There has been a fire raging north of the community of Pollock Pines California called the King Fire. Which is about 70 miles from where I live… and believe me — driving anywhere from my house, you end up driving through the mountains so it takes us about an hour and a half to drive to Pollock Pines. Nevertheless, my little Nevada community is becoming very affected by this fire. Our air quality went from Good to Very Unhealthy in 4 days flat.

I am concerned about my kids – I hope their school forbids them outdoor recess tomorrow. I am concerned about my chickens. What the heck should I do about my chickens? I guess if the Air Quality continues to fall in the Unhealthy Range than I need to look for my air purifiers to keep the good air flow in my home. And of course this had to occur during Indian Summer of all times. Especially when you want to leave your windows open at night to let the cold air in throughout the evening and then close up everything in the morning to keep the cool air trapped during the day. Dang, tomorrow is going to be a hot house to deal with.

I am just afraid we will be in a deja vu episode all over again. A repeat from last year.

Last year we were stuck in our homes for at least a month if not longer from the Yosemite Rim Fire of 2013 due to unsafe air quality. It started on August 17th and wasn’t fully contained until the end of October. No one was allowed outside. Sports were cancelled… kids had to be dropped off for school at the entrance – not the playground and no outdoor recess. It makes it hard on kids who are use to playing outside every day.

Believe me — my heart goes out to everyone involved in these fires… the firefighters, the emergency crews, the people being evacuated, the animals — the list goes on. And I am lucky I am not in the middle of the chaos of such things. But we are and will have to deal with the unhealthy air that comes with such fires.