostly historical family ranches and County agencies and officials (including elected judges) are also often members of historical families.
And at fee rates for good attorneys, we can’t afford a court case.
So … that is one more reason to think about leaving this land since the things of life which brought George and me here, and sustained us all those years, are disappearing. After all, it is impossible to leave something which has already left you.
I do find pockets which are mostly the same, and I cherish them, but there are fewer and fewer of them every month. The people, places, and events which do remain become more and more precious as memories.
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Two friends are having cataract surgeries in the next month. I am grateful that mine have been done and that I am still strong and healthy enough to provide support for others.
All the radio club events were cancelled this year. But my mind and memory remain clear enough to put notes and information from past years in order so that whomever takes over as event coordinator will have a head start.
The importance of the food sharing outreach in this county is more important than ever and my volunteer time is appreciated.
The trees and meadow flora are as beautiful as ever as the seasons change.
Even as my life changes … still I am blessed.
Forgive my nostalgia for both the past and the future.
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I had gotten a bit tired of the words wasted (at least in my opinion) by Jonathan Kellerman on the clothes (in minute detail) worn by the characters in his mystery novels. The descriptions rarely (if ever) added anything to the plot by way of clues or explanation. So I tend to overlook Kellerman books. Then I came across “The Golem of Hollywood” by Jonathan AND Jesse Kellerman, father-son combo. It’s a 550 page opus of modern murders and re-interpretation of Biblical and cultural Jewish myths/legends/tales (although those may actually be the same), a book within a book … and I was pleasantly surprised. It was not too difficult to distinguish between the writing styles and Jonathan apparently dropped the need to tell me what people were wearing, at least for this book. I wound up enjoying and learning … a great combination for any book.
What capped it was a lesson offered near the end of the book, by a once-and-future Rebbe (nod here to T.H.White), noting that braggadocio is most often the result of anguish and envy … a thought which helped me understand why I sometimes respond to the Tweets posted by a currently well-known individual with a sad icon rather than with an angry one.
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Much of current news is such that thoughts about responsibilities are triggered. The tasks that fall to those of us who are granted a longer life than the norm are #1. to be available without intruding and #2. to accept that the “future” is no longer ours but belongs to the young.
“One of the most important steps you can take to help calm the storm is to not allow yourself to be taken in a flurry of overwrought emotion or despair – thereby accidentally contributing to the swale and the swirl. Ours is not the task of fixing the entire world …” Clarissa Pinkola Estes
So … ‘til next week …