Fire and water

Country living: don't drink the water in Las Lomas.

Meanwhile, it's not even June and Santa Cruz County already had one of the biggest fires in recorded history. It's nothing compared to the fires in Southern California last year, but the area is small and largely covered by fire-resistant vegetation (redwood forest and chapparal). We don't usually get very large fires in Santa Cruz County.

About 4300 acres have burned so far: the fire is "nearly" contained. That's about 2% of the land surface of the county.

The air has an irritating quality: you can taste the ash when the wind is right.

Latest on the fire

Not to be found on the Sentinel site, nor the site for KSBW news, where there is a story link labelled "fire is 100% contained" which leads to a story saying it's 85% contained:

Cal Fire says that the fire is, in fact, 100% contained, and people who live out there can go home now.

On another front, the dogs are past the honeymoon stage and are trying to edge each other out of the best spots around the house.