Mountains on Fire

As of today September 17th, 2014 the King Fire is at 18,000 plus acres.  This fire is located on the Eldorado National Forest.  This fire is situated in the lower elevations, of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

I knew this fire was inevitable.  I know fire is an integral and very important part of an ecosystem.   At this point, structures have been saved, no lives lost.

But...my heart aches to see pictures and know that my mountains are on fire.  This area, the place of my birth, the place of my ancestors - those coming for a sense of adventure and to find that ever elusive "Gold".  For me there is a bond deep in my soul for this place.  No matter where I live, it will always be home to me.


 This is the place where I "cut my teeth" as a young forestry student doing summer work.  I have many fond memories of hiking those hills day after day.  Helping to reforest after the Cleveland Burn ('92), marking trees for removal within thinning projects, laying out areas for prescribed burns, dripping fire onto the ground myself, staring at rock scarred by wagons from many days gone by, breathing in the pungent smell of Bear Clover (a smell I love), listening to the American River, standing at the end of a long ridge staring out into the deep, densely forested canyons of the Sierra Nevada Mountains and foothills.

 I know these forest will return some day. Those portions that don't burn "too hot" will be better/healthier for what is happening.  These pine forests need fire.   But today it hurts.

Borrowed from www.news10.net

Borrowed from www.fox40.com

Adventure Trees

We've been very busy the past few weeks visiting family.  Hope you didn't miss our adventures too much!

We are trying out a few new things for our family this Fall.  One being what I call our Adventure Tree.  The idea came from an unschooling friend of mine's blog Giant Robots Invade the Rancheroo.  When I feel like I need to loosen up on our learning, I peek at what she has going on.  Sarah is a super neat lady!

Anyway, I wanted a visual reminder of all the adventures we would like to have over September, October, and November.  I'm pretty sure we made our tree too small.  We came up with lots of ideas, and have many more, I am sure! The best thing is that we can just keep adding!

I just used large peices of construction paper cut in the shape of the tree trunk and branches.   Then, I asked the children to paint with Fall colors (mostly) on good watercolor paper.  Using a leaf template I found on Enchanted Learning, we made leaf cutouts from the watercolor paper.  I have a love of metallic sharpie markers, which we used to write up all our ideas.  It is very interesting to see what is important to each person in the family.  I think it will be fun to pull off each leaf as we go adventuring.  Come the end of November, I'll post an after season picture.  I am hoping we will have huge leaf pile next to the base of the tree!

Some of our fun ideas include:

make a peach crostata

make a scarecrow
carve pumpkins
go apple picking
go for a hike in the fall leaves
go ice skating with Dad
go to the rock climbing gym with Mom
celebrate birthdays
go camping at the ocean

Just to name a few.
I think we are going to have a busy Fall!

Cheers!
~Forestry Mama