We bought a wood chipper for Mr. Troutbend just in time for father's day, although he isn't a father right now, being cat-less.



It weighs 285 pounds and we pull it behind the lawn tractor. Branches from pine trees are reduced to 1/4 inch wood chips and the pine needles look like grass clippings. He's so thrilled with it he almost killed himself working out in the hot sun. I'm glad I was there to bring him water and wet towels.

The drought is really bad in the farming county to the east of here, so more water is being released in the river going by our house. The fish don't mind and it's better for them in the hot weather to have colder, deeper water.



There are electric lines and support wires over the river near our bridge, and fishermen occasionally wrap the end of their line around them, leaving the fly up there. A couple of years ago a bat got hooked up there and died. The other day I saw another small bat up there, and then next day, he had unwrapped the fishing line enough to be hanging about 12 inches below the wire, and the next day he managed to get free and fly off. I don't know if he still has a fishing hook stuck in him somewhere. They use their tail to kind of scoop insects into their mouth, so often it is their tail that ends up on the hook.

Our war with the mice continues. We haven't caught any in the garage, where they are to be expected, but have caught one or two almost every night here in the house. I think I told you about the day the fox was here when we were getting ready to release them into the river, so we let them out where he could catch them. He thought that was a wonderful game.

Mr. Troutbend is working on a jigsaw puzzle and is convinced several pieces are missing. He says when he's done, he's going to burn it because he hates to have missing pieces. We'll see.

I'm still listening to the fire radio. Some rules have been laid down, so the firemen can focus on putting out fires instead of escorting people to their homes to get things they forgot, or looking for and moving animals left behind. There have been a couple of requests for escorts where the homeowner says they need their medication. The new policy is that they need to get talk to their doctor or pharmacist for a new prescription or refill, and then the story is that it came from overseas so that is not an option. Too bad, no exceptions, says the sheriff. I'm glad to see them sticking to their guns.

Animal issues are being referred to the Humane Society. Their personnel can get into the fire area to assist animals, but not homeowners, and firefighters will probably no longer be going to some meadow to find a paint horse that needs to be herded down to the pond where it can get water and be safer. One of the requests was to pick up two miniature horses and a cat.

The National Guard has been called in to man road blocks and authorized homeowners are being given passes to get into the restricted areas. Naturally, I apply all this to my potential situation: Mr. Tbend is a legal resident of Nevada, so he would have to do something special to get a pass into our area. My drivers license is for this address, so I would be okay.



Look at how close the fire is to town. Those white roads inside the fire area indicate subdivisions, and then there are solitary houses scattered around. It is headed somewhat northwest, and you can see there is a very large subdivision up there, partly obscured by the text box. We still don't have any smoke here, but we saw a lot of it when we went to town yesterday.

The one fatality so far was a 62-year old woman living in remote cabin behind a locked gate. Someone talked to her on the phone, and she told them she sleeps all day and stays up all night and has agoraphobia so she would not leave her home. When the officials tried to get up there to warn her in person, the flames chased them back. We'd heard all this on the day the fire first started, and then later heard there was one person dead, and we hoped it wasn't this woman, but it was. I would say if you have agoraphobia, get some help now.

One of my favorite stories from last night was the firefighters found a small black dog, so they were driving around with it in the fire truck until their shift was over and they could get it to Humane Society to try to reconnect with its owner. Just imagine how happy the owners will be to see their doggy safe and sound.

Here is a cute picture, refreshing to look at on a hot day: