Montgomery Woods/ Running Springs Update

Hi again,
Today the weather cooperated beautifully with the efforts to clean up the burned areas where Cal Fire created a fire break. It was also a perfect day to run helicopters into Montgomery Woods to fight that fire. Although the fire is still burning there, and bad weather could rile it up again, at the moment everyone remains upbeat that this fire is coming under control. As the evening cools off, it is quite clear up here, and Cal Fire has left only a few crews to babysit our fires. Tomorrow they will be back at it dousing the fire in the Woods and mopping up our back-burns.
On our property, we still occasionally hear trees fall as the back-burn continues to burn itself out. I still have not been able to get to the bottom of our place, as Cal Fire wants to keep me from getting hit in the head with a falling, burning tree. Probably a good thing.
We are told the falling trees are nothing to worry about, but it has extended their "mop-up" operation into at least another day.
I did receive a 7/2 fire map, and I will be updating the fire maps on the website at www.glenmaple.com/fire later tonight. The fire is still growing, especially on the North side on Lisa Weger's property and closer to the Montgomery Woods Grove, but only small incursions on our side.
There is a also a new link on the website to an excellent pdf <http://www.fire.ca.gov/cdfbofdb/PDFS/4291finalguidelines2_23_06.pdf> document that describes how to build with a defensible space around your home. Brian Kornegay (our IC) reminded me that fires ARE going to happen up here - they are a part of the life of these forests. The best thing we can do is build so that there is minimal danger to our homes, even if the fire surrounds them. The document describes how to do this, even in heavy tree cover and with beautiful, natural surroundings.
Sleep well, and dream of cool, foggy, still weather through the holiday weekend.--Rod