Peace and Quiet

I went to the library this morning and had to go shopping at
a couple of stores in the area. Something was different. Things
were surprisingly quiet. It wasn't an extreme case of the flu
keeping everyone at home, although it definitely was an event
that caused the quiet. Today was the first day of school for
District 51 in the Grand Valley. I was almost giddy! No
screaming, no running, no tantrums. Can you tell that I don't
have any children? LOL.

The Cosgrove Fire

The Cosgrove Fire started last Sunday from a lightning strike and
has now grown to 1400 acres. Located in the Little Book Cliffs, it's
not far from the Grand Valley as the crow flies. However, since it's
in such a remote area and hard to get to, it's a three hour drive in
off-road vehicles to get to the fire to fight it. This area is also near
the Little Book Cliffs Wild Horse Area, where a large herd of wild horses
resides. We've been told they're not in danger, but since the fire is
burning vegetation that is not native to the area, it's being allowed to
burn. The huge clouds of smoke and smell of smoke are certainly
disturbing though.

Napa & Sonoma

We live in an area with twenty or so small wineries. They make some
pretty decent wine. However, the Napa and Sonoma areas are the big
guns of viticulture on this side of the country. If you were seriously
into wine, you could easily spend a week here, touring the wineries,
tasting the wine and overall soaking up the rural atmosphere. Most
of the wine was way beyond our price range, but we did enjoy driving
the area and looking at the vines, fields and really pretty scenery.