Sidetracked Charley

One of my favorite lines from Pirates of the Caribbean. And very good advice for anyone, but especially for those living close to nature and far from emergency help. Or vacationing here. Between my father with his survival training, training as a pilot, and living and working in an area surrounded by mountains and forests I am probably more alert to my surroundings than the average. And that is before adding the photographer part. All that is probably also why I have never bonded with my cell phone, which is an antiquated flip phone with no bells and whistles. And I cannot see me ever getting a smart phone. Frankly, they are dumb, because if you are zoned in on taking that selfie you are unaware of the cliff behind you. Or the smoke filling the horizon, or the massive thunderhead building uphill on the trail you are following. Setting off for a slot canyon hike south of Kodachrome State Park in Utah my sister and I were busy strapping on camera bags and clipping on water b...

Heavy rain. Flash Flood warnings have been issued. Thunderstorms at times. Just when the poppies are beginning to bloom. So I busied myself this morning to putting out bamboo stakes and spreading light weight flannel sheets as a tent over them to protect the flowers and leaves. And I put down the sides on the hoop house so It would not take on too much water. Water! I checked my emergency water reserves because I have three dogs and a cat to keep hydrated if the power goes out. The rain barrel is always an option for other uses. But that about covers the possible impact of this storm for me, here on high ground. But I have friends who could well be in the way of deadly flash floods in the area of the Ute Park burn scar. I was talking on the phone just yesterday with a friend who lives outside of Albuquerque. There was recently several deaths because of flash flooding. In this time of drought the homeless had set up camps under over passes in flood control ditches. These ditches...