Yes, its been a trying year alright. We in Australia empathy with those doing it tough due to your fire season; my thoughts and prayers go out to you all. Australia went through a savage fire season earlier this year and now COVID19. Many thanks to the US, Canada, New Zealand and Singapore for their support on the ground.
And to top off a annus horribilis, I got a nasty paper cut. 
Regards,
Bill
Jesus, mate, be careful! We might have to send (a Band) aid!
Very sorry to hear. The TP shortage has resulted in some of it being as coarse as sandpaper. 
Wiggs, have you tested to see that the single faucet can supply sufficient flow all around the house?
Yes, and funny you should mention that: I was concerned, so teed into the soaker hose on the front of the house, so both outside bibbs feed into it.
That way, if I have sufficient warning I can turn on both bibbs.
Goes back to when I tried to set up an in ground ‘popup’ watering system for my small lawn (I know lazy), turned out there was insufficient pressure/flow to pop the jets up. Gave up on that one.
Are prairie fires common in your neck of the . . prairie?
Just got back from buying a new generator at home depot. The old one did not have 220V out, so could not run the well pumps. We’ll likely have no utility power for 1-2 months, so working well pumps are kind of important. Got $150 off on a very nice 7kW DeWalt, electric start portable that should be able to run at least 12 hours on a tank of gas. Should be able to sell the old one for half the cost of the new one.
A friend posted this on Facebook and as I read it I thought someone here might find value in it. HTH
Hey there!
My parents lost their home in the 2017 Thomas fire in Southern California. I talked with my mom recently about what advice she would give in the event that a fire (or other natural disaster) threatened others homes. In light of what is currently going on, I thought I would pass on some of the advice she shared in hopes it would be useful information for others who find themselves in a similar unfortunate situation. This list does not include the obvious-your loved ones! That is implied.
What everyone should do even if you’re not in imminent danger:
Take a picture of every room of your house and INSIDE every cabinet and drawer. This will help when making claims for insurance. You will forget all of the things you’ve collected over the years and having photos will help take the guess work on what you have (potentially) lost. From their experience, insurance companies will question you on EVERYTHING as you try and piece your life back together.
Make a “just in case” list of the irreplaceable or special things you would want to grab in the event of an evacuation. Having a list ahead of time will prevent panic packing. (In my parents case, they saw the fire approaching miles in the distance and regret not taking more special items but couldn’t think in the moment).
What items to take in the event of an evacuation:
Important paperwork/documents. It’s easiest if you already have one central location or box for all of these that you can grab and go.
Blueprints of your home (if you have them). This will help in the event of both insurance and rebuild. My family specifically said to make sure you have record of each and every upgrade that you have had done to your home so you get the full value our your claim. It’s important to get your home reappraised after each remodel to have an official record.
Original or one of a kind items that are either special or very difficult to replace. This can include family heirlooms, jewelry, pictures, albums, artifacts, etc.
Clothing & Shoes- Not your whole wardrobe, but enough items that you love that will help you get by while you get back on your feet. My mom wishes she had grabbed more.
Electronics & Chargers. Especially if they will help you during an emergency or contain important files that you need for reference/work.
Cash
Your own pillow. A lot of shelters and other caretakers will likely provide blankets or sleeping bags but there’s nothing like having your own pillow in the wake of disaster.
If you have a pool or other water source, consider submerging things you would hope to save that you don’t necessarily want to pack in a car. Example includes fine china or glass. There’s no guarantee but it has a better chance of survival when submerged.
If you think this is helpful, feel free to share & remember that God can create beauty, even from ashes. Stay safe. Support one another. Be a neighbor. Open your door. Bless others so that you may in turn be blessed.
Sandy Fuller thank you for sharing your advice after having come out the other side of all of this!
Photo of my family’s home December 5, 2017.
It’s embers blowing into attic vents that gets the houses that might otherwise survive. There are vents that you can install that will prevent that.
Robert,
An excellent list! Smart woman!
Regards,
Ray L.
Excellent list Robert. A few things I would add from our evac experiences:
Evac List - also divide the tasks by people so you’re not tripping over each other. For example, I have responsibility for securing our cats, and my wife is responsible for clothes
Evac Site - Beforehand, think of possible hotels where you might have to head if family and friends aren’t an option. Have their local number (not just the nationwide chain’s reservation number) in your phone contact list, and call them as soon as you know you need to get out. Rooms fill up fast, and just jumping a few minutes ahead of everyone else can be the difference of having a room to go to or not. And calling the local number, you’ll get local personnel who are more likely to pull out all stops to help you rather than someone sitting in a call center 2000 miles away.
Keep cars gassed up - last time we had to evac it took almost 2 hours to go a short distance to safety, in 95 degree heat with pets in the car. Miserable time, but nice to know you can blast the AC and not be running out of fuel.
Medicines - make sure you grab all prescription meds. They’re a pain in the butt to deal with if you need to replace while evacuated.
