Fire

 Again we have a fire in Linn County.  This time smoke was seen just beyond Sweet Home, south of Cascadia, where all those homeless camps are.  

The fire agencies got on it fast, closed Green Peter Reservoir, which is just above Foster, where I go, for water scoop planes to get more water.  The terrain is steep where the fire is at and evac levels are now at 2 with 3 being Go Now.  That's up to the Santiam River near Cascadia.  No evac levels for beyond the river.

Its just ten acres and there is almost no wind and what wind we do have is from the NW, meaning the fire would be blown away from Cascadia and Sweet Home, if the low wind levels had any bearing. The only thing keeping them from attacking it full on is the lack of roads to the area and the steep terrain.  They're trying to bulldoze roads in, to get the crews closer.

I have no doubt they'll contain it fast.   Maybe its all wishful thinking but I've endowed the firefighters this year with super human abilities.  That's because they've squashed fires so fast this year.

I hear Hawaii is burning two, Maui and the big island.

Here's a photo of the level 2 evac map for the fire area.  Cascadia, where all those homeless camps are at, many with cats, is in the top center of the evacuation level 2 zone.   But the fire, thankfully, is about the same size and if anything, burning south and east.

The photo below is not mine, taken by a Sweet Home resident, of the fire plume off in the distance.  It is a little scary close to town.  But no one is overly worried because its several miles from town and the wind is so low.

Anyhow, I've still got the mom and her two kittens in my bathroom.  Am making gains in taming the kittens.  Mom is wild but not that wild that she panics if I enter.   More a skeptic I'd say.  But man can they eat.   Like they've got empty limbs that need filled.

Mom will probably end up staying here, but am trying hard to tame the kittens so they can get homes.

Placing a single adult wild thing is pretty much impossible.  I knew that was likely, that she might end up staying here, when I caught her and made the decision not to let her starve as she was, on the streets in plain sight.

I had to drain my kiddie pool last night due to algae growth.  The other problem with it was the tarp I use to cover it when not in use was leaking badly, accumulating in places ten inches of water on top of of the tarp. Why?  Because the darn neighbor cats would walk on it in the night, poking claw holes in the tarp and adding the weight so water leaked through the tarp from underneath.   

I rigged a siphon again to drain it, using the garden hose, and on the upside, got all my bushes well watered so it wasn't wasted water.  Today I'll wash the pool and refill it as the temps are again supposed to climb into the 90's by next week.

I'm catching five kittens for spots Monday, hopefully.  Five of 7 or 8 from the two moms fixed Monday.  Although I'm not so sure the two black ones I saw playing in the field when I left after releasing the two moms are hers.  I saw an adult out with them, but from the distance I was at she looks all black.  I saw none of the white on her that Only has.  I'd just released Only at the apartment complex.  She had lots of milk.  She might have a different litter yet.