Random Musings of a Ramblin' Fool XXII

Eclectic Arcania is Back!

It was three months ago this date that we last posted on Eclectic Arcania.

Much has happened since that time, most notably everything has changed with us.

Krissa will no longer be participating in this blog so now it's just me.

This means things here will no longer be the same.

However, I will strive to have her visit us with an occasional guest blog posting.

In any case I hope our readers will return and hang out with us heading into the future.

I will endeavor to make this blog better than ever and hope you all are satisfied.

Fini "Us"

Krissa and I are no longer a couple.

Our breakup was as loving and right as any breakup in history.

We were great together for 2-1/2 years and grew so much during that time and had many wonderful times together.

However, over time we realized we were not to spend the rest of our lives together and mutually agreed to part ways as dear friends.

We could not have gotten through our breakup without the love and support of the other person.

We continue to be the best of friends but are both still hurting a lot since we made it official August 26, 2009.

K&K Earthwerks Kaput (Sort Of)

I have been forced to pull out of all my shows and and restrict my business K&K Earthwerks to just an EBay presence.

Show after show this year was either too quiet or was busy with visitors who were just looky-loo's and spent little or no money.

This was the collective experience of most dealers I know.

However, most dealers do it on the side and not full-time like me so this wiped me out.

This Saturday I will be selling at Cliff Brewen's rockhound tailgater event open to the public.

That event will be held from 8 AM to 2 PM at 6384 Monterey Road in San Miguel.

I will be selling not only from my business inventory but from my personal collection as well.

I'm A Paso Roblan Now!

I am now living in Paso Robles having made the move from Atascadero this month.

I still have about half my stuff at the old place but on the way home from work each evening I fill my pickup with another load of stuff so I am making good progress.

I was stuck in a rut living in Atascadero and needed to leave as part of my starting over in life.

I must say that as the years have passed I have grown more and more contemptuous of Atascadero and even before I realized I was moving to Paso I felt that was a cooler town and one that had its shit together unlike Atascabama/Atrashcadero/Mudhole as many folks variously call it.

Shows Out, Church In

Doing rock shows for a living makes going to church secondary as shows are basically weekend affairs just like church.

I realize now doing shows is for me incompatible with my relationship with God at this point in my life and it is no coincidence that the show aspect of my business failed.

Since closing down the show part of my business I have been church tramping in my area looking for a decent church that is the right fit for me.

Right now the top candidates for my church home are Paso Robles Bible Church and Faith Baptist Church in Atascadero.

All Work Is Honorable

Right now while I regain my financial footing and formulate a Plan B I am doing various oddjobs for friends and acquaintances.

To date of have planted fruit trees, split wood, cleaned a house and painted both it and a duplex on the same property, helped somebody move their stuff, mowed lawns, helped build a concrete slab and put a shed on it, house sat and babysat dogs at said house, did a show in NorCal for a dealer who couldn't make it himself, helped another dealer set up and break down his booth at the Big Sur Jade Festival among other tasks I have done.

If anybody reading this has need of me for some task please let me know privately and we'll work something out.

Of coure, on the broader picture and longer haul I am seeking a steady, well-paying job which I fully trust the Almighty will provide when the time is right.

Kimmer

La Brea Fire - Day One

Today we were at the Nipomo Gem & Mineral Show selling as vendors.
At one point Krissa noticed what looked to be smoke building in a column to the east but the haze at first had Krissa (who spotted it first) doubting but by the time I saw it there was no doubt it was a fire off to the east in what appeared to be the Los Padres National Forest.
We skipped the nice big barbecue the Orcutt Mineral Society put on for the dealers and club members and headed straight out to the fire after the show closed and Krissa took the following images.

Pyrocumulus cloud as seen from Nipomo.

Santa Barbara Co. FD and USFS-LPF units staging at Sierra Madre Rd. at Hwy. 166.

Fire burning on the south face of the Sierra Madre Mnts.
This view is from the Cuyama Valley on Hwy. 166

The fire grew larger just while we were there spreading laterally across the mountainside.

On the way home we spotted the fire putting out pyrocumulus clouds again.
This view is from the Nipomo area.

Kimmer

Sam Jones Fire

This afternoon Krissa and Mom and I headed back up to Southern Monterey County to view what we thought was the Ponderosa Fire flaring up dramatically given the huge dramatic dark header we saw up north looking from Atascadero.

To our surprise when we got there it was not the Ponderosa Fire putting out all the smoke but the Sam Jones Fire which we had assumed (quite incorrectly) they had gotten a handle on overnight into this morning.

By the time we reached the Lockwood Valley area we could see the Sam Jones Fire really going to town and its smoke filling the valley and obscuring the view of both Fort Hunter Liggett as well as of the Ponderosa Incident to the west of the base.

The following images were captured by Krissa while we were in the Sapaque Valley (Bryson area) just south of the fire with the exception of the first image which was taken near there a short distance to the east.

The following images show the major flare-up that occurred this afternoon which forced evacuations in State Responsibility Area (SRA) adjacent to the southeast margin of Fort Hunter Liggett (FHL).

This flare-up forced evacuations in the Copperhead Canyon area as well as in the Bryson-Hesperia Road area.

Unless otherwise noted the following images were captured by Krissa Klein while we were in the Sapaque Valley (Bryson area) just south of the fire.

Taken from Bryson-Hesperia Road near Hesperia Road looking west.

Tanker 27, a 4-engine P-3 Orion operated by the USFS.

View west from Bryson-Hesperia Road.

Fire raging on Bald Mountain as viewed from Sapaque Valley.

