Right now the old home place looks more like LA basin in the late 60's than the pristine "Maxfield Parrish" look of Lake County, California that I love. We have at least eight wildfires in-county and almost 900 separate fires statewide, most of them within a hundred miles from here.

I went out with my fiance and her visiting daughter and son-in-law to a special little restaurant in Upperlake. After we had been seated several firetrucks pulled in along the opposite side of the road and 20+ guys lined up and marched into the restaurant to a table which had been prepared for them. As they came in everyone in the place stood and cheered them. They ate the finest at no charge! These guys are our heroes in this fire-prone country. Hurrah!

Early in the morning about four days ago we had a lightening storm. Not big, not great, a few dozen strokes, perhaps less AND NO RAIN. Around 9:00 AM I looked north towards Mt. Sanhedrin (30 miles) and saw two plumes of smoke rising straight up. This is extremely rugged territory. These fires, now huge, are the ones these men are working on. There is another large (4000+ acres) fire burning near the Colusa County line which other teams are working. I imagine Joe Offer is breathing in some smoke too, over on the other side of the Sacramento Valley, just about due east of me. My son lived in Paradise CA until about a year ago when he sold his home and moved to Chico. The fellow who bought his home had some harrowing times but in the end, the flames missed his part of town.

Not all these fire were caused by lightening. A couple were caused by auto accidents and other acts of carelessness but many of them were cause by arsonists. I cannot begin to describe the contempt these people are held in by the citizens of this area. I am also dismayed at how seldom they are captured. They HAVE to know that they are endangering many folks' lives and livelihood. They steal all that one possesses materially and destroy all their memorabilia, including irreplaceable photos and sometimes documents of historical value.

We are up against it right now. Resources are stretched tight and they are shifting the firefighters around in a sort of triage fashion, snuffing out the fires they can readily control and going in mightily against the ones they have a good chance of saving property. Other in the very remote areas are allowed to burn because they have no real choice. They find a strategic place where they can make a stand against the flames and let the fire come to them. I was talking with one of the captains in this crew that came to Upperlake. He said his men were camped between the two fires near the town of Willits (the race horse, Sea Biscuit's home!) and Mt. Sanhedrin. That put a little motivation to the work they are doing!


We appreciate all the thoughts and prayers and help which comes our way. My heart goes out to any and all who may be in the paths of these monsters and to those who gladly risk life and limb protecting us. God bless!