The "burn out" seems to be going well according to everyone who has come by. They may make it to Carmel Valley Road today. (Going north along the east side of Tassajara Road from the Observatory to the Nason's Ranch and then east along a dozer line to CVR about 3 1/2 miles SE of Tassajara Rd.) Keith and Leslie took a walk up Kincannon Canyon and could see billows of smoke to the south, right where it should be. There is a nice cool breeze which seems to be blowing the smoke some other direction.
Just wanted to mention that a week ago today when Robert, Sonja and Simon brought a whole lot of granola, milk and apples here to Jamesburg to feed the evacuees, I never thought we would use it all. But we are working our way through it - and happy to have it.
A young buck came to drink at the pond today as we were having lunch. It kept looking suspiciously at the windows, but it didn't seem to be bothered by the trucks going by.
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Did anyone else hear the rumor that Fred Nason's water line broke and needs repair? Does anyone reading this have any way to check in with Fred to see if he needs any assistance?
Hi! I talked to someone from the Nason camp today (Wed) who said that the line was fixed by the family.
LOL great news... 5 heroic Nason's stay behind to save the ranch.
Nine deep bows to the Nasons too.
ps--as of Wednesday evening, they've completely vacated the Fire 'Spike' Camp at the old Carmel Valley Village airport. An amazing operational feat in both directions! Until yesterday, there were up to 500 firefighters, and support staff (maybe more--the Herald said 900!) living there since Monday a week and a half ago--a whole community of its own. (Rows and rows of colorful tents. And blue port-a-potties. And giant laundry, shower, and sleep semi-trailers as big as houses. Two huge white mess tents, countless fire trucks of every size, shape and color, lines of battered old personnel buses...etc.)
Some or all of them are re-locating to somewhere near the intersection of Carmel Valley and Tassajara Roads.
Thinking warm thoughts and cool breezes in your direction...
xoxo
Reading this blog at work - you're all in my chanting :-)
Marianne Jago
There's a new update on SFZC.org including a link to photos from the fire.
Can anybody tell me, did the sycamores on Main Street survive?
Looking at Mako's photos - and remembering the actually rather good times spent rebuilding in spring/summer '78 after the zendo fire - it almost looks as if Zenshinji has been not damaged, but repainted by the fire . . . of course we will paint it ourselves once more with a color suitable for monks and visitors, but that is because we are who we are, not necessarily because we are superior painters.
Deep bows to all of your selfless dedication in preserving Tassajara.
Thanks, Tim, for putting that link to photo information in, and anonymous, for that beautiful post about the repainting... I love the painting of the Fire Buddha with shovel, just one that brought tears to my eyes in Mako's sobering and moving photos...
One though made me laugh. In the period right after the guest evacuation, along with telling people where we'd cut the firelines in '77 and running around looking for branches to be cut and leaves to be raked, I kept saying, "I can't believe how many brooms are leaning up against buildings," and kept putting them inside. I was just fixated on the broom thing. And there is one photo of a broom hanging on the side of building, its bristles burned off, the wood siding of the building charred where they were. And all I could think was, "Dang, how'd I miss that one?"
The buck and bluejay are small sober reminders of the larger suffering. Our home was saved, our Five lived through unscathed. Many small homes and lives were not.
Any and all '77-'78 alumni, as well as current generation preparers and Five, Ted Marshall is going to suggest to Robert Thomas that Tassajara put together an information booklet gathering what we have learned from these two fires--where our firebreaks go, what preparations to start right away, as soon as there's any possibility of fire coming to Zenshinji. Fires may come only once every three decades, but the information learned from these two is invaluable, and needing preservation, and new suggestions too (someone much earlier suggested that maybe permanent sprinklers on buildings would be a good idea, for instance.)
The floods in '78 were huge, and that information needs gathering too, for the coming season, so it doesn't have to be reinvented... that we did nightwatches on the creek during big storms to prevent dams, how many years major rockslides came down from the hills.
I don't quite know what the logistics would be for gathering all this information together, but I do hope it can be done. Maybe we could have a thread on this blog set up for ONLY that kind of thing--i.e., no comments, just concrete information for future use. Then when Ted and the current generation set down their thoughts, they could also pull from what people remember here.
Leslie, what do you think? If there's a better way to do it, this is only what I could think of, and I'd be happy to go to another system.
Meanwhile, I found Robert's letter on the main sfzc.org/tassajara page says just about all. Now I'll go back and look at the fuller version of Shundo's photos.
may all beings be safe,
Jane
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