Turn off natural gas supply
If you have fences that abut your house, open all the gates so a fire on the fence won’t burn right up to the house.
String out hoses around the house - firefighters or neighbors who stayed behind may find them handy to save your property (this is exactly what saved our house in the Cedar Fire)
Move cars out of the garage and park on street. If a huge fire front rips through the neighborhood it won’t matter, but for those places where homes are lost due to flying embers, the house may go but the cars will be saved. In the Cedar Fire, a lot of homes were lost this way.
Jewelry - just grab everything you can. It’s tiny and doesn’t take up any room in a suitcase, and is one of the more contentious insurance things to deal with if lost.
Back ups of house photos - as you said, have photos of everything, and make sure you also have them stored in the cloud. One thing I did was make a Shutterfly project with all our house photos. It’s easy to order a hard book if needed to give to your insurance company, and it’s also now stored in the cloud for free and with easy access.
Computers - your list had electronics, but I’ll amplify that with grab backup hard drives if you have them. If you’re stuck in a hotel for a week or more, having your whole computer will be very handy, and if your home is lost you’ll be spending hours at it communicating with insurance.
Plastic Organizing Tubs - we have a couple big tubs which we get out when fire danger gets near, and start tossing things in as risk increases. They’re easy to then carry out and toss in the car, and since they’re clear it’s easier to see if we missed something. I taped a copy of the evac list to the lids too as a quick reminder.
All fingers are staying severely crossed for all of you currently under threat!!!
Hmmm…
Saturdy 2pm update to the HOA—
OK, do you want the good news first, or the bad?
Two additional pieces of info. to pass on.
The padlock is off and the cable is down on the emergency exit at the top of Upper Hidden Valley Rd. (Las Ninas to some, and of course Zig-zag Driveway to the old timers). The “trail” is roughly graded but will be difficult for passenger cars to get up. However, we have about 3 trucks who will be there to help push stuck vehicles. We’ll make it work. This exits up into Saddle road.
Second, that darned wind we have been dreading looks like it will be from the SE, which is exactly where we don’t want it coming from. Also, (unsubstantiated) gusts to 65MPH may be included. If all that is true, I expect we will all be evacuated, the fire will be blowing straight toward us. Also, if… don’t feel like a fool driving through our quiet little neighborhood with your car full of family albums, grandmas silver and the dog while blowing your horn.
Remember, that unsubstantiated 65MPH is from two sources who “might have” heard it somewhere.
LLoyd
last one didn’t make it, will try again…
Society has discovered discrimination as the great social weapon by which one may kill men without any bloodshed.
Hannah Arendt
Update: 6:26 pm Sat.
sent to my HOA
-quote-
One weather report says no wind tomorrow.
National weather service says from 5am tomorrow until 5pm Monday winds expected to hit 30mph to 65mph (red flag warning). But failed to mention wind direction. If it from the east we are in trouble.
I’m evacuating my old Jaguar tonight to a friends place in Monterey.
Thanks to those of you who have sent lists of things to remember to pack, stress makes one do dumb things stooopidly.
LLoyd
-endquote-
Society has discovered discrimination as the great social weapon by which one may kill men without any bloodshed.
Hannah Arendt
Yes…sorta.
Where I live, as you’ll recall, Im surrounded by tens of thousands of acres of farmed, tilled land. As a result, there’s not a lot of dry underbrush or weeds. Fire danger on mid-summer cultivated field is fairly low. Atm, to my south is a quarter section of fallow land, and dirt doesn’t burn well.
My acreage, OTOH, is all in natural prairie grass, and this year, is 5 acres of crispy critters.
We also are famous for late summer dry lightning storms and just a couple of weeks ago, about 5 miles to my northwest, lightning set off a 2500 acre grass fire, on similar, non-farmed acreage. Two structures, one a house, were burned.
Grass fires burn extremely hot, and extremely fast. I have soffit vents, with some fire blocking baffles, so Im as covered as is possible there. I’ve kept dry weeds and grass down around the perimeter of the structures.
So… I am in as good a shape as reasonably possible.
Lloyd/David,
I’ve got all my fingers and toes crossed that someone looks out for you and yours as they did for me and Peggy. Best of luck to you all.
Regards,
Ray L.
I see that Lloyd has been keeping you appraised of our situation. We had to evacuate this morning, and made most of the mistakes listed above 
. Two cars with almost no gas, a largely random approach to what items made the cut to be rescued - do we really need 10 bottles of soda, rather than a family photo…? For better or worse, we are out of there, and safe with family 150 miles away. We never saw anything but a smoke filled sky on the entire drive. The whole of northern California must be under a smoke cloud. All we can do now is wait - the next 3 days seem to be where the current risk lies. Thanks to everyone for their support. Stay safe Lloyd, and everyone else who is affected.
I hope it all turns out ok David. 
Godspeed, David: stay safe. Report back as you can.
And I can rmain at 90, not go to 91 next month?? N, I need about a ten year retrogression, 70, would be so welcome…
Carl
