where there's smoke

All weekend riding and outdoor activity was curtailed by the terrible King Fire. While about 40 miles away, the smoke is very bad, leaving ash on cars and the air not suitable for man or beast. 

Major on Neighborhood watch, mouth full of hay. Can't do it on an empty stomach!

So Major got a little handwalk, and that's it. I did some housekeeping. (No, not actual house cleaning, that's even less fun!) I had picked up some alfalfa, Major helped himself to the food truck.

This food truck serves alfalfa hay, grass hay pellets and beet pulp!

I reorganized the trailer. How can one short camping trip make it such a mess? Plus, there was sap everywhere. The pine trees had been dripping all over, and I tracked it all over the place. Now a clean trailer, less sticky!

I even cleaned my saddlebags! Only one bendy carrot, not yet moldy, quite an improvement!

gumby carrot

Then I customized the bags a little. The little white pulls were fraying (ok, two were fraying, after many years of service. I just wanted an excuse to orange it up a little!) so I changed the pulls to orange. Every little bit helps.

serviceable white

now orange, or a halloween saddle bag!

At the end of the day, Major helped with the food truck cleanup.

just one more lick, please!

I needed to find somewhere inside to hide from the smoke. My house is was already filled with it, so how about the thrift store? I'll search for a costume (never too early for Halloween. Managed to find about 80% of my costume!).

scary black stallion, tiny foundered zebra, encephalitic white horse

unloved unicorn

ahhh, so damn scary! This is fully half of the toy isle.

One more stop, a mecca of sorts. It still had an odd smell, like the fire and also the thrift store, but I think a delicious one: used books. This store is crazy with ridiculous piles (maybe they should stop accepting books?), but if you have the time, you can find some great reads.

this is just part of the sci-fi/fantasy section!

A small pile of books in hand, I hid elsewhere the rest of the weekend, watching football and barely checking on my horse. I feel bad for him out in this air too, there will be no riding till it clears. I saw some cyclists and runners out exercising, that's crazy. The Lake Tahoe Iron Man was cancelled, but of more concern is all those firefighters, more than 5,500 on the fire lines. The fire isn't expanding as quickly as before, but it's still actively burning, 87,000 acres, only 18% contained.

All those acres, all those trails, all those animals, all that destroyed. My small weekend is petty in return, but it's all I can do to hope for the fire to quiet and the horizon to clear.

smokey sunrise