Tanker 27 is based at the Santa Maria Air Attack Base.

Tanker 27

Tanker 27 passes by the top of the smoke column and is dwarfed.

Tanker 27 approaching for a drop.

Tanker 27 orbiting the fire awaiting a drop .

USFS Tanker 27 and one of the CalFire S-2's.

Tanker 27

One of the CalFire S-2's.

One interesting foot-note to today's adventure is our brief encounter with a serviceman stationed at Fort Hunter Liggett, a member of the training staff whom we met at one point while traveling along Interlake Road.

This gentleman had stopped by the side of the road where it intersects with the San Antonio River to watch the fire and we had the privilege of briefly chatting with him.

As it turns out the gentleman in question was an off-duty serviceman who had been at Training Area 27 the day before precisely when and where the fire started and thus he had been up until midnight last night writing reports regarding the fire.

He told us he has seen a good number of fires at FHL during the time he has been there but has never seen a fire start as explosively as this one which he said had 15-foot high flames almost immediately and was off and running.

He also said that the 4WD golf cart-like contraption he was driving barely could outpace the forward advance of the flames.

He informed us the fire started as a result of a dummy grenade being used in training, NOT as a result of a smoke grenade as was suggested by a conversation that took place on the FHL FD primary channel that we overheard yesterday.

We learned from him that dummy grenades are not dead grenades but do have an explosive charge contrary to what we had always assumed.

Ponderosa & Sam Jones Fires

This morning we were over at the coast in Cambria about to have lunch at San Simeon State Beach following a rockhounding excursion up in the nearby Santa Lucia Mountains. (We will be posting a blog piece here sometime this week detailing that adventure.)

As we neared the campground along Highway 1 we espied a rather large header looming up over the crest of the Santa Lucia Mountains up the coast and inland in the general area of what appeared to be Fort Hunter Liggett or environs.

We decided to go "fire-chasing" and get some good photographs and while we're at it get in a nice Sunday drive.

We guessed right that it was in the general area of Fort Hunter Liggett as we found out a short time later when my mother called me to read what was being said about it on the Hotlist. As it turned out it was not actually on the military base but west of it along Nacimiento-Ferguson Road in the Upper Nacimiento River watershed near Ponderosa Campground in the Los Padres National Forest.

After scrambling to get ready we headed up there via US101 to Jolon Road and on into Fort Hunter Liggett.

Not long after arriving at the Hacienda located in the main cantonment area of the base we overheard the loudspeaker at the base fire station across the street blare out a dispatch for a vegetation fire in Training Area 27 down Sam Jones Road.

We looked that way and saw a building smoke, not even yet an actual header which did rather rapidly take form in the minutes following.

In the few minutes and hours that followed the fire situation on the Sam Jones Fire deteriorated as it got bigger and efforts to suppress it were thwarted by the winds and fuels.

For a time it was threatening structures on the base although they were saved.

We spent much of the afternoon in and around the base watching and photographing the two fires and their related firefighting activity (the helibase is located right there on the base) and listening to radio communications relating to it.

Not long after we arrived at Fort Hunter Liggett it seemed the Ponderosa Incident got gradually more anemic-looking during our time in the area while the Sam Jones Incident got worse and worse and as of last count had burned 2,500 acres.

One funny anecdote relating to the Sam Jones Fire which we picked up listening to F.H.L. F.D. on the scanner was one firefighter spoke to another over the radio that they needed to talk to the soldiers and remind them once again (emphasis on "again") that they were not to be using smoke grenades on the base at the present due to the fire danger.
Gosh, I wonder what started the Sam Jones Fire?

We left for home in Atascadero in the late afternoon/early evening taking Jolon Road to Interlake Road to Nacimiento Lake Drive and on into Paso Robles and then home via US101.

We hope you enjoy this photo tour of the fires showing the photos in the order they were taken and all which were taken by Krissa Klein to whom attribution should be given if you borrow any of them.

Ponderosa Fire as seen from Jolon Road approaching the FHL front gate.

An intensifying Sam Jones Incident putting up a mushroom-shaped header.

Sam Jones Fire getting out of hand.

Sam Jones Fire as seen from the Hacienda at Fort Hunter Liggett.

Sam Jones Fire as seen from Jolon Road just inside the front gate.

Smoke boiling up from the Sam Jones Fire as seen from Jolon Road.

Smoke trailing off from above the Sam Jones Fire as viewed from Lockwood Valley.

Sun setting behind the mixed smoke from the Ponderosa and Sam Jones Fires.

Sunset through the smoke of the Sam Jones Fire.

All photos courtesy of Krissa Klein and all writing courtesy of Kim Patrick Noyes

Picture of the Day

I snapped this photo at Steve Shear's place last week.
It shows the skin of a gopher snake it shed as it entered a gopher hole.
Photo by Kim Patrick Noyes

Lake Incident - Lake Nacimiento Dam Area

Today we heard over the scanner about a new fire up by Lake Nacimiento in the SLO/Monterey County line area and after we made an initial check that there was a header we headed up that way.
After hearing the fire was on Nacimiento Lake Drive (G14) we decided that would probably be closed from the south at some point if not already so we came in from the north via Highway 101 to Jolon Road to the north end of Nacimiento Lake Drive and then took it to the grade just south of the intersection with Interlake Road.
There in a turnout we got a great view and some interesting photographs some of which are shown below.

















The fire spotted across Nacimiento Lake Drive and briefly threatened structures in the area before being contained at 175 acres.

California fire season has begun

A roadside grass fire not terribly far from the house (I was pretty happy when they got this one under control!)