Spherical Magic & The Basin Complex Wildfire – Days 33-35

7/23/2008, 10:55 PM

Heavy smoke again. The first Chews Ridge firing took place this afternoon. Couldn't see with all of the thick smoke out there but there didn't appear to be any slop-overs outside the dozer lines that we do know are there. Shots of it will be up tomorrow. I've gotta get some dinner.

Spherical Magic & The Basin Complex Wildfire – Days 30-32

7/20/08, 10:55 AM

The 6" closed loop enhancement to the floor-standing air conditioner made a significant difference. No more partial negative pressure in the building due to running it. Any house leaks enough as it is without encouraging the flow from outside by forcibly expelling air, hot or otherwise. The fire in my nose is now extinguished, as long as I continue to wear my respirator when outside. We have to run the unit at night, as the local wind shifts to the south, bringing thick smoke all

Spherical Magic & The Basin Complex Wildfire – Days 27-29

7/17/08, 8:25 PM

Just shot a few more frames of the reservoir valley in a major upsurge but those will come tomorrow, along with whatever I shoot tonight. Gotta give you something to look forward to...

Joy's breathing has been much better, due to the clearing out of smoke from the area. Yaaay! Winds have been out of the NNW for two days and, looking out to the north, one would hardly realize that there is a huge, raging fire at their back. Marine layer returned again

Spherical Magic & The Basin Complex Wildfire – Days 24-27

7/14/08, 8:30 PM

W E   A R E   P I P E D !

61 NPT connections ranging from 3/4" to 3", with the great majority being 2".

20 hose connections in the same size ranges. The hose is really stiff and heavy, with a wire helix to support the 1/8" wall, as some sections will be under pretty significant negative pressure when the pumps are running, especially that 3". Getting these to slide onto the hose barbs took some ingenuity, partly because we

Spherical Magic & The Basin Complex Wildfire – Day 24

7/14/08, 11:55 AM

Piping is going well. The 2" ball valves and fittings have been installed to all four tanks. All that remains is installing the dimensionally stable suction flex hoses between the separate hard sections and from those to the output valves. All four tanks are now capable of holding water. We test filled tank 1 yesterday to a minimal amount during a fire hose test. No leaks. Tanks 2, 3 & 4 will begin being filled today. The test fill was done with one section of

Spherical Magic & The Basin Complex Wildfire – Days 22-23

7/12/08, 12:55 PM

Nap was good. No, I haven't been asleep continuously since I wrote that. Did get a good long sleep last night, though. I just wanted to let you know that we're here and continuing to work.

Got the 3" full-flow ball valve and a few omitted parts for the pressure header yesterday, along with a 2.5" fire female to 2.5" fire female gender changer, so that we can hook the pressure header fire truck port directly to the hydrant across the spur road during