Smoke on the Santiam
Yesterday afternoon, Lisa drove us up to Mill City to a small lumber yard where we'd bought the boards for the repair of the utility trailer. With the work almost complete, we needed to get a sheet of plywood to cover the bottom slats of the trailer. We also needed another bundle of lathing that Lisa will nail to That Darn Roof to serve as anchors for future sheets of roof fabric.
While we were discussing lumber with the guy at the yard, he remarked conversationally, "There must be a big fire down your way."
I hadn't noticed much myself, and said, "It must be past Mehama, because we didn't see anything on the drive up."
Collecting our lumber, we headed back down the hill, and it was then that we could actually see what the lumber guy was talking about. Lisa said it looked like a field burn somewhere to the west. By the time we got back to Mehama, it was really apparent, as the sky darkened noticeably.
By the time I got my camera out, the worst of the cloud had moved to the southeast. It cleared away faster than I thought it would.
The cloud was sufficiently heavy as to cut the sunlight enough so that we got to start working earlier than usual that afternoon. You could smell the smoke, but it wasn't bad enough to slow us down. I've seen much worse in my days living on Forest Service bases in my youth.
While we were discussing lumber with the guy at the yard, he remarked conversationally, "There must be a big fire down your way."
I hadn't noticed much myself, and said, "It must be past Mehama, because we didn't see anything on the drive up."
Collecting our lumber, we headed back down the hill, and it was then that we could actually see what the lumber guy was talking about. Lisa said it looked like a field burn somewhere to the west. By the time we got back to Mehama, it was really apparent, as the sky darkened noticeably.
By the time I got my camera out, the worst of the cloud had moved to the southeast. It cleared away faster than I thought it would.
The cloud was sufficiently heavy as to cut the sunlight enough so that we got to start working earlier than usual that afternoon. You could smell the smoke, but it wasn't bad enough to slow us down. I've seen much worse in my days living on Forest Service bases in my youth.