What I Will Remember About Beale Air Force Base

I will remember the birds. There were cranes and hawks.

and a magnificient heron.........

and the ants and the fiery red tree that welcomed us every time we opened our door.

and the graffiti on the roads and the miles of dry grass and the crooked, twisted giant oaks and snags. And, how I think about all of you every day.

I Never Cease to be Amazed

Just when I think nothing can surprise me I am driving down a lonely, country road and I see two beautiful peacocks walking along the side of the road. I do love being surprised.

Been busy getting some photos ready on four courses for a golf management group. We have worked out an agreement with them (God -- even lawyers were involved!). They have around 100 courses throughout the United States. Pretty cool when you get a large organization to work with. Golf courses can be quite beautiful. These courses are in the San Diego area.

The Vineyards

Mission Trails

Riverwalk

Eastlake

Even the clubhouses are beautiful with unique fountains

This is also at Eastlake

Red Flag Has New Meaning Here in California

Never heard of the Red Flag Warning for weather until yesterday when they had the fire in Montecito (on the coast by Santa Barbara) and then again today inland in Sylmar (near San Fernando). Both are approximately 450 miles south of where we are north of Sacramento.

United States National Weather Service describes a Red Flag Warning:

A Red Flag Warning is a forecast warning to inform area firefighting and land management agencies that conditions are ideal for wildland fire ignition and propagation. After drought conditions, and when humidity is very low, and especially when high or erratic winds which may include lightning are a factor, the Red Flag Warning becomes a critical statement for firefighting agencies, which often alter their staffing and equipment resources dramatically to accommodate the forecast risk. To the public, a Red Flag Warning means high fire danger with increased probability of a quickly spreading vegetation fire in the area within 24 hours.

The weather criteria for fire weather watches and red flag warnings varies with each Weather Service Office’s warning area based on the local vegetation type, topography, and distance from major water sources but usually includes the daily vegetation moisture content calculations, expected afternoon high temperature, afternoon minimum relative humidity and daytime wind speed.

Listening to the local news reports -- real scary because they are like fire storms with high winds, embers flying and high heat.

Trip to Sacramento

We took off this morning to explore Sacramento. On the way we saw a real wreck -- it was a mobile mexican restaurant on its side. There was also a care with a smashed in front end. We were lucky as the entrance to the freeway we were on was just a little before the accident so we did not get caught in the backup.

Those windows are the windshields sideways --

I am always fascinated with the way a city decorates their freeways. Sacramento's was especially colorful.

We made a real day of it -- we saw the Catheral of the Blessed Sacrament:

The State Capitol:

We walked around Old Sacramento:

And....We always love seeing the wondrous architecture and art work.

It is Quiet Here at Beale AFB

It is typical at air force bases to have a lot of noise -- day and night -- from jets taking off. This is the first air force base we have been at that is quiet (except for the BIG VOICE - See 10/31/08 post).

The first clue came when we arrived. These spy planes greeting us coming into the base.

They other day we finally figured it out when we saw this spy plane doing touch and gos at the air field. Spy planes only make noise those few moments when they take off -- then they are very quiet. Every weekday we see them practicing. All very nice for us I must say.

Critters, Critters, Everywhere Critters

Well, we think we finally have gotten rid of the ants. After a week of trying different things the ant bait stations we just put out seemed to have done the trick.

It seems though that the ants were not the only critters giving us a hard time. See this beautiful little squirrel. We think it may have been one of the cute little critters that ate our wiring to our HHR's emission control. We were lucky they only gnawed at the wiring -- $191 to fix -- they could have messed with the entire wiring harness and that would have been $3000 (yes, our insurance would have paid for it!).

Birds

There are birds everywhere. There were several flocks of geese with hundreds of birds flying.

These are some of the cranes that live here.

Lance caught a wild turkey on the golf course he was photographing.

Around Beale Air Force Base is a lot of nothing. Miles and miles of dried grass. It is no wonder fires are so prevalent.

And, since there are no buildings the graffiti ends up on, yes, you guessed it -- the roads.