Smoky skies, sad turkey - YouLookFab Forum

Bad news keeps coming from the tragic CA fires. We awoke to smoky skies the day we got back from Bermuda a week ago. I no longer smell smoke, but the air is bad and makes my throat hurt. We live across the street from a park, so usually have lots of pedestrians and their dogs. Strangely quiet now. High pressure, so no breeze at all, and no rain until next week--probably for Thanksgiving. Many schools in the Bay Area closed for today. My niece lives north of Sacramento and can't let her boys go outside to play.

We had a flock of 10 hens that stay through our re-landscaping project in September. Turkeys are mean girls, they kept picking on one of the group, now they've left and just one lonely hen remains behind to spend her days in our back yard. (The other day she told me her name was Betsy.) I toss out some birdseed for her when I refill the feeders.

Here you can see the hens waiting for the workers to leave after taking out the front lawn. This morning I looked out to see Betsy forlornly gazing at the bad air below.

I'll post some photos of our redone yard soon. We took out a lot of nearly dead plants, added drought tolerant ones, added some boulders and dry creeks, and hope to save some water in the long run. We've taken out quite a bit of our lawn, but still hope we can keep the rest going.

I don't know how long Betsy can last alone. Coyotes and mountain lions don't come over the fence, but bobcats and foxes do--haven't seen them lately though. She leaves at night.

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7 years ago

UmmLila (Lisa)

Veteran

poor Betsy! I have a mixed gender and age turkey squad of about 16,

rachylou

Aww. You can do it Betsy!

elpgal

Poor Betsy! She really does need a good friend or two.

What do you Californians use as a lawn substitute. I am trying Mazus reptans.

Oh gosh, got rid of the lawn almost 30 years ago. I’ve been thinking, tho, about putting down an herbal lawn on the garden paths. Chamomile and thyme maybe... but wait, I haven’t thought this through... that means removing the mulch and putting in dirt.

Lol. I may be too lazy for that.

Stagiaire Fash

And the ag workers are still out in the fields, without masks! I wonder if they’ll get a different form of black lung than coal miners where I grew up had in the 60s & early 70s (before laws were passed to protect them) or if there are different kinds. That’s a silly thought, compared to doubt that they’ll have health care to treat it anyway.

kkards

i am speechless over the tragedy that is unfolding in CA....

Angie

(website)

Fashion Stylist

What kkards said. It is all soooooo sad and devastating.

deb

My asthma is terrible with all of the smoke. The wind is supposed to pick up tomorrow so I hope to get out of the house.

Jane

Goodness, it is all so devastating. I wish Betsy well, as well as you and yours.

MsMaven

The air is somewhat better here today. We had some blue sky this morning and some weak sunshine, but lower altitude areas farther north are still in the thick of it.

The numbers of dead and missing are appalling, and it is still in early days of the search. And even those who got out safely will have to go back and face the loss of almost everything they had.

Sisi

Only yesterday I had the heart to watch the evening news and I have no words. I am sending prayers.

Is it possible to give Betsy a shelter for the night?

Anonymous

Poor little Betsy must be scary to be so close to it!

JAileen

Betsy should get cleaner air soon. We’re going to the Bay Area for Thanksgiving and rain is forcasted.

Elpgal, I don’t live in California, but 17 miles from the border. We reduced our back lawn by two thirds. In one third we have a vegetable garden on drip, and the other third is a perennial garden, also on drip. The lawn does use a lot of water, but it’s actually good for fire protection. Plus our dogs play on it. New, young energetic neighbors have removed their front lawns, and have put in shrubs and rocks. Our trees depend on the lawn sprinklers for survival, so we probably won’t do that.

Sisi, wild turkeys roost in trees at night. There is a large old oak tree at the bottom of our hill and I suspect the turkeys roost there. She leaves by dusk and returns at dawn.

The air monitors in our area have had readings around 160-65 the last few days--not good. Today it's 21, so much improvement, and we can see the mountains again. Slight rain so far.

While rain will clear the air and help put out the fires, it will be miserable for all the thousands displaced form their homes.

My heart aches for Betsy and all displaced , especially if they have no home to return to. Developers need to be careful where and how they build homes. We saw many new homes supported with 2X4's built on sand dunes in California, definitely vulnerable to mud slides or earth quakes and falling down a cliff even with their fab ocean views.

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