Santiago Canyon Fire In Orange County

The Santiago Canyon fire in Orange County is still burning. My bff J sent this pic taken by a neighbor not far from her house. Lake Mission Viejo is in the foreground. Double-click to engorge.

Orange County Fires

This graphic is from The Orange County Register. Double click to engorge. In the graphic, I also lived in Santa Ana, Aliso Viejo, and Huntington Beach for four years each.

A fire in Orange County is raging towards Irvine where I lived for 10 years and where my aunt and uncle currently reside. They are in the direct line of the path of the Santiago Canyon fire.

My best friend lives close by and she reports that the sky is black with smoke and the ash is falling like snow. Their pool is a mess of debris and had some friends from Irvine stay at their home last night.

I'm thinking of them all and hope that this fire season ends with minimal loss of life and property.

These are also the times I think about the fireman I dated over a decade ago. I hope he's safe as he is probably carrying a heavy pack on his back, an axe in his hand, and a helmet on his head as he battles the fires on the front lines.

Some day I'll recount my experience with the Laguna Beach fire in 1993.
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Landscaping Under Renovation

"Landscaping Under Renovation" signs are frequently used in California. I often wondered why since it always seemed just a tad obvious. Then it occurred to me. A lot of people live in gated communities or in areas with quite a bit of landscaping maintained by an association or the city. Those fees, along with taxes, are very substantial.

An example: For a gated community in a new part of the City of Irvine, you pay your property taxes (2% of home's purchase price), a supplemental property tax called Mello-Roos (makes up for the inability to raise surrounding property taxes to pay for schools, police, fire, etc. due to the 1970's Proposition 13), a city association fee to pay for landscaping and road maintenance up to but not including your community, and the community association itself that maintains internal landscaping and roads and the gates at the entrance. I looked at a small one-bedroom condo in such a development about 8 years ago for $169,000 and the taxes were equal to the mortgage! (Of course, that place is probably going for $500,000 today and the taxes stayed the same, so who's the fool?)

Over at Matthew Saville Photography, I found this great pic of the lake that I lived next to for around 8 years. I would take a walk around the water when I would feel sad or stressed. There's something about water being calming to me. I walk by the lake here for the same reason:

So what does this have to do with "Landscaping" signs? Well, you see, the real wives of Orange County get in quite a snit if they have to drive by a dead patch of grass. They pay high taxes and call their association promptly to pitch a fit. The signs were supposed to read "Yes We Know The Grass Is Dead You Twit" but the text wouldn't fit.

This weekend was very productive in the yard.
• I received 3 cubic yards (36 big wheel barrows full) of top soil that I moved from the driveway to the backyard to reseed part of the lawn. We have Japanese beetles here in the summer that lay their eggs in the lawn. In the spring, they become grubs (larvae) that eat the roots of the grass. To make matters much worse, the moles love to eat the grubs, so there are tunnels all over the yard. The 30' x 40' part of the yard I replanted was particularly bad. Now it will be nice and even.
• I planted 6 climbing roses to replace the ones my mother yanked out last fall and this spring. They looked dead to her so out they came.
• Suet feeder down, hummingbird feeder up.
• Planted 15 large pom pom marigolds and 18 begonias around the tree in the front yard.
• Split giant hostas; replanted two in another part of the garden and gave three to the next-door neighbor.
• Put in 12 solar charging Malibu lights to illuminate the edge of the driveway, sidewalk, and shrubbery in the front.
• Miracle-Gro'ed all the flower beds.

I had my hair buzzed on Friday so I got lots of color because the weather was absolutely incredible. This weekend, and Labor Day weekend, are my two favorite times of year here.
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