Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Wednesday, July 8, 2009 -
It is sunny but cool this morning, with a low this morning of 34.8 at 3:28 AM. The temperature is dropping as some storm clouds close in over the sun. When I got up this morning, the sky over my little valley was completely clear and deep blue, but within 30 minutes, the storm clouds that had surrounded me, closed in and it began to lightly rain.
In the years I’ve lived here, I haven’t experienced a spring and beginning of summer with so much moisture. I hear that this is more the norm than in the past, when they had a drought for several years. This past winter, while I was away playing in the sunny south, we had more snow that in the past 7 years.
I am personally glad for the daily showers as there are so many beetle killed dead trees in the forest, it will help keep the danger of fires low. I am glad that my cabin sits in such a large open area and my creek can furnish water to my fire pump if there were a fire. I believe that I could easily defend the cabin, but for safety sake, I’d grab Zack and Zoey, the valuables and head out of the area. If time permitted, the Forest Service and my volunteer department from Marysville could get here to assist in knocking a fire down.
Have you ever given any thought to what you would do if a fire broke out in the middle of the night? I have made a list of things, besides the obvious living things, and keep them in a location where I can easily grab them. They are just material objects, but if time permitted, and it didn’t pose a danger, I would try to save them. Pictures are always one of the first things people try to save, and with the advent of digital pictures, grabbing my computer and back up drive would save the largest majority. Other than my strong box, with some important documents, I could leave my safe and the contents would survive with a fire rating of two hours at 2100 degrees.
I don’t own much in the way of irreplaceable things, so wouldn’t miss those things I couldn’t save. I think everyone should have an emergency plan that covers all possible catastrophes. I carry an emergency box in each of my vehicles that would help me survive for several days (this site calls it a Bug Out Bag http://www.survivalistbooks.com/faq/bugbags.htm). I have a written emergency plan for fire, flood (unlikely here, but who knows), earthquake, and invasion. I don’t feel the need for a plan if Yellowstone, the largest volcano ever, were to blow, as I am close enough that I’d probably be a goner. I don’t worry about a landslide, tsunami, tornado, or hurricane, but some of you might.
The Boy Scout motto of always being prepared is a good one, and we should think about the possibilities of something happening, but not dwell on them. I remember reading a story about a father that lost his life, because he returned to his burning home to find his children. They had safely escaped out the back and because the family didn’t have a planned meeting place, he needlessly lost his life.
Whoa, how did I get off on all of that? Let’s move on to something else, shall we? I love how green everything is right now, and as the storms abate, the meadows and hillsides will turn a golden brown. Friends often ask me, “Why on earth did you move to Montana, where it snows and is below zero in the winter time?” My answer is, “because I love the changes in the seasons, and if you prepare for the weather, it isn’t a problem.” This past winter, while I was in Arizona and southern California, my mind was fooled into thinking it was summer. The temperature was consistently in the mid 70s to 90s, while back home there was little doubt it was winter with 30 below and 10’ of snow.
Everyone has their “ideal” location and weather, mine just happens to be here where I can feel each season to its fullest. Many people are born, raised, work and die, all in the same location, and there isn’t anything wrong with that, but I am not one of them. I love to travel and have experienced so many wonderful places that I wanted to choose my place to retire.
I may not live the rest of my life right here, but for now it is my little piece of heaven on earth, and I’ll stay. As I got older, my idea of the perfect place to live changed. I had long thought that living on an island in the tropics would be the ideal place, but after a trip to Costa Rica a few years ago, I changed my mind. It was a beautiful place but humidity and bugs got to me quickly. I guess the ideal thing would to be able to experience all of the possible places before choosing one. I did that to an extent, by traveling to experience places with different climates and conditions. Another factor was financial and political. Having been a fifth generation Californian, I loved it and all the differing climates, but the tax system and politics weren’t for me.
I guess the most important thing is to be happy. Not selfish happy, but just happy with your life and surroundings. I have met so many people that are unhappy with their jobs, marriage, location, etc., that it is sad. I think that there are actually people in this world that are happy to be unhappy. If they didn’t have things to complain about, they wouldn’t be happy.
Hold it. I just had war break out next to me. The four chipmunks that are at the seed dish outside my window are starting a war over who gets all of it. Some times they look like they are really hurting each other, while other times it appears to be more of a game. There seems to be a fine line between the two and I guess the young ones learn about defending their family, food and territory by playing at fighting.
Since the sun disappeared, the temperature has dropped 7 degrees and it became uncomfortable enough that I have built a small fire to take the chill off. I am sure it seems odd that it is cool enough to have a fire in July, but it is here. Even though the rain is discouraging me from working outside, I am enjoying it. It becomes my excuse to stay indoors and work on less physical things.
As it approaches noon, I have enjoyed watching the massive thunder clouds moving through the sky, the wind blowing the willow bushes in the creek bed, a light rain, the chipmunk and bird’s antics at the feeders, the dancing flames of my fire, and the beautiful green mountains around me. Give me this over a city or even small town any day. No human made noise, other than those I make myself, and the still peacefulness of being in the wilderness.
As the afternoon moved on, I did research on emergency preparedness and found several interesting sites. One such site has several pages of information that I thought some of you may be interested in. It is http://www.captaindaves.com/guide/ and has links to other sites on like subjects.
I finally quit at 8 O’clock, showered, ate dinner and watched a bit of television before going to bed. The days rain equaled a quarter of an inch on my rain gauge, which was emptied this morning.