Woolsey Fire

As of Wednesday night this fire, which began last Thursday afternoon, was finally starting to become less intense as the winds have begun to die down.

Sadly, hundreds of homes have burned down and at least a few people were unable to escape alive. Many of the canyon roads (including Topanga - which we use almost daily) are still closed and PCH has limited access available to residents only.

It's amazing how large this fire has been. This story reports the size is 150 square miles - the size of Denver, Colorado. The smoke has been tough to deal with and now the charred hillsides will be especially vulnerable to mudslides if it ever rains this winter.

On Fire Again

This was the view from my street this morning. There are two large fires burning nearby and I could clearly see the flames late last night from the house.

Fortunately for us, even though the wind is howling here, the smoke and the fires are not blowing toward our direction.

On the map below you can see that the Hill Fire, which started in the Thousand Oaks/Newbury Park area had already burned to the ocean when this image was made. The Woolsey Fire is closer to us and is heading south toward the ocean. (We live just above and to the right of the last s in the word Calabasas on this map.)

As of 2pm the Woolsey Fire has just reached PCH after burning pretty much the whole area south of US101 all the way to the beach. There have been mandatory evacuations for all of Westlake Village, Malibu and Hidden Hills as well as parts of Agoura, Calabasas and Topanga Canyon.

Unfortunately many homes have been lost and the wind is expected to continue to blow during the weekend.

Hunting Wabbits

It's been awhile since we last posted, sorry about the delay.

It's been a busy 1st half of the year so far. Aimee made a trip to Minneapolis the week of the Super Bowl and the whole time she was there the temperature never got above single digits. In fact, much of the time she was there it was below zero!

Back home we've been working on keeping the backyard clear of rabbits. They're fun to look at but they do a number on the lawn and we also don't want them taking up residence under the deck. We're aware of only two that we've seen so far and we managed to relocate each of them to an empty lot next to the golf course.

There are plenty of coyotes in the neighborhood and who knows how long these rabbits will manage to avoid their inevitable destiny but at least we know our yard is clear of bunnies - for now.

Wet

We finally got some rain this week, first time in a long time.

Unfortunately for people living in the fire areas the heavy rains brought some significant mudslides. In fact, the largest fire was still not quite 100% contained until the rain came this week.

Our neighborhood is fine, just the usual mudflows and downed trees, but no major damage. The canyon roads are closed for a few days while the mess gets cleaned up. We're fortunate to have missed the fires and the slides, many people were not as lucky.

The rain is gone for now and 80s are back this weekend.