balzaccom wrote:Wow Phil, you are seeing it up close.
In Napa they continue to have the eastern half of the county evacuated....but Napa Valley itself is covered in vineyards---and they don't burn. Better than mowing!
Most of my shots are from up in my neighbor's vineyards. They were definitely a great buffer for them, but the outside rows did burn. The bunches are shot, but the roots appear to be fine. Their biggest problem is the smoke taint. The wineries were all in under contract at high prices and weren't too happy about it already, so now they're going to either reject the harvest outright or try to test their way out of honoring their contracts. 2020 will have a hint of smokeyness about it, to say the least. They were lucky enough to have already done a second mowing and discing, whereas the other neighbors didn't mow their rows a second time so their bunches are fried and drip system and root stock are are wasted.
We were already about to put our place on the market, but now that it's incinerated, and I'm sure we'll take a hit on that, I can now see that we have much more plantable land since it's less trees and more like just pure topography, with a whole lot of dozer cuts thrown in. I'm going to drill a couple more wells (the geology for which I can also now see better) and see how it turns out. We'll probably be at least a year with serious tree removal. Pragmatically speaking, we know the risks or living where we do and have always accepted that as part and parcel. I'm glad it was nature and not some arsonist, the power company, or an illegal campfire. Things are just now coming into control at a few of the lines, but our area is still going strong in the canyons, and I think it's still only at about 20% containment. Failures and successes that are going to take years to sort out and rectify. PG&E is restoring power, and it was amazing to see all the firefighting agencies that came to help. The best ever is Beverly Hills...boy are they out of their element! lol
We're hurt, but by no means are we even close to beaten. We adjust and move forward, always.