Water Tight

In comments about yesterday's photo Margaret asked, "What is the flat surface we see?" Here's a closer view of it; it's a catch basin, part of the Las Flores Water Company's system. I don't know how it works, but I know it's part of a larger group. A snooty crowd, frankly. They're being a tad obvious about the fact that they don't want anybody inside their fence.

I took this picture from the back side of the basin or tank or tub or whatever it's called. That would be to the left side of it, in yesterday's photo. (Enlarge that shot and you can see the cyclone fence.) It may look a little rusty, but the rust is just to fool you. I've seen maintenance people around, taking care of it, patrolling the place and making sure nobody gets in. People take water seriously around here.

Fine, fine. Call it sour grapes but I don't want to go in there anyway. Stand next to the tank at the end of a hot day and it makes weird noises while it cools off. "Bloop. Boing. Doonk." Hell, I can hear that at home.

Revisiting an Old Flame

While firefighters continue to target hotspots in the Station Fire, I thought it might be interesting to revisit a small brush fire area I've photographed before to check in on the progress of regrowth. I took this photo on August 13th before the Station Fire began. Though this area (viewed across Las Flores Canyon from the Sam Merrill Trail) was unscathed in the recent fires, it remains closed to hikers.

This small area burned almost exactly two years ago in August of 2007. The fire was very quickly put out by our local firefighting heroes. Click on my March, 2008 post to see how the burn area looked this past February, then again a month later, after some rain.

In today's photo you can see much more growth. I don't know if the burnished brown scrub is dried from lack of water, or if that's the color of the healthy plant. Maybe one of you can tell us.

One of the hotspots the firefighters have been working on the last couple of days is almost directly north of this area. John and I met some of the guys as they came off the mountain Wednesday night. They were tired and dirty and gorgeous and sweet. I'm saving those pictures to post Tuesday, 9/22. That's when they said they'd be coming to the end of their deployment and have a chance to check the web.

I know we can never thank them enough, but if you get the chance, give it a try. They like